This article explores the quality of the online learning experience based on the Sloan-C framework and the Online Learning Consortium's (OLC) quality scorecard. The OLC index has been implemented to evaluate quality in online programs from different perspectives. Despite this, the opinions of learners are ignored, and it is built using feedback…

In many parts of the world online education is still taking shape and faces many obstacles, including insufficient numbers of professionals prepared to teach using new technologies. This paper is a case study of academic capacity building to determine how a partnership between the University of South Africa (Unisa) and the University of Maryland…

The changing work roles and resulting workloads of distance educators hold significant implications for the wellbeing and mental health of academics. New work roles include redesigning curricula for online delivery, increasing staff-student ratios and demands for student-support, management of part-time staff, and 24-h availability. This research…

This study examined the actual practice and effectiveness of a satellite educational TV program in Ethiopian secondary schools. Participants in the survey were 228 students and 63 teachers from secondary schools. The results of the data analysis indicate that Ethiopian students and teachers scored highly in the evaluation areas. Levels of…

Research suggests that massive open online course (MOOC) students prefer to study in groups, and that social facilitation within the study groups may render the learning of difficult concepts a pleasing experience. We report on a longitudinal study that investigates how co-located study groups watch and study MOOC videos together. The study was…

This study builds on this author's 2011 article in which the author reflects on the pedagogical challenges and resultant changes made while teaching two fully online foreign language papers over a four-year period (Y. H. S. Sun (2011). Online language teaching: The pedagogical challenges. "Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An…

Academic help-seeking is an invaluable learning strategy that has not yet received much attention in the distance education research literature. The asynchronous nature of distance education and many online courses presents an inherent roadblock to help-seeking. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of academic self-regulation,…

Two studies were conducted to examine the relationship between motivational variables and satisfaction and success in online learning. College students enrolled in face-to-face psychology classes and who had taken at least one online course were surveyed. In Study 1, two hypotheses were tested: (1) that high need-for-affiliation students would be…

Blended learning is an effective approach to instruction that combines features of face-to-face learning and computer-mediated learning. This study investigated the relationship between student perceptions of three types of interaction and blended learning course satisfaction. The participants included K-12 teachers enrolled in a graduate-level…

There are many challenges for educators in using distance and online education to adequately prepare students for their future professions. These challenges are accentuated in disciplines that prepare people for relational professions, which require people skills and a certain maturity of character. Educators in many disciplines, including…

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of goal orientation and academic self-efficacy in student achievement mediated by effort regulation, metacognitive regulation, and interaction regulation in an online course. The results show that intrinsic goal orientation and academic self-efficacy predicted students' metacognitive…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among students' characteristics, self-regulated learning, technology self-efficacy, and course outcomes in online learning settings. Two hundred and fifty-six students participated in this study. All participants completed an online survey that included demographic information, the modified…

We examine the experiences of five teachers who traveled with a team of educators, scientists, and explorers on circumpolar Arctic expeditions to deliver adventure learning (AL) programs to K-12 students at a distance. Results highlight the personal and professional impacts this opportunity had on teachers, including their empowering, fulfilling,…

This article discusses whether the very act of accessing online students' experiences of teaching may itself foster students' sense of belonging to a learning community. The article reports and reflects on the application of Brookfield's critical incident questionnaire (CIQ) in postgraduate courses delivered online in 2008-2010 through the…

Autonomy in language learning does not simply equate with independence, as language learning is a social activity that requires interaction with others. This also applies just as much to distance language learners, who need to reconcile independent language learning and interdependence with others. This article draws on findings from 43 mid-course…