Background: Degree apprenticeships (DA) help employees gain new knowledge and skills by allowing them to study towards a university degree while working full time. For these programmes to be effective, the learning design should be adapted to the needs of these students, who are goal oriented (i.e. they want to gain only knowledge that can be…

This paper examines the pedagogical integration of Virtual Microscopes (VMs) in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), to identify best practice and improve online pedagogy. It has captured the perspectives of 12 Health and Earth Science university teachers, through in-depth interviews, about the current integration of the VM in online teaching,…

Higher education (HE) in the United Kingdom (UK) has been on a trajectory of marketisation for much of the 21st Century (see Marginson, 2018). These developments reflect international policy trends toward a more pervasive neoliberal ideology that has sought to transform the global HE sector into a capitalist market subject to buyer-seller…

Purpose: There is an increase globally of students using technology to support their learning. The purpose of this paper is to outline the technical aspects of adaptive learning and contribute to the development of pedagogy that incorporates this method in teaching and learning. Design/methodology/approach: This is a technical review article that…

This rapid systematic review aims to examine emerging evidence on the effects of COVID-19 on educational institutions and assess the prevalence of e-learning changes in the sector. This paper reviews literature on learning, teaching, and assessment approaches adopted since the COVID-19 outbreak, and assesses the impact on the sector, staff, and…

Digital natives is a term used to describe current higher education (HE) students, whose lives are proliferated by digital technologies. To cater to the needs of this new generation of students, HE institutions increasingly adopt digital tools such as virtual learning environments (VLE) and social media (SM). Little is known, however, about the…

International students contribute to the academic and cultural life of universities yet they often face discrimination and isolation. Studies highlight that support from the host students can make the difference between an easy or difficult transition. This article is part of a larger project about host student perceptions of international…

Expectations of online masters students commencing their studies has been under-researched, as have the challenges of transition from undergraduates learning on-campus to postgraduate online students. The study described here investigates student expectations of this transition, development of resources for academic skills teaching, and student…

Universities globally are aspiring to grow through investing in the delivery of online learning programmes. However, the attrition rate for online learning is high. It has been noted that those students with a sense of belonging to their course experience increased enjoyment and reduced anxiety and are therefore less likely to withdraw. Yet too…