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Online course facilitation is critical to the success of online courses. Instructors use various facilitation strategies in online courses to engage students. One hundred instructors were surveyed on their perception of helpfulness of twelve different facilitation strategies used in online courses to enhance instructor presence, instructor connection, engagement, and learning. Instructors' timely response to questions and instructors' timely feedback on assignments/projects were rated the highest in three of four constructs (instructor presence, engagement, and learning). For instructor connection, ability to contact the instructor in multiple ways was rated the highest. Interactive visual syllabi of the course were rated the lowest in all four constructs. In the open-ended comments, group projects and synchronous sessions were rated helpful. Descriptive statistics for each of the construct by gender, delivery method, and course level taught are presented. Significant differences were found between gender but analysis of variance failed to detect differences between primary delivery method or course level taught.

Higher education faculty use of current digital technologies based on their perception of importance, competence, and motivation is examined in this study. Two hundred and forty-seven faculty in the United States responded to an online survey on current digital technology use. Descriptive statistics and categorical means for the digital technologies are provided. Faculty rated the use of learning management system as the highest in terms of importance and competence. They rated social media as the lowest in terms of importance and adaptive learning in terms of competence. For motivation to integrate digital technology, faculty rated benefit to learning as the most influential factor and reappointment, promotion, and tenure as the least influential factor. Faculty characteristics such as gender, teaching level, primary teaching method, faculty rank, and teaching experience and its association with faculty beliefs of importance, competence and motivation on using digital technologies are also examined in this study.

The year 2020 brought many changes to our everyday life but also our education system. Universities needed to change their teaching practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Words like "digital media", "online teaching" and "online learning" were present in all of the discussions. The main issues here were the technical infrastructure of students and universities all over the world. However, to have good technical infrastructure does not mean that everybody is also ready to use it. Thus, the present study focused on the issue of university students' readiness for online learning. The quantitative research goal was to evaluate German university students' readiness for using digital media and online learning in their tertiary education and compare them with students from the United States. Overall, 72 students from the researchers' university in Germany and 176 students from multiple universities in the United States completed the Student Readiness of Online Learning (SROL) questionnaire. Results show substantial differences between the two groups of students, with U.S. students being more ready for online learning. The results and limitations were discussed, and practical implications and further ideas were provided.

This study explored faculty perceptions on the challenges and opportunities to engage and support digital natives, the new wave of students to include individuals who are now pursuing postsecondary education at colleges and universities across the country. The study also examined faculty perspectives on the kinds of support systems that they believe are most important to facilitate meaningful learning experiences in the classroom at a Southeastern University in the United States. Results indicate that institutions must have an enabling environment to help with greater integration and use of digital technology on campus. The data also showed there is need for strong operational support and tailored coaching to help faculty achieve desired learning outcomes in their assigned courses. Finally, the study found that a focus should be placed on creating a sense of a learning community among faculty and their peers to achieve the goal of sustained adoption and use of digital technology within a university.

Learning and Development (L&D) roles are important to organizations for improving employee's knowledge and skills. This study examined various roles and competency domains required of learning and development professionals in higher education. Ten different roles of L&D professionals were examined for 20 competency domains through a qualitative coding process. We extracted and analyzed 294 unique postings from the job board, higheredjobs.com. Results indicated that designers and directors are the most advertised L&D postings. The top five competency domains required of L&D professionals were collaboration, communication, content development, project management, and assessment and evaluation. Communication and collaboration skills were required for most of the roles. Leadership and people management were ranked highest for executives and directors. In addition, competency domains aggregated by roles are provided. Implications are provided for employees, L&D graduate programs and professionals, and researchers.

The purpose of this study was to explore award-winning instructors' insights on elements of their course design that were award-winning and the differences between expert and novice online instructors. Interviews were conducted with eight award-winning online faculty members from across the United States who had received online teaching awards from one of three professional associations. The five main areas that emerged from the data analysis were (a) authentic and relevant course materials that connect to practice, (b) the use of multimedia resources, (c) student creation of digital content individually and collaboratively, (d) students' reflection on learning, and (e) the instructor's explanation of the purpose of activities, technologies, and assessments in the online course. Additionally, award-winning faculty emphasized the importance of using data and evaluation practices and reflecting on course offerings in the development of an excellent online course. Award-wining faculty described expert online instructors as being experienced and comfortable in the online environment, using a wide range of strategies, being willing to learn, using data and analytics, and engaging in continuous improvement. The findings add to the literature on best practices and what constitutes excellence in online courses.

Quality Matters (QM) is one of the most widely adopted sets of standards for best practices in online courses to promote student learning. In this study, we examined student perceptions of the impact of QM-certified courses on students' learning and engagement. Fifty graduate students enrolled in online courses completed a survey developed based on the QM rubric items. The QM framework includes 43 individual standards clustered into eight general categories. Among the eight categories, students rated Course Activities and Learner Interaction to have the highest impact on both student learning and engagement. The exploratory factor analysis revealed that 12 factors explained 88.89% of the variance of the impact on learning, and eight factors explained 85.72% of the variance of the impact on engagement. Clear expectations loaded as the highest factor for both learning (eigenvalue = 12.85) and engagement (eigenvalue = 21.58). These results will help instructional designers and online instructors understand the impact of individual QM design standards from students' point of view to design online courses that effectively contribute to their learning and engagement.

Faculty readiness to teach online is a state of faculty preparedness for online teaching. In this study, it is measured by faculty attitudes about the importance of online teaching competencies and faculty's perceptions of their ability to confidently teach online. Validity and reliability of faculty responses to an online instrument and factors related to faculty perception are examined. Descriptive statistics and item-level means for the competencies are provided. For course design, course communication, and technical competencies, faculty rated the perception of importance higher than they rated their ability in these areas, whereas for time management their perception of their ability was higher than their attitude about its importance. MANOVA showed significant differences in gender, years of teaching online, and delivery method for faculty perceptions of importance of online teaching competencies. Significant differences were also noted in years of teaching online and delivery method with respect to ability to teach online.

The explosive growth of online learning in institutions of higher education has created a dire need for guidelines that instruct new and continuing online instructors about how best to teach in online spaces. The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify the roles of the online instructor and categorize critical competencies for online teaching based on a review of research and the perspectives of award-winning online faculty members. We interviewed eight award-winning online faculty members from across the United States. Based on interviews, it was found that online instructors assume five different roles: Facilitator, Course Designer, Content Manager, Subject Matter Expert, and Mentor. Common tasks of an online instructor course fell into two areas: Course Design or Teaching. This research has clear implications, not only for the literature research base, but for our institutions as well, as we continue to offer increasing numbers of effective online courses and programs to our students.

With the increase in the number of online courses being offered, it is important for faculty to be prepared to teach online. In this study, we examine US and German faculty perceptions on their preparedness to teach online based on the perception of importance of teaching online competencies and their efficacy to teach online. We also examine factors (gender, age, country located, academic discipline, academic rank, method of teaching, years of teaching, years of teaching online and level taught) that are related to US and German faculty perception of the importance and efficacy of online teaching. Overall, the US faculty rated the competencies higher compared to the German faculty both in perception of importance and self-efficacy. Significant differences in the perception of the importance of competencies were noted based on gender, training, level taught, rank, and age. For self-efficacy, there were significant differences between the faculty in teaching format (synchronous, asynchronous or hybrid format), years of teaching online, and age. This study has implications for instructors who teach online, for instructional designers who offer professional development for online teaching and for administrators who support online learning at the universities.

Current research surrounding online computer science education emphasizes the need for high-quality professional development opportunities. However, there is a gap in research in the inclusion of online computer science educators to identify needs and strategies that make the online computer science courses effective. Through a Research-to-Practice Partnership (RPP), this paper examines the instructional strategies and recommendations from online Computer Science teachers. This study seeks to better understand: (1) What design, facilitation, and assessment strategies do teachers use to teach programming online?; and (2) What recommendations do teachers have for those interested in teaching programming online? The feedback teachers provided during the study assisted in identifying the current needs in online AP Computer Science. The participants suggested additional ways the RPP could support teachers in strengthening their practice, which has assisted in the production of high-quality professional development to support novice teachers entering the field of Computer Science.

Satisfaction is a critical aspect of student success in online education. In this systematic review, we examine 98 articles which studied various aspects of online learner satisfaction. We specifically analyzed publication patterns, context, research methodology, research instruments, and research themes and factors pertaining to online learner satisfaction research. Among these 98 studies, the journal Internet and Higher Education published the highest number of articles (n = 8), and the majority of studies were conducted in the United States (n = 37). Thirty five percent of the studies were conducted with undergraduate students. The majority of the studies (89%) was quantitative, 68% were descriptive, and 94% used surveys. Learner characteristics was the most examined theme, followed by engagement and course delivery. Program quality, assessment, and learner support were some of the themes that were least studied. In 46 studies researchers adopted or modified existing items or instruments to measure student satisfaction. The framework benefits both online learning practitioners and researchers.

Children interact with digital devices for learning and entertainment at an early age. This study examines elementary educators' perceptions of student digital safety based on their interactions with others using technology in the classroom. Through a qualitative interview study, we analyzed data collected from ten elementary educators, including classroom teachers, media specialists, and instructional technology facilitators. Educators shared that their students interact with one another using technology for a variety of social and learning purposes in the classroom. Additionally, teachers described negative interactions with technology they have observed in their classrooms with elementary students, including incidents of cyberbullying and access to inappropriate content online. Findings from this study support the design of instructional materials for elementary student digital safety and have implications for teachers, parents, students, and administrators.

Graduate online learners have specific needs and challenges highlighted in the research on graduate online education. This systematic review examined 271 studies on broader research themes on graduate online education. Publication trends by year and journal outlets were analyzed. Descriptive statistics were tabulated for research context, participants, discipline, methods, and research themes. Among the studies published on graduate online education in this review, 59% were published in the United States, with 32% studied at the master's level and 59% in the education discipline. About 39% of the studies used quantitative methods, while 37% used qualitative methods. Online engagement was the most studied research theme (24%), followed by learner characteristics (13.7%) in graduate online education. Very few studies (5.2%) focused on the organizational level. Implications for online graduate learners, instructors, program directors, administrators, and future research recommendations are provided.

Online learning has increased in prominence across all levels of education, despite reported learner engagement being lower online than during in-person learning. Most learner engagement research and frameworks have focused on in-person learning environments but new frameworks and strategies for online learner engagement are emerging. In this article, we integrate scholarship from educational technology with scholarship from educational psychology and the learning sciences to argue for a reconceptualization of online learner engagement that considers both critical dimensions of learner engagement and the environmental affordances that influence them. We review literature on cognitive, affective, and behavioral engagement, translating it to online contexts. We introduce five research themes and accompanying frameworks from online learning research that have shaped understanding of learner engagement in online learning environments (i.e., engagement through communication, interaction, presence, collaboration, and community). With this new perspective that synthesizes the dimensions of learner engagement and online environmental affordances, we expand online learner engagement scholarship. Finally, leveraging this reconceptualization, we share an exemplar framework and strategies for supporting online learner engagement followed by recommendations for future research and practice.

As online learning has been constantly increasing in higher education institutions for the past two decades, it is important to advocate for all students to have equal access to a high-quality education. Therefore, an important aspect of online learning in higher education is the need for accessibility for all students with disability of any kind. As such, this systematic review analyzed 95 existing research studies from the past two decades, focusing on the use of different accessible strategies for design, facilitation, and assessment in online learning. Four research themes including, accessibility standards, assistive technology, Universal Design for Learning, and need for training and development on online accessibility emerged from the systematic review. The findings from this systematic literature review include implications for higher education institutions, so they can further support students with disabilities in an online setting.

This systematic review of research on online student privacy in higher education used a strategic search process to synthesize research on online student privacy based on publications trends, research methods, online spaces studied and the focus of the research. A total of 41 articles were analyzed to explore the existing literature on the topic. Most of the articles utilized undergraduate students as research subjects, and a majority focused on social media as the site of online privacy interest. Few studies considered the impact of faculty on student privacy in online spaces or included online collaboration tools as an area of privacy concern for students. The most common focus of research found among the articles was online privacy behavior. This theme is closely related to the theme of privacy paradox, which was analyzed in previous related systematic reviews. The results of this systematic review have implications for future research in online instruction and student privacy.

Digital citizenship refers to exhibiting responsible digital habits to function in a digital world. The purpose of this mixed methods study is to examine K-12 educators' experiences based on a digital citizenship graduate-level course that they participated in for professional development. Forty-five educators participated in this course. In addition to the knowledge and attitudinal data collected from assessment and survey, ten educators also participated in follow-up interviews at the end of the course. Results indicated that educators' digital citizenship knowledge increased significantly over the course period. Qualitative data indicated educators could transfer the course content to their school environments and enrolled in the course due to personal, student-related, curriculum-related, and school-related reasons. Needs and challenges regarding digital citizenship were also identified.

Student engagement increases student satisfaction, enhances student motivation to learn, reduces the sense of isolation, and improves student performance in online courses. This survey-based research study examines student perception on various engagement strategies used in online courses based on Moore's interaction framework. One hundred and fifty-five students completed a 38-item survey on learner-to-learner, learner-to-instructor, and learner-to-content engagement strategies. Learner-to-instructor engagement strategies seemed to be most valued among the three categories. Icebreaker/introduction discussions and working collaboratively using online communication tools were rated the most beneficial engagement strategies in the learner-to-learner category, whereas sending regular announcements or email reminders and providing grading rubrics for all assignments were rated most beneficial in learner-to-instructor category. In the learner-content category, students mentioned working on real-world projects and having discussions with structured or guiding questions were the most beneficial. This study also analyzed the effect of age, gender, and years of online learning experience differences on students' perception of engagement strategies. The results of the study have implications for online instructors, instructional designers, and administrators who wish to enhance engagement in the online courses.

The purpose of this study is to examine core professional competencies for instructional designers through a job announcement analysis involving both qualitative and quantitative produces used on a qualitative data source. Using a conceptual framework as a guide, we extracted and examined a total of N = 1030 unique job announcements obtained from September to October 2019 from three popular job search databases: Glassdoor.com, Indeed.com and Monster.com. Using a systematic content analysis coding procedure, we coded the absence or presence of N = 185 competencies organized into knowledge, skill and ability statements (80 knowledge statements, 43 skill statements and 62 ability statements). These data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis models for dichotomously scored data, resulting in meaningful factors that are representative of these data. Our results highlight critical competencies for professional instructional designers in each domain, including "soft skills," "the ability to work with diverse stakeholders" and more technical competencies like "knowledge" of "video and audio authoring." The study provides a current snapshot of the knowledge, skills and abilities of instructional designers across settings. We provide a comprehensive discussion of our limitations, findings related to similar works, implications and suggestions for future research.

Faculty members at Institutions of Higher Education have access to more technology than ever before and are teaching college and university students who use technology constantly in their personal lives. However, barriers still exist that limit how technology can enhance teaching at colleges and universities. This study examined the perspectives of faculty members, administrators, and technology support staff to examine the barriers and desired supports related to faculty members' use of technology in their teaching. Findings indicated that the primary barriers were the amount of time needed to learn technologies and determine how to teach with them as well as the tension between focusing on teaching and other job responsibilities, including research. Desired supports included one-on-one, just-in-time support that was efficient and personalized to meet the needs of faculty members.

Though some reviews of subtopics of digital citizenship have been conducted, there is still a need for more research to systematically examine the corpus of literature on digital citizenship. To address this need, the purpose of this study is to analyze and describe the body of research on digital citizenship that has been conducted to date. The literature reviewed herein thus spans 2004 (the earliest study we could locate) to 2019. Through analyzing 78 articles on the topic, this article presents findings on trends, contexts, outcomes, and frameworks.

Children are exposed to digital devices at an early age. This study examines parents' perception of student digital safety on technology use, time spent, parent concerns and knowledge on various digital safety topics. Through a survey-based study, we analyzed data collected from 113 parents. Parents mentioned that their kids use Internet via tablets and laptops primarily to watch videos, play games, and for schoolwork. Parents were knowledgeable about apps and gaps their children used for education and entertainment. Regarding time limits and restricting access, 40% of parents let their kids online for 1-2 hours in a day and 47% of parents set time limits. Parents are concerned all the time about their child's digital safety with the biggest concern being their kids being exposed to sexual content and them talking to strangers. Parents perceive themselves to be knowledgeable on most of the digital safety topics discussed in this study. Parents recommend to ensure age restrictions and identity verification when using various websites and games. This study has implications for parents of elementary school children.

With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, teacher colleges across the country suddenly shifted to online. In many cases, faculty, wary of shortchanging students of a meaningful learning experience, leveraged synchronous meetings as a way of compensating for the abrupt removal of face-to-face (F2F) interactions. This mixed-methods self-study explored advanced licensure candidates' perceptions of developing a Community of Inquiry (COI) across three sections of a Spring 2020 online course taught by the same instructor. This course was fashioned as a literature circle about immigrant communities and K-12 schools. In one section, five one-hour synchronous meetings punctuated the shared readings of five book-length ethnographies. The other two sections remained completely asynchronous. Sixty-nine students across the three courses were electronically surveyed at the close of the semester. Fifteen students were subsequently interviewed as an additional layer of data collection. Survey analysis indicated that monthly synchronous meetings did not significantly impact students' perceptions of COI development. Follow-up interviews provided further insights into methods that students perceived as essential for advancing teaching, cognitive, and social presences. We conclude with broad and specific recommendations for better practices and future research for COI in graduate teacher education online coursework in and beyond COVID-19.

Course design influences online student performance and engagement. A total of 222 instructors and instructional designers responded to Martin et al.'s Online Course Design Elements instrument to examine the frequency of use of design elements. Among the five factors in the instrument, the interaction and communication subscale had the lowest mean score in comparison to overview, content presentation, assessment and evaluation, and learner support. Both groups rated instructor contact information, chunked content, and assessment alignment with objectives highly. Items that were rated lowly included learner self-assessments and collaborative student activities. Responses by the two groups differed significantly for three items: accommodations for students with disabilities, self-assessment options, and frequent student-student interaction. Results are discussed within the context of the literature. This study has implications for online instructors and instructional designers who design online courses, faculty developers who provide training for instructors, and administrators who build support structures for faculty and staff.

AbstractIn this systematic review on the educational digital divide, we examined 77 studies for publication trends, context, research methods, digital divide factors, dimensions and interventions using a multidimensional approach. This review identified factors such as socioeconomic status, gender, geography, age, ethnicity, parent knowledge/educational level, school type and second language influencing digital divide and found gender, geography, and socio-economic status were the most studied. Among multidimensional digital divide dimensions, utilization and access dimensions were most studied compared to cognitive and affective dimensions. Among 17 digital divide sub-dimensions examined, student use, internet access, and hardware access were the most studied. Interventions recommended in research for digital inclusion include providing technology resources; training, instruction and support for teachers, students and parents; and organizational practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on online teaching and learning has increased however there is still a need for research to focus on inclusion, diversity, equity and access in online teaching and learning. This qualitative case study aims to identify inclusion, diversity, equity and access strategies for design, facilitation, assessment and of online courses. In addition, it also examines the institutional support and policies that currently exist or are needed for online instruction. Twenty one instructors who taught online at a southeastern university were interviewed. Through two rounds of coding and categorizing, the research team identified several themes. For design and facilitation, the emerging IDEA themes included freedom and autonomy, diversity as a course topic, diverse perspectives, flexibility, and building relationships. For assessment and evaluation, the themes that emerged included assessment design, learner participation, soliciting student feedback, evaluation criteria, and instructor commitment. For institutional support and policies, themes that emerged included need for integrated support, and the need for policies and evaluation criteria. The findings from this study have implications for online instructors, instructional designers, administrators, students, and researchers to integrate inclusion, diversity, equity and access effectively in online courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research study was to examine the overall effect of adaptive learning systems deployed using artificial intelligence technology across a range of relevant variables (e.g., duration, student level, etc.). Following a systematic procedure, this meta-analysis examined literature from 18 academic databases and identified N = 45 independent studies utilizing AI-enabled adaptive learning. This meta-analysis examined the overall effect of AI-enabled adaptive learning systems on students' cognitive learning outcomes when compared with non-adaptive learning interventions and found that they have a medium to large positive effect size (g = 0.70). The effect was significantly moderated by publication type, origin of study, student classification level, student discipline, duration, and research design. In addition, all three adaptive sources (cognitive, affective, and behavioral) and adaptive targets (navigation and assessment) were significant moderators. The type of AI used in the adaptive engine did not moderate the effects. Implications for both practice and research are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning analytics can be used to enhance student engagement and performance in online courses. Using learning analytics, instructors can collect and analyze data about students and improve the design and delivery of instruction to make it more meaningful for them. In this paper, the authors review different categories of online assessments and identify data sets that can be collected and analyzed for each of them. Two different data analytics and visualization tools were used: Tableau for quantitative data and Many Eyes for qualitative data. This paper has implications for instructors, instructional designers, administrators, and educational researchers who use online assessments.

One-to-One Computing initiatives are K-12 Educational environments where student and teacher have Internet-connected, wireless computing devices in the classroom and optimally at home as well (Penuel, 2006). One-to-one computing has gained popularity in several schools and school districts across the world. However, there is limited research exploring the barriers of implementing one-to-one computing, especially on a large scale. This study utilizes a qualitative approach by interviewing six senior administrators on identifying the barriers to implementing one-to-one computing. Solutions are recommended by the senior district leadership to help secure a successful and sustainable district-wide implementation of a one-to-one computing initiative. Results from this study have implications that could drive the planning of future initiatives in large school districts across the world.

This systematic review of research on adaptive learning used a strategic search process to synthesize research on adaptive learning based on publication trends, instructional context, research methodology components, research focus, adaptive strategies, and technologies. A total of 61 articles on adaptive learning were analyzed to describe the current state of research and identify gaps in the literature. Descriptive characteristics were recorded, including publication patterns, instructional context, and research methodology components. The count of adaptive learning articles published fluctuated across the decade and peaked in 2015. During this time, the largest concentration of adaptive learning articles appeared in "Computers and Education." The majority of the studies occurred in higher education in Taiwan and the United States, with the highest concentration in the computer science discipline. The research focus, adaptive strategies, and adaptive technologies used in these studies were also reviewed. The research was aligned with various instructional design phases, with more studies examining design and development, and implementation and evaluation. For examining adaptive strategies, the authors examined both adaptive sources based on learner model and adaptive targets based on content and instructional model. Learning style was the most observed learner characteristic, while adaptive feedback and adaptive navigation were the most investigated adaptive targets. This study has implications for adaptive learning designers and future researchers regarding the gaps in adaptive learning research. Future studies might focus on the increasing availability and capacities of adaptive learning as a learning technology to assist individual learning and personalized growth.

This study examined 256 faculty survey responses to determine perceptions of helpfulness of 24 time management strategies grouped into four categories defined by Berge (1995) as managerial, pedagogical, technical, and social. Findings indicate that establishing clear and specific expectations (M = 4.32) was perceived as the most helpful, followed by organizing content into modules or units (M = 4.28), which were both pedagogical time management strategies. Participants additionally responded to two open-ended items regarding the most and least helpful time management strategies. The open-ended responses were consistent with the survey findings. The relationship between faculty demographic factors and strategies showed that receiving training to teach online affected the faculty perceptions of technical time management strategies.

Digital citizenship is defined as using knowledge and skills to exhibit appropriate behavior online using digital technology. Two hundred and thirty-seven middle school students were surveyed about digital device use and perception of digital citizenship practices on cyberbullying, digital netiquette, digital footprint, digital privacy, and digital identity. Findings indicated that student use of mobile devices has increased, which has established the need for parental monitoring of the online behavior of their children. Only 55.3% of the surveyed students indicated parental monitoring of their internet/social media use, and only 37.1% of the students identified digital citizenship as being taught in their schools. Seventy-three percent of the students indicated having never been cyberbullied, and only 55.7% indicated knowing how to collect proof if they suspect cyberbullying has occurred. Fifty-seven percent of the students cited following digital netiquette when communicating or posting online, 59.7% of the students have shared their password with a friend, and 48.5% have added a friend and followed someone they did not know. Middle school students lack an understanding of digital citizenship practices, which has implications for teachers, administrators, and parents on teaching digital citizenship at school and home.