The emergence of digital communication channels has transformed faculty development, offering new opportunities for networking and collaboration. This paper explores successful practices for promoting connection and belonging among faculty members through platforms like Slack and Discord. Key strategies include creating dedicated channels for…

In an era where digital platforms increasingly shape the educational experiences of learners, this dissertation examines activity in the Mathematics Discord Server (MDS), an expansive online learning community used by hundreds of thousands of mathematics learners worldwide. Daily interactions, numbering in the tens of thousands, focused on…

The purpose of the present study is to identify the effect of forming small learning communities through Padlet in knowledge building and psychological and cognitive Engagement. Specifically, to discover the degree of continuity of the effect of forming small learning communities through Padlet in knowledge building and psychological and cognitive…

This research brief comprises three articles published in the three-article dissertation at the University of Missouri (MU) in February 2023. The three-article dissertation, "An Exploration of Online Information Spaces That Support Instructional Design and Teacher Professional Development," examined three online communities of practice…

This design-based research study looks at how a learning unit to support the development of a knowledge community activity was designed within Diigo, a social bookmarking tool. The Diigo learning unit was divided into five one-week lessons that aligned with course topics and provided numerous opportunities for students to interact and collaborate…

In order to disseminate the findings and recommendations from their studies, researchers publish papers in scientific journals in their subject area. Research communities thus emerge as a result of the communication between authors who cite other relevant papers. This study focuses on the relationships between Spanish and English research…

Distance education has become one of the popular choices among the student's community. More and more students are enrolling into various distance education courses. Technology advancements have created a new avenue in distance education. ICT has helped the universities and colleges in reducing the distance between the students and faculty…

Social exploration is the key to spreading ideas through networks (Pentland, 2014). When people talk with others outside their immediate group, they can bring fresh ideas into the group--leading to improved outcomes. So, to improve educational practice, we should increase communication in our professional communities and encourage communication…

Virtually Connecting (VC) is a connected learning volunteer movement that enlivens virtual conference experiences by partnering those that are at the conference with virtual participants that cannot attend. In looking to articulate the ethos and intentions of VC, a manifesto was developed by a group of core members and presented at the Digital…

This article aims at characterizing the research community of Distance Education (DE) with respect to coauthorship, a special kind of collaboration among researchers, according to publications of 11 relevant DE journals. This article identified who the central researchers are, the topological properties of the coauthorship networks analyzed, the…

Teacher confidence with technology integration remains generally low over time, and teacher preparation programs have been tasked with supplying the education sector with teachers ready to implement an ever-changing toolkit of technologies. These efforts can be hampered by isolation of the traditional technology course and lack of field component.…

Groups that come together in whatever fashion--in social networks, via online video conferencing, or around conference tables--share in solutions to problems of practice and therefore feel collectively responsible for the success of all their students. This accountability toward not only a solution but also to improved outcomes is a fundamental…

This article analyzes an expanded learning experience, expanded in the sense that this experience is mediated by public digital space, in which a very active collective of educators that work with young children strive to improve their professional practice incorporating the pedagogical approaches of Emmi Pikler. Although, initially, the format of…

This article shows how a group of language teachers use Twitter as a tool for continuous professional development through the #MFLtwitterati hashtag. Based on data collected through a survey (n = 116) and interviews (n = 11), it describes how this collective of teachers use the hashtag and evaluates the impact of their Twitter network on their…

Teacher professional development (PD) that supports the emergence of professional learning communities (PLCs) is effective for teachers' learning and instructional improvement. Our work focuses on supporting the emergence of online PLCs and an emergent issue in this work is how to maintain the quality of teachers' experiences in online PLCs when…