Background: Student engagement has been conceptualised and operationalised in various learning environments. However, there is currently a lack of established scales to measure student engagement in synchronous online learning. One possible reason is the existence of the conceptual and structural ambiguity regarding student engagement. Objective:…

Background: After the mandated closure and reopening of schools during and after the coronavirus pandemic, online synchronous teaching and learning has emerged as an opportunity to expand the reach of K-12 education, however, there is a lack of understanding about the characteristics of the successful learning experiences during that period that…

Background: Computer programming learning and education play a critical role in preparing a workforce equipped with the necessary skills for diverse fields. ChatGPT and YouTube are technologies that support self-directed programming learning. Objectives: This study aims to examine the sentiments and primary topics discussed in YouTube comments…

Background: Amidst the increasing application of online education in the post-COVID era, new challenges in student engagement have emerged. However, most studies on online engagement have adopted macro-level approaches and relied on self-report measures of retrospective engagement. Few have examined micro-level engagement in terms of real-time and…

Background: The rise of intelligent chatbots powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning has ignited interest in their potential for revolutionising second language (L2) acquisition and foreign language learning (FLL). While their potential seems vast, understanding their actual impact on learning outcomes requires comprehensive…

Background: While a substantial number of studies have investigated English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL/L2 English) anxiety, they predominantly examined it from a unidimensional perspective, overlooking the potential insights offered by examining language-skill-specific L2 anxiety from a multidimensional lens. Moreover, prior research has…

Background: Online synchronous learning in higher education frequently struggles to overcome the social presence gap, resulting in dissatisfaction and poor learning outcomes. Objectives: This study examined the effectiveness of desktop-based virtual reality (VR) social platforms compared to video conferencing (VC) platforms in enhancing students'…

Encouraging students to actively ask questions during lectures is a formidable challenge that can be addressed through innovative use of information technology. We developed a robotic system that allows students in a lecture to collaboratively decide questions to be asked by a humanoid robot. To verify whether the system reduces hesitation to ask…

Background: Online learning has become a popular form of education. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning was mainly associated with higher education, with an incremental growth at the K-12 level. The pandemic changed this situation rapidly. Online instruction has been increasingly integrated into secondary schools and has significantly…

Background: Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) has long been advocated to promote students' language study outcomes. However, little is known about how using instant messaging applications (an example of MALL) affect student motivation, language anxiety, and actual achievement. Objectives: To help close this gap, we have conducted a…

Background: Deep discussions play an important role in students' online learning. However, researchers have largely focused on engaging students in deep discussions in online asynchronous forums. Few studies have investigated how to promote deep discussion via mobile instant messaging (MIM). Objectives: In this study, we applied learning…

Background: The increasing prevalence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) language models, exemplified by ChatGPT, has sparked inquiries into their influence on creative writing skills in educational contexts. This study aims to quantitatively investigate whether ChatGPT's use negatively affects university students' creative writing abilities,…

Background: The existing literature has predominantly focused on instructor social presence in videos in an asynchronous learning environment and little is known about student social presence on webcam in online learning in the context of COVID-19. Objectives: This paper therefore contrasts students' and teachers' perspectives on student social…

Background: Collaborative computer simulations are available on some online platforms which support students at distributed locations to synchronously collaborate on the simulations to learn sciences. However, how students collaborate with each other in collaborative simulations is not clear. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate…

Background: In a context where synchronous online teaching has become a new trend of instruction for online education due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is valuable and insightful to examine what factors contribute to teachers' satisfaction with synchronous online teaching. Objective: Informed by the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study…