The epistemological beliefs of students are an important area for higher education research. This paper firstly reports on a research review concerning the impact of epistemological beliefs on academic outcomes. This review indicates that students' epistemological beliefs are an influence on their engagement with learning and academic success, and…

This study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of student engagement in online learning by exploring the effects of salient online learning environment conditions on student engagement and the motivational pathways through which they affect engagement. Survey data were collected from 351 undergraduate students enrolled in various online…

Offering education by distance provides an important sociological tool for equalising opportunities in developed nations. However, for developing nations and more particularly some of the least-developed countries in the world, it has the potential to play a much larger role in providing both basic and advanced educational opportunities and,…

This paper reports on the use of feedback as part of a tuition strategy applied in a distance design course at The Open University in the United Kingdom. A blended feedback model (audio and summary text) was compared to the existing written-only feedback model in terms of student attainment, use, and perception. Comparison of feedback models…

This paper presents the first experiences of the use of an online open-source repository with programming exercises. The repository is independent of any specific teaching approach. Students can search for and select an exercise that trains the programming concepts that they want to train and that only uses the programming concepts they already…

A transformation in teaching and learning happens when students move from being consumers to creators of knowledge. While there is a growing body of research available on the use of open education resources by faculty and students, there is comparatively little research available with regards to open pedagogy (OP) in higher education. The few…

This study explored the extent to which distance learning tutors found sharing practice through participating in a tutor-led online programme of online events helped them to develop as practitioners and hence support students more effectively. The regular online sessions, delivered by tutors for tutors, was a staff development initiative…

Library and information support services (LISS) to distance learners (DLs) and tutors are mandatory for qualitative learning and teaching. From the literature, LISS needs of Open and Distance Learners (ODLs) and their tutors (such as user education and information literacy instruction) were not adequately researched in Nigeria. This study,…

This paper reports on the findings of a study which sought to investigate the impact and efficacy of technology-based counseling offered by the University of South Africa (Unisa), an Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institution. The study focused specifically on student perceptions of the services they had received from professionals based in the…

The aim of online universities is to increase learning accessibility for all students. After some years of existence, online higher education should be analysed in terms of its preparedness to meet the learning needs of people with disabilities. This paper presents a study that sheds light on the level of readiness of online higher education…

This paper explores learners' awareness of and satisfaction with the e-services that an open university provides its learners through its Website. The paper further highlights the influence of age, gender, and education levels on learners' awareness and satisfaction levels. A case-study approach was adopted and an online survey was used to collect…

Problem-solving is one of the biggest challenges that students can find in an Engineering degree. Information and communication technologies are of great use in this regard, providing learners with tools that complement their study and facilitate skills acquisition. A good strategy to enhance student motivation towards problem-solving is to use…

Earlier research efforts have succeeded in training students to enhance their skills commenting on peer writing and using peer and lecturer comments to revise their writing, but few studies have investigated (1) the effect of the lecturer's e-comments on the quality of peer e-comments, and (2) the relative effectiveness of lecturer and peer…

This paper explores ways in which virtual learning can facilitate improved access to information, promote openness, and encourage flexibility in an open and distance learning university. It reports on experiences and perceptions of students at an open and distance learning university, who study through virtual learning. The study considered two…

This paper describes an Open University eSTEeM project that gathered the experiences of computing and information technology tutors who teach an undergraduate module called "Web Technologies" with the intention of understanding more about how they and their students can be best supported. Twelve distance learning tutors were interviewed…