The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many educators and students to embrace a "new normal" in learning that relies on online-learning approaches to alleviate the disruptions caused by the outbreak. In this context, the use of Web-based videoconferencing supported online lessons (WVCOL) has been offered as a solution to provide a learning…

Mobile instant messaging (MIM) has become the most popular means for young people to communicate. MIM apps typically come with a myriad of features that educators may leverage to increase student learning. However, it remains poorly understood to what extent and in what aspect MIM can facilitate student engagement. We address the gap by comparing…

The overarching goal of this research project is to develop a set of theoretical and empirical based design principles to support student engagement in flipped mathematics learning. We used a design-based research approach in which a series of studies was conducted in a secondary school. First, an analysis of practical problems was performed via…

The COVID-19 outbreak has brought the whole world to a standstill, forcing schools and universities to move online immediately. The abrupt change has led to a general fear of a drop in the quality of education due to the loss of physical interaction. Against this background, the present study describes how we managed the crisis by adapting a…

Although fully online learning is now the 'new normal' in many parts of the world, its implementation is often beset by challenges such as the lack of student self-regulation, and the sense of isolation. In this paper, we explored the use of chatbots to support student goal setting (Study 1) and social presence (Study 2) in online activities. In…

We used the design-based research approach to test and refine a theoretically grounded goal-access-feedback-challenge-collaboration gamification model. The testbed was a 10-week, university-level e-learning design course offered in two consecutive semesters. In Study 1, we implemented the initial goal-access-feedback-challenge-collaboration model…

Decoding training is an approach to teaching listening skills to help learners develop the ability to recognize individual words from speech. Although it has been historically underemphasized, recent empirical studies have pointed to its potential value in listening education. However, instructors and students generally face certain challenges…

Computational thinking (CT) has attracted significant interest among many educators around the globe. Despite this growing interest, research on CT and programming education in elementary school remains at an initial stage. Many relevant studies have adopted only one type of method to assess students' CT, which may lead to an incomplete view of…

In recent years, flipped learning has attracted much attention around the world. This instructional approach is appealing because it can free up class time for knowledge application activities with help from the instructor and peers. However, its implementation can be fraught with challenges. Student disengagement in out-of-class activities, for…

This study examines Grade 9 students' mathematics achievement and cognitive engagement under three different instructional approaches: traditional learning, flipped learning with gamification, and online independent study with gamification. The duration of the study lasted an entire school year. The central theories underpinning flipped learning…

Background/Context: The advent of massive open online courses (MOOCs) has fueled much attention among educators. However, despite the high interest they generate, we still understand little about student engagement in these large-scale online courses. Existing studies tend to focus on how MOOCs affect higher education institutions in terms of…

Although massive open online courses (MOOCs) have attracted much worldwide attention, scholars still understand little about the specific elements that students find engaging in these large open courses. This study offers a new original contribution by using a machine learning classifier to analyze 24,612 reflective sentences posted by 5,884…

Although past research has sought to identify the factors of student engagement in traditional online courses, two questions remained largely unanswered with regard to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): do the factors that could influence student engagement in traditional online courses also apply to online courses that are massive and open?…

In this study, we investigated how the use of meaningful gamification affects student learning, engagement, and affective outcomes in a short, 3-day blended learning research methods class using a combination of experimental and qualitative research methods. Twenty-two postgraduates were randomly split into two groups taught by the same…