Emotions are recognized as essential factors in learning activities, and self-regulation is considered an essential element in learning. Both emotions and self-regulation are theorized to contribute to critical thinking, which is a multidimensional concept comprising a set of skills and dispositions. However, empirical research on the interrelations between these concepts is scarce. In the present study, the participants were 2,404 undergraduate students from 18 Finnish higher education institutions. Students’ achievement emotions and self-regulation were measured with a self-report survey, and critical thinking with a performance task. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings highlight that especially activating emotions are significant in a low-stakes test situation. Excitement, a pleasant activating emotion plays a crucial role in such a context. However, self-regulation did not show a strong association with test performance and did not add to the effect of emotions on test performance.

There has been longstanding interest in active learning and its potential benefits for supporting higher education students to direct their own learning and participation. However, little is known about if and how the existing active learning literature applies to autistic learners. In this paper, we examine the interplay of factors impacting the accessibility of active learning for autistic students, reflecting on how autism and autistic students themselves are perceived and positioned within active learning frameworks. We underscore the importance of engaging with what it means to be an autistic active learner and the hurdles they may face when navigating active learning environments, including inaccessible spaces, communication differences and institutional structures. Our analysis identifies three key areas that shape autistic access to active learning: (1) Agency and identity; (2) Communication styles and learning environments; and (3) Neuro-normative systems and structures. We conclude by calling for greater development of, and continued support for, empowered autistic learner identities and neuro-affirming, student-led learning environments. We also highlight the importance of meaningfully involving autistic people in co-designing alternative (or adapted) approaches to active learning, so that autistic students are better able to guide their own learning and participation in higher education.

Twenty-five years ago, the Sage journal Active Learning in Higher Education was founded as an essential part of the offer to members of the newly formed, UK Institute for Learning in Higher Education. This article provides a personal perspective of how the journal, its originating organisation, journal publishing and the whole field of higher education assessment, teaching and learning have changed over this time. While maintaining its focus on fostering and sharing good practice in active learning at university and college level, on international perspectives and a commitment to equality and diversity, the journal has broadened its scope and reach. Looking forward, the article considers how capturing and enhancing student engagement continue to be central preoccupations of the higher education context.

An expanding body of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) research reflects a commitment within higher education to refine teaching practices and support student learning. A dominant investigative approach evidenced in associated publications involves soliciting student feedback or perspectives. While the methods may vary, many are extractive in that they position students as passive sources of data, rather than domain experts or contributors to the production of knowledge. Our critique invites scholars to consider the necessity for an epistemic expansion for engaging in SoTL inquiry—one that leverages the potential and expertise of students in research design and scholarship praxis. This paper identifies early adopters and leaders who reposition and embrace students at the heart of scholarship, co-design projects; or choose to frame students as partners (SaP). We call for recalibrating SoTL, to broaden opportunities for the democratisation and repositioning of students in ways that actively shape their education and in doing so generate legitimate insights that directly inform the design and lead to progressive, authentic, and responsive learning and teaching practice in higher education.

We conduct research in active learning in higher education because we want to do right by our students. We observe that the status quo of passive learning is simply not working for students and incorporate active learning to engage them. We then examine it in systematic methods to see if the changes “work” or how they could be made better. As a field, this has led to important insights into how to improve higher education that are disseminated so that others may learn from them. However, despite the desire to improve our students’ education, we may conduct research that is unintentionally biased against them. In other words, even though we want for our active learning research to be fair (equitable) and available (inclusive) to all, there are aspects of how research has been historically conducted that are unfair and exclude students. This may occur throughout the research process from conceptualization through dissemination. In this essay, I will share examples of how research may be biased and suggestions for how to incorporate more inclusive and equitable approaches. I will share my own journey in how my research training was faulty and how I am learning better approaches. In doing so, I do not wish to “call out” any of my colleagues in higher education research, but rather “call in” to suggest reflection. Therefore, I will focus on sharing my own mistakes or hypothetical examples for bias. I wish to be clear that I am not an expert in these issues, and I encourage follow up by reading works from experts cited throughout this piece.

This study examined how students conceptualise their emotions when engaging in online asynchronous forums within a university course. With the move online in work and educational practices and the reduction in physical contact, the need to understand emotional influences on social learning behaviour in digital spaces is important. There is little research about how students conceive of their emotions when engaging in online asynchronous course forums. Using case study method student engagement across a 6-week fully online module was examined using a theoretical framework bringing together social, emotional and online learning dimensions. Three types of behaviours were found represented as self-protective, self-oriented and community-oriented. Perceived social and emotional behaviours are conceptualised regarding content, peer interaction and within the asynchronous forum. This study contributes understanding about how students understand their emotional engagement in a social space and how this influences their learning behaviours in an asynchronous forum. Implications for future research directions are discussed.

In this study, we explore virtual and face-to-face teamwork in undergraduate education with the aim of better understanding students’ perceptions, experiences, and competence related to teamwork across modalities during and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This research identifies differences between in-person and virtual teamwork experiences, as well as individual difference variables and instructional strategies that may positively impact both student perceptions and self-efficacy in teamwork across modalities. Data were gathered via three rounds of surveys across the two semesters between February-December 2021. We found that in general, students reported that they do not enjoy virtual teams but do like collaborating in-person, with the top concern being workload inequity across teammates. Students also reported higher levels of self-efficacy in their in-person teamwork competencies than with their virtual teamwork abilities. Students did report fewer issues related to interpersonal conflict when they used specific teamwork strategies. The results also show a significant difference between how students viewed the value of learning in-person and virtual teamwork skills, perceiving in-person teamwork skills to be more important to their academic and professional success. We developed a virtual teamwork toolbox for instructors to address common concerns about working together virtually. The toolbox includes strategies and resources related to designing virtual team assignments, strategies and resources for effective virtual meetings, and how to create and use a team charter. We offer this toolbox as a resource for other instructors to help support their students as they work through virtual teamwork assignments.

Prior research has suggested that the receipt of peer comments and their subsequent implementation may help to improve student’s writing performance. However, comments may vary in terms of content and subsequent effects of their implementation on writing quality. Currently, there is a lack of research investigating how comments providing praise, summary, and information about problems and solutions are related to the subsequent text revision and writing improvement. Therefore, this study examines the online peer feedback session of 187 students taking academic writing classes at a Korean university. It aims to investigate the relationship between the receipt of comments providing praise, summary, and information about problems and solutions, as well as their implementation and student writing performance. The results showed that there is no relationship between the number of received comments and student writing performance. However, the more comments students implemented, the lower their writing performance was. With regards to the type of comments, summary comments, and comments detecting problems and/or solutions were more likely to be implemented when compared with praise comments. The receipt of comments about problems and/or solutions had a significantly negative relationship with student writing performance, whereas their implementation was positively related to this variable.

Instructors’ emotional expressions play a pivotal role in improving the quality of educational videos, while previous studies have yielded inconsistent conclusions regarding the benefits of instructors’ nonverbal expressions on video learning. This study investigated the impact of instructors’ nonverbal emotional expressions (neutral vs. positive facial expressions vs. positive facial expressions and positive tone vs. positive facial expressions and gestures vs. positive facial expressions, positive tone and gestures) on students’ video learning, while exploring the underlying mechanisms involved. A total of 148 college students viewed educational videos while their eye movements were tracked. The primary results revealed significant differences in students’ self-reported emotions, attention, cognitive load, learning experience, self-efficacy, and learning outcome. Students who viewed the educational video with an instructor displaying happy facial expressions and with a cheerful tone performed the best. Additionally, cognitive load and attention partially mediated the immediate learning outcome. These findings not only underscore the significance of instructors’ nonverbal behavior in educational videos, but also increase our understanding of the role of nonverbal interactions in video learning, providing practical implications for students, educators, and researchers.

Journal clubs are active learning approaches routinely used within academic research institutes and allied health professions to boost critical thinking, data analysis, and disseminate knowledge of novel research concepts. These group-based discussions regarding scientific literature aim to develop knowledge and facilitate the sharing of expertise. Many of these outcomes align with those highly desired for post-graduation employability. However, they are usually constrained to small defined student groups, with limited reported attempts to deliver journal clubs at scale within the undergraduate curriculum. Therefore, this study sought to compare the pedagogical efficacy of delivering journal clubs as both extracurricular and curriculum-embedded activities and determine if they are translatable into undergraduate curricula. Student feedback was assessed through anonymous surveys upon completion of both the extracurricular and curriculum-embedded journal club sessions. Pre- and post-session surveys were also provided to assess academic literacy knowledge acquisition. Both extracurricular and curriculum-embedded journal clubs had a positive impact on student experience, knowledge acquisition and transferable skill development. Most students stated they learnt a lot from the session (86.5%) with 78.8% stating that they preferred this learning experience to didactic lectures. Students also stated the session enhanced their confidence (76.9%) and teamwork skills (78.8%) and critical appraisal of scientific research (84.6%). Further pre and post-analysis revealed journal clubs significantly increased students’ knowledge of academic literacy. Students who participated in the extracurricular journal clubs scored their enjoyment and enhancement of their employability skills higher than in the curriculum-embedded session. No significant differences were observed when responses were stratified based on socioeconomic parameters. These data show that journal clubs are a valuable pedagogical tool for developing academic literacy and key transferable skills. We also for the first time showcase how journal clubs can be designed and delivered to be an appropriate and scalable pedagogical tool for large taught modules.