In this work, the phenomenon of student enthusiasm was explored in a population of 47 students of Touro Graduate School of Education who took the author's online psychology course. The purpose of the study was to find how students-enthusiasts differ from classmates in their communication style(s) reflected in group discussions on the Discussion…

To assist second language learners in becoming effective, aware, and reflective participants in higher education, support can be provided by integrating structured awareness raising approaches in the language curriculum. Drawing on self-regulation principles, such a structured awareness raising curriculum is most notably sustained by reflective…

Engineering education must embrace several challenges, such as increased numbers of work-based students, increased demand for online education, mismatches in employability skills and industry requirements, and lack of student engagement. The hydrology course at the University of Southern Queensland attracts more than 100 students every year, where…

The purpose of this research was aimed to establish a relationship between the level of collaborative work competency and the academic performance of students in an online master's degree program. An ex-post-facto investigation was conducted through a quantitative methodology and descriptive analysis. A collaborative competency checklist was…

As enrollment in distance education courses continues to increase, it is clear that online course delivery is here to stay. And all online courses today utilize a web- or cloud-based Learning Management System that includes a text-based discussion forum, commonly called a 'discussion board', which is the primary mode of communication within the…

Characterizing the nature of students' affective and emotional states and detecting them is of fundamental importance in online course platforms. In this paper, we study this problem by using discussion forum posts derived from large open online courses. We find that posts identified as encoding confusion are actually manifestations of different…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the insights of high school students regarding their online learning experiences in the margin of cultural considerations. The study was designed in a qualitative pattern. The data were collected through a questionnaire including eight open ended questions along with demographics. A total of 30 high…

Online and hybrid courses offer many benefits for ESL teacher education, but can be hampered by 'transactional distance', a lack of interpersonal closeness which can cause misunderstanding and disengagement. This article describes a pedagogical project in which in-service teachers studying in a distance-learning MA TESL programme in Sri Lanka…

Online courses can feel isolating and sometimes lack human connections that can motivate students. We developed a fully online geoscience course to build a 'Community of Inquiry' with attention to cognitive, social, and teaching presences. We ran the course using nearly identical materials for 8 semesters (recorded video lectures, labs,…

This article presents an autoethnographic account of a project implemented to increase online student engagement in a postgraduate organisational behaviour subject comprised predominantly of international students. Autoethnography provided a lens to critically explore my andragogical practice as an early career academic (ECR) engaged in teaching…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors affecting university students' participation in discussion forum of electronic learning platforms of teacher--student interaction. Design/methodology/approach: One-stage cluster sampling was used and a cross-sectional survey of 113 university students from four courses was done.…

This article examines how the levels of student interaction change through the use of small groups and moderators in online writing courses. The study examines three technical and professional online writing courses: one course that employs small groups and group moderators and two courses that have no small groups or moderators. The results of…

We completed a qualitative study focusing on our students' use of Discussion Roles in our general and entry level online classes and presented the information at a Brown Bag presentation for University of Phoenix instructors and staff in October 2016. The following contains the results of the study including: (1) ways to use Discussion Roles in…

Since Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) became a global phenomenon in 2012, there has been constant evolution in the way Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) make sense of them. HEIs embracing MOOCs have dedicated a variety of human resource to this venture. Only in a minority of cases, staff have been appointed exclusively to this role. In all…

As higher education institutions in United States offer online courses to growing audiences, there is increasing desire to understand how best to engage students with both course content and their peers. This case study examines the effects of assigning chat roles and facilitating self- and group reflection on student--content and student--student…