Students' Perceptions About the Impact of Using Padlet on Class Engagement

Student engagement is a multidimensional construct that includes four distinct, though interrelated, aspects: behavioral, emotional, agentive, and cognitive engagement. The present study investigates students' perceptions about the impact of Padlet as a learning and assessment tool on the four aspects of class engagement. Padlet is a virtual wall that allows students to interact and contribute to class discussions and at the same time provides teachers with feedback on the learning process. The exploratory study was conducted on 27 female students in a 3-credit sociolinguistics course in which Padlet was used as a learning and assessment tool. At the end of the course, a survey and a personal interview were used to get students' feedback on the effectiveness of Padlet through addressing various aspects of their perceived engagement. The results showed that using Padlet enhanced student engagement, fostered active learning and offered positive assessment experiences. Its perceived effectiveness was mainly due to Padlet features that supported student collaboration, promoted students' agency and helped in creating a positive learning atmosphere. Its major shortcoming as an assessment tool was the lack of written feedback to students. However, teachers could use a combination of online and written assessments to compensate for this shortcoming.

Online Collaborative Learning in Pre-Service Teacher Education

Technology-enhanced collaborative learning has become attractive in higher education. Teacher education programs have made extensive efforts for meaningful use of online technologies for collaboration and communication. This review aims to synthesize a comprehensive literature review on PSTs' collaborative learning with online tools. First, the review revealed that the number of articles published has increased especially in the last five years with contributions from researchers around the world. Second, there were three types of online technologies used mainly for collaboration in PST education: Asynchronous, synchronous, and social media tools. Third, online tools for collaboration were reported as mainly beneficial in PSTs' education contexts. Forth, while there are notable exceptions, challenges to integrate online collaboration tools in PSTs' education programs were scant. Finally, there were various instructional practices where educators integrated online collaborative tools for learning. Future research directions are elaborated.

A Practitioner Guide on Backward Design Application for Online Aviation Training in Higher Education

The aviation industry experienced a significant growth over the years. Such growth was supported by a highly knowledgeable workforce, which presented various skills, including problem-solving and decision-making. The need for a highly skilled workforce led an aviation-focused university located in southeast USA to provide students with learning opportunities to hone those skills to succeed in the industry. This chapter explains the process through which those learning opportunities are created. It presents a practitioner's guide on how that university is designing online courses for the aviation industry. The entire design and development process and the theories supporting it, such as Backward Design and authentic learning, are thoroughly discussed. The chapter also presents several challenges negatively impacting the successful design of those courses and how those challenges can be mitigated so instructionally-sound online courses are created.

Learning Styles and Cultural Differences in Online Learning Environments in the Twenty-First Century

The nature of learning is changing, especially learning in the twenty-first century. It's increasingly becoming more to do with student-centered learning. It emphasizes digital literacy, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills. This chapter revisited online learning environments in terms of differences in the learning styles of Nigerian university students according to their cultural backgrounds. The author also reviewed past research that focused on culturally different learning styles in online learning environments. Of specific interest are the studies that examined the same issue in the twenty-first century. This chapter concluded based on the review of literature that a person's learning style could affect how they react to any learning situation, including learning online; therefore, knowledge of learning styles could help in the selection of appropriate instructional designs and teaching strategies for courses. In the case of the students at the University of Lagos, it was found that students with different learning styles have different responses to online learning within their culture.

Advancing Retention and Engagement Strategies Through Effective Online Mediums

Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the USA continue to play a pivotal role in educating students within the African diaspora as they provide a practical and resourceful platform for students to develop a sense of belonging through community and organizational outreach activities on campus. However, the student population in higher education as we used to know has changed, and adult learners now make up a large majority of the enrolled population. This chapter aims to review the history of online education and will provide a conceptual framework for incorporating online learning in an institution's student success plan for both their traditional and non-traditional students. The author will also review the needs of the adult learners and provide an overview of how the development and integration of online learning programs and collaborative efforts with other institutions through dual enrollment and degree MOU programs can foster growth at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Social Presence in Online Learning

Studies have focused on social presence and its meaning in both traditional face-to-face classroom settings as well as an online learning environment. Technology usage is increasing in classrooms, making opportunities for learning available to many more people than in prior years. The theme of social presence continues to be studied as an important element in fostering student learning and growth. In particular, the focus is on the meaning of social presence, how to develop it as an instructor or learner in the learning community, and how social presence can positively impact all members of the learning community. The main questions that this chapter addresses are: Why study social presence? What is the meaning of social presence? What is the research behind social presence? How does an individual cultivate and project social presence in a learning environment?

Student Learning and Engagement in a Blended Environment

The chapter investigated students' behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement, as well as their learning in a blended environment. A convergent mixed methods research design was used in which quantitative data (face-to-face attendance, online system login, and survey) were collected from 71 undergraduate students, and qualitative data (focus group interview) were collected from six of these students. These data were further analyzed and integrated. The quantitative results showed that students' online login, the behavioral engagement indicator, had a positive impact on their learning, which was supported by qualitative findings. Further analysis revealed the mixture of students' engagement, such as confusion vs. interesting feelings to online discussions and frustration vs. not much effort using the online system.

Using Visual Design to Improve the Online Learning Experience

There is an abundant amount of literature on visual design principles, graphic design theory, and media theory. Yet very little is discussed, at least in a systematic way, about the process of making online courses aesthetically pleasing. A major obstacle to gaining such knowledge is the lack of understanding of applied definitions, conceptual ideas, and methods of creating online learning interfaces. In this chapter, the authors seek to clarify the process of using visual design to improve the online learning experience. The chapter concludes with strategies on how colleges and universities can help faculty and instructional designers learn visual design skills through the creation of a design studio.

Contextualizing Social Presence and Learner Identity Through the Lens of Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance

Online education has become a ubiquitous and convenient method by which to complete courses at institutions of higher education across the globe. To achieve this level of parity between course delivery methods (online or face-to-face), the instructor or course designer must understand the complex relationship between the technology and instructional design theories being leveraged in these contexts. Within the context of this chapter, these barriers manifest themselves within Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance, a theory which states that the transactional distance between stakeholders (whether it is instructor-learner or learner-learner communication) has the potential to obstruct the path for comprehending the information being presented as well as influencing the level of rapport between students. This chapter examines the obstacles that are present because of Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance and the influence that social presence has on learners in online courses from the perspective of student satisfaction and positive learning outcomes.

MOOCs Evolution and Perceptions of Library and Information Science Professionals

This chapter provides the genesis of the massive open online courses (MOOCs) concept and perceptions of library and information science professionals towards the evolution of MOOCs in libraries and the information science domain by using a survey. The results of this study revealed that a majority of library and information science professionals who participated in this survey were working in academic libraries and aware of the MOOCs concept from three years, by scholarly literature. The MOOCs concept was updated and useful in libraries and the information science domain, while a lack of MOOCs related specific to competencies and skills emerged as the main barrier. This survey also showed that the concept of MOOCs will continue to grow in the future. This chapter will be helpful to understand the concept of MOOCs and the insights of library and information science professionals in the MOOCs context.