Course design is critical to online student engagement and retention. This study focused on the development and validation of an online course design elements (OCDE) instrument with 38 Likert-type scale items in five subscales: (a) overview, (b) content presentation, (c) interaction and communication, (d) assessment and evaluation, and (e) learner…

Globally, online course enrollments have grown, and English is often used as a lingua franca for instruction. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework can inform the creation of more supportive, interaction-rich online learning environments. However, the framework and its accompanying validated instrument were created in North America, limiting…

The study revisited the community of inquiry (CoI) instrument for construct revalidation. To that end, the study used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine four competing models (unidimensional, correlated-factor, second-order factor, and bifactor models) on model fit statistics computed using parameter estimates from a statistical…

Readiness is important for the success of the e-learning process. The purpose of this study was twofold: to develop a scale to measure K-12 teachers' e-learning readiness, and to examine their readiness to teach online. The participants were 3,295 K-12 teachers working in Izmir, Turkey. First EFA, then CFA-SEM was performed. Additionally,…

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between the psychological variables and online behavioral patterns of students, collected through a learning management system (LMS). As the psychological variable, time and study environment management (TSEM), one of the sub-constructs of MSLQ, was chosen to verify a set of time-related…

The paper investigates the impact of virtual environmental characteristics such as collaboration, communication, and resource sharing on social media adoption by the academic community at the university level. Building on the social constructivist paradigm and technology acceptance model, we propose a conceptual model to assess social media…

The Online Student Connectedness Survey (OSCS) was introduced to the academic community in 2012 as an instrument designed to measure feelings of connectedness between students participating in online degree and certification programs. The purpose of this study was to examine data from the instrument for initial evidence of validity and reliability…

A great deal of research has documented that interactions among students or between students and instructors are key to student success in an online learning setting. However, very little research has been statistically and systematically conducted to examine online instructors' conscious and effortful use of scaffolding strategies to promote…