Here are some examples of the fascinating articles in the latest issue of Online Learning [volume 24, number 1 of 2020]:
Title: Facilitation Matters: Instructor Perception of Helpfulness of Facilitation Strategies in Online Courses
Authors: Florence Martin, Chuang Wang, Ayesha Sadaf
From the abstract:
Online course facilitation is critical to the success of online courses. Instructors use various facilitation strategies in online courses to engage students. One hundred instructors were surveyed on their perception of helpfulness of twelve different facilitation strategies used in online courses to enhance instructor presence, instructor connection, engagement and learning.
Title: Social Media Learning Activities (SMLA): Implications for Design
Authors: Ghania E. Zgheib, Nada Dabbagh
From the abstract:
This study explored how experienced faculty are using social media to support student learning. It analysed the types of social media learning activities (SMLAs), their design, the cognitive processes that they support, and the types of knowledge that students engage in when completing SMLAs.
Title: From Discussion Forums to eMeetings: Integrating High Touch Strategies to Increase Student Engagement, Academic Performance, and Retention in Large Online Courses
Authors: Glenda H. Gay, Kristen Betts
From the abstract:
Student engagement and group work are critical to developing competencies, deeper learning, and attributes that align with 21st-century skills. Group work is particularly important for future employment in an increasingly competitive and dynamic workforce. A new capstone group work assignment using Online Human Touch (OHT) strategies was integrated into an Information Systems course at a regional university in the Caribbean.
Title: Student Preferences for Learning Resources on a Land-based Postgraduate Online Degree Programme
Authors: Duncan Royd Slater, Richard Davies
From the abstract:
Creating engaging online resources is an important part of the rapidly changing discipline of e-tutoring. There is increasing use of a wide range of media for online training but only a limited number of studies assessing their effectiveness. This study involved an educator working collegiately with cohorts of online students studying a specialist land-based postgraduate degree programme (n = 79). The opinions of these mature online students, on current and potential learning resources, informed two interventions that provided novel online resources to the course. Student opinion on these new resources was captured and subjected to thematic analysis.
Title: Purposeful Interpersonal Interaction: What is it and How is it Measured?
Author: Scott Mehall
From the abstract:
Despite extensive studies surrounding the topic of interaction in online learning, faculty are often still relegated to an attempt at replicating their face-to-face course interactions in the online environment. Interpersonal interaction is a necessary yet nebulous concept in online learning. This paper attempts to build a quality lens to view interpersonal interaction in online learning through, called purposeful interpersonal interaction (PII) by exploring types of interpersonal interaction demonstrated in the literature to lead to better student outcomes.
Title: The Role of an Interactive Visual Learning Tool and Its Personalizability in Online Learning: Flow Experience
Authors: Young Ha, Hyunjoo Im
From the abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of interactive online learning tools on college student learning using flow as the guiding perspective. Study 1 was conducted to test the effect of online interactivity manipulated by dynamic visual learning tools on student’s flow experience, level of telepresence, actual performance in test, and perceived values of such activities. Study 2 was designed to test the effect of personalizability of difficulty levels in the interactive online activity on students’ learning experience.