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Prunus dulcis, a fruit tree of global economic and nutritional importance, is infested by Eurytoma amygdali, the almond wasp, due to the lack of biocontrol measures. This study characterizes the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by almond trees. We identified and quantified by GC-MS 44 VOCs emitted during spring. VOCs emitted during flowering were benzaldehyde and 1,4-dimethoxybenzene, while VOCs emitted during fruit and leaf growth were mainly sesquiterpenes. Emissions increased with temperature but light did not affect short-term emissions. VOCs identified in this study could be used to develop a biocontrol method to prevent infestation.

With this study we investigated strategies to support rural-based schools in teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was conducted in 6 secondary schools in the Maune circuit, Capricorn North district of the Limpopo province, South Africa. A qualitative research approach using a case study research design was followed in the study. The population consisted of 42 school management teams (SMTs) and school governing bodies (SGBs) in the Maune circuit. Purposive sampling was used to select 18 participants. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews. A thematic approach was used to analyse the data. The social realist theory was adopted as theoretical framework using the concepts of structure, culture and agency as theoretical lenses. We found that the Department of Basic Education did not train SMTs and SGBs, which affected teaching and learning. We concluded that due to the unavailability of ICT infrastructure within the Maune circuit, teaching and learning during strict lockdown (coronavirus disease [COVID-19]) were impossible and difficult when learners were rotating attendance. We recommend a shift from a blanket approach to school support to conducting an intensive needs analysis for each school in order to provide appropriate and relevant support. A social realist approach to school support is also recommended, where structure and culture are considered critical attributes for school development. It will be good for policy makers, role players and stakeholders to work together towards a common goal and carry out their agential role in ensuring that the needs of marginalised learners are met in schools.

The current study explores the TikTok identities of Thai university teachers and how those identities impact their professional identity as teachers. Five English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university teachers in Thailand voluntarily participated in semi-structured individual interviews. Findings obtained using an exploratory-descriptive qualitative research design confirmed existing findings that teachers' identities are multifaceted. However, in the context of a digital teacher's identity, teachers displayed unique identities (e.g., expressive, relational, adaptive, and progressive) that also shaped their identity as teacher-educators. Such identities impact their professional teacher's identity, allowing them to project an authentic teacher-self, become caring and approachable teachers to their students and colleagues, forge genuine connections, and implement pedagogical innovations and practices. The findings also acknowledge the profound influence of TikTok on teachers' identities and professional practices. Furthermore, this study highlights the convergence of technology and social media platforms as influential in constructing a teacher's professional identity and promoting pedagogical advances. The findings offer a significant contribution, shedding light on the potential advantages of using TikTok within the teaching and learning process.

Practitioner-focused educational doctoral programs have grown substantially in recent years. Dissertations in Practice (DiPs), which are the culminating research report and evaluation method in these programs, differ from traditional PhD dissertations in their focus on addressing a problem of practice and on connecting theories with practice. As part of our ongoing program evaluation, we reviewed DiPs from doctoral students who graduated from an online asynchronous Educational Doctoral program in Learning Design and Technologies at the University of South Carolina. Findings revealed that most students chose a pragmatic philosophical paradigm, adopted a mixed methods research design, reported an action research intervention implemented with populations in K-12 schools, used surveys and interviews as data sources, and analyzed data with descriptive/inferential statistics and thematic analysis. Implications for the program curriculum are discussed.

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is a well-established educational strategy with acknowledged benefits for student learning and employability. This paper explores and documents Intensive WIL, where students undertake short or condensed WIL experiences, ranging from 35 to 400 hours. Four case studies from different universities, designed for different purposes, using either placement or project approaches, and with different student cohorts, showcase the flexibility and adaptability of this model of WIL. Drawing on existing quality frameworks developed for WIL, a new, dedicated set of quality indicators was developed to evaluate examples of intensive WIL, as demonstrated in the case studies. This new framework places greater emphasis on the WIL experience itself, which has had little previous attention. The study confirms that given the right conditions, and used for the right purposes, Intensive WIL delivers quality experiences for students. Unique challenges of Intensive WIL include: sourcing projects with appropriate scope and complexity that are achievable and from which students will learn; ensuring students have command of previous theoretical concepts, as there may be little time to get them up to speed during Intensive WIL; ensuring all stakeholders understand their roles and responsibilities for smooth operation; and effective communication between workplace and university staff, as there is less time to recover from any difficult situations that may arise.

There has been a call to amplify the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and expand its reach by engaging with audiences outside the academy. In this paper, we share our journey in crossing disciplinary boundaries and creating a SoTL-informed infographic for public consumption. As the field of SoTL continues to evolve, infographics hold tremendous potential to communicate SoTL to various stakeholders, including educators, students, administrators, policymakers, and the public. We outline best practices in infographic development and the potential of infographics as a tool for taking SoTL public, emphasizing their visual appeal and effectiveness in conveying complex information. We conclude by discussing the implications of using infographics to advance SoTL communication. The efforts of our group serve as a valuable example of how infographics can be used to bring SoTL knowledge out of academia and into the public domain.

This paper presents a critical analysis of the multifaceted intermediary role played by ed-tech (educational technology) consulting providers in the realm of educational governance. The study draws on multidisciplinary research and uses illustrative examples from Germany to outline their impact on the integration of digital technologies in schools. By employing an analytical framework that encompasses three key perspectives--policy, pedagogy, and economics--the paper explores the complexities of consultancy between governance actors, sectors, and fields of knowledge. Considering these dimensions together, the study offers a comprehensive understanding of ed-tech consulting, shedding light on its influence on policy enactment, educational practices, and economic value chains. It underscores the challenges and tensions that consultants must navigate, while raising concerns about their potential to pre-empt pedagogical decisions and diffuse commercial interests into educational settings. As such, this paper aims to provide a conceptual foundation for investigating these ambiguities, with the goal of stimulating further research into the growing field of ed-tech consulting.

Despite attempts to diversify healthcare workplaces and education, racial and ethnic minorities (REM) remain underrepresented in these fields. This study investigated changes in high school students' health science interest following a single exposure, hands-on anatomy laboratory visit. One hundred and eighty-eight high school students participated in a single day, one-hour visit to a human anatomy laboratory on a university campus. Participants engaged in hands-on activities centered around both human and animal specimens led by university mentors. Using a modified Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics--Career Interest Survey (STEM-CIS) questionnaire, health science STEM interest was calculated before and after the visits and compared using a paired t-test ([alpha] = 0.05). A 2 × 2 ANOVA ([alpha] = 0.05) was run on pre-to-post-visit interest score differences with factors of Race (White/REM) and Gender (Male/Female) to determine if race/ethnicity and/or gender moderated the gains observed. Overall, health science STEM interest increased significantly from pre- to post-visit (p < 0.001), and these gains were greater in REM students (p < 0.05) but did not differ as a function of gender. These findings indicate that a single visit to an anatomy laboratory with hands-on activities can be used as a tool to engage high school aged students in STEM and may be particularly beneficial for racial/ethnic minority students, potentially influencing health science STEM interest.

Indirect indices for faking detection in questionnaires make use of a respondent's deviant or unlikely response pattern over the course of the questionnaire to identify them as a faker. Compared with established direct faking indices (i.e., lying and social desirability scales), indirect indices have at least two advantages: First, they cannot be detected by the test taker. Second, their usage does not require changes to the questionnaire. In the last decades, several such indirect indices have been proposed. However, at present, the researcher's choice between different indirect faking detection indices is guided by relatively little information, especially if conceptually different indices are to be used together. Thus, we examined and compared how well indices of a representative selection of 12 conceptionally different indirect indices perform and how well they perform individually and jointly compared with an established direct faking measure or validity scale. We found that, first, the score on the agreement factor of the Likert-type item response process tree model, the proportion of desirable scale endpoint responses, and the covariance index were the best-performing indirect indices. Second, using indirect indices in combination resulted in comparable and in some cases even better detection rates than when using direct faking measures. Third, some effective indirect indices were only minimally correlated with substantive scales and could therefore be used to partial faking variance from response sets without losing substance. We, therefore, encourage researchers to use indirect indices instead of direct faking measures when they aim to detect faking in their data.

This paper proposes and describes a context- and subject-specific professional digital competence (PDC) framework for beginning English language teachers in Hong Kong. Taking a localised approach, the framework was developed through a four-stage data collection process, (1) Literature review of empirical studies conducted in Hong Kong of English language teachers' technology use, (2) Review of local government curriculum documents; (3) An online survey of English language teachers' technology use (n = 83); (4) follow-up individual interviews (n = 22). The study revealed that the local subject-specific PDC of teachers includes five aspects; Technological proficiency; Pedagogical compatibility; Preparing students for the digital world; Risk, well-being and ethical awareness and Professional work. Each aspect includes ability statements. The framework can be used to evaluate existing teacher education programmes, support the development of pre-service English-language teachers and facilitate self-, peer- and teacher assessment. The elements of PDC can be converted into programme- and course-level learning outcomes or incorporated into assessment rubrics. In addition, the methods used to develop the framework can be used by scholars in other contexts and subject areas to develop localised subject-specific PDC frameworks.

High-resolution displays on mobile devices, accurate motion sensors, and efficient mobile processors have taken virtual reality (VR), essentially employed in laboratory, to everyday environments, including homes, workplaces, and classrooms. Regarding programming education, it has been investigated in conjunction with various educational strategies, such as block-based programming (BBP), metaphors, and storytelling. However, studies that adopt VR predominantly employ high-end head-mounted displays (HMDs) and powerful computers to deliver interactive and immersive learning experiences. Conversely, investigations involving mobile platforms and low-cost HMDs often lack user interactivity. Towards filling that gap, this study introduces SSPOT-VR (Space Station for Programming Training in Virtual Reality), a cost-effective solution tailored for children and teenagers that integrates interactive methods for the teaching and learning of programming concepts and the simulated experience of an immersive digitally created world. Three surveys, namely S[subscript 1], S[subscript 2] and S[subscript 3], involving SSPOT-VR and K-12 students were conducted. S[subscript 1] and S[subscript 2] focused on user acceptance (n[subscript 1] = 124 and n[subscript 2] = 16 ) and S[subscript 3] centered on knowledge retention (n[subscript 3] = 31 ). The results indicate students are inclined to accept SSPOT-VR as a valuable educational tool, since it effectively facilitates the retention of programming knowledge through its engaging and interactive learning experiences. By choosing more cost-effective equipment, this research supports the existing body of knowledge while also providing a detailed description of how an effective solution is designed, developed, and used. The approach enhances both affordability and potential applications of immersive VR in programming education.

We report on a study bearing implications for ethical learning in schoolchildren during social interaction. The study was conducted as part of a project aimed at promoting ethical learning of socially-oriented values within the context of dialogic education. 172 fourth graders from 7 classes participated in an 8-session series designed to foster empathy, inclusion, and tolerance. Two of these sessions (3 and 8) were pre-selected for analysis. We investigated (1) whether students' discussion of ethical issues and the ethical aspects of their actual in-class interaction with each other can be reliably measured, and (2) what relation holds between students' ethical thinking during classroom discussions and the ethical aspects of their behavior. We thus developed an analytical framework comprising two tools for appraising ethical thinking and behavior in in-class interaction: dialogue on ethics (DoE) and ethics of dialogue (EoD). This framework was applied to the dialogues taken from the two sessions. The DoE and EoD tools proved reliable, as inter-rater agreement was substantial. Moreover, the relation between children's DoE and their EoD was positive where the topic posed for discussion presented a dilemma and students' interaction proceeded under moderate teacher guidance. In contrast, it was negative when the discussion was conceptual, and the teacher was dominant. We conclude that (1) DoE/EoD is a suitable framework for studying children's ethical learning and development in social interaction, and (2) ethical learning, in its epistemological and behavioral dimensions, can be boosted or inhibited in a context of dialogic education, depending on design principles.

A multitude of educational programs attempt to facilitate young people's engagement with ideas and practices of active citizenship. For young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or Indigenous people in Australia, such interventions are often subject to complex experiences of senses of belonging and non-belonging. This paper responds to calls from researchers to develop better understandings of young Indigenous people's own senses and practices of belonging and to better understand the ways in which these perspectives and practices are spatially influenced at the level of local communities, 'country' and cultural groupings, and within larger state, national or transnational settings. Their testimonies illustrate the tensions that young Indigenous people must navigate in a settler colony that has never truly recognised Indigenous sovereignty but show that sovereignty remains intact. Focus groups were conducted with 58 young Indigenous people in Melbourne and regional Victoria who were participating in an Indigenous youth leadership program designed to foster formal and informal active citizenship practices, and to nurture a strong, affirming sense of Indigenous identity. The testimonies of these participants provide valuable insights into educational sites as spaces in which young people experience a spectrum of weak to strong senses of belonging. They also provide insights into the possibilities of engaging the challenges faced by many young Indigenous people in educational settings, challenges that include race discordance and exclusion, deficit discourses and gaps and distances in educational practice. They highlight the need to recognise the aspirations of young Indigenous people and the capacities of colonial education systems to meet them, and the imperative to celebrate young Indigenous identities in meaningful, non-tokenistic ways.

Although executive functions (EFs) have been identified as a cornerstone of cognitive development, knowledge of this fundamental ability in children is based primarily on research with North American and Western European samples of middle to high socioeconomic status (SES). In this article, we highlight advances in research on developmental EFs from Latin American regions, an understudied area that provides a unique context important to understanding EFs. Our narrative review suggests the potential for both universality (e.g., increasing cohesion and longitudinal stability among EFs' task performance, general positive associations with age, and other social and cognitive abilities) and cultural specificity in EF development (i.e., contributions of SES, educational environments, parenting styles, and cultural values). It is important to consider the development of EFs outside of typically examined samples--and specifically within Latin American countries--to understand more thoroughly these abilities and to generate interventions that consider cultural context.

Against the background of expanding parental choices and declining global birth rates, schools are experiencing rising competition regarding student enrolment. Schools have responded by strategically presenting information about their students' academic achievement and whole-person development orientation in the hope of attracting parents' interest. However, few studies have investigated the impact of these factors on student enrollment, particularly in the context of diverse school types and educational orientations. Accordingly, this study utilized data from 327 secondary schools in Hong Kong to examine the effects of academic achievement orientation and whole-person development orientation on student intake. Using hierarchical regression analysis, we found a positive association between high whole-person development orientation and student intake in aided schools with a strong academic development orientation. The result implies parents are increasingly concerned about their children's academic achievement and whole-person development at school. The study contributes to a broader understanding of the factors influencing parental choice in high-performing education systems, providing valuable insights for policymakers and educators seeking to improve educational offerings, enhance school transparency, and be better aligned with parental expectations.

Perusall, a collaborative reading tool, was introduced in an advanced reading and writing skills course in Hong Kong to increase engagement with texts and encourage critical discussion during the COVID-19 face-to-face class suspension. Students were asked to use the Perusall platform to complete pre-class readings, highlight and annotate text and critically discuss and answer questions. In this innovation in practice article, we describe why we adopted Perusall and the pedagogical implications of doing so. We aim to assist L2 teachers in encouraging active reading and critical discussion to enhance motivation in language learners.

This qualitative research study aims to examine the potential of the commercially available serious game, Spiritfarer. The study focuses on the game's unique approach to serious themes and its ability to facilitate discussions about grief. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze lived experience descriptions from 54 participants. Findings indicate that Spiritfarer can impact gamers' outlook, knowledge, and behaviors, particularly related to grief, empathy, and loss management. The game achieves this through effective game design principles that generate emotional reactions and establish a connection between the narrative, characters, and players.

This systematic review explores the emerging themes in the design and implementation of student-facing learning analytics dashboards in higher education. Learning Analytics has long been criticised for focusing too much on the analytics, and not enough on the learning. The review is then guided by an interest in whether these dashboards are still primarily analytics-driven or if they have become pedagogically informed over time. By mapping the identified themes of technological maturity, informing frameworks, affordances, data sources, and analytical levels over publications per year, the review identifies an emerging trajectory towards student-focused dashboards. These dashboards are informed by theory-oriented frameworks, designed to incorporate affordances that supporting student learning, and realised through integration of more than just activity data from learning management systems -- allowing the dashboards to better support students' learnings processes. Based on this emerging trajectory, the review provides a series of design recommendations for student-focused dashboards that are connected to learning sciences as well as analytics.

This study examined the links between COVID-19 psychosocial stressors, ethnic discrimination, COVID-19 fears, and their combined effects on mental health outcomes among U.S.-based Latinx college students (N = 148; M[subscript age] = 20.68, SD = 2.53). Findings showed that sleep and eating disturbances, emotional distress, and work disruptions were linked with fear of contamination, fear of social distancing, and fear of pandemic impact. Further, ethnic discrimination was found to uniquely contribute to COVID-19 fears above and beyond COVID-19 psychosocial stressors. Finally, COVID-19 emotional distress and COVID fear of pandemic impact were significantly linked to anxiety and depression symptomatology. Recommendations for practice and future research are provided.

The ability of children to ask curiosity-driven questions is an important skill that helps improve their learning. For this reason, previous research has explored designing specific exercises to train this skill. Several of these studies relied on providing semantic and linguistic cues to train them to ask more of such questions (also called "divergent questions"). But despite showing pedagogical efficiency, this method is still limited as it relies on generating the said cues by hand, which can be a very long and costly process. In this context, we propose to leverage advances in the natural language processing field (NLP) and investigate the efficiency of using a large language model (LLM) for automating the production of key parts of pedagogical content within a curious question-asking (QA) training. We study generating the said content using the "prompt-based" method that consists of explaining the task to the LLM in natural text. We evaluate the output using human experts annotations and comparisons with hand-generated content. Results suggested indeed the relevance and usefulness of this content. We then conduct a field study in primary school (75 children aged 9-10), where we evaluate children's QA performance when having this training. We compare 3 types of content: (1) hand-generated content that proposes "closed" cues leading to predefined questions; (2) GPT-3-generated content that proposes the same type of cues; (3) GPT-3-generated content that proposes "open" cues leading to several possible questions. Children were assigned to either one of these groups. Based on human annotations of the questions generated, we see a similar QA performance between the two "closed" trainings (showing the scalability of the approach using GPT-3), and a better one for participants with the "open" training. These results suggest the efficiency of using LLMs to support children in generating more curious questions, using a natural language prompting approach that affords usability by teachers and other users not specialists of AI techniques. Furthermore, results also show that open-ended content may be more suitable for training curious question-asking skills.

Science teachers have been urged to use emerging technologies, such as robots, in ways that empower K-12 students as active participants responsible for their learning and knowledge development within the scientific domain. And yet, little is known about whether the use of robots effectively supports students' epistemic agency in science learning. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate to what extent elementary preservice teachers use educational robots in ways that promote epistemic agency in science lessons. Seven data sources were gathered for this study: individual reflections about lesson planning and lesson design, team reflection about teaching with robots, robotics-enhanced science lessons, posters, video-recorded presentations about designed lessons, and participant interview. A framework of epistemic practices for science inquiry was adopted to analyze the data followed by qualitative thematic analysis. Results indicate that the use of robots in science lessons promotes content assimilation rather than self-driven inquiry, robot movement rather than evidence drives science explanations, science activities with robots are situated in a social vacuum, and robot assembly and programming are underutilized in the lessons. Implications for preservice science teacher education and future research are discussed.

Background: Youth mental health has declined since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Health coaching and mindfulness-based intervention may support therapeutic processes that promote resilience in the face of risk factors for adverse mental health outcomes. Building Resilience for Healthy Kids (HK) is a school-based intervention designed to support mental health through targeting these processes. Objective: In this study, we tested HK in a pilot randomized controlled trial. Specifically, we examined intervention effects on the theoretically-informed therapeutic processes of emotion regulation, mindfulness, self-efficacy, and resilience and the clinical outcomes of depression and anxiety symptoms. The trial took place between April and June 2021, offering an opportunity to assess the impact of HK in the context of COVID-19. Methods: Participants were early adolescents (N = 230), randomized to HK or assessment-only. Participants in the intervention condition received weekly one-on-one sessions with health coaches. All youth completed validated self-report measures at baseline and post-intervention. Results: Linear mixed effects models indicated that participants who received HK had a greater reduction in emotion regulation difficulties, relative to assessment-only controls (d = 0.84, large effect). Follow-up analyses revealed that youth who endorsed negative affectivity at baseline experienced more benefits than those who did not, and youth who attended more HK sessions increased in self-efficacy, in addition to improved emotion regulation. Intervention effects did not reach significance for other outcomes. Conclusions: Findings suggest that HK may support youth in reducing difficulties in emotion regulation, which are precursors to the development of mental health concerns in adolescence.

Suicidal behaviour is a major socio-health problem worldwide. However, there are few empirically validated programs for universal prevention of suicidal behaviour in school settings. The aim of the present study was to design and validate the "PositivaMente" program for the prevention of suicidal behaviour in school-age adolescents aged 14-15 from the North of Spain. A quasi-experimental design was used with pre- and post-treatment evaluation with experimental and control groups and a six-month follow-up. The final sample consisted of 264 participants (M = 14.30 years, SD = 0.56; 54.5% girls), with 161 participants in the experimental group and 103 in the control group. Measuring instruments were administered to assess suicidal behaviour, emotional and behavioural difficulties, depressive symptomatology, prosocial behaviour, subjective well-being, and self-esteem. The "PositivaMente" program was designed and implemented in educational settings. A statistically significant improvement in subjective well-being was found, as well as a statistically significant reduction in emotional problems and problems with peers among female participants in the experimental group versus those in the control group at the 6-month follow-up. However, male participants did not seem to benefit from the program. The overall evaluation from the sample and satisfaction with "PositivaMente" were positive. Empirically supported actions for the prevention of suicidal behaviour need to be designed in order to make informed decisions. Future studies should implement the "PositivaMente" program with other populations and contexts, develop a brief version, and collect information on cost-effectiveness.

Critical thinking is a common and important learning outcome in college curricula. Case-based and problem-based learning can be used to assess and foster critical thinking skills. HNF 250--Contemporary Issues in Human Nutrition is a critical thinking course developed during the redesign of a nutritional sciences major program. Course assignments were designed to assess the course and nutritional sciences major learning outcomes. The nutrition and health claim assignment is scaffolded across the academic semester as three assignments: (1) bibliography assignment; (2) poster presentation; and (3) paper. Course lectures and materials have been designed to prepare students for completion of each assignment. The assignments have been modified over time based on classroom observations and student performance. In 2021, the course learning outcomes were examined by assessing several assignments including the nutrition and health claim poster and paper. Course learning outcome benchmarks using these assessments generally included 80% of students achieving an 80% for each criterion. Results revealed that students were not meeting most of these assessment benchmarks during the 2021 iteration, although benchmark data from other course assessments were more satisfactory. It is possible that the transition from a virtual to an in-person format negatively influenced student performance on these course learning outcomes. This course and the nutrition and health claim assignment example can provide a course design and learning outcome assessment framework for other higher education critical thinking courses.

Teaching green chemistry within the K-12 classroom has a positive impact on attitudes and perceptions of chemistry in society for future scientists and professionals, resulting in safer, less hazardous chemistry experiments and demonstrations. The state of New York has taken advantage of the benefits that green chemistry provide in the classroom and is a leader in professional development for high school teachers throughout the state. Between 2011 and 2016, Beyond Benign and Siena College implemented 14 workshops across the state as part of New York's Department of Environmental Conservation goal of reducing hazardous chemicals in schools. At these workshops, 224 teachers were introduced to green chemistry principles and practices and provided resources for replacing traditional laboratory experiments with alternatives that used safer materials. Two professional development models were implemented, a one-day introductory workshop and a three-day train-the-trainer style in-depth workshop, using collaborative, hands-on, intensive, and peer-learning techniques. In response to a 2021 follow-up survey, participants shared that they continue to use skills from the professional development they received and reported sharing about green chemistry with peers, parents, and administrators. The long-term engagement of the participants indicates that successful models were implemented to provide a path to develop teacher leaders. Professional development models are presented herein for sharing best practices and approaches for training high school teachers on green chemistry, providing numerous benefits to both teachers and students in high school classrooms.

The shift from face-to-face teaching to emergency remote teaching has become the new normal due to the pandemic in 2020. However, little research has been conducted in Hong Kong to investigate pre-service teachers' perceptions of the immediate adoption and delivery of online face-to-face teaching. In response to this call, the present research conducted a questionnaire survey with 48 pre-service teachers at a Hong Kong university to examine their perceptions of Zoom as a viable alternative to the suspended traditional face-to-face delivery mode of instruction. It also discussed key factors that lead to better online learning outcomes. The results showed that the participants had overall positive perceptions of Zoom-supported synchronous online education. The Zoom feature that most students considered useful was screen sharing on computers. Zoom-supported synchronous online learning benefited students by helping them to attend class meetings remotely, study course materials and content, communicate and collaborate with their instructors and classmates, and develop a sense of community and social presence. Four main factors may influence learners' perceptions of synchronous online learning: the quality of online communication and collaboration, learning efficiency, learner autonomy and the usability of technology.