The twenty-eight item Sense of Online Community Scale was completed by 293 online students at a midsized southeastern United States university to ascertain community importance and activities associated with its formation and maintenance on the program and institutional level. A large majority of these students believed that a sense of community…

This qualitative study aims to improve accessibility and equity in digital spaces by identifying the prevalent mismatch between online course design, student culture, and its connection to instructional design for teacher preparation programs. Utilizing feminist theory, we explore the intersection between community, identity, and learning within…

Online education has grown and continues to expand, driven by innovative information and communication technologies that facilitate effective interactions both within and outside the online classroom. Post-traditional students with diverse and complex identities face unique challenges in establishing connections within online learning environments…

This descriptive study offers lessons learned from students' experiences with a gamified, social media-like instructional approach in eighteen courses from spring 2021 through spring 2022. Researchers at a mid-sized university in the southeastern United States leveraged Christensen's (2011) disruptive innovation theory as a guiding framework to…

Online universities utilize academic social networks to build connections among students, faculty, and alumni through affinity groups. This study explored how students interact in academic social networks, who they collaborate with, why they use academic social networks, and how this influences their educational experience. This qualitative,…

The expanding scale and scope of online education options, both in terms of design and delivery, create significant questions that increasingly warrant research attention. Previous research has demonstrated that higher levels of teaching presence in online courses is positively related to student engagement, satisfaction and learning. Although…

This qualitative study examines open pedagogy as a critical instructional strategy in online community college settings to increase opportunities for authentic interactions that support student persistence. Discourse analysis was used to understand how community college students (n=78) perceive and connect with different aspects of open pedagogy…

This study explored students' perceived metacognition (self-regulation and co-regulation) in relation to the online presence within the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework in an online case-based instruction (CBI) course. Forty-seven online graduate students enrolled in an instructional design course participated in the study. Data were collected…

Although enrollment in online courses continues to accelerate, challenges exist in online learning. A failure to experience collaboration and interaction can impact student retention and success. While peer review activity promotes student interaction, a collaborative community of learners, and critical thinking skills, higher education…

The role of teachers is an important element of online project-based learning courses. Based on the Community of Inquiry framework, this study examined how students' perceptions of teaching presence, through social presence and cognitive presence, were related to their evaluations of online project-based learning. A 16-week online project-based…

Students believe mathematics is best learned by memorization; however, endorsing memorization as a study strategy is associated with a decrease in learning (Schoenfeld, 1989). When the world changed with the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, instruction transitioned to fully remote instruction where many assignments and examinations became…

For decades, the number of students enrolling in online courses has been increasing, and this trend toward online education has been further intensified as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The completion rate of online courses is not as high as in-person instruction, and researchers and practitioners have long been invested in identifying ways…

This study explored the impact of integrating ChatGPT into asynchronous online discussions. The analysis encompassed students' log data from Canvas and their perspectives on using ChatGPT. Results revealed a significant enhancement in overall discussion participation when ChatGPT is encouraged, emphasizing its potential as a catalyst for…

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework describes three essential presences (i.e., teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence) and how these presences interact in providing an educational experience in online and blended learning environments. This meta-analysis examined 19 empirical studies on the CoI Presences (teaching…

Distance learning enrollments in higher education continue to grow, and academic leaders increasingly use non-designer instructors (NDIs) to meet demand. NDIs have little control over some aspects of teaching presence, including course design through instructional media resources included in a predesigned master course. This study used the…