An important part of online courses is the delivery of instruction via video lectures. Video lectures should use media effectively to reduce extraneous load and maximize cognitive processing, thereby helping students to learn. Instructors may be able to reduce extraneous load by varying the number of audio and visual media used. This study…

This article describes the development of an application for the grading and provision of feedback on educational processes. The too, named "EduZinc," enables instructors to go through the complete process of creating and evaluating the activities and materials of a course. The application enables for the simultaneous management of two…

Many initiatives exist to increase the adoption of open educational practices (OEP) within universities, but few initiatives start by exploring the capacity of educators to adopt open approaches. This paper addresses this challenge, suggesting that in order to build OEP capacity, universities should build on the existing skills of local champions…

This study builds on this author's 2011 article in which the author reflects on the pedagogical challenges and resultant changes made while teaching two fully online foreign language papers over a four-year period (Y. H. S. Sun (2011). Online language teaching: The pedagogical challenges. "Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An…

Student retention rates are a constant concern in higher education, but this concern has become especially challenging as online courses become more common and there are widespread reports of low completion rates for online, self-study courses. We evaluated four self-study online pharmacy courses with a history of very high completion rates for…

In Spring 2013 San José State University (SJSU) launched SJSU Plus: three college courses required for most students to graduate, which used massive open online course provider Udacity's platform, attracting over 15,000 students. Retention and success (pass/fail) and online support were tested using an augmented online learning environment (AOLE)…

This article distinguishes three dimensions to learning design: a technological infrastructure, a conceptual framework for practice that focuses on the creation of structured sequences of learning activities, and a way to represent and share practice through the use of mediating artefacts. Focusing initially on the second of these dimensions, the…

Like many universities worldwide, the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa has joined the open educational resources (OER) movement, making a selection of teaching and learning materials available through its OER directory, UCT OpenContent. However, persuading and then supporting busy academics to share their teaching materials as OER…

The principle of equality states that it is bad for some people to be worse off than others. In the context of distance education, this principle is violated on those occasions where on-campus students have access, not only to all the resources available to distance education students, but also to face-to-face tutorials. This is because the…