Background Study: Previous systematic reviews concluded that online professional-learning communities (OPLCs) have positive effects on teachers' development, but explored neither the technological affordances that make this possible nor the potential negative impacts of technology use in OPLCs. Objectives: The aim of this study is to…

The empirical research examining the effects of virtual mentoring and coaching (VMC) on principal leadership development is limited. Furthermore, little is known about school leaders who engage in virtual professional leadership learning communities (VPLCs) and how much school leaders grow with VPLCs who are also receiving VMC at the same time.…

Social studies instructional time in elementary schools has declined substantially. Responding to this, the National Geographic Society (NGS) developed a professional learning program called the Elementary Social Studies Community of Practice (ESSCoP). This article describes this program's design and content, as well as evaluates its…

The purpose of this study was to explore how a Virtual Professional Learning Community (VPLC) might serve as effective professional development for large ensemble teachers in rural communities interested in improving their pedagogy. We used a case study approach to investigate four rural music teachers who actively participated in an online…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceived effectiveness of a virtual community of practice (vCoP) designed to support knowledge and expertise sharing between K-12 teachers during COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, it aimed at exploring the potential of such vCoPs in delivering effective professional development, in general, and during…

Establishment of online communities in distance education has been linked to improved engagement, retention, and learning outcomes. This study investigates how online community building was fostered in the text-based Discussion Board (DB) and multimodal VoiceThread (VT) in one of the postgraduate units offered by Open Universities Australia.…

The COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed the widespread adoption of distance learning, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of how teacher knowledge evolves within the context of Teacher Professional Education (TPE) programs. Some research endeavors may employ evaluation methodologies that inadequately capture the nuanced dimensions of…

Recreating the social aspects of face-to-face teaching in an online environment became more challenging in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. With limited or no face-to-face interaction with students, lecturers had to explore alternative ways to recreate aspects of an engaging and supportive face-to-face learning environment. This article focuses…

There is a paucity of opportunities for Vietnamese EFL students to use and practise English speaking skills both inside and outside the classroom, attributing to students' lack of interest and motivation in improving their speaking skills. Given that learning can be distributed across a multitude of formal and informal settings, the social and…

In this paper, we report on the ways in which technology and scholarship of pedagogy emerge as interconnected within a technology-facilitated community of practice (CoP), for educators within various Faculties of Education in North American universities. The goal of the Community of Practice is to connect with and learn from one another,…

The College Completion Network conducted a systematic review of the research literature on advising strategies, summarizing the evidence for a wide range of advising strategies that have been the focus of research conducted during the past 2 decades. Simultaneously, the network conducted virtual focus groups with administrators at 47 2-year and…

The College Completion Network conducted a systematic review of the research on advising strategies that support college completion. Several key findings can inform policy and practice: Holistic and comprehensive interventions that combine multiple components to meet student needs improve student outcomes. These types of interventions provide…

Open Distance e-Learning (ODeL) is on the rise to cater to non-traditional students. However, the surge in master's and doctoral students opting for ODeL raises concerns about the quality and timely completion of degrees. Existing literature on student attrition in higher education indicates that both student-related factors and institutional…

This article reports the study of a novel way of raising tertiary-level students' native cultural awareness (NCA) via an informal mobile learning community. Through two cycles of action research at a teacher-education university in East China, the study drew upon the Community of Practice (CoP) theory to form a synchronous English chat group.…

The purpose of this research study is to shift the focus on Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) research by changing the narrative surrounding MOOC effectiveness from issues of course completion and certification to the impact of these courses on participants' actual practices. The "Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning" or HumanMOOC was…