Learning environments that support a sense of belonging have been shown to help students fully and meaningfully participate in their learning. Less is known, however, about the social organization of online learning environments that support a sense of belonging, particularly in postsecondary contexts. With an explicit attention to issues of…

Among many consequences of the pandemic was an abrupt switch to virtual instruction coupled with feelings of isolation around mandated lockdowns. This situation pushed us to humanize our mathematics classes in ways we had not done previously. Our takeaway from this experience is that community building must be done intentionally and actively. The…

Social media has gained popularity in the realm of education. However, little research has examined empirically the extent to which students interacting using social media experience a different level of social presence, sense of community and perceived learning compared to those interacting face-to-face. As many as 100 students who were taking a…

Several of the key measures in this year's Student Academic Experience Survey have moved in a positive direction, but these movements have tended to be relatively small. Value-for-money perceptions have improved, but not statistically significantly, while there has been no change in the proportion who would choose the same course and institution…

After two demanding years for everybody in higher education, and particularly for students, it is encouraging to see that in most parts of the UK, undergraduates are beginning to see better value-for-money, and fewer students are reporting poor or very poor value from their academic experience. With much more frequent 'face-to-face' teaching,…

Many of the headline findings reflected in this year's Student Academic Experience Survey (SAES) 2021 will be disappointing to the sector, though perhaps not entirely unexpected. The 2021 SAES was offered to over 47,000 undergraduate students in the United Kingdom (UK) and took place between 2 February 2021 and 22 March 2021, with all four parts…

As colleges and universities increase their online course offerings, student social experiences in online learning environments require further examination, specifically for nonresidential students who may already be less integrated into college social networks. A social capital framework was used to guide this qualitative study of 17…

Literature suggests that developing a community of learners is the key to a successful online-learning experience. In this study, the instructor of a multimedia authoring course adopted a synchronous communication tool (Yahoo Messenger) to interact with learners orally on a weekly basis and, thereby, to establish a sense among the learners that…