Purpose: Face-to-face tutorial sessions remain an integral part of the delivery mode of distance education in Ghana. It is sometimes used as the sole mode of delivery of educational content in some distance education institutions. This study, therefore, investigated the interconnectedness of elements of face-to-face tutorials among distance…

The COVID-19 pandemic shifted higher education online, drawing attention to synchronous learning and instruction on digital communication platforms. Learner-centered teaching practices in the tertiary level, such as mathematical discussions, have been shown to benefit student learning. The interactions involved in online synchronous mathematical…

Speaking in Chinese is problematic for all learners, particularly for beginners and more so during online interaction. Despite the fact that interaction has been identified as crucial for the development of speaking skills, it can be hindered by students' lack of language competence or their anxiety. Teacher-centred practices in tutorials can…

Student preferences for delivery options were obtained within a monetary framework by asking students to purchase their ideal course structure. Results show that accounting students prefer to spend more on tutorials but purchase less lecture time; the difference due to the higher cost of tutorials compared to lectures. Face-to-face classes were…

Quite by chance, and over the course of a few haphazard meetings, a Master's degree in "E-learning Design" gradually developed in a Faculty of Economics. Its original and evolving design was the result of an iterative process carried out, not by a single Instructional Designer (ID), but by a full ID team. Over the last 10 years it has…

The therapeutic working alliance by Bordin has been demonstrated as a 'common ground' variable attributable to change in identified change enterprises, including education. In this context, working alliance (renamed learning alliance) has been empirically demonstrated to predict positive on-campus student outcomes. However, minimal research…

The increasing number of external students enrolling at Charles Darwin University has led to the university investing in new technologies to provide better support for students studying online. Many students, however, come from non-traditional backgrounds and lack some of the skills and confidence to participate successfully in an e-learning…

Wawasan Open University (WOU) was established in 2007 with the sole aim of providing affordable and accessible higher education opportunities to working adults in the fields of business, technology, education and liberal studies. As part of its Open Distance Learning (ODL) delivery, WOU provides tutorial support for students every semester through…

This study examined predictors of students' intentions to access face-to-face (f2f) or online options for lectures and tutorials in a buffet-style blended learning 2nd-year psychology statistics course ("N" = 113; 84% female). Students were aged 18 to 51 years ("M" = 23.16; "SD"= 6.80). Practical and technological…

The use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) to support language teaching and learning in higher education has become standard practice in recent years. While OER initiatives have given considerable attention to teacher's engagement as well as the sharing of culture and the creation and uploading of OERs, there is little evidence about specific…

In this paper, we share two blended learning approaches used at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. We have been using these two approaches in the last twelve years in many courses ranging from the diploma to graduate programs. For the first blended learning approach, we integrated one asynchronous communication tool with face to…

For online mathematics instructors, synchronous communication can be a challenge due to the need for specialized symbols, graphics, or notations to explain key concepts. While software tools exist to support such communication, they can often be cumbersome and time-consuming for users to adopt in online exchanges. As one way of addressing this…

The reasons that the current tutorial system (CTS) does not produce significant effects include the budgets and policies of schools, the greater independence of students, and the infrequent interaction of tutors with students. To reduce the deficiencies of the current tutorial system, this paper proposes a network tutorial system (NTS) and…