Search

The University of Southern Queensland's online study environment continues to grow with over 16,000 students studying online. Pre-Covid-19, online enrolments typically represent around 67% of all students studying at USQ. This article usefully analyses quantitative data in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot of an online peer-assisted learning program for first-year Law students. The article asks whether a customised online Meet-Up program can objectively enhance student engagement and academic performance in a first-year law course. Results from the pilot were positive and are a productive contribution to the literature on online peer-assisted learning.

Through the lens of the Community of Inquiry education experience (Vaughan & Garrison, 2006), this practice report provides guidance and examples for online instructors to engage students within discussion boards in the digital realm. Five elements will be discussed: embedding multi-media, affiliative humour and storytelling, Socratic questioning, "reframes" and, summarising and "weaving". Based on the lived experience of one eLearning Advisor, or online instructor/e-moderator, at Swinburne Online, this practice report offers useful strategies to build engaging, sustainable learning conversations within discussion forums that are abundant with collaborative inquiry, dialogue and sharing of personal learning experiences for online students in higher education.

The current work reports the results of students' social presence in web-based discussions for their conceptual learning of organic chemistry. The results in this study were collected from the examined students-students, students-instructor, and students-learning materials interactions via the designed web-based discussion. We created an online forum known as "Universal Chemistry Network" to enhance communication among students and teachers in organic chemistry classes. The population comprises four hundred thirty-two (432) 11th-grade students studying chemistry in these combinations. However, a sample of 138 chemistry students was purposively selected from 36 secondary schools located in Kicukiro District in Rwanda. A questionnaire composed of multiple-choice and open-ended questions and a chemistry achievement test were used to collect data. The obtained data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and interpretive analysis. The results revealed that the use of web-based discussion is a potentially effective teaching method for enhancing student-student and student-teacher interactions in organic chemistry classes. Students appreciated this teaching and learning method as it helped them to search for additional information related to the subject taught and exchange ideas, knowledge, and experiences. The web-based discussion was also found to provide the students with the potential confidence and motivation to express easily their opinions. The repeated measures ANOVA showed that web-based discussion increases students' academic performance in organic chemistry (p < 0.001, [eta]=0.406). However, there is no statistically significant difference in the mean score between males and females (p > 0.05, [eta]=0.27). The challenges faced by students during web-based discussions while learning organic chemistry were also examined.

The development of massive open online courses (MOOCs) has proceeded through three generations, and in all three, online discussions have been considered a critical component. Although discussions in MOOCs have the potential to promote learning, instructors have faced challenges facilitating learners' knowledge inquiry, construction, and management through social interaction. In addition, understanding various aspects of learning calls for more mixed-method studies to provide both quantitative, generalized analysis and qualitative, detailed descriptions of learning. This study fills these practice and research gaps. We designed a Chinese MOOC with the support of a pedagogical strategy, a learning analytic tool, and a social learning environment in order to foster learner engagement in discussions. Mixed methods were used to explore learners' discussion patterns, perceptions, and preferences. Results indicated that learners demonstrated varied patterns, perceptions, and preferences, which implies a complex learning process due to the interplay of multiple factors. Based on the results, this research provided theoretical, pedagogical, and analytical implications for MOOC design, practice, and research.

With online learning becoming a more viable option for teachers to develop their expertise, our report shares one such effort focused on improving the teaching of statistics. We share design principles and learning opportunities in an online course developed specifically to serve as a widescale online professional development opportunity for educators, thus deemed as a massive open online course for educators (MOOC-Ed). In this report we focus on a subset of 412 participants who identified themselves as classroom teachers. We use multiple data sources, quantitative and qualitative, to characterize changes in teachers' beliefs and perspectives about statistics and identify triggers in the course that appear to influence teachers' sense making about issues related to teaching statistics. Implications about specific course experiences that served as triggers for critical reflection and change are discussed.

Online discussion forums are highly valued by instructors due to their affordance for understanding class activities and learning. However, a discussion forum with a great number of posts requires a large amount of time to view, and help requests are easily overlooked. Various machine-learning--based tools have been developed to help instructors monitor or identify posts that require immediate responses. However, the black-box nature of deep learning cannot explain why and how decisions are achieved, raising trust and reliability issues. To address the gap, this work developed an explainable text classifier framework based on a model originally designed for legal services. We used the Stanford MOOCPost dataset to identify posts of confusion. Our results showed that the framework can not only identify discussion forum posts with confusion of different levels, but also provide explanation in terms of words from the identified posts.

Previous research applied an affordance approach to the literature in instruction and pedagogy. Because of the continued trend in online instruction and course management, there exists a need to study the impact of technological affordances and communication in learning management systems. The current study replicates and extends research investigating the responses of undergraduate students to discussion comments on a course management page, in which the presence or absence of peer identity and the helper heuristic of fellow students were manipulated. Results suggest that the act of being helpful (through the helper heuristic) positively impacted source credibility, perceptions of an assignment-related message, and computer-mediated competence. Findings for student rapport and task attraction did not replicate. Furthermore, identity cues continue to be unrelated to the variables of interest. Findings are discussed in terms of both theoretical and instructional relevance.

This quasi-experimental study compares text-centered dialogs between two groups of intermediate second language (L2) French learners: traditional face-to-face (FTF) discussion groups; and groups who annotated and discussed texts through the digital social annotated reading (DSAR) platform, "Hypothes.is." All participants read the same articles, with discussions guided by the same reading questions. Participants' dialogs in both conditions were coded based on types of discursive moves, then analyzed through a framework of social, textual, and linguistic affordances. Findings revealed that social affordances emerged significantly more frequently than other affordances among FTF groups while textual affordances emerged significantly more frequently than other affordances among DSAR groups. Findings support the benefits of DSAR tools for more anchored discussions over traditional FTF classroom discussions, with the caution that DSAR tools alone do not necessarily promote deep discussion of foreign language texts. Beyond pedagogical implications, this study suggests an expansion of theoretical frameworks of affordances in future DSAR research.

Online courses have become widespread in higher education. Yet, despite their prevalence, they may not suit all learners. Personality influences learner satisfaction and therefore affects learning experience. This study explores the relation between personality traits (using Costa & McCare's Big-Five model) and student satisfaction with various of learning activities offered in online courses, called Techno-Pedagogical Learning Solutions (TPLS). The tested TPLS were discussion groups, digital books, online assignments, surveys/polls and media. Questionnaires were used to measure personality types and satisfaction of 108 university students enrolled in a credited online academic course. Significant correlations were found between all five personality traits and satisfaction with several TPLS. Cluster analysis method was applied to identify learners with similar personality traits. Four groups were formed and group's satisfaction score was measured. It was found that learners assigned to the "neurotic" group exhibited low satisfaction with all TPLS, contrary to learners assigned to the "non-neurotic" group. The findings clearly indicate that personality plays a significant role in online learner satisfaction. Thus, personality traits should be considered when designing learning activities for online courses. Such personality-based personalization may ensure that no learner is left behind, regardless of his/her attitude toward online learning.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic saw increased loneliness and social isolation among older adults as activities and visitor opportunities for residential communities closed down. Health professional students have limited access to geriatric education in coursework and clinical experiences. The Recreation and Education Network for Elder Wellness (RENEW) programme was created by medical students at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, aiming to increase engagement and cross-generational communication with older adults, while also decreasing social isolation and loneliness. Method: The RENEW programme included Zoom sessions with two Houston retirement communities led by student facilitators enrolled in medical, dental, and undergraduate programmes on a variety of topics of interest for the residents. Pre- and post-surveys were sent to participants and requested non-identifying biographical data and included the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale. Results: Facilitators and participants expressed high satisfaction with the programme. Survey results on the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale showed that participants had an overall decreased loneliness score after participation in RENEW. Student facilitators reported increased exposure to care of older adults and self-reported confidence in communicating with this population. Conclusions: The RENEW model is a collaborative, bidirectional educational tool for older adults and students with possible applications following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) provide learners with high-quality learning resources, but learners drop out frequently. Learners' concerns (e.g. the topics in course content or logistics) and cognitive engagement patterns (e.g. "tentative" or "certain") are considered the essential factors affecting learners' course completions. However, it is still unclear what different learning achievement groups focus on in each cognitive engagement pattern. In this study, we adopted an unsupervised computational model, the temporal cognitive topic model (TCTM), to automatically investigate learners' cognitive engagement patterns in discussing different topics, as well as the changes under each cognitive engagement pattern over time. A data experiment of 4080 learners enrolled in a "Modern Etiquette" course revealed that the high-achievement group preferred to discuss on-task topics in an "exclusive" cognitive engagement pattern; the low-achievement group preferred to discuss off-task topics in a "tentative" pattern, including certificate acquisition and examination grades; the medium-achievement group showed less variation in different cognitive engagement patterns. Additionally, a moderation analysis showed that there was a significant moderating effect of discussion guidance, especially for instructor-led guidance, between the salient cognitive topics and learning achievements. The analytical results can help instructors to conduct (e.g. feedback and guidance) and timely intervention of cognitive knowledge construction in MOOCs.

This report presents the compilation of interaction analysis of a month long online discussion that supplemented regular FAIMER fellowship programme for health professional teachers. Online discussion forums are considered as an effective means and if conducted using appropriate protocols and activities will help learners to share and gain knowledge from each other. Research on interaction analysis stresses the need for proper protocols to evaluate online discussion for meaningful learning. For preparing this report Henri's (1992) model for interaction analysis of computer-mediated communication was used for the qualitative analysis of electronic discourse that held as part of FAIMER programme among the 2015 and 2016 FAIMER fellows. The key domains examined for reporting are electronic interaction, social cues, cognitive skills and depth of information processing and metacognitive skills and knowledge. Transcript of interaction analysis of 454 mails posted for the entire month revealed most of the interactions were linear and some are of branching type. The social cues used during this computer mediated communication gave recognition to the moderators. Around 60% of participants' information were at the surface level, 25% were at an in-depth level of information processing, and nearly 15% were of both surface and deep information processing. The metacognitive activities identified by Henri, such as planning, self-awareness, and evaluation were also witnessed in this online discussion making the discussion forum learner-centered. The outcomes of this maiden attempt on the interaction analysis supports the assumption of online discussion forums as an important component of online courses, and the need for usable protocols for analyzing the effectiveness of online discussions as a form of computer-mediated communication. Thus, the FAIMER online discussion forum that was created for collaborative learning on the topic "Giving Feedback" fulfils the criteria proposed in Henri's protocol for evaluating meaningful collaborative learning through online discussions. Online discussions if conducted following appropriate protocols will have greatest potential on the impact of learning and can serve as easy and effective means of capacity building of health professional educators.

Although collaboration is considered a key 21st-century skill, oftentimes it is only assessed through the outcome measures of individual learners. In this paper, we draw upon collaborative cognitive load theory (CCLT) to explain the process of collaboration in learning from the point of view of the collective, rather than an individual learner. Using CCLT we suggest a new method of measuring the process of collaboration regardless of its outcome measures. Our approach -- Collaborative Learning as a Process (CLaP) -- uses social network analysis to evaluate the balance between interactivity gains and coordination costs of learner communities. Here, we demonstrate the approach using real-world data derived from the digital tracks of two online discussion communities. We argue that our conceptual approach can enable instructors and learners to unlock the black box of collaboration in learning. It has the potential to support the development of learner skills that go beyond cognition. We conclude the paper with the results of our investigation of the value of the approach to the online module instructor.

Together with the rapid growth of blended courses implemented in higher education, instructors and researchers are keen on exploring the efficient models of blended learning (BL) to enhance students' achievement. While many BL theoretical models exist, robust empirical evidence confirming instructors' strategies and implementation is still scarce, particularly the possible differences as a function of disciplines. To address this lack of evidence, a qualitative study was conducted among 29 instructors in a large public university in Vietnam. Employing the Content-Construction-Communication framework as the guiding lens, the present study conducted semi-structured interviews to capture how instructors in hard and soft disciplines designed and implemented their blended courses. The findings revealed that instructors from hard and soft sciences shared both similarities and differences in their instructional strategies. Similar aspects included the alignment of course objectives with learning activities design and assessment, recognition of the importance of students' individual learning and collaborative learning, and responsiveness regarding students' questions. Yet, differences were observed in the design of both individual and collaborative online activities and instructors' online facilitation. Thus, the results provide a clear picture of different BL designs, which can be helpful for instructional designers and policies aimed at professional development support for successful BL implementation.

The purpose of this study was to modify the Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ) for use in varied teaching settings, including online graduate courses. The SCEQ-M was administered to 276 students enrolled in a variety of graduate-level education and counseling courses during the Spring 2016 semester. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using Maximum Likelihood identified four dimensions in the modified scale: Applied Engagement, Goal-Oriented Engagement, Self-Discipline Engagement, and Interactive Engagement. The SCEQ-M scores showed good internal consistency reliabilities ranging from 0.71 to 0.81. This study found that this instrument may be used to compare student engagement styles and suggests that instructors should seek to improve student engagement to better match engagement style to type of course. Other findings and implications for future research are also discussed.

Undergraduate students living on-campus and taking online and face-to-face courses concurrently, are the predominant consumer of online classes (Seaman et al., 2018). However, they have lower rates of persistence for online courses as compared to face-to-face courses (Hart, 2012; Xu & Jaggars, 2011). Part of the reason could be due to the mismatch between the types of interactions they prefer and what is being provided in online courses. The purpose of this literature review is to investigate the use of asynchronous and synchronous discussions as a way to address the needs of emerging online learners. Using elements of previously developed frameworks, I propose the Framework for Emerging Online Learner Persistence (FEOLP). This framework addresses the values and needs of emerging online learners through course design that has the potential to enhance social presence using student values to determine the blend of asynchronous and synchronous interactions. Given the limited research to draw from on how to design online courses, this framework and the recommendations from this article provide a starting point for the responsive design of online courses for the emerging online learner with potential application to other groups of distinct online learners. [Note: The page range (29-42) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range for this article is p29-43.]

This research explores the perceptions of facilitators in asynchronous online discussion to improve practice and student engagement in Higher Education. Traditional didactic delivery of learning content may fail the expectations of student and academic stakeholders. The pressure to teach within constrained resources presents challenges, but also provides stimulating opportunities for optimising use of educational technology. Fostering student engagement requires rethinking traditional classroom and online delivery. The study explores the challenges and benefits experienced, resulting in the identification of key themes from which implications for practice are discussed. In doing so, it broadens conceptual understandings, while offering recommendations for university teachers, administrators and leaders. The impact of facilitated online discussion boards on student engagement and participation was investigated from the experiences and perceptions of facilitators of online discussion boards in a Health Science subject at the University of Tasmania. After the semester was completed, all facilitators were invited to participate in one-to-one, semi-structured interviews. Interview questions were grouped to produce both descriptive and reflective responses about roles as a facilitator, and about preparation, training and support. Findings suggest that, with appropriately trained and prepared facilitators, online discussion can improve student engagement, enhance learning outcomes and satisfy stakeholder expectations.

The opening up of online education in the Australian tertiary sector has made higher education accessible for a wide range of students, including those living in rural and regional areas. While student numbers continue to grow as a result of this opportunity, there are increasing concerns regarding low student retention and progression rates for online students in comparison with on-campus students. Reasons for this vary, however, online students report a sense of isolation and disconnection with their studies highlighting the need for educators to utilise effective facilitation to enhance student connections to an online community. In this paper, we investigated facilitation strategies using two case studies. This illustrated how two online instructors used design-based research to evaluate the impact of facilitation strategies on instructor presence, instructor connection, engagement and learning in maths education and human biology subjects. Findings indicate that focusing on social, managerial and technical facilitation strategies resulted in an increased instructor presence and active involvement, which in turn were influential in motivating students to engage with learning online. The findings have implications for higher education providers and instructors who are tasked with engaging online students. This identifies the importance of targeted online facilitation to enhance learner-instructor and learner-content engagement.

This article gives suggestions for applying the concept of literature circles to audiovisual media rather than to literary works as a way to support learner autonomy and interaction with the target language.

This study investigated critical thinking indicators of students' postings on the asynchronous online discussion forums on the learning management system (LMS) at Arab Open University (AOU), Jordan. The models used to diagnose nineteen students' postings were Garrisons' (2001) thinking skills and Newman (1995). Results revealed that participants' postings reflected the critical thinking indicators proposed by Newman like relevance and importance, but students need to enhance skills like justification, and critical assessment. According to Garrisons' model, participants could identify, and explore problems, but they need support to evaluate the problem and integrate solutions into their existing knowledge. The findings reveal that participants acquire essential critical thinking skills, but they need to focus on higher order skills. Further research should be conducted using different courses issues to impart the critical thinking indicators that students need in higher institutions. In addition, instructors should be trained on how to formulate online tasks that stimulate high level of thinking.

The review explores the philosophical basis of the application of Rosenblatt's Reader Response Theory (RRT) to teach reading-to write of literary works in practical senses in EFL contexts across borders. Grounded in the integration of paradigm shift from text- to reader-oriented, critical pedagogy and literacy, and socio-constructivism, reader response-based teaching pedagogy places learners among the active meaning makers as members of a democratic classroom community while getting immersed in critical reading-writing (literacy) events. Moreover, this critical review highlights the possible classroom practices as framed by RRT principles that offer freedom and enjoyment in reading literary works to face the sophistication of varied modern 21st century educational web-based platforms that lead to the use of e-response journal and e-literature circles by means of e-peer-reviewing. Drawing on the current technology-enriched teaching media, RRT application is expected to benefit most EFL learners in gauging literature-based literacy development to sensitize their intercultural communication across global contexts. Moreover, recommended practical trends of RRT principles are presented in this review.

This paper reports on a study that integrated two instant messaging applications (Moya Messenger App and WhatsApp) and a myUnisa's online discussion forum (ODF), and utilised them as tools to support student learning at an open and distance e-learning university in South Africa. The participants in this study were 41 undergraduate education students enrolled for an undergraduate English Studies module. Employing a case study research design, the study utilised voluntary sampling to select its participants, and set out to answer three research questions. Data were collected through the three afore-mentioned tools. To this effect, the study made the following observations. First, both the instructor and students were able to engage in asynchronous and synchronous scaffolding using Moya Messenger App. This included engaging in features of scaffolding such as orientation, coaching, conceptual scaffolding and meta-cognitive scaffolding, largely by the instructor. Second, the instructor used Moya Messener App to engage in presence teaching, while students utilised it to engage in presence learning. Third, students utilised WhatsApp to produce short synchronous formal essays based on a compare and contrast essay writing activity. Fourth and last, students used myUnisa's ODF to produce meta-content reflective writing about the module.

This study aimed to understand the impact of an experiential learning activity in a third year undergraduate course on the theory and practice of counselling and psychotherapy at a small Canadian university campus. The experiential learning activity required students to participate in bi-weekly one-to-one discussion groups with international students participating in English as a Second Language (ESL) programs at the university. The results of two pre- and post-assessment measures demonstrated that the students' cultural competence and cultural intelligence scores improved after participating in the course. Findings may encourage more university educators to develop experiential learning activities between domestic and international students.

Video is a common tool to support teacher learning, as it provides opportunity for reflection on teaching practices. Video clubs are one professional learning experience that integrates video, providing teachers an opportunity to collaboratively discuss videos from their teaching. However, few research studies have focused on the characteristics of videos used for teacher learning. We engaged teachers in a video club over the course of an academic year and analyzed the relationships between the videos teachers discussed and the complexity of the videos. Findings indicate teachers were less likely to select videos with higher complexity for discussion; however, they commonly discussed videos that included multiple participation structures for students. Teachers also discussed videos that included teacher questioning and scaffolding, student misconceptions, and those in which student thinking initially seemed inflexible. We provide the Video Complexity Framework for teacher educators and researchers to use to describe the complexity of the videos in teacher education.

Among the many factors contributing to the historical lack of reading gains of our Black male students is the absence of texts accurately and authentically representing African American characters in today's schools. In addition, well-meaning educators are not adept in identifying and selecting these types of texts in order to provide African American male students with books that mirror their lived experiences. The purpose of this article is to provide educators with a tool to aid in the selection of potentially culturally relevant literature for their adolescent African American male students. Based on a larger study, the researcher explored what eight African American eighth grade students valued when reading group-selected texts. The findings indicate that the participants displayed strong preferences toward the character's race, personal characteristics, age, and "real world" events and experiences featured in the texts. This article privileges those voices to provide a rubric for educators to use, explore, and reflect upon as they incorporate potential culturally relevant texts into their day-to-day instruction and classroom libraries.

While technology-assisted learning has become commonplace in education, its applications are rarely examined along geopolitical and cultural perspectives that reveal certain shared and vastly distinct localized practices in evolving pedagogy and cultural dynamics. For developing countries such as Uzbekistan, collaborating virtually with a university in the U.S. may represent both a technological and socio-cultural challenge. Conducting a virtual international project, nonetheless, offers a unique chance to experience "another" culture in real time through its people, exposing reductionist perceptions of "other" cultures and humanizing that "other" through community-generated dialogue. Virtual intercultural exchanges advance intercultural communicative competency and constitute an effective format for high-impact learning practices that advance students' understanding and appreciation of diversity, equity and inclusion in traditional and online classrooms. This surveys student evaluations of a pilot Virtual International Exchange (VIE) completed between U.S. and Uzbek students in 2018, and underpins a theoretical framework for the benefits of concurring "cognitive dissonance" for the benefit of open, equitable and inclusive pedagogical models.

This article provides several strategies for using a learning management system to engage online students and to promote the development of self-regulated learning skills in a 4-week accelerated summer course.

Asynchronous online discussion boards are frequently utilized as a pedagogical tool within traditional, hybrid, and online collegiate courses. Research has found teacher candidates can be disenchanted with the monotonous structure of traditional asynchronous online discussion boards. In educator preparation, we claim to understand teacher candidates learn differently. Yet, traditional discussion boards are not effective for all teacher candidates. Faculty can find ways to differentiate by incorporating alternative asynchronous discussion board platforms. A quantitative survey was used measure 77 teacher candidates perceptions of creativity, demonstrating understanding, enhancing student voice, and usefulness toward learning. Results indicate participants prefer BookSnaps, Flipgrid, and video-response to traditional discussion boards. More specifically when evaluating for enhancing creativity, understanding, student voice, and usefulness participants preferred Flipgrid. It is important to understand the factors, which create a high-quality asynchronous discussion board experience. This research can help faculty to determine how to strengthen the asynchronous online discussion board learning experience.

Shared meaning-making across differences in today's polarized society requires a socio-political perspective toward conceptualizing and operationalizing collaborative competence. Thus, there is a pressing need for socio-political pedagogies and designs in CSCL to empower students as cultural-historical agents who can communicate and work effectively across different communities. As the initial steps of our larger efforts to conceptualize and operationalize a model of multicultural collaborative competence (MCC), we explore communication patterns associated with productive and dysfunctional shared meaning-making around difficult topics related to identity (e.g., race, gender) during intergroup dialogues in a CSCL context. We also examine how our preexisting, general model of collaborative competence (GCC) aligns with these communication patterns to explore (1) whether GCC is robust enough to capture the socio-political dynamics of difficult dialogues and (2) the ways in which we could modify it to better address the tensions between GCC and MCC goals. We collected the discussion transcripts of four three-person teams over two-time points from an undergraduate Multicultural Psychology course. We first conducted thematic and cross-case analyses to identify the communication patterns and behaviors associated with productive and dysfunctional shared meaning-making processes in the context of difficult dialogues (i.e., MCC). We then employed another set of cross-case analyses to examine the relationship between the multicultural collaborative competencies (MCC) and general collaborative competencies (GCC). We found four main communication patterns associated with MCC: (1) grounding with narratives and aims, (2) exploring differences and commonalities of narratives/perspectives, (3) critical reflection of diverse narratives/perspectives, and (4) providing emotional support to team members. We also found that although the GCC does not cover these communication patterns and associated behaviors, there were some overlaps between the sophistication of multiculturally competent communication patterns and collaboration quality as defined by the GCC.

Diversity in teams has been shown to enhance creativity and innovation, particularly in teams where all members felt a sense of belonging. Creating an inclusive environment in a lab setting that provides a sense of belonging to all is challenging. This is particularly true in a field like Biomedical Engineering/Bioengineering where diversity is multifaceted and includes people's diverse personal/cultural backgrounds and also diverse scientific backgrounds. In a research lab, there is additional diversity in training, as most labs contain trainees at different levels (undergrad, grad, postdoc, high school). To aid in creating a sense of belonging in a research lab, we have devised a novel initiative based upon open group discussions on diversity, equity, and inclusion topics. The initiative included a first presentation/discussion by the PI to set the stage for defining diversity, equity, and inclusion, and provided examples of existing DEI issues within our field, such as lack of racial diversity in awards like the NIH New Innovator Award and among conference speakers. After the initial presentation, trainee-led, bi-weekly-structured discussions were maintained. First, discussions focused broadly on any DEI related topic to enhance general knowledge on DEI issues and provide discussion comfort among the group. Second, there was a period to deepen knowledge of a specific topic (in our example, microaggressions), which was followed up with a period of discussions on potential solutions (such as how to react when observing a microaggression and what to do in response to realizing one's own microaggression). Students reported that our discussions were the only ones they have had in their training thus far, and felt that these discussions made them feel like they belonged in the lab, made the lab more inclusive, enhanced their awareness of how to create inclusive spaces, and taught them about a variety of DEI topics. Overall, our DEI discussions have fostered open conversations within our lab group about DEI-related issues and topics at the lab, department, university, and countrywide levels and has established a space where students feel safe to voice their opinions and ask questions. We hope to ultimately use these DEI discussions to create actionable steps for addressing topics, e.g., microaggressions, in different scenarios that can be applied by group members in their future careers.

The University of South Africa (UNISA) is one of the distance education universities that is shifting from open distance learning (ODL) to open distance e-learning (ODeL). UNISA started as a correspondence institution in the 1950s and it has since evolved into an ODeL university. The aim of this research was to assess and determine the maturity levels of UNISA lecturers' and tutors' explorations of various forms of e-learning technologies to support students in an ODeL environment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 academic staff members. A hybrid approach involving inductive and deductive reasoning was used to guide the whole research process. The online course design maturity model (OCDMM) was modified and adapted in order to guide data collection, data analysis, and the interpretation of results. The results of the study indicate that the maturity levels of UNISA's student support e-learning technologies are at the basic levels of the maturity assessment framework for open distance e-learning. It is hoped that the results of this research will serve as a starting point that the University can use to constantly measure improvements made in advancing e-learning activities.

This study aimed to determine the perceptions of teacher candidates and to use the literature circles method to help them to develop a positive attitude towards the profession. Given that the study of literature circles in the national literature is only for a specific area, this study is the first study in which the literature circles are used for a different purpose. The research was carried out with eight teacher candidates who were studying in two different undergraduate programs of a public university in the spring term of the 2018-2019 academic year. Participants were selected by using convenience sampling and purposeful sampling methods. In the study, which was formed by selecting the case study from qualitative research designs, data were analyzed by the content analysis method. Findings from the books and sessions performed within the literature circles show that the process has a positive effect on the teacher candidates' perspectives.

Facilitating an online course in today's student population requires an educator to be innovative and creative and to have an impactful online presence. In the current online learning environment (also known as e-learning), keeping students' thoughtfully engaged and motivated while dispensing the required course content necessitates faculty enabling a safe, nonjudgmental environment whereby views, perspectives, and personal and professional experiences are encouraged. The educator must exhibit an educator-facilitated active, student-centered learning process, whereby students are held accountable for their active participation and self-directed learning while balancing a facilitator role to further enhance the learning process. This article explores one educator's reflective practice process that has been developed over numerous years as a very early adopter of online education. It will explore the organizational aspect of teaching-facilitating a dynamic robust online course.

Seminar series can address cutting-edge topics not covered in existing courses, but it is time-consuming for interaction between students in large-enrolled seminars. To promote student interaction without compromising course goals, a large blended seminar series course was designed by combining traditional offline lectures and online discussions for Educational Technology Frontiers course. The study collected posts from online discussion forums. Social network analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyze students' interaction. The study also conducted three surveys to investigate students' perceptions of course success on the aspects of subject understanding and active learning. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to determine significant differences of students' subject understanding before and after class. Descriptive statistics were used to explore students' active learning. The results showed that the course promotes students to participate in interaction and students show a high level of enthusiasm in interaction. The study also documented a strong and positive influence on students' perceptions of their subject understanding and active learning.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of online students' cognitive presence in a peer-facilitated discussion environment, and to identify the peer facilitation techniques that can enhance cognitive presence development. In this study, 738 discussion messages were examined by both qualitative and quantitative content analysis. It was revealed that although cognitive presence was detected in most discussion messages, it was exhibited at a relatively lower level. The involvement of peer facilitators was found to correlate with students' higher-level cognitive presence. It was found that asking initiating questions of a specific type by peer facilitators can positively affect the level of cognitive presence. In addition, a variety of the peer facilitation techniques were systematically studied to identify their effects on students' cognitive presence.

The article draws on concepts from speculative design to explore an alternative educational group existing outside the boundaries of an accredited university. Inspired by the imaginative approach of speculative design, I propose a small-scale reading and discussion group as a pathway to explore possible futures open to aspects of humanities education. The concept aims to reposition elements of the humanities from within the degree-granting Canadian university space to engage the wider public through a network meant to ideally foster an interconnected community of learners. This rhizomatic network would provide avenues for those without the means, access, or desire to pursue post-secondary education in the humanities to engage in questions that are relevant to their lived experience. I use an inquiry-based model of learning to explore probable, plausible, and preferable futures for liberal arts education as a way to challenge some current modes of thinking and provoke further discussion and research.

Background: Online discussion is one of the commonly used tools to enhance students' interactions and engagements in online courses, but it is not clear how social presence in online discussions impacts students' learning and what kinds of interactions we should encourage. Social network analysis provides a new methodology to investigate how social interactions in online discussions influence learning. Objectives: The study aims to identify students' online discussion interaction patterns and investigate how they are related to students' learning performance in an asynchronous course. Methods: Students who enrolled in an asynchronous undergraduate course were invited to participate in this study. Participants' online discussion participation data were collected from six online discussions from an asynchronous online course. Data were analysed using social network analysis methods as well as correlation and regression analysis. Results and Conclusions: We found that statistically significant positive correlations existed between learning performance and out-degree and closeness, respectively, which provided evidence to support that social interactions in online discussions have positive correlations with learning. We also found that out-closeness contributes to students' learning performance. The results of the study imply that knowledge construction occurs mainly in the centre of the outgoing network. By interpreting this study's results with the social construction of knowledge model, we conclude that knowledge construction mainly happens in reading and commenting on others' posts by internalizing and integrating external useful information from others. Implications: While numerous studies have emphasized the importance of interactions in online discussions or collaborative learning, there are limited studies on what kind of interactions we should encourage and what role students play in knowledge construction. The results of this study provide evidence that knowledge construction happens when students are reading and commenting on others' posts, which includes a hidden process of integrating external useful information into their own understanding. Practical strategies are provided to encourage students to be expansive and actively reach out to other students.

Many undergraduate and graduate courses have been recently converted to fully remote offerings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even within the remote structure, courses vary in their frequency of synchronous and asynchronous meetings. Fostering collaboration through students' idea-sharing and supporting their learning is especially challenging in the asynchronous setting where it is challenging to replicate in-person communities of practice. This is especially the case in courses that are very theoretical and have traditionally relied on discussion boards for engaging students asynchronously. This paper aims to contribute to the research on technology-enhanced communities of practice by offering examples of digital discourse among peers that can be implemented asynchronously, including social annotations and jointly-developed slideshows with voice annotation. These methods allow for higher-quality interaction between learners, between learners and content, and between learners and the instructor.

Forums are essential components facilitating interactions in online courses. However, in large-scale courses, many posts generated, which results in learners' difficulties. First, the posts are poorly organized and some deviate from the topic, making it difficult for learners' knowledge acquisition. Second, learners cannot receive timely feedback and guidance, making the learning progress unclear for them. Well-designed scaffoldings should be built based on challenges of forums to improve learners' learning outcomes, knowledge construction, and completion rate. While targeting the problems in online forums, this article proposed principles for the design of online scaffolding after analyzing the requirements of online learning scaffolding or scripts. Subsequently, in this article, we designed an automatic feedback scaffolding based on the principles and a knowledge construction model. The scaffolding provided learners with timely feedback and related learning guidance. Tags were used to assist learners in acquiring relevant information more easily. The scaffolding was then integrated into the Learning Cell Knowledge Community and used in an online course for 955 learners. The results showed that automatic feedback scaffolding positively affected learners' learning and promoted positive knowledge transformation. Furthermore, we found that the scaffolding could help learners induce more constructive behaviors defined in the Interactive, Constructive, Active, and Passive deep learning framework that demonstrated the reason for learners' knowledge transformation. At last, learners' course completion rate also increased with the help of the scaffolding, which provided evidence that well-designed scaffolding can result in positive educational outcomes. In addition, the principles proposed could also contribute to further scaffolding design and practices.