Help-seeking is a valuable practice in online discussion forums. However, the asynchronicity and information overload of online discussion forums have made it challenging for help seekers and providers to connect effectively. This study formulated a new method to provide fair and accurate insights toward building a peer recommender to support…

Online learning can potentially meet increasingly diverse students' needs in higher education, including disabled students. However, institutions have historically struggled in providing accessible and inclusive online learning. Higher education online learning leaders, those who manage instructional designers, are in a unique position to help…

When the art of assessment in online and distributed learning is grounded in Freirean writings, instructors have the opportunity to craft a nuanced and layered learning environment where the potential for critical consciousness is enhanced through carefully codesigned assessment strategies. Patton (2017) summarized 10 pedagogical principles based…

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic provided the opportunity for institutions of higher education to increase their use of online instructional delivery models and tools. Instructional designers played a role in supporting instructors to make this transition. This support included professional learning opportunities in the form of workshops and…

As online learners are increasingly diverse, making online learning more inclusive becomes an urgent need. Universal design has been perceived as a viable framework to reach the widest possible range of learners. However, applying universal design to online education has been a challenge to instructors due to different barriers. It is also unclear…

With the growth of cultural diversity in online higher education, this qualitative research aimed to investigate instructors' perceptions, practices, and challenges of increasing cultural presence in online course design and delivery. Seventeen instructors with different disciplinary backgrounds, online teaching experiences, titles, and ranks…

In this paper, we report the major themes we identified in the literature surrounding flexible learning that has been published in "Distance Education" over the last 40 years. We identified six themes: the qualities of flexibility as affording "anytime, anyplace" learning; flexibility as pedagogy; liberatory or service-oriented…

Learning environments that support a sense of belonging have been shown to help students fully and meaningfully participate in their learning. Less is known, however, about the social organization of online learning environments that support a sense of belonging, particularly in postsecondary contexts. With an explicit attention to issues of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between motivation profiles and self-regulation in online students and self-regulation as a predictor of affective learning outcomes, depending on students' motivation profiles. A total of 556 online preservice teachers participated in this study at a university in the United States of…

The role of motivation in online learning has been explored mostly as a predictor of course retention or satisfaction, rather than as an adaptive outcome in itself. We thus aimed to investigate how the features of motivation develop in online courses during the semester and how students' perceived teaching and social presences influence their…

This research seeks to understand parental support for online students. Using a survey, this study examined perceptions from 567 parents from eight online K-12 programs in a Midwestern state regarding their support for students' online affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement. Guided by the Academic Communities of Engagement Framework, our…

Online strategies designed to enable practical learning were in use prior to the pandemic. Nevertheless, in response to the rapid shift to online delivery during lockdowns, face-to-face practical learning was often postponed and replaced with traditional transmissive and theory-focused modes. This paper reports undergraduate and postgraduate…

After almost a year of COVID-19, distance education mediated by digital tools prevails as an ideal way to study given the flexibility, ubiquity, and a variety of tools that make the process more acceptable. Remote proctored exams have become an important tool to ensure integrity and academic honesty in distance education. This mixed methods study…

The spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) is placing impossible demands on distance education. With the closure of schools and colleges, teachers are being given only weeks to put their courses online regardless of their lack of online experience and support facilities. In the United States of America, international students who fail to continue…

This paper examines the experience of students transitioning between online and in-person live event projects during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing upon longitudinal qualitative data collected over a 3-year period, we explored how students perceived the challenges, their own development, and the pedagogical changes. Events management pedagogy…