Social isolation among online college students may be a key contributor to the higher attrition rates reported by online universities relative to traditional institutions. This experiment investigated the effects of instructor-student communication on online students' self-reported social integration with faculty, institutional commitment, and…

Flipped learning is an innovative teaching approach in which students view pre-recorded video lectures outside of class, then engage in activities applying course concepts during class. By removing lecture from face-to-face class time, instructors free up time in class for students to explore and apply course content. Flipped learning is a…

Differences in statements about the practice of blended learning (a combination of online and face-to-face instruction) were found in experiments conducted on prospective students of engineering teachers. There were various forms of learning, and--significantly--the various types of learning styles had a significant influence on competence. Group…

Online students are often short-changed when they reach their most important milestone--graduation. For many institutions, virtual graduation has proven to be a holy grail of sorts--critically important to student experience, but illusive in form and difficult to achieve. This article explores several existing models of virtual graduations, and…

How should a pedagogical agent in educational software be designed to support student learning? This question is complex seeing as there are many types of pedagogical agents and design features, and the effect on different student groups can vary. In this paper we explore the effects of designing a pedagogical agent's self-efficacy in order to see…

In this study, a flipped classroom was compared with blended learning and face-to-face learning environments and the aim was to identify the effect of these learning environments on students' achievements, academic engagement and satisfaction levels. Based on this aim, one control and two experimental groups were formed. The students in…

The HyFlex blended learning model is a student-driven approach that allows students to determine what blended learning they prefer to meet their unique needs. In a HyFlex course, students are presented with a choice with each class session -- whether to attend face-to-face or participate online. This article introduces social work educators to the…

Student engagement in the online learning environment is critical for academic success. One increasingly popular means through which to facilitate this engagement is the use of web-conferencing software. While there are a variety of potential applications, this paper will evaluate the use of one such web-conferencing tool to support synchronous…

Austin Community College's (ACC) Student Money Management Office conducted a text messaging scavenger hunt to engage ACC students in financial-aid-related education and programming, including when to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and how to ensure Satisfactory Academic Progress. Results demonstrated that 268 students began…

With the increasing strategic importance of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) in higher education, this paper offers an innovative approach to advancing discussions and practice around MOOC learning design, in the context of staff development. The study provides a deeper understanding of staff (academic and learning technologists') experience…

Sometimes users need to be asked if they need help. This is difficult with online users, because in-person cues cannot be used to engage when the users need assistance. Proactive chat widgets help to solve this problem as the chat box slides out onto the screen and prompts the user for help. The need for the proactive chat widget was also seen as…

A major concern of online learning is the absence of face-to-face student-instructor interaction and student-to-student interaction, leading researchers to examine practical approaches to keep students engaged in the online learning environment. Synchronous methods have become a growing opportunity for student engagement in the online environment.…

From the 2013 "Position Statement of Principles and Example Effective Practices for Online Writing Instruction (OWI)," OWI Principle 11 suggests, "Online writing teachers and their institutions should develop personalized and interpersonal online communities to foster student success." Previous discussions of synchronous…

To what extent can the transformative power and language learning affordances provided by the study abroad experience be virtualized? The large-scale shift away from on-site study abroad to online learning in 2020-2021, caused by the COVID pandemic, has made it possible to compare data for in-person immersion learning versus digitally mediated…

The Soil Nutrient Relationships course serves juniors and seniors with a major or minor in agronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Pre-pandemic enrollment averaged 65 students. In 2021 and 2022, course enrollment was 42 and 55, respectively. The course was adjusted to a flipped design in 2017. Moving into 2021, the Soil Nutrient…