The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need to conduct synchronous online instruction in which students and faculty were distributed geographically but aggregated digitally onto a single screen on a computer. This approach will likely persist into the future. Thus, a better understanding of how engagement approaches can be adapted to…

Online collaborative learning has been widely used in the field of education. However, unrelated or off-topic information is often included in online collaborative learning. Furthermore, the content of online discussion is often too shallow or narrow. To achieve productive collaborative learning, this study proposed and validated an automated…

Feedback is one of the most powerful tools for teaching and learning. Providing meaningful feedback to students is of particular importance in an online context as it is a direct way for the facilitator to engage with their students and to provide them with individual, tailored support. This study sought to explore the perceptions of online…

The idea of social capital as the value obtainable from an individual's social relationships has been used to study many organizational and social settings, but rarely virtual environments. We used data from an online higher education institution to examine how an individual's social capital derived from her position in the social structure…

Peer assessment has an important role in teaching and learning nowadays. However, the existing techniques tend to be limited due to a lack of a suitable means to evaluate the accuracy of peer assessment activities and supervise peer assessment performances in an online environment. Hence, it is very necessary to develop new solutions encourage…

The three research papers completed and compiled to make up this dissertation explore the relationship between social presence and social construction of knowledge in asynchronous online discussion forums in higher education courses in the instructional technology field. Paper 1 is a literature review of the interaction analysis model (IAM)…

The shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a learning experience for educators. While online learning is not new, the sudden loss of familiar cues has highlighted challenges for learners and teachers. This paper focuses on the significance of language in virtual classrooms in an Australian university in the narrative…

This dissertation examines the interaction patterns that happen in an online learning environment. While many studies look at online learning through the lens of the learner or the learning environment, few studies look at the interaction patterns that happen through the digital traces captured by computational tools. Based on the conceptual…

The purpose of this study is to understand how instructor clarity and computer-mediated behaviors influence students' affective learning and technology self-efficacy in online supply chain management (SCM) courses, which show how the instructor-student relationship affects online learning experiences. Data were collected through an online…

The ability to collaborate online is an essential skill that allows learners to bring together diverse perspectives to deepen understanding regardless of physical location. As online learning and hybrid workplaces have become more prevalent since the COVID-19 global pandemic, the critical nature of this skill has become particularly relevant for…

Online instruction in higher education continues to gain popularity leading to a rise in demand for online course seats. This increase in enrollments has required universities to develop strategies to maintain quality instruction while accommodating larger numbers of online students. With best practices in online instruction suggesting smaller…

The substantial growth of online learning, and in particular, through massively open online courses (MOOCs), supports research into nontraditional learning contexts. Learners' confusion is one of the identified aspects which impact the overall learning process, and ultimately, course attrition. Confusion for a learner is an individual state of…

Many studies have examined the factors that influence second language interaction, such as task type and communication mode, i.e., face-to-face and computer-mediated communication through online mode. However, there is a paucity of research that has investigated the effects of task type on negotiation of meaning (NoM), a specific type of…

This book supports teaching and learning through online discussion in higher education contexts such as universities, colleges, and polytechnics. It presents an explicit focus on popular asynchronous discussion tools and methods, with attention to disciplinary variety and key principles for successful learning-oriented discussion. It tackles the…

This paper illuminates kinesthesia's role in ballet training by revealing findings of a study regarding non-tactile corporeal communication termed kinesthetic dialogue. Even before the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) heightened awareness of physical distancing, physical interaction between teacher and student was already increasingly…