With an increase in Synchronous online learning, there is a shift in how current teaching practices are impacted and what is important to students and student learning. Synchronous teaching is not taking face-to-face strategies online, instead, it requires intentional design and thoughtful planning. To that end, this paper discusses pedagogical…

Engagement is a critical part of student learning and student success. This is especially true in online classes where students have less interaction with their classmates and instructors when compared to traditional face-to-face courses. Research on engagement has shown that when students are meaningfully engaged it can increase student…

Building a sense of community (SoC) is an important process in the success of distance education and students' retention. However, developing a community in online learning environments is not an easy task. The purpose of this research study is to explore perceptions of graduate students on SoC and learning after using different collaborative…

Nontraditional college students comprise a growing majority of college students with a unique set of needs and some of the highest attrition rates. Collaborative learning practices, such as peer review of writing, have been linked to improvement in students' academic, social, and professional skills necessary in the 21st century, global market.…

In this study, propensity score matching (PSM) was conducted to examine differences in the effectiveness of research mentor training (RMT) implemented using two modes--face-to-face or synchronous online training. This study investigated each training mode and assessed participants' perceived gains in mentoring skills, ability to meet mentees'…

This paper reports a case study of 20 university peer tutor-tutee dyads which engaged in online synchronous peer tutoring using MENTOR, a mobile application developed to support peer tutoring. Despite years of research, peer tutoring still attracts significant attention and an emerging area of research is online peer tutoring. This study aimed to…

This succinct guidebook provides educators with the essentials they need to navigate remote learning for students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Filled with practical tools and excerpts from teachers in the field, this book explores tips to share with parents, alongside synchronous and asynchronous strategies that can help make…

This study used the community of inquiry (CoI) framework and the affordances of Internet of things (IoT) to explore how the faculty of education of a rural campus of a university transitioned from face-to-face to online modes of instruction. In this qualitative interpretive study, data were collected through open-ended questionnaires from four…

As more post-secondary institutions are turning to non-face-to-face course delivery modes to cater to the emerging needs of the student population, we have yet to find out whether students attending both at a distance and face-to-face have access to equal learning opportunities. A research was conducted in the nursing program taught in the blended…

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed the lives of college students across the United States. These students, many of whom had never taken an online class prior to the pandemic, had to quickly adapt to the virtual learning environment and continue their studies during a time of great uncertainty. At the same time, many…

A cyber-flipped course was conducted with the flipped classroom pedagogy by using a wholly online approach for all learning activities in asynchronous and synchronous class sessions. Literature suggests that traditional flipped courses can effectively enhance students' learning outcomes in comparison to non-flipped courses. However, conducting all…

The COVID-19 outbreak spurred unplanned closures and transitions to online classes. Physical environments that once fostered social interaction and community were rendered inactive. We conducted interviews and administered surveys to examine undergraduate STEM students' feelings of belonging and engagement while in physical isolation, and…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental, non-equivalent control-group design study was to examine and measure the impact of the opportunity to receive synchronous weekly instructor content on online students' sense of community, social connectedness, and perceived learning. The population for this study consisted of first-year undergraduate…

School closures in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic resulted in an immediate and universal pivot to online teaching. More than 3.7 million teachers in the U.S. were suddenly asked to teach in an entirely new setting with little preparation and no advance notice. This has caused an unprecedented threat to children's education, giving…

While a fair amount is known about effective instructional practices for students who are English learners, less is known about how these practices might look different in a distance learning context compared to the classroom. This brief, produced by WestEd as part of a collection of Crisis Response Resources, is designed to help educators make…