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Higher education informatization (HEI) is an interdisciplinary field that examines the use and integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in higher education. This paper provides a bibliometric and visual analysis of the research trends, patterns, and topics in this field. Using the Web of Science database, the authors selected and analyzed 199 SCI and SSCI papers on HEI published from 2000 to 2023 by VOSviewer and CiteSpace software. The results indicate that the publication volume of HEI research has grown significantly in recent years. The author network shows the collaboration and contribution of different researchers and institutions, while the journal network reveals the multidisciplinary nature and scope of the field. The keyword network and the burst keyword analysis identify the main research themes and the emerging hot topics in HEI. The co-citation network of sources illustrates the theoretical and methodological foundations and influences of the field. The paper concludes with some implications and suggestions for future HEI research.

This paper offers a comparative analysis of internationalization policy between two distinct nations entrenched in unique sociopolitical and economic cultures, namely Japan and the United States of America (U.S.A.). How do different policymaking processes impact internationalization policy in practice? While Japan's internationalization policy is clearly articulated at the national level, the U.S. does not have a national higher education internationalization policy that emanates from the federal government. Therefore, in this study we analyzed macro-level data from three distinct policymaking sectors to identify U.S. national policy. Our analysis identifies the policy-making process in each nation and elucidates how internationalization policy unfolded in both cases. Second, we compare the development of higher education internationalization policy efforts in the two countries, sequencing events, factors, and rationales that impacted national policy. This approach allowed us to compare the implications of having a centralized versus a pluralistic internationalization policy-making process in the 2000s. Our research shows that, in practical terms, there is more variation in higher education internationalization policy in the U.S. than in Japan. In both countries, policy dynamics were influenced by social and economic factors, and political factors influenced policy in the U.S. An academic and humanitarian rationale for internationalization policy was not central to the essence of the policy in either country.

This paper reports the findings of a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer on 392 Scopus database documents published from 2003 to 2022, aiming to understand the global landscape of the e-learning field and to identify the most prominent authors, institutions, countries and reference publications, as well as the research topics that have recently received the most attention in students' readiness for e-learning in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The findings indicate that there has been an upward trend in e-learning readiness among students in HEIs over time. Among the countries studied, the United States, Taiwan, Australia, and Malaysia were found to have the most effective approaches to addressing students' readiness for e-learning. The most highly cited author in this field is M-L. Hung. Based on the citations, the most recognised journal in this field was "Computers and Education" and the universities that were most persuasive were two Taiwan universities in the first position. The data also revealed relatively low levels of collaboration among authors, institutions and nations regarding students' readiness for e-learning.

Chinese students studying abroad have been increasing rapidly in the past decades and become a significant financial contribution to receiving countries. Accordingly, understanding their enrollment choice is essential to facilitate college marketing and admission strategies. Though the decision process is believed to be different from domestic students, empirical analysis of Chinese students' enrollment choices is still lacking. This paper fills the void by examining the influential factors of Chinese students' enrollment choice with novel student-level data. We find that in addition to factors domestic students typically consider, such as financial aid and academic quality, Chinese students particularly emphasize college ranking, reputation, and location in their decision process. Furthermore, unlike domestic students who usually prefer colleges with proximity to home, Chinese students' location preference is linked to job prosperity. We also find that the impact of the factors varies for students from different regions of China, which can be attributable to uneven economic development within the country.

Bichronous online learning is the intentional blending of asynchronous and synchronous online learning experiences. Twelve award-winning online instructors participated in interviews to discuss best practices they use, and benefits and challenges in bichronous online courses. When sharing best practices for bichronous online courses, online instructors explained how they combined best practices in asynchronous and synchronous online learning. Asynchronous online best practices included course design and structure, resources, and instructor presence; and synchronous online best practices focused on formats, activities, and content of synchronous sessions, and community-building. The best practices, benefits and challenges discussed in this paper have implications for instructors who currently teach in a bichronous online format or may be considering it in the future, and for instructional designers and administrators who work with faculty on offering courses in this modality. Based on the data, the intentional blending of synchronous and asynchronous components has a lot of potential to enhance students' online learning experiences.

This article provides a comparative analysis of international education strategies employed by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It explores how both superpowers sought to disseminate their ideologies globally, leading to direct competition. The US and Soviet Union utilized international education to cultivate friendly elites and countries aligned with their respective values. Both nations implemented educational exchange programs and aimed to establish or reform educational systems abroad. The paper evaluates the effectiveness of these strategies, shedding light on the contrasting approaches adopted by the US and the Soviet Union in their pursuit of influence through international education during this era.

This two-phase mixed methodology study, relevant to STEM educational stakeholders and researchers in emergency remote teaching (ERT) and ICT for education, explored college students' and graduates' attitudes and usage patterns of educational ICT in the U.S. and Japan and identified affordances of the technology for both text and audio-based activities of various lengths. The research was divided into two phases, with the first a qualitative analysis utilizing a questionnaire and coding, which informed the second phase, a quantitative analysis of device and activity associations utilizing k-means analysis. The findings suggest that these participants have a sophisticated understanding of their personal digital ecosystems and practice a form of dynamic "affordance switching" that matches devices to activities. This is reassuring when considering the need for a sudden move to off-site teaching necessitated by an ERT. The k-means analysis identified three main devices out of six commonly used devices and associated those three with specific task characteristics. The Laptop PC was the most universally associated device, followed by the smartphone and traditional paper-based nondigital devices. These findings can inform administrators seeking to supply devices to students during ERT on a limited budget.

This paper discusses the use of duoethnography in the internationalization of language teacher education, aiming at responding to the following questions: A) how may duoethnography support the internationalization of language teacher education? B) What aspects of language teachers' lives can be explored in dialogical encounters among language teachers and teachers-to-be from different countries? C) What (lasting) impacts may carrying out a duoethnography have on language teachers? Beyond explaining the process of designing an international research-based assignment (IRBA), which aimed at engaging in-service and pre-service language teachers from the U.S. and Brazil in exploring their linguistic experiences, the authors present the rationale and the theoretical basis for developing the IRBA and analyzing the duoethnographies: critical approaches to language teacher education, digital literacies and technology integration in educational praxis, teacher collaboration, and duoethnography as both a process and a method. The analysis revealed that duoethnography may be effective leading to reflection and contributing to issues of equality, mobility, and access.

The emergence of ChatGPT, a Generative AI program, has sparked discussions about its teaching and learning value, and concerns about academic integrity in higher education (HE). An extant review of the literature indicates that a scarcity of research exists on GenAI, specifically a synthesis of the official views, guidelines and articles of top-ranked universities on the use, limitations, challenges, and opportunities brought by ChatGPT in the early phase when ChatGPT was released in 2022 until early May 2023, which can offer insights into the concerns and recommendations for educators. Using the corpus assisted discourse analysis approach, this study identified the key themes and emotions elicited by evaluations of the ChatGPT situation from a self-built corpus containing 151 articles from 47 top-ranked U.S. universities and 34 U.K. ones. Our findings indicated three prominent themes discussed on official websites, including ChatGPT as a text and content generator, use of ChatGPT in teaching and learning, and potential implications and opportunities of using ChatGPT in HE. Further examination revealed that bias, concern, worry, threat, fear, and trust were the prevailing emotions relating to ChatGPT. Illustrated with examples collected from our corpus, this paper offers an in-depth discussion of universities' first responses to the use of ChatGPT. The insights gained have some pedagogical implications for academics, researchers and educators and may inform policy and practice in HE on the use of GenAI.

Internationalising the curriculum in higher education offers cultural insights and exchanges to live and work in a changing and connected world. The authors are tertiary music educators working in three different countries (Australia, Spain, and the United States of America). Though geographically dispersed yet virtually connected, they delivered a series of five music professional learning workshops to Bachelor of Primary Education students at a university in Spain (March 2021-April 2021). They draw on narrative reflections and student voices to discuss intercultural perspectives of teaching and learning using the 5P model of professional development. The authors use thematic analysis to code and analyse the data discussing two overarching themes: collaborative professional learning and professional sharing. The authors contend that cultivating collaborative initiatives through virtual platforms can purposefully contribute to intercultural communication where ideas, knowledge, skills, and pedagogies are shared. While this paper focuses on one group of students, a limitation in itself, recommendations are offered that can be adapted and adopted across other learning areas. The implications indicate that further research is needed to assess whether intercultural teaching from cross-cultural and culture-specific perspectives stimulates sociocultural learning and growth for teachers and students for whom English is an additional language.

In this paper, we present the results of an investigation into the effects of engaging with robotic telescopes during an Astronomy 101 (Astro101) course in the United States and Canada on the self-efficacy of students. Using an astronomy self-efficacy survey that measures both astronomy personal self-efficacy and instrumental self-efficacy, the authors probed their covariance with the respondents' experience of an Astro101 course that uses robotic telescopes to collect astronomical data. Strong effects on both self-efficacy scales were seen over the period of a semester utilizing a scalable educational design using robotic telescopes. After participation in the course, the results show that the gender gap in self-efficacy between self-identified men and women is largely reduced to statistically insignificant differences compared to the initial large significant difference.

Meeting the needs of dual-career academic couples has become an important part of university efforts to foster family-friendly workplaces. Many universities have developed formal or informal approaches to addressing dual-career issues, but variation across institutions has made it difficult to detect wider patterns or probe their implications. In this paper, we analyze the dual-career policies and materials (848 documents total) of all R1 institutions in the United States. As with studies from roughly two decades ago, we find deficiencies in institutional support and transparency. However, given reduced state revenues for institutions of higher education and a rise in precarious employment arrangements over the same time period, conditions for academic couples are arguably worse today. In order for universities to address these concerns and contribute meaningfully to broader forms of inclusion, we argue that there is a need for sustained funding commitments and infrastructural support for dual-career programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first systematic investigation into the search engine optimization practices of major contract cheating websites in the United States. From a business perspective, visibility in organic search engine results is considered one of the top client recruitment tools. The current understanding of student recruitment strategies by these companies remains largely unexplored in both academic literature and popular press. Replicating the business research practices used in the search engine optimization industry, comprehensive search engine ranking and traffic data was obtained for the 38 largest contract cheating websites in the US. The overall objective was to illuminate the strategies that these companies take to get their services at the top of the search results of as many students as possible – not just the relatively small proportion of students actively cheating. The results show that these companies dominate the search results for not just students searching to cheat, but also for naïve search efforts, when students are simply doing genuine research or classwork. These nefarious companies use highly sophisticated search engine manipulation strategies to bait naïve student searchers onto their sites, thus enabling the potential to switch them to cheaters. Higher education institutions, armed with the specific details provided in this study, can use the strategies outlined in the discussion to directly and negatively impact on the success of these contract cheating services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student academic misconduct continues to vex higher education institutions in the United States and internationally. The COVID pandemic learning environment yielded more rather than less reports of student academic misconduct. Substantial empirical research has considered the nature of academic misconduct in higher education institutions by identifying its antecedents and correlates. But given the reproducibility crisis in social research, the quality of knowledge that students have on academic misconduct warrants further empirical corroboration. With the intent to replicate, this study used Quantitative Content Analysis to examine 2631 written responses from first-year undergraduate students as they participated in academic misconduct programming implemented by a public university in the United States. Results reported a staggering proportion of first-year students possess piecemeal (at best) or non-existent (at worst) knowledge over citations/references and cheating. Furthermore, such proportions are uneven according to specific college membership. Results corroborate prior research that first-year undergraduate students hold limited understanding of academic misconduct in its premises, patterns, and processes. In turn, results support the design and use of systematic preventive mechanisms to address academic misconduct among higher education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual education began to emerge with the advent of the internet and digital technologies in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It has been instrumental in overcoming geographical limitations, expanding educational access and reducing the gap between learners worldwide who have and have nots. Over the last few decades, a significant number of investments and initiatives (at both government and institutional levels) have been observed aiming to establish a sustainable online education system. The objective of the study is to provide an overview of the research trend on virtual teaching for online learning from the perspective of higher education across the globe in the 21st century. The required publication data has been collected from Scopus and Web of Science databases and various bibliometrics tools and techniques have been employed to visualize publication growth. It is found that the highest contribution has been made by China (16.92%), followed by the United States (15.38%), Spain (12.05%) and the UK (6.15%). The study identifies three dominant trends: 1) the evolution of technology-driven learning and training systems; 2) the rise and impact of immersive learning in digital environments; and 3) a systematic review of e-learning methodologies. This research outlines the overall progression of scientific literature in virtual education and highlights the need for comparative and nuanced research among online learning modalities, essential for guiding educational policymakers and university administrations in the optimal combination of traditional and virtual learning methods. This integration promises to enhance the accessibility and effectiveness of education in an increasingly digital world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The systems approach has been used to evaluate higher education and explores inputs, transformation process, and outputs of a system that is also influenced by environmental factors such as COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted many college students to different learning modes, changing their university experience. This study evaluated dietetics students' education experiences and characteristics in the latter period (spring 2022) of the COVID-19 pandemic using the systems approach. Methods: Researchers developed and distributed an electronic survey to all 215 US-based Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD) directors during March to May 2022 to forward to their students. Researchers calculated descriptive statistics for variables related to inputs, transformation process, and outputs in the systems approach. Results: Respondents (n = 341) represented 51 DPDs in 31 states in the United States. Overall, DPD students (88.5%) were mostly or very satisfied with their choice of majoring in dietetics. Most (84.0%) planned to earn the RDN credential. Nearly half (46.9%) of DPD students were somewhat or extremely concerned about their readiness to continue their dietetics education path due to the pandemic-related learning conditions. Most students (43.6%) reported dissatisfaction with asynchronous remote instruction in laboratory courses. DPD students' GPAs remained consistent within the range of 3.75-4.0 from Fall 2019 (43.2%) to Spring 2022 (44.5%). The most important expectations of professors moving forward were to communicate effectively (97.3%), employ cultural humility (93.8%), eliminate discrimination in the classroom (93.6%), provide lecture slides (89.7%), and be flexible and accommodating (88.7%). Conclusions: DPD students emerged from COVID-19 with new perspectives and expectations for their university learning experience. Future research should explore the perspectives of DI directors, preceptors, and employers of COVID-19 era DPD graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incentives for the internationalization of universities and the digitalization of teaching driven by the situation of COVID-19 have increased the operation of virtual work teams in higher education institutions, both in terms of groups of students and groups of researchers. The objective of this study is to explore the evolution of academic research concerning virtual teams within university settings, aiming to delineate prominent research trajectories and outline a prospective agenda for future inquiry in this domain. This work involved a systematic review of the literature in the WoS and Scopus databases to identify what, when, who, where and how virtual teams in universities have been researched. The PRISMA method was used to guide the data collection process. Forty-seven articles were identified as relevant for analysis. Despite the significant development of academic research on virtual teams since the end of the last century, the necessary attention has still not been given to the specific case of virtual teams in universities. Most of the research has been conducted in the United States; however, previous research reveals that cultural aspects are relevant variables in the performance and efficiency of virtual teams, so it is advisable to extend this type of research to other countries and cultural contexts. In addition, we can also see that most of the works identified have analysed work teams formed by students, and there are very few studies on virtual teams of researchers, despite the importance of these teams in the context of encouraging the internationalization of research networks. Moreover, the review of the content of the articles as well as the future lines of research have been organized around a life cycle model, considering three categories: inputs, operating process and outputs-results. The second category is the most developed to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, academic freedom and shared governance have stood as cornerstones of higher education in the United States, but these principles face unprecedented challenges. Recent developments point to a disturbing decline in these critical values, stirring debates on the future viability of the higher education system. This study delves into the problematic trajectory of modern higher education, spotlighting the rise of corporate practices within academic institutions, the swelling ranks of university administration, and the disproportionate weight given to student evaluations in assessing faculty. These factors have converged to push academia into an unstable transition, a liminal phase fueled by external and internal forces. This study examines the evolving landscape of academic freedom within the corporatized university model. Utilizing the concept of liminality, it explores the transitional challenges faced by academia in balancing traditional scholarly values with emerging market-driven paradigms, arguing that the corporatization of universities represents a liminal phase, wherein the identity and purpose of academic institutions are in flux, significantly impacting the notion of academic freedom. The shift toward a consumer-oriented ethos endangers the foundational principles of higher education, risking substituting educational substance with the mere transaction of educational services. The study concludes by issuing a call to action for all stakeholders in higher education to acknowledge and confront these detrimental trends, thereby safeguarding the principles of academic freedom, shared governance, and the educational system's overall integrity and dynamism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is debate over whether Asian American students face additional barriers, relative to white students, when applying to selective colleges. Here we present the results from analyzing 685,709 applications submitted over five application cycles to 11 highly selective colleges (the "Ivy-11"). We estimate that Asian American applicants had 28% lower odds of ultimately attending an Ivy-11 school than white applicants with similar academic and extracurricular qualifications. The gap was particularly pronounced for students of South Asian descent (49% lower odds). Given the high yield rates and competitive financial aid policies of the schools we consider, the disparity in attendance rates is likely driven, at least in part, by admissions decisions. In particular, we offer evidence that this pattern stems from two factors. First, many selective colleges give preference to the children of alumni in admissions. We find that white applicants were substantially more likely to have such legacy status than Asian applicants. Second, we identify geographic disparities potentially reflective of admissions policies that disadvantage students from certain regions of the United States. We hope these results inform discussions on equity in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a global demand for construction managers, and an undergraduate degree in a construction-related field offers some of the best prospects for entry into the profession. However, despite demand, undergraduate construction education programs continue to lack racial-ethnic diversity. This longitudinal case study explores and compares 1990 through 2009 and 2010 through 2017 enrollment trends and academic success outcomes (e.g. GPA and graduation rates) among undergraduate Latino/Hispanic and racially minoritized students and their respective peers at a large construction management program in the western United States (n = 3373). Statistically significant differences in academic success outcome variables, shown in literature to indicate evidence of opportunity gaps, were observed between groups. Furthermore, it was noted that the magnitude of some of these mean differences were larger between 2010 and 2017 when compared to the mean differences between 1990 and 2009. Recommendations, future research, limitations, and interpretation of the results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]