This is the first in a series of five briefs published by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology on the key considerations facing educational leaders as they work to build and sustain core digital infrastructure for learning. These briefs offer recommendations to complement the fundamental infrastructure considerations…

Various studies provide evidence that inequality in educational inputs leads to inequality in achievement and long-term outcomes both in advanced and developing economies. The COVID-19 pandemic has been disrupting children's learning process and is suspected to create inequality in educational outcomes due to disparity in educational inputs. We…

This case study explores the advantages and limitations of conducting focus groups online. Though virtual focus groups have long been positioned as supplemental or inferior alternatives to in-person focus groups, this case study emphasizes the flexibility, accessibility, and possibility of conducting focus groups virtually. Providing examples from…

Equity is crucial in maintaining human rights in the education sector. It has become more crucial due to the abrupt global spread of coronavirus and the initiation and affordances of unequal accessibility to online teaching, specifically in resource deficit peripheral countries like Bangladesh. Hence, it seems pertinent to explore if online…

Smartphones working like a computer are much more than just classic mobile or cell phones used to communicate as they offer all the possibilities of computer and internet technology in our palms. By means of features they have and new applications developed every day, smartphones are used for a wide variety of purposes including but not limited to…

The purpose of this research was to gauge how COVID-19 has shifted the mindsets of students and teachers toward online education. In March and April of 2022, researchers at a university used Google forms to conduct a prospective cross-sectional online poll. A total of 265 students and 18 teachers from universities in Southern Vietnam participated…

This article explores the practice of virtual learning in New Zealand schools. It reports on a study that examined how virtual learning has evolved over the last 30 years and how it is currently experienced by students and teachers, and makes recommendations for the future. Research participants were teaching principals selected from eight small…

Project Tomorrow's Speak Up® Research reports have advocated for a broader definition of the digital divide to include access challenges at home and the obstacles K-12 students face in gaining access to high quality digital tools and resources to support classroom learning. Project Tomorrow, in collaboration with Spectrum Business, is creating a…

If properly trained, rural teachers can successfully digitalize their classrooms even with limited resources at hand. This study aims to empirically examine how teaching with limited digital resources affects student engagement and student performance in the rural school setting. The study involved 245 middle school-aged children from three rural…

In this research, we used Community-Based Participatory Research, Ecological Systems Theory and active interdisciplinary social advocacy perspectives as part of our theoretical framework. Our sample consisted of 530 counselling undergraduate students with 481 consenting to participate by sharing the most important main facilitators and barriers…

Although distance education offers flexibility and accessibility to students, dropout represents significant hurdles that adversely impact the success of programs. This study investigates the experiences of Anadolu University preparatory class students of French Language Teaching Programs during the 2022-2023 spring term, aiming to understand the…

This phenomenological study sought to understand the lived experiences of socially disadvantaged students from the Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica, who faced digital inequality during emergency remote education amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their challenges vis-à-vis the transition to in-person classes in 2022. Using a hermeneutic…

Higher education institutions have various and mostly well-established methods for students to consult with their lecturers. Lecturers have traditionally expected students to make use of face-to-face interaction through after-class consultations and asking questions in class. It is, however, imperative that higher education reflects on whether…

Dadaab Refugee Complex hosts refugees from the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region. According to a UNHCR (2023) report, at 31 January 2023 Dadaab refugee camps were host to a total population of 233,828 registered refugees and asylum seekers, representing 41% of the total recognized forcibly displaced people in Kenya. This paper will explore…

Telemental health services have become more pressing for higher education students since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The extent of that need, and barriers to accessing care, remain uncertain -- including demographic inequities. Between June 2020 and December 2021, public university students (N = 1441) were surveyed about demographic…