Background: Deep discussions play an important role in students' online learning. However, researchers have largely focused on engaging students in deep discussions in online asynchronous forums. Few studies have investigated how to promote deep discussion via mobile instant messaging (MIM). Objectives: In this study, we applied learning…

Educators constantly wrestle with the question of how to engage students in an environment in which students are increasingly distracted. This issue has become more relevant as instructors have been forced to pivot to the use of a variety of online learning modalities to administer instruction. While the synchronous online class session allows for…

This study investigated: (a) how the task relevance of postings differed between anonymous versus identified online discussions in elementary school, and (b) how game-like conversations with story characters impacted the task relevance of postings. A total of 342 fourth graders in Slovenia participated in the study. During one and a half-hour,…

As educators continue to explore the world of online teaching and learning as higher education instructors, it is essential that they ensure that the elements that create strong learning environments, the engaging conversations, the ah-ha moments, the laughter as they connect to content and one another, be ever present. Research on effective…

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Albright College changed its classroom courses to an online format starting at the middle of the semester. This communication describes the transformation of the remaining semester for the lecture of the general chemistry course for majors. Video, ungraded and graded quizzing activities, and discussion…

The importance of staying relevant when teaching communication and advertising courses is hardly a new concept nor is the use of modern and evolving technologies to achieve this goal. However, empirically assessing college students' perceptions of online learning when it is a forced choice is an underexplored area. To address this gap and consider…

What do MPA students value in online education and what do they think would improve online learning experiences in an MPA program? Ironically, few studies have tried to derive more than a couple of factors in a single study. Integrating the key concepts from across the literature, the perceptions about an array of quality factors were identified…

In response to the increasing implementations of online problem-based learning (PBL), this paper presents a new framework, 4S PBL, with a wide range of strategies and technologies to empower instructors and learners. Based on a critical synthesis of research on and practice of PBL, self-regulated learning (SRL), socially shared regulated learning…

Consequent to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, pedagogic changes were introduced in postgraduate courses in Physiology, where face-to-face teaching was replaced with synchronous virtual mode for leader-centered (seminar, symposium) and participant-centered (journal club, group discussion) academic activities. We hypothesized that the…

In an attempt to maintain social connection with a large lecture-style class, this teaching case describes how we used the Zoom Break-out Room function to run live discussion groups during fall 2020. Using a combination of Google Docs, Canvas, and Zoom one instructor and one TA describe how they managed to run discussions on contemporary tourism…

Emergent technologies and communication channels have evolved over time and now offer more connected interactivity between students, their peers, course content, and their instructor. Yet, many who teach in the online environment continue to utilize the traditional forms of communication (such as discussion boards and email). This article explores…

Most research on Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, 1988) has uncovered many instructional design considerations for learning complex tasks. Additionally, the Community of Inquiry (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) framework describes many of the learning experiences in online education. A gap existed in the literature for investigating…

This paper reports the use of Google Docs in a master's degree program as an online tool for collaborative co-construction of knowledge and self-assessment. Participants included eighty graduate teachers in a master's degree. The study employed a mixed method approach. Among the tools applied were a questionnaire, focus group discussions,…

In this study, we examined whether gendered discourse styles were evidenced in online, synchronous, physics collaborative learning group discussions, and the extent to which such discourse patterns were related to the uptake of ideas within the group. We defined two discourse styles: the oppositional/direct style, theorized to be the socialized…

Online learning has become a permanent fixture on college campuses. For the past decade, enrollment in online courses has grown faster than the overall student body throughout higher education. This phenomenon is not surprising and, in fact, is part of a history of people seeking more flexible alternatives to traditional, face-to-face instruction.…