Understanding learner participation is essential to any learning environment to enhance teaching and learning, especially in large scale digital spaces, such as massive open online courses. However, there is a lack of research to fully capture the dynamic nature of massive open online courses and the different ways learners participate in these…

Social exploration is the key to spreading ideas through networks (Pentland, 2014). When people talk with others outside their immediate group, they can bring fresh ideas into the group--leading to improved outcomes. So, to improve educational practice, we should increase communication in our professional communities and encourage communication…

This paper presents a case study evaluating the online learning experience of ten refugees on MOOCs. Qualitative data were collected from the learners, generating a set of 43 statements depicting the learners' experience of learning, which were analysed using an augmented Community of Inquiry (CoI) theoretical framework. The key findings show that…

There has been an increased emphasis for college instruction to incorporate more active and collaborative involvement of students in the learning process. These views have been asserted by The Association of American Colleges (AAC), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and The National Research Counsel (NRC), which are advocating for the…

This paper describes a development project aimed at reducing the large number of dropouts in online degree project courses. The idea was that the introduction of group tutorials in virtual seminars, combined with extensive support materials, would reduce dropout rates. Among the students who participated, the dropout rate was reduced by 50%…

This paper discusses the implementation of a new e-learning environment that supports non-rote learning of exploratory and inductive statistics within the pedagogical paradigm of social constructivism. The e-learning system is based on a new computational framework that allows us to create an electronic research environment where students are…

The effectiveness of lecture-integrated and web-supported case studies in supporting a large and academically diverse group of undergraduate students was evaluated in the present study. Case studies and resource (web)-based learning were incorporated as two complementary interactive learning strategies into the traditional curriculum. A truncated…