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Organisations that operate utility infrastructure, such as water and electricity, within the municipal context have choices to make in terms of their preferred business model. Such choices include their business goal, implementing agent, and market structure. This study focuses on two of the possible business goals, namely to deliver a ‘sustainable service’ or a ‘financialised service’, defining these terms and exploring the general characteristics of the types of organisations involved in each, such as ownership profiles and exposure to financial market instruments. The study then goes into detail for two relevant case studies, which are Joburg Water, South Africa as a sustainable service, and Thames Water Utilities, England, as a financialised service. It takes a closer look at ten specific financial indicators calculated from the 2021/22 financial statements of Joburg Water and Thames Water Utilities. The study concludes with a tentative proposal for the financial indicators of sustainable and financialised services.

The level of online learner involvement has a significant impact on the effectiveness and quality of higher education. Online learner engagement, however, is also a complicated, multifaceted idea that has developed through time and been defined and assessed in various ways by various academics and practitioners. In this paper, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the theoretical and practical aspects of online learner engagement in higher education. In Part 1, we trace the historical development of the concept of learner engagement from the 19th to the 21st centuries, and examine its current understanding and challenges. We also review some of the most prominent frameworks and models that have been proposed to conceptualize, design, implement, and evaluate online learner engagement. Later, in Part 2, we present some of the best practices and strategies that have been proven to enhance online learner engagement in various disciplines and contexts. We also discuss some of the emerging trends and future directions for research and practice in this field. We hope that this paper will serve as a useful resource for educators, researchers, and policymakers who are interested in improving online learner engagement in higher education.

Online learner engagement is a key factor for the quality and effectiveness of online education. It refers to the degree of involvement, participation, and interest that students show in their online courses and how they interact with the content, the instructor, and their peers. However, engaging online learners can be challenging due to the lack of physical presence, social cues, and immediate feedback that are often present in face-to-face settings. Therefore, it is important for online educators and researchers to understand the factors that influence online learner engagement and the educational techniques that can enhance it. This paper discusses the factors that influence online learner engagement, such as technology and interface characteristics, content area experience, student roles and instructional tasks, information overload, transactional distance, e-learning capital, perceived usefulness, computer self-efficacy, motivational beliefs, and learning strategies. It also reviews the educational techniques that can enhance online learner engagement, such as social engagement, cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement, collaborative engagement, and emotional engagement. Moreover, it explores the gamification and simulation techniques that can also enhance online learner engagement by providing interactive and immersive learning experiences. Finally, it examines the methods and instruments for measuring online learner engagement, such as self-reports, behavioral logs, physiological measures, learning analytics, observation and feedback, and various scales and surveys. The paper concludes with a summary of the main findings and implications for online education practice and research, and identifies some gaps in the existing literature and suggests some directions for future research.