In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many educational institutions switched to online learning to maintain learning activities. With the global pandemic, the educational environment was forced to shift from traditional face-to-face teaching or blended learning to a fully online learning model. In February 2020, China took the lead in announcing…

The pandemic transformed higher education, making it clear that the future of education lies in the use of technology. Recognizing this development, this study examined the blended learning experiences of students and teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to propose targeted strategies for the evolving "phygital" (physical +…

This paper explores the experiences of university educators who use personal learning networks (PLNs) to enhance professional knowledge. With growing expectations to design and deliver effective online learning experiences, the PLN may offer flexible and supportive professional learning opportunities that build digital pedagogical capabilities.…

Higher education recently found itself in the unprecedented situation of being forced to rapidly switch to online education as a demand of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this article is to compare and contrast the experiences of university tutors who teach in two distance education universities with those who teach in a traditional university…

Nursing has employed distance education for decades. In the 21st century, distance programs have often been delivered online. This became even more prevalent since the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the preponderance of online nursing courses, the delivery of courses virtually does not necessarily mean that these offerings are intentionally developed…

Sensing and Detection Technology is a core course in engineering specialties. Traditional sensor teaching methods have obvious deficiencies in cultivating students' ability. To better foster students' comprehensive qualities, this study explored a 4D1P (Four Dimensions and One Penetration) teaching mode. We independently developed an industrial…

This study aimed to address the teaching readiness issues of OpenCourseWare (OCW). Specifically, the research goal was to examine Taiwanese college faculty members' level of teaching readiness for OCW via a questionnaire named "Teaching Readiness Scale for OCW" (TRS-OCW). A total of 142 Taiwanese college faculty members both with and…

Using three interdependent constructs: social, cognitive, and teaching presence, the Community of Inquiry framework is a theoretical process model of online learning. Specifically, teaching presence contains three sub-elements: (1) facilitation of discourse; (2) direct instruction; and (3) instructional design and organization--that work together…

As instructors are forced to move their courses online, they are confronted by a sense of isolation and distance from their learners. Research has shown that feelings of loneliness are mitigated when "presence" is created in the online environment. An interpretive phenomenological analysis was conducted at a public university in the…

Isolation can affect our well-being negatively. To prevent the spread of the infection COVID-19, many workers, including university lecturers, are required to work from home. In order to maintain high levels of well-being and team cohesion, academics at the University of Derby Online Learning initiated a virtual huddle to briefly socialise and…

Improving STEM MOOC evaluation requires an understanding of the current state of STEM MOOC evaluation, as perceived by all stakeholders. To this end, we investigated what kinds of information STEM MOOC instructors currently use to evaluate their courses and what kinds of information they feel would be valuable for that purpose. We conducted…

Does nonverbal communication exist in asynchronous, text-based online education? It is commonly believed that it does not due to the absence of body language and paralanguage. An examination of the definitions and forms of nonverbal cues suggests the possibility for some of them to be transmitted through asynchronous, text-based online human…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been described as purposeful educational resources for teaching, open educational initiatives, competency-based learning, and the like. They have also been described as an agent of higher education's deterioration. Although MOOCs are often discussed in terms of their current and future usefulness, or lack…

The University of South Africa (UNISA) is one of the distance education universities that is shifting from open distance learning (ODL) to open distance e-learning (ODeL). UNISA started as a correspondence institution in the 1950s and it has since evolved into an ODeL university. The aim of this research was to assess and determine the maturity…

This study investigated online faculty familiarity, course design use, and professional development interest regarding universal design for learning (UDL) guidelines. The researchers surveyed all 2017 to 2018 online faculty at a large university in the southeastern United States. Findings included 71.6% of faculty reporting familiarity with at…