Developing intercultural sensitivity in the current multicultural world is an essential, but challenging requirement. This necessity is significant in EFL classes where learners are expected to gain intercultural skills to communicate more efficiently in culturally diverse contexts. Grounded in Bennett's (Bennett, International Journal of…

This research study delves into the multifaceted realm of social presence in online education, encompassing the existence and manifestation of social presence indicators in students' engagement with discussion boards within asynchronous online courses. Social presence manifests when individuals perceive themselves to be simultaneously present with…

Language learning programs had been affected by declining school budgets and state support well before COVID-19, but the pandemic exacerbated the already declining learning outcomes of students. Duolingo, a free language-learning app, provides a platform for users to learn language skills using activities and exercises for over 38 languages.…

This study aimed to investigate end-of-course achievements, cognitive levels of the preservice teachers' posts, interaction types and their perceptions about asynchronous online discussions. In this mixed method research study, 72 pre-service teachers were included adopting a convenience sampling method. Moreover, 10 volunteering pre-service…

Collaborative learning environments that support students' problem solving have been shown to promote better decision-making, greater academic achievement, and more reasonable argumentation about controversial issues. In this research, we developed a technology-based critical discussion platform to support middle school students' argumentation,…

Little research has been conducted to investigate relationships between students' community of inquiry (CoI) perceptions and their attitudes towards reading circles (ARC). To bridge the gap this quantitative research reports a cohort of Chinese students' perceptions of CoI and its prediction for their attitudes towards reading circles (RC) in…

Discussion boards are a common component of asynchronous online courses. While many teacher preparation courses utilize traditional text-based discussion boards, university faculty are increasingly designing innovative approaches to asynchronous online discussions. There is significant research regarding the effectiveness of varied discussion…

Youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) aspire to participate in a variety of activities after high school, such as attaining paid employment, enrolling in postsecondary education, being involved in their communities, living independently, and building friendships. However, complex and longstanding transition barriers require…

Purpose: To systematically develop a farm safety intervention for farmer peer learning groups, to support safe working practice adoption. Design/Methodology/Approach: An iterative, multi-actor process was used, guided by the Intervention Mapping framework and the Socio-Ecological Model. The target peer learning groups were Irish dairy farmer…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) provide learners with high-quality learning resources, but learners drop out frequently. Learners' concerns (e.g. the topics in course content or logistics) and cognitive engagement patterns (e.g. "tentative" or "certain") are considered the essential factors affecting learners' course…

Discussion forums are often touted as maximising student participation and learning but concerns around engagement counter any perceived benefits. Often participation is the measure of engagement, and students who do not post are deemed unengaged. To further examine engagement and forums as learning communities, we used analytic data from 270…

Diversity in teams has been shown to enhance creativity and innovation, particularly in teams where all members felt a sense of belonging. Creating an inclusive environment in a lab setting that provides a sense of belonging to all is challenging. This is particularly true in a field like Biomedical Engineering/Bioengineering where diversity is…

In the COVID-19 era, "Yellowdig" (an online discussion board with social media-like features) has increasingly risen to prominence in higher education. Reflecting on a multi-year experiment involving 14 international business and marketing courses, I argue that Yellowdig remains a valuable tool for learning even after returning to…

Online discussions tend to be more effective when they are purposefully structured. In this article, we describe how the design of a photo-based protocol influenced community interactions within an online discussion in an undergraduate course. Students were asked to take and share a photo related to a course concept, respond to a peer's photo, and…

This qualitative study investigates how academic librarians perceive the professional conversation about information literacy assessment, focusing on their characterization of the discourse and the benefits of and barriers to their participation. Findings from phenomenological interviews indicate that librarians view the conversation as valuable…