Undergraduate students have reported challenges with staying connected to course content, their peers, and to their instructors during the disruption and transition to virtual platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic (Hollister et al., 2022) and there has been a lack of readiness to effectively engage with students and deliver instructional content…

This study investigates the primary factors influencing school achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic from students' perspectives. The pandemic exacerbated educational inequalities, emphasizing the essential role of teacher effectiveness in boosting student achievement and the significant impact of remote learning challenges. Using focus groups…

Instructional design, development, and planning decisions are fundamental to effective online learning. However, interactions that occur within the online environment have been underestimated, despite their significance for the success of online learning. Moore (1989) suggested viewing the interactions among individuals and content in three…

Many approaches exist in teaching statistics, however, learning statistics is frequently perceived by students as challenging. While evidence-based teaching approaches like case discussions and flipped-classroom models have been successfully incorporated into multiple disciplines, these methods can have inadequate success when students are…

During the fall 2020 semester, classes at my institution were taught almost entirely online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to promote student engagement in the online environment, I developed the Artistic Office Hour to promote casual social interactions outside of synchronous class-time. During the Artistic Office Hour, students…

The increase in enrollment of students in an online course or taking some classes online indicates an utmost need for faculty to devise means of delivering meaningful and engaging online instruction. Instruction needs to be engaging in ways that make sense to the generation of students in our college classrooms. The outbreak of the COVID-19…

While extant literature reveals various factors associated with student engagement in online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings are inconsistent. A systematic review of the factors influencing student engagement in online learning during the pandemic will provide state-of-the-art knowledge of existing literature and offer future…

There has been a movement toward pedagogies that employ student-centered learning (SCL) to increase student engagement and motivation. Our experience transitioning to remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for us to observe how students used the chat function to take ownership of their learning. We used qualitative…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the significance of videoconferencing in blended learning, using the technology acceptance model to investigate students' perceptions and its impact on course engagement, student satisfaction and future technology use intention. In addition, it examines the role of teacher support in fostering interactive…

Digital pedagogies have impacted traditional approaches towards teaching and as this phenomenon continues to expand, a clearer understanding of the role of instructors' social presence in online learning environments is imperative. Using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, this study investigates instructor social presence and its…

In this paper, we present research on New Zealand secondary teachers' perspectives of teaching and learning mathematics during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020--2023. We use narrative analyses of interviews to explore the perspectives of eight participant teachers. COVID-19, and its resulting restrictions, were found to impact student-teacher…

How teachers interact with students is important, not only for students' intellectual growth but also for their social and emotional growth. In the classroom, it is easier to see when students are misunderstanding or are confused about some aspect of the lesson. By walking around the class, I can view what my students are producing, and I can see…

Throughout my teaching career, I have believed it is important to develop positive relationships with my students and help my students develop positive relationships with each other. In my personal and professional experiences, I have observed the positive differences strong relationships have on how my students engage in class and how comfortable…

In this descriptive analysis, we consider the experiences of students who prefer face-to-face (F2F) classes but, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, had no alternative other than taking their introductory biology class online during the 2020-2021 academic year. We conducted focus group interviews with 12 college students who enrolled in an asynchronous…

This study investigates the impact of rebranding office hours to "happy hours" on student engagement at Florida International University, where class sizes often exceed 100 students and can be as large as 400. The initiative aimed to address the challenge of low student attendance during traditional office hours, a critical time for…