We explored how learners' "subjective ratings" of open educational resources (OERs) in terms of how much they find them "helpful" can predict the actual "learning gains" associated with those resources as measured with pre- and post-tests. To this end, we developed a probabilistic model called GRAM (Gaussian Rating…

The Open Textbook Network (OTN)--an organization based out of the University of Minnesota and comprising over 1,000 postsecondary institutions--supports the open education movement by facilitating in-person workshops about, sharing training resources for, and curating a library of peer-reviewed open textbooks. Its efforts are meant to build…

Dissertations present significant challenges to all doctoral students but these challenges are often greater for online students. Research shows that as many as 50% of all doctoral students do not complete their degrees, and this number is likely even higher for online students. One reason for this may be that online doctoral students do not have…

The legislative progress in India to make education inclusive has shown promise over the past few years. However, the process of implementation does not match up to it. The objective of education is to include students with special needs in regular schools where required preparation and support is not enough. Inclusive practices are seen in…

The purpose of this study is to highlight the role and awareness of and barriers to Open Educational Resources (OERs) in Indian higher education, specifically in the State of Uttarakhand. This study further investigates the factors that hinder the progress of OER acceptance in the teaching and learning process of higher education and suggests ways…

This study explores the indicators of university-community engagement and their implications to evaluation. Through an examination of 47 studies, we validate that university-community engagement can unfold in many ways and impact many stakeholders, and that, evaluation focusing only on university perspectives might leave out the community…

Critical thinking is an important life skill that needs to be nurtured in young minds during the primary education years. This study explored pre-service teachers' perception of barriers to their efforts in promoting critical thinking skills in classrooms, and further explored possible solutions to overcome these perceived barriers. The study used…

Teachers' Professional Development Massive Open Online Courses (TPD-MOOCs) are a new form of MOOCs and have influenced an intense research interest. This study reports on the design and implementation of a TPD-MOOC which utilizes digital educational content and Open Educational Recourses (OER) and supports in-service elementary school teachers to…

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and pursuant to the governments' order of citizens remaining at home, several countries were required to transition from face-to-face instruction to an online model to provide higher education to their students. While factors affecting the use of online learning are diverse and have been studied by models of use and…

Open Educational Resources (OER) have become widespread, but constantly lack adoption. The various studies that address this lack predominantly focus on structural causes (e.g. lack of time, legal uncertainty) while omitting individual factors. However, the latter especially can yield insights into the 'black box' of individual drivers for OER…

Today, millions of teachers search online to locate ideas and activities for classroom use. While some may visit established curricular sites with vetted classroom materials, many others turn to online educational marketplaces such as TeachersPayTeachers. However, issues of quality on these sites remain in question -- particularly when it comes to…

This article reports the Swedish results and experiences from the survey study "Educators' perspectives of belonging in early years education," which was part of the research project "Politics of belonging: Promoting children's inclusion in educational settings across borders". The purpose of the survey study was to gain…

Problem solving is at the heart of mathematics, and is known to support learning for a diverse range of children. However, challenges can be encountered when teaching mathematics through problem solving. This article provides insights from research literature into: (1) the nature of the challenges; and (2) some ways that problem solving can be…

The organizational environment includes not only the landscape of a school, but also the components of school learning resources, student relations, communication-collaboration, decision-making and instructional innovation. According to the ministry of education, many schools do not have the new facilities needed for successful teaching and…

The emotional lives of teaching at the universities have remained under research. This study used a qualitative approach to investigate the emotional lives of lecturers teaching at two selected universities. This study sought to identify, understand and interpret the emotional lives of teaching with interpretive phenomenology research design. In…