Facilitation strategies play a critical role in helping instructors teach effectively in an online environment. However, there is a lack of research on how different facilitation strategies impact the online learning experience. To address this gap, our study surveyed 5980 college students from two universities in China and analysed the…

Distance learning is becoming increasingly prevalent. If education is a community affair, how do we digitally design the conditions for learning at a distance for our students? This research examines a distance learning environment within a Master's Degree course created using online discussion forums, based upon the Community of Inquiry model…

Problem-based learning (PBL), as a student-centred learning method, refers to students actively participating in a group scenario to solve open-end problems. This study aims to compare the students' attitudes on PBL in Zhengzhou University and the University of Bristol. This study adopts qualitative methods. By conducting semi-structured…

While China has emerged as a leading host country for international students, it reinforces its determination to build a global knowledge system by integrating Chinese and Western epistemological traditions in teaching and learning to promote epistemic justice. The study aims to explore international students' challenges to current approaches to…

It is essential for modern medical students to continuously enhance their clinical thinking abilities. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of the combined World Café discussion and case-based learning (CBL) approach within the clinical thinking training course. The clinical thinking training course incorporated the combined World Café…

This study reports on the results of a semester-long Chinese-American telecollaborative exchange via WeChat, in which students from China and the U.S. shared thematically similar songs in their respective languages and discussed relevant cultural topics that were suggested by the students. Various types of qualitative data collected from the…

This study explores a multimodal approach to teaching contemporary Chinese culture to foster university students' intercultural awareness and intercultural communication competence via a third space. Two universities in the UK took part in the study where the course contents moved from static notions of culture-as-fact in terms of national…

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of online assessment training, with synchronous group discussion as a key component, on subsequent web-based peer assessment results. Participants included 81 college students, mostly women, taking a business writing class. After initial submission of a draft counter-offer letter, they completed…

This study examined the usefulness of a mobile instant messaging (MIM) tool to support teaching and learning. Taking a usefulness theoretical perspective, we examined in detail the utility and usability of using WeChat in a postgraduate-level course. Multiple types of data were collected and analysed, including MIM interaction records,…

In the wake of rapid development of Language MOOCs (LMOOCs), numerous studies have proposed principles and guidelines to inform curriculum design. Very few of them have, however, reported on learners' views. This study aims to contribute to this line of research by bringing in a learners' perspective. It is based on a content analysis of 3,510…

This six-week action research study explored the use of a media-based adaptation of a popular student-centered, extensive reading-based activity known as Literature Circles (LCs). Twenty Chinese students decided upon groups and assigned themselves specific roles before viewing episodes of a selected television series for homework. The prepared…

This study is to examine the attitudes of students towards the case studies based on mobile messaging in a pharmacotherapy introduction class. Case studies were divided into 4 groups, with 30 pharmacy students each group. Each group was required to share pharmaceutical care plans on WeChat by posting messages. A post-activity survey was conducted:…

Many teaching strategies have been used to promote the development of critical thinking skills, among which the most frequently used are group discussion, concept mapping, and analytical questioning. The study aims to explore learners' voice and learning experience in the pedagogical contributions of these strategies to the development of critical…

Universities are seeking techniques that encourage students to become more globalised in their perspectives. One method of fostering globalisation is to incorporate cross-national asynchronous online discussions with students from different countries within courses. The purpose of this study was to explore if participation by American and Chinese…

Informed by Vygotsky's conceptualization of the Zone of Proximal Development, this case study investigated the benefits of peer feedback on second language (L2) writing for students with high L2 proficiency and the factors that may influence their learning in peer feedback in the Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language context. Specifically, the…