In higher education, a primary concern with online learning versus in-person learning centers on offering and facilitating effective communication and collaboration opportunities for students. New technologies, specifically free and open source system (FOSS) applications, help bridge these gaps by giving instructors and students the means to…

This study examined the effects of an integrated approach that combines segmentation and self-explanation designs on learner achievement for meaningful video-based learning. This was a pretest-posttest research design with a sample size of 121 participants randomly assigned to one of four different types of video instructions (continuous,…

Digital software has been proliferating in the classroom, frequently replacing students' hands on experiences. This article reports on a study that tested how hands on experiences with physical emerging technology, namely personal robots, drones, cameras, and echo dots, may improve or impair student learning and enhance or diminish the classroom…

Research shows that active-learning methods (e.g. discussion) are often superior to passive methods (e.g. lecture) with respect to learning outcomes. However, students sometimes report preferring and learning more in lecture-style classes compared to those in which they play an active role. These and related findings suggest students may lack…

The flipped classroom offers a new approach to student-centred teaching and learning by moving the lecture out of the classroom. Research on the topic reveals that the flexibility of viewing the recorded lectures at a time and speed that is convenient to the student is what students appreciate mostly in the flipped classroom. This article examines…

Massive open online courses are increasingly popular. One characteristic of most massive open online courses is that they are offering educational contents to masses of different individual learners. At the same time, a particular challenge for the individual learner could be the massiveness of such courses, that is, that one is part of a large…

Change and exploration offer students and staff the opportunity to positively embrace use of mobile devices in higher education teaching, so that the much-vaunted pursuit of technology-based co-production of learning can become a reality. There is a need to evaluate the incidence and effect of the use of mobile devices in class, however, given the…

Multitasking activities among students using various technological devices is common during lectures, and many studies have demonstrated their deleterious effects on various learning outcomes. In contrast, fewer studies have examined ways to reduce multitasking and stimulate engagement in learning. The present study provides an educational…

Many academic institutions are investing thousands of dollars in technology-based classrooms to market themselves as modern and adapt to the new generation of students for whom technology forms part of their everyday lives. This technology is also believed to provide the added benefit of better knowledge acquisition, improved critical thinking and…

The concept of reverse teaching, considered by some as the education model of the future due to increasing technological availability in the classroom, has received great attention in education research lately. However, the focus of these studies has mainly been on the understanding of reverse teaching in terms of its application rather than…

This article reports an initiative to improve student writing by incorporating technology-based structured peer review in the revision process. Although the most important step of writing, the revision step, is overlooked by students for several reasons. We describe a successful 10-week long intervention with students from upper-level…

This article explores how the use of concept mapping, with and without technology support, assists students in learning complex concepts to which they may have had limited previous exposure. Students were engaged in a group-based concept mapping activity, wherein they created two concept maps over the course of several weeks in a large lecture…

"Flipped" or inverted classrooms are designed to utilize class time for application and knowledge building, while course content is delivered through the use of online lectures and watched at home on the students' time. It is believed that flipped classrooms promote student engagement and a deeper understanding of the class material. The…

Research has frequently found that students use their information and communication technologies--such as smartphones and laptops--for non-academic uses in the classroom. These uses include sending messages as well as checking email and social media accounts. This study aimed to examine students' in-class information and communication technology…

This article explores the digital technologies that taught postgraduate students engage with during their studies, what these technologies are used for and how useful they are perceived to be. The article draws upon data gathered from a survey of 253 masters and postgraduate diploma/certificate students across two universities in Australia.…