Assessment is a central feature of teaching and learning. It is both complex and challenging in ordinary times, and these aspects are magnified in an online learning environment. Given its central role, it is crucial that its design and purpose is rigorous and robust. This paper presents justification for using interactive oral assessment as an…

The motivation to adopt innovative communication and e-learning practices in education settings can be stimulated by events such as natural disasters. Education institutions in the Pacific Rim cannot avoid the likelihood of natural disasters that could close one or more buildings on a campus and affect their ability to continue current educational…

This paper presents a case study of one College of Business (College of Business and Law from 2013) impacted in 2011 by earthquakes in New Zealand. Analyses from interviews of nine staff and documents were used to describe processes of increasing resilience with e-learning over the worst seismic events. Increasing deployment of the University's…

With increasing need to achieve appropriate balance between learning support and self-regulation within the context of online learning, formative feedback has been identified as a viable means to achieve meaningful engagement. Specifically, this study sought to establish how peer-peer formative feedback was facilitated in an online course and to…

Incorporating new media technologies that enable mobile learning to be part of educational practice poses challenges to those used to teaching in a traditional classroom environment. In this article three lecturers and a learning advisor from a New Zealand university reflect on their experiences in the progressive redesign of a Bachelor of Arts…

By investigating how educational practitioners participate in activities around open educational practices (OEP), this paper aims at contributing to an understanding of open practices and how these practitioners learn to use OEP. Our research is guided by the following hypothesis: Different social configurations support a variety of social…

Learning provision, including professional learning, needs to embrace mobility (of knowledge, cultures and contexts--physical and cerebral) to enable education practitioners to interact locally and globally, engage with new literacies, access rich contexts, and to question, co-construct and collaborate. Virtual mentoring, also known as distance,…

Online and blended learning bring opportunities and challenges, including more opportunities for authentic activities (Gikandi, Morrow, & Davis, 2011). Blended online environments are now a common mode for pre-service teacher education, providing interesting opportunities to develop and showcase alternative approaches that blend with practice…

Preparing students to be critical thinkers and effective communicators is essential in today's multinational and technologically sophisticated environment. New electronic technologies provide opportunities for creating learning environments that extend the possibilities of "old" but still essential technologies: books, blackboards, and…

This article reports two studies undertaken at The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, a vocational distance education (DE) provider, where course completion rates have risen to match those of face-to-face technical institutions. A simple model of student engagement is presented, which reflects the triality between the student, institution, and…

Learning experience has been one of the most debated aspects of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Various perceptions on learning experience offered by MOOCs have led to many claims about the quality of these courses and their potential impact on higher education in both developed and developing countries. This paper discusses, from a learner's…

Time takes on a different character when online teachers take advantage of the possibilities for interactions occurring over different scales of time. Online teachers' pedagogical link-making can help students see links between ideas across individual postings so that meaning making becomes cumulative and progressive. This article reports on a…

Advances in learning approaches can enhance deeper levels of mathematical thinking and engagement through the use of new digital environments and technologies. The growing utilisation of portable digital devices in schools has meant there are enhanced tools to support mathematical learning and understandings. This article focused on those who work…

One of the key factors that contribute to effective management of schools is the professional development of principals. The role of the principal has become more complex with the dynamic and constant reforms in the educational environment. The present study focuses on the professional development of principals in New Zealand and Singapore. The…

This paper provides a synthesis of the pedagogical practices of e-learning teacher experts into a four-part framework of approaches: out-of-class, blended language practice, blended Web 2.0 projects, and online. Examples of each approach are illustrated with short extracts from case studies of the participant teachers. It is hoped that these four…