Our research team worked with Wake Technical Community College to evaluate an intervention to redesign the delivery of a set of introductory online courses. To obtain unbiased estimates of the treatment effects of the intervention, we conducted a randomized control trial in which students who enrolled in the study courses were assigned randomly to…

Health communication courses explore health phenomena from various angles. Whether focusing on interpersonal and organizational relationships or addressing community and national campaigns, instructors may choose from various contents to design these courses. This essay highlights critical questions, contents, and activities useful for instructors…

This forum article focuses on the instruction of an interpersonal communication course. Interpersonal communication courses are widely included in undergraduate communication curriculum and can be fundamental to student development. The authors provide foundational material and various content areas generally included in such a course. The authors…

Most late policies involve some type of initial large deduction when an assignment is late, followed by subsequent deductions around a certain interval. In many cases, instructors will select 24 hours as their interval. While this type of late policy is common, it can be criticized for being too punitive. Moreover, large intervals can encourage…

Learning engagement is considered a reliable predictor for evaluating the effectiveness of online learning and has become a focal point in online education in recent years. This study investigated the roles and mechanisms of social presence and online learning self-efficacy in mediating the relationship between perceived teacher emotional support…

Schools in the UK and Europe, North America and Australia are introducing ambitious forms of relationships and sex education (RSE) or school-based sexuality education. For RSE to be effective it must be inclusive, recognising and respecting the needs and experiences of those who have not always been well served by sex/sexuality education. This…

Student academic success depends on a variety of factors, one of which is self-regulation of learning. An important part of self-regulation involves selecting from a myriad of course resources available and planning to use those resources. This study explores the use of an online tool to help undergraduate students improve self-regulation by…

The overriding aim of this study was to conduct a side-by-side comparative evaluation of two online suicide prevention gatekeeper-training programs: Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) and Making Educators Partners in Youth Suicide Prevention (MEP). Specific aims included identifying program components, instructional methods, and technology elements…

The empirical evidence concerning the question whether an instructor should be presented on online lecture slides is equivocal and two lines of theoretical reasoning exist. On the one hand, the instructor may distract from the content, thereby hampering learning; on the other hand, the instructor may function as a social cue that triggers a more…

Prior research has posited that flipped classrooms facilitate students' self-directed learning and enhance grades. Although reflective writing is one method linked to academic success, it rarely has been examined empirically in the literature within the context of flipped classrooms. The current study investigated the association between growth…

When do teachers need to deal with sociopolitical issues impartially and when are they justified in taking a stand? In the academic literature, attempts to answer this question have centered on the relative merits of four criteria of "controversial issues": the epistemic criterion, the behavioral criterion, the politically authentic…

The design process is full of judgment, especially around successes and failures that occur through each iteration. Decisions about how to proceed when ideas do not work can be especially challenging for beginning designers. Yet, experts are able to demonstrate more natural regulation of the process. This research focused on the experiences of…

As the novel coronavirus began to rapidly spread worldwide in March 2020, emergency transitions to the remote education processes were adopted in all institutions so as not to interrupt students' learning. In this study, we intended to investigate the extent to which factors of online course design and student learning impact students' success…

Background: Generative artificial intelligence (AI) represents a potentially powerful, time-saving tool for grading student essays. However, little is known about how AI-generated essay scores compare to human instructor scores. Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the essay grading scores produced by AI with those of human…

Background: Students in higher education are using generative artificial intelligence (AI) despite mixed messages and contradictory policies. Objective: This study helps answer outstanding questions about many aspects of AI in higher education: familiarity, usage, perceptions of peers, ethical/social views, and AI grading. Method: I surveyed 733…