Although designing and developing courses curricula are often the primary foci for online learning, instructional considerations are just one part of an educational ecosystem contributing to the online educational quality and success for online learners. In this paper, we explore systemic planning for online learning organized around the idea of…

In this paper, I introduce a new term to the online learning lexicon, "mesocredentials," an emerging and transformative approach to integrating massive open online courses (MOOCs) within the higher education system. A mesocredential connects MOOC achievement with academic credit applied to a traditional academic degree. I distinguish…

Online and distance learning is a practice situated in environments--places, spaces, and times, with particular people, in particular contexts, with particular technologies, within particular institutions. In other words, the practice of online and distance learning is not wholly individual: it is situated within broader environments. In this…

Distance learning technology continues to grow and undergo significant changes in higher education settings. Applying strategic planning methods from organizational behavior and operations management can act as a useful guide for the implementation of a sustainable distance learning program. Strong planning can help ensure the distance learning…

Collaborative learning can be a worthwhile and valuable part of a student's online course experience, and interpersonal exchanges among members of an online course community often rely on greater intentionality within the design of the learning experience. We present a synergistic framework for strategic design of collaborative learning in the…

The purpose of this research was to apply multimodal learning analytics in order to systemically investigate college students' attention states during their collaborative problem-solving (CPS) in online settings. Existing research on CPS relies on self-reported data, which limits the validity of the findings. This study looked at data in a…

Factors that drive delivery mode decisions are multifaceted and often necessarily go beyond instructional design needs. Additional influencing factors include logistical, technical, and policy considerations. The COVID-19 pandemic illuminated the many opportunities and challenges that accompany the chosen distance delivery mode, prompting the need…

There are theoretical arguments and empirical studies to support the benefits of early participation in an online course. However, little research has been conducted to investigate the relationship between students' early start in online learning and their course performance, which limits its application to online education research and practice.…

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted widespread transitions to remote teaching and learning in the higher education sector, bringing challenges for both educators and students. This study investigated links between student engagement with distinct types of remote teaching (asynchronous and synchronous) and academic outcomes (grade point average and…

When the art of assessment in online and distributed learning is grounded in Freirean writings, instructors have the opportunity to craft a nuanced and layered learning environment where the potential for critical consciousness is enhanced through carefully codesigned assessment strategies. Patton (2017) summarized 10 pedagogical principles based…

After almost a year of COVID-19, distance education mediated by digital tools prevails as an ideal way to study given the flexibility, ubiquity, and a variety of tools that make the process more acceptable. Remote proctored exams have become an important tool to ensure integrity and academic honesty in distance education. This mixed methods study…

Increasingly, graduate student instructors (GSIs) teach online without prior formal training on how to design online assessments of learning and participation. We present findings from a collective case study of seven GSIs at a university in the United States of America to describe how these novice online instructors learned to enact assessment…

We report on a systematic review of the landscape of peer assessment in massive open online courses (MOOCs) with papers from 2014 to 2020 in 20 leading education technology publication venues across four databases containing education technology-related papers, addressing three research issues: the evolution of peer assessment in MOOCs during the…

Increased online learning is helping many appreciate that online grading, formative assessment, and summative testing can cause instructor burnout and leave little time for more productive instructor interactions. We reimagined grading, assessment, and testing in an extended program of design-based research using situative theory to refine online…

This study was developed in the context of a course in higher education and in a blended learning environment--online, distance, and face-to-face (b-learning). The aim was to identify and characterize the meanings and effects that students and teachers attribute to the use of digital portfolios as an assessment and learning strategy. The…