Online Higher Education Research Articles

Teaching online in higher education: an ever-challenging method of teaching

Teaching online in higher education: an ever-challenging method of teaching

Persistence and time challenges in an open online university: a case study of the experiences of first-year learners

Student persistence in the first year of studies is a crucial concern in online higher education. Recent accelerated growth in online programs due to the COVID pandemic has increased concerns over higher dropout rates, which are often connected to students’ time challenges—time poverty, juggling multiple commitments, and fitting studies into busy lives. However, research seldom focuses on students’ perceptions of time issues related to persistence. This study addresses this gap by exploring how 20 second-year students retrospectively viewed their experiences of time challenges and how they impacted their persistence in their first year at an online open university. Content analysis of in-depth interviews demonstrated that time pressure and time-conflicts were crucial barriers for success in the foundational semester; the main barrier was juggling study with multiple priorities. Most persisters had good time management and high levels of intrinsic motivation, satisfaction, and self-determination. However, even procrastinators with heavy work-family duties managed to persevere due to their resilience and personal motivation. Lastly, recommendations and strategies for effective student-based interventions to foster persistence are suggested.

Teachers’ Experiences and Role in the Design Process of Online Degree Programmes in Higher Education

Background The study was conducted at a university of applied sciences in Finland. The viewpoint is of those online degree programme teachers involved in the initial steps of design and implementation of the first online degree programmes in the organisation that follows a pedagogical strategy in all its operations.
 Objectives The teachers as implementers of the intended pedagogical solution have an important role in the design process. Their views were sought to gain information about their experiences of the intended design of online degree programmes in the local context.
 Methods This study presents the results of the second cycle of a design-based research (DBR) process in the holistic design of online degree programmes. Focus group interview and thematic analysis were used to gain the teachers’ experiences of the holistic design to further develop the initial design created in the first cycle. 
 Findings The results reveal teachers’ positive and negative experiences of the holistic online degree programme design in three layers: organisational, pedagogical and online degree programme. Results include several new considerations, including management support, collegial support, collaboration and co-creation, online degree community, extended online and onsite teaching environments, blended education, and international aspects.
 Conclusions The results indicate that it is important for higher education organisations to involve teachers in the design process of online degree programmes. The resulting design principles may be of interest to those managers, coordinators and educators developing higher education online degree programmes.

The Importance of Interactions in Online Instruction: Part 2: Learner–Content

Interaction is an essential component of learning environments and necessary for student learning. The three main types of interaction are Learner–Instructor (LI), Learner–Content (LC), and Learner–Learner (LL). This article, the second in a three-part series, addresses LC interaction and uses an undergraduate fitness and physical activity course to show how principles of LC interaction can be implemented within an online course. In order to promote successful LC interaction, instructors must curate and present, diversify, and engage learners with content. The importance of LC interaction, along with LI interaction and LL interaction, cannot be overlooked in the higher education online setting. When each type of interaction is fostered within a learning environment, then students are more likely to be engaged, which can lead to greater student learning outcomes.

The Importance of Interactions in Online Instruction: Part 1: Learner–Instructor

Following Moore’s conceptual framework of the three types of interactions: 1) Learner–Instructor, 2) Learner–Content, and 3) Learner–Learner, the following sequence of three articles discuss applications of core practice principles in online higher education kinesiology courses. Specifically, this article (Part 1) focuses on core practice principles that foster learner–instructor interaction in an online instructional environment.

Where’s the character education in online higher education? Constructivism, virtue ethics and roles of online educators

As a long-term trend as well as a crisis-response to the Covid-19 pandemic, online education is increasingly becoming a supplement and /or substitute to face-to-face teaching. Online education has many advantages; however, it also threatens the relational and character-building aspect of education. In this article, we argue that it is incumbent for universities to become intentional about how to develop their students’ character and especially practical wisdom much needed in later professional life. Considering the growth of online education, we offer an initial theoretical and practical input about how such character development could be achieved in this context. Building on the theoretical basis of principles from constructivist learning and neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics, we outline two important roles those running online learning programmes should fulfil; that of character educators and character facilitators and illustrate these in the context of online discussion rooms. We conclude that online higher educators, particularly those developing professionals, must pay more explicit attention to the cultivation of character and wisdom in their teaching, and we make a case for further research to understand which pedagogical approaches have the most impact. The article provides both impetus and a framework for carrying out this research. The arguments made are significant as there has been little prior theory, research and practice that can be utilised to cultivate character through online education.

Challenges for Teaching Online in Higher Education

The aim of this paper is to assess the adoption rate of online classes and to highlight the required changes of existing resources of higher education adopted by Akaki Tsereteli State University (ATSU) in Kutaisi, Georgia amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The conducted research manifests the insights and perceptions of teachers and students on online modes of teaching and learning. The paper explores and examines the challenges and drawbacks of online courses at the university based on the analysis of the questionnaire handed to students and it also discusses the needs to completely implement digital learning/teaching process with its new sources and assessment strategies, thus indicating the way forward in the years to come.

IMPACT OF ONLINE EDUCATION AND ITS EFFECTIVE PRACTICE

With the help of qualitative content analysis approach, this study reviewed 45 published studies and research on online teaching and learning since 2008, primarily focusing on how theories, practices and assessments apply to the online learning environment. The purpose of this paper is to provide practical suggestions for those who are planning to develop online courses so that they can make informed decisions in the implementation process. All around the world, educational institutions are looking toward online learning platforms to continue with the process of educating students. The new normal now is a transformed concept of education with online learning at the core of this transformation. Today, digital learning has emerged as a necessary resource for students and schools all over the world. For many educational institutes, this is an entirely new way of education that they have had to adopt. Online learning is now applicable not just to learn academics but it also extends to learning extracurricular activities for students as well. In recent months, the demand for online learning has risen significantly, and it will continue doing so in the future.Based on the findings, the authors argued that effective online instruction is dependent upon 1) well-designed course content, motivated interaction between the instructor and learners, well-prepared and fully-supported instructors; 2) creation of a sense of online learning community; and 3) rapid advancement of technology. In doing this, it is hoped that this will stimulate an on-going discussion of effective strategies that can enhance universities and faculty success in transitioning to teach online. Under current debates on the cost and quality of higher education, this study could help for the improvement of higher education and student enrollment and retention. Keywords: online education, online teaching, online learning community, asynchronous learning, cognitive presence, social presence, teaching presence, online higher education.

Multimodal Classification of Teaching Activities from University Lecture Recordings

The way of understanding online higher education has greatly changed due to the worldwide pandemic situation. Teaching is undertaken remotely, and the faculty incorporate lecture audio recordings as part of the teaching material. This new online teaching–learning setting has largely impacted university classes. While online teaching technology that enriches virtual classrooms has been abundant over the past two years, the same has not occurred in supporting students during online learning. To overcome this limitation, our aim is to work toward enabling students to easily access the piece of the lesson recording in which the teacher explains a theoretical concept, solves an exercise, or comments on organizational issues of the course. To that end, we present a multimodal classification algorithm that identifies the type of activity that is being carried out at any time of the lesson by using a transformer-based language model that exploits features from the audio file and from the automated lecture transcription. The experimental results will show that some academic activities are more easily identifiable with the audio signal while resorting to the text transcription is needed to identify others. All in all, our contribution aims to recognize the academic activities of a teacher during a lesson.

Serious Games as a Method for Enhancing Learning Engagement: Student Perception on Online Higher Education During COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has enforced social isolation in many countries worldwide, which forced teachers at all levels of education, including the university context, to adapt new teaching strategies. This study presents a method developed in this regard, that is, serious games were used as a complement to synchronous online classes to ensure the continuity of pedagogical activities in a physiology course at Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile. Using serious games is a strategy in the field of gamification, which is a commonly used learning strategy for online teaching as necessitated by COVID-19. This study is quantitative in nature and conducted a questionnaire survey on 108 second-year undergraduate nursing students to determine their perception about this innovation. The results demonstrate that the students well valued the proposed pedagogical innovative model in terms of motivation and engagement. Moreover, they reported that the model can serve as a meaningful learning experience. These perceptions suggest that the model is an efficient strategy for implementing the physiology curricula in the context of online teaching. Moreover, the results imply that the model should be applied to other courses and disciplines in the undergraduate program and provide support that it is a valid strategy for face-to-face teaching. Lastly, the finding points to the potential of the model to be explored as a learning strategy in the age of education post-COVID-19.

Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic with the R2D2 Teaching Model: An Organising Aid for Online Higher Education Learners

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many papers have focused on remote learning and how to promote effective learning. The current research emphasises the applications of the R2D2 teaching model for online learning in higher education. R2D2 represents read, reflect, display, and do. This paper investigates the implementation of the R2D2 teaching model in higher education. The model’s characteristics, application in higher education, and use in diversity education are discussed. The detailed literature review of studies of the R2D2 teaching model shows that the approach has a positive impact on online teaching. Specifically, the R2D2 teaching model allows learners to interact with each other. The paper’s limitations and recommendations are presented in the conclusion.

ONLINE ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP PROGRAMS IN THE UNITED STATES: AN OVERVIEW

Technology has transformed education by providing access and opportunities for learning through online formats. Leadership education has not been left out in this transformation as many higher education institutions offer online leadership courses and programs to college students. This case study’s primary purpose was to develop a fundamental understanding of the program characteristics of leadership programs offered fully online in higher education. The content analysis on 51 online academic leadership programs within 33 universities shows that these programs share similar characteristics in their goals, targeted student populations, and methods of engaging and supporting students in online leadership learning.

Virtual Exchange – Online Higher Education in the 2020s: Real-world delivery of virtual exchange program frameworks

Virtual Exchange – Online Higher Education in the 2020s: Real-world delivery of virtual exchange program frameworks

Precetion of Stress and Satisfaction among Student Traditionl to Online Classroom

Background: Online education is a newer strategy of imparting knowledge .it is two_ way and involves both teachers and students in a virtual environment. Recently, there has been a booming escalation in efforts to shift traditional classrooms into virtual ones. But this has not come without challenges to both teachers and students. Objective: The purpose of current research is determining the level of satisfaction a stress in the students due to the shift from traditional to online classroom. Methodology: This Research reports research from students from medical colleges and universities in an attempt to determine satisfaction and stress due to online in higher education. The sample size was calculated to be N=206.As per inclusion criteria, members of STUDENTS from Lahore, who had previous experience in traditional classes for at least 3 months, Students who had traditional experience of less than 3 months were excluded. Frequencies were calculated to find out prevalence of stress and satisfaction among students after transition of traditional to online classrooms. Results: More than half of the students were satisfied with the online learning and the students have a moderate level of stress during E Learning . Approximately 75% of students agreed that at times it was stressful. One line learning is enhances their self studying habit’(88.1%).Most of the students were pleased with the response of the departments concerned to any problems in the online tests ,classes, and course material. Conclusion: Although recently adopted, the satisfaction of the students towards online classes appears good and prioritizing the identified predictors and working on the weal; inks could assist in enhancing student’s satisfaction an better outcomes. Keywords: Virtual Classroom, Perceived Stress Score, Learning, Stressors, Student Satisfaction, Student Stress.

Online only: Future outlooks of post-pandemic education based on student experiences of the virtual university

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a widespread shift to online education around the world and in Hungary, too. Educational institutions from kindergartens to universities were forced to adapt rapidly to this new situation, when the space of education moved from classrooms to online video meetings; the regular methods and tools needed to be changed or modified. Nonetheless, we should keep in mind that online education itself was an already existing concept before the pandemic as part of digitalization as a current societal megatrend, however it was not widely used in educational institutions across different programs. By 2021, there are university students who have mostly or exclusively participated in higher education online. Online classes could be a new normal situation to these students instead of the pre-pandemic personal activities in physical classrooms, leading to altering the norms of participation. In our research, we collected answers to open-ended sentences from such students. As we wish to understand how students perceive the differences between online and offline education, we investigated the perceived advantages and disadvantages of online-only education, how this influenced their social networks, study efficiency and their whole experience in university education.

Utilizing clickstream data to reveal the time management of self-regulated learning in a higher education online learning environment

ABSTRACT Online learning with the characteristics of flexibility and autonomy has become a widespread and popular mode of higher education in which students need to engage in self-regulated learning (SRL) to achieve success. The purpose of this study is to utilize clickstream data to reveal the time management of SRL. This study adopts learning analytics to investigate the differences in time management (time investment and time use patterns) in a large-scale authentic online learning environment based on 8019 students’ clickstream data of over one term recorded by the starC system log. This study quantitatively reveals the SRL process in a higher education online learning environment, which presents the detailed differences in time management among students with different academic performance categories. These research results will have inspirations in the design of SRL interventions for optimizing students’ learning processes and overall achievement.

Artificial intelligence in online higher education: A systematic review of empirical research from 2011 to 2020

Artificial intelligence in online higher education: A systematic review of empirical research from 2011 to 2020

Correlates of Academic Performance in Online Higher Education: A Systematic Review

The existing steady and continual rise of online learning in higher education has been accelerated by COVID-19 and resulted in a move away from solely on-campus teaching. Prior to the pandemic, online education was providing higher education to students who were returning to study to up-skill, are employed full-time, caring for family members, living rurally or remotely and/or for whom otherwise face-to-face campus learning was not a preference or option. To understand how we can better support online students in their unique circumstances and create an optimal learning environment, we must understand the factors associated with academic achievement within an online setting. This systematic review involved a search of relevant databases published between January 2009 and May 2021 examining factors and constructs related to academic performance in online higher education settings. Across 34 papers, 23 (67.6%) explored factors and constructs related to student characteristics including cognitive and psychological, demographic, university enrolment, and prior academic performance. Twenty-one (61.8%) papers explored learning environment factors including engagement, student experience, course design, and instructor. Our overall synthesis of findings indicates that academic performance in online learning is most strongly associated with motivation (including self-efficacy), and self-regulation. We propose three main implications of our review for online learning stakeholders such as educators and designers. Firstly, we argue that the wellbeing of online learners is important to understand, and future research should explore its impact on students’ experience and success in online higher education. Secondly, we emphasise the importance of developing and designing online courses utilising relevant frameworks and evidence-based principles. Finally, we propose an approach to promoting improved student cognitive and psychosocial experiences (such as self-efficacy, self-regulation, and perceived support) could be achieved by creating and incorporating an online learning orientation module at the commencement of enrolment.Systematic Review Registration: (website), identifier (registration number).

Digital masks: screens, selves and symbolic hygiene in online higher education

ABSTRACT Given the central role of digital devices and screens in academic work, their use and our relationship to them are under-theorised in mainstream research into digital education. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, rendered the use of digital screens central to life in ‘lockdowns’. This paper will consider the relationships between digital screens and anti-epidemic face masks, considering these artefacts in terms of functionality, academic subjectivities and epistemic practices, drawing on sociomaterial perspectives, Goffman's categories of lecturing self, and the history of anti-epidemic mask-wearing. I illustrate this with a vignette of teaching via digital screens, given by a member of faculty in an interview study exploring the impact of the lockdown on university staff. It will conclude that the digital screen may be viewed as a ‘digital mask’; carrying out a practical function, but also performing an ideology of hygiene and reason. The implications for digital higher education post-pandemic are discussed.

Cross‐boundary collaboration and knowledge creation in an online higher education course

AbstractThis study investigated an international, inter‐university and multidisciplinary online course with the aim of helping higher education students develop competencies for solving complex problems in collaboration with their peers and stakeholders. The course design was informed by the knowledge creation framework and ideas about cross‐boundary collaboration. We attempted to enrich perspectives on knowledge creation by investigating how higher education students (N = 42) from different fields of study and from 17 different nationalities perceived, built and regulated cross‐boundary collaboration in the pursuit of real‐life problems presented by companies or non‐governmental organisations. Drawing on data from 11 in‐depth group interviews and team reports of students who had completed this course, we showed the kinds of activities the students considered relevant for cross‐boundary collaboration and knowledge creation online. Given this extended context for knowledge creation, the study contributes to the pedagogical development of online learning in higher education.