Virtual reality (VR) technology has been widely used in nursing laboratory courses to effectively making up for the shortcomings of traditional teaching. However, challenges such as cell phone addiction, negative emotions, and reduced communication between teachers and students still exist during the application process, which makes it difficult…

Learning Cell Biology is challenging for both sighted and visually impaired students due to its abstract nature and reliance on bidimensional depictions in textbooks, which often fail to capture the biological complexity of cell structures and functions. To implement inclusive learning environments and address the shortage of learning materials…

Chemistry simulations using interactive graphic user interfaces (GUIs) represent uniquely effective and safe tools to support multidimensional learning. Computer literacy and coding skills have become increasingly important in the chemical sciences. In response to both of these facts, a series of Jupyter notebooks hosted on Google Colaboratory…

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…

The benefits of using Microsoft Excel built-in functions in an undergraduate Multistage Separations course are analyzed based on 15 years of experience teaching mass transfer in Chemical Engineering programs at both the Bachelor's and Master's levels. Eight reasons for using spreadsheets in a Mass Transfer virtual course are given. Through the…

The capstone course for many Earth Science programs is a field course. To increase accessibility and to create a substitute in light of the cancellation of in-person courses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed an online introductory field geology course. The course consisted of six different modules. The first was a virtual reality room,…

Many education researchers have advocated grounding abstract mathematical and scientific concepts in students' lived experiences, environmental interactions, and perceptions. This dissertation explores the causal effects of various grounding strategies in instructional settings, specifically on the topic of statistical sampling. The first chapter…

This mixed methods study examined the development of Intercultural Knowledge and Competence (IKC) among American undergraduate students in various disciplinary courses using the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Virtual Exchange (VE) model in institutions of higher education in the U.S. in 2022. There is a gap in the literature…

A design case is a form of scholarly writing in which the author embarks on a reflective journey sharing rich descriptions of their design, design processes, challenges, etc. This paper presents two design cases that demonstrate how learning theories and instructional design concepts were purposefully incorporated in two instructional applications…

The forced move to online learning in the arrival and persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the present lack of models for fully online general chemistry laboratory courses. While there exist a fair number of simulation platforms, video libraries, and one-off virtual experiments, a lack of complete general chemistry lab online courses…

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are becoming commonplace in Higher Education. Amongst the latest VLE developments is the design and use of Virtual Microscopes (VMs) that allow for viewing and manipulation of online images by multiple students. Although students are found to be generally satisfied with the use of VMs, it is yet not known what…

Our study evaluates students' approaches to and perceptions of the use of hands-on at-home laboratory kits (HALK) experiments, open-source computer-based simulations (OSCBS), and their combination (OSCBS-HALK) in undergraduate introductory asynchronous online physics courses. Anonymous survey data from students who had completed online physics…

Interest in virtual reality technologies has increased significantly in recent years, and an effort is being made to integrate it into educational environments. This study aims to investigate the impact of synchronous distance courses in the Virtual Reality (VR) learning environment (via vAcademia) and Web-based (via Adobe Connect) learning…

Recently, we saw a forced transition in educational practice from traditional methods to online and virtual learning as higher education, along with nearly all aspects of society, was disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As many of us have returned to face-to-face instruction, questions remain regarding modes of instruction and what forms of…

Virtual laboratory activities are flexible approaches to engage undergraduate students in scientific practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. By utilizing online simulations, students can conduct virtual experiments on important biochemical reactions that occur during photosynthesis. The learning module described here provides students with this…