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Extended reality (XR), which encompasses virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), offers powerful affordances for improving teaching and learning experiences in a post-pandemic world. Increasingly, many governments and institutions around the world are making major investments in XR technologies to prepare education systems for the future. However, many of these investments remain isolated pilot projects which, while they attest to the potential of XR in education, are unlikely to be scaled up due to lack of sustainability and collaboration. Based on literature and empirical evidence, I have identified major barriers to the wider adoption of XR in education, including the lack of (a) open content, tools, and skills; (b) sound pedagogy and instructional design; and (c) scalability and sustainability. As a potential solution, I introduce the Open XR for Education Framework (OXREF), an empirical framework that proposes a holistic solution to XR object creation, implementation, and deployment, while covering pedagogical, technological, and policy perspectives. The contribution of the OXREF is its ability to build fit-for-purpose XR experiences in a scalable, sustainable, and collaborative manner while promoting openness, accessibility, equity, and reuse. The novelty of the proposed framework is its use of open educational resources (OER), open educational practices (OEP), as well as free and open-source software (FOSS) tools and platforms. Its cloud-based infrastructure and open licenses support viable operationalization strategies that can be implemented by educational institutions and governments.

The economics of distance higher education have not attracted enough attention. Few studies have analyzed the different returns to distance higher education at various income levels. Based on empirical analysis of data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study explored the differences of return to distance higher education at different income levels by using Mincer earnings function and quantile regression. Compared with face-to-face education, the study found that distance higher education brought considerable benefits to learners. While the return to face-to-face higher education has continued to decline, return to distance higher education has risen. Comparing the returns to distance education at different income levels showed that low-income groups obtained greater benefits from distance higher education, which can help to improve the income of vulnerable groups and promote social equality. China’s distance education institutions should promote the idea that distance higher education can improve the income growth of low-income groups, and increase the financial support for low-income groups to access distance higher education.

The current study was planned to find out if the use of blended learning as a combination of face-to-face instruction and mobile-assisted language learning using WhatsApp contributed to the vocabulary learning and autonomy of Iranian EFL learners compared to the traditional method. To assess their English skills, PET was given to 80 homogenous intermediate learners at the beginning of the study. The study's intended participants were fifty EFL learners with scores that were within the intermediate competency level. Then, the participants were divided randomly to experimental and control groups to see how successful blended learning vs traditional education is at improving learners' vocabulary knowledge. One-way between-groups analysis of covariance was run. On post-test scores, the findings indicated a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups. Another one-way between-groups analysis of covariance was performed to assess the impact of two distinct blended learning vs traditional teaching treatments on EFL learners' autonomy. In post-test results, a significant difference between the control and experimental groups' performance was observed. This study provided insights into how technology may be applied to teach language components and skills.

This study explored the dominant discourses on online distance education (ODE) that emerged in South Korean society before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors conducted a topic modeling analysis of 8,865 news articles published by 24 South Korean media outlets between 2019 and 2021. Using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) algorithm and social network analysis software (NetMiner), the top five topics and the top ten words associated with each topic were identified from each period. The authors observed significant changes not only in the number of news articles but also in the depth of the conversations published each year. The results have revealed several key points. First, ODE, previously considered marginal and abnormal, gained in normality across all educational levels in Korean society. Second, ODE discourses have been shaped by the unique cultural, historical, and technological infrastructure in South Korea. Third, a clear division between social-justice-oriented and business-oriented ODE discourses reflect a persistent inequality in Korean society. Finally, ODE discourses matured in 2021, with more critical and realistic perspectives on both the positives and negatives of ODE. The useful implications of such insights for post-pandemic ODE research and practice are further discussed.

In higher education, international research collaboration functions as a visible mechanism of cooperation and competition, serving as a proxy for quality and academic excellence. Open universities use revolutionary education models but are not often associated with quality or academic excellence. To investigate the impact of international research collaboration by active researchers affiliated with open institutions, a bibliometrics analysis was conducted of three open universities and nine traditional, comparative universities between 2000 and 2022. The results indicate that research outputs that are open access, sponsored and funded, and developed with international coauthors have positive and statistically significant effects on citation counts. Moreover, international research collaboration significantly affects all universities, not just open institutions. The results conclude that researchers affiliated with open universities are only 4.3% less cited than their comparative peers, which is attributed to publication factors, research disciplines and subject areas, and journal characteristics. Findings are discussed and imply a strategic shift in the institutional functions and outputs of open universities as collaborative conduits of knowledge production and dissemination.

As a response to the increasing commercialization of postsecondary education, educators argue for a practice of care in education. Open pedagogy (OP) seems like an ideal practice where care, trust, and inclusion can be realized. OP is characterized as a democratic and collaborative pedagogical practice, in which students and teachers work to co-create learning and knowledge using openly licensed materials, open platforms, and other open processes. The purposes of this study were, first, to reveal ways students in postsecondary institutions perceive care and, second, to determine how students suggest OP can be used to create an open/caring learning process. A task-oriented focus group method engaged students from four teaching-focused institutions. The students created open cases on social issues for class discussion and reflected on care and OP processes in postsecondary settings. Using four elements of the ethics of care—attentiveness, responsibility, competence, and trustworthiness—as conceptual categories, the study examined students’ experience of care and care in OP using affective coding and thematic analysis. The results showed that through OP, with teacher support and explicitly designed practices of care, students can assert their agency, have quintessential roles in creating and participating in highly relevant curriculum and importantly, care about others, and be cared for. OP is a process able to involve a diverse population of students and embody care as an all-encompassing practice.

This paper explores the experiences of university educators who use personal learning networks (PLNs) to enhance professional knowledge. With growing expectations to design and deliver effective online learning experiences, the PLN may offer flexible and supportive professional learning opportunities that build digital pedagogical capabilities. Previous research investigating PLNs has focused on how school teachers leverage social technologies to build these networks. However, there is limited examination of PLN use by university educators. This research is informed by the theories of networked learning and connectivism and uses a case study approach to deeply consider the experiences of five university educators from different disciplines across the globe. They share their understanding of the concept of the PLN, the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how their PLN affects their digital pedagogies. The findings reveal nuanced insights of university educators’ real-life experience, shedding light on how the use of social media and other digital tools for professional learning is changing and the implications this has for the development of university educators’ understandings of digital pedagogies.

The use of technology in higher education learning has been shown to increase student engagement. However, how its application can increase student engagement is still largely unreported in Indonesia, especially during and after COVID-19, when online learning was used massively and suddenly. This study aims to examine students’ engagement with online learning using a sequential explanatory mixed-method study design that is expected to produce in-depth information. The study involved a number of n = 775 students, with 149 participants who identified themselves as male (19.3%) and 626 participants who identified themselves as female (80.7%). The age range of the participants was 18 to 22 years (M-age = 20.12). Quantitative data analysis was carried out using descriptive tests and ANOVA variance tests, while qualitative data analysis was carried out using thematic analysis. Integration of quantitative and qualitative data analyses results was conducted using a joint display approach. The results showed that 94.45% (n = 732) of students had low engagement scores. Gender and field of study were found to have no effect on the level of student engagement in online learning (F 1,775 = 3.259, p = .071, η2 = .004). Data integration results showed that online learning reduces emotional attachment, participation, and performance, although it does not reduce students’ skill engagement. Based on student experience, online learning is considered less effective than in-person learning. Students with higher self-regulation show engagement in online learning. The online learning model needs an effective formula for increasing student engagement, in addition to help students develop self-regulation skills.

Almost all open educational resources (OER) definitions encompass key concepts such as the 5R activities and open licenses. However, little attention is given to the technical aspects and tools that allow the user to interact with these resources. This study aims to answer five research questions regarding (a) 5R activities, (b) open licenses and intellectual property, (c) technical aspects, (d) tools for developing OER, and (e) the topic of sustainability. To answer these questions, a systematic review of systematic reviews on OER was conducted following the reporting checklist of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Sixteen studies were eligible and included in this review. The main findings suggest that although most studies did not mention the term 5R exactly, they mentioned related terms, such as share and adaptation. There was also a tendency toward focusing on more legal issues than technical aspects. Besides, most of the studies that mentioned tools discussed them as platforms to access OER, not exactly tools that encourage users to develop or adapt resources in an easy way. In relation to sustainability, several studies highlighted the relevance of developing sustainable OER models, but only a few suggested approaches to sustain an OER project. Therefore, with this article, we hope to raise awareness of the importance of the technical openness and tools that might contribute to fostering users’ engagement with the OER, helping them to act as producers and contributors rather than mere passive receivers.

Online surveys are widely used in social science research as well as in empirical studies of open, online, and distance education. However, students’ responses are likely to be at odds with their actual behavior. In this context, we examined the discrepancies between self-reported use and actual use (i.e., learning analytics data) among 20,646 students in an open, online, and distance education system. The ratio of consistent responses to each of the 11 questions ranged from 43% to 70%, and the actual access to learning resources was significantly lower than self-reported use. In other words, students over-reported their use of learning resources. Females were more likely to be consistent in their responses. Frequency of visits to the open, online, and distance education system, grade point average, self-reported satisfaction, and age were positively correlated with consistency; students’ current semester was negatively correlated with consistency. Although consistency was not maintained between actual use and self-reported use, consistency was maintained between some of the self-report questionnaires (i.e., use vs. satisfaction). The findings suggested that system and performance data should be considered in addition to self-reported data in order to draw more robust conclusions about the accountability of open, online, and distance education systems.

In this article, we discuss the academic performance and impact of distance teaching of mathematics in the Moroccan education system. This educational science research, based on exploratory thinking, aimed to show the impact and challenges of distance teaching of mathematics within the Moroccan education system through examining this fundamental question: How could school programs, pedagogical organization, and the performance of pupils and teachers in Morocco best address the challenges of distance teaching of mathematics? The answer is based on a qualitative analysis of the content of the documentation that frames the teaching-learning process and the evaluation of mathematics in Morocco and, on the other hand, on the projection of research hypotheses in the field through various strategies inspired by our research objectives.

This work describes an international collaboration experience carried out between our process design and petroleum property evaluation courses. This collaboration was developed as part of a partnership between the American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK) in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, and Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, United States of America, using a program called Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) from the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The COIL program provides training to faculty on engaging students in international and cross-disciplinary projects to promote skills needed in the current work force. The COIL training meetings facilitated pairing faculty of different disciplines in different parts of the world and provided a structure for developing a collaborative project. The collaborative project that we undertook in fall 2021, and which we detail throughout this article, was titled Upstream and Downstream of Petroleum Economics.

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the practice of traditional higher education providers (HEPs) and highlighted the need for innovative approaches to education for sustainable development. This research note focuses on online short courses (OSCs)—micro-credentials geared at upskilling or reskilling learners with a competitive application process and cost. It conducts (a) a rapid bibliometric analysis of literature on the nexus between OSCs and sustainable development and (b) an environmental scan of OSCs offered in Australia with a lens of sustainable development. An exploratory approach was adopted to analyze publicly available secondary data on scholarly literature and the courses offered. Findings reveal two key trends: (i) the nascent nature of literature on OSCs and sustainable development globally and (ii) the limited availability of sustainable development related OSCs in Australia. This research note makes broad analytical contributions to posit OSCs as an e-learning innovation to advance business education for sustainable development.

The study of pedagogical design and development for virtual laboratory in science education in higher education is limited. Few tailored pedagogical approaches have been adopted for developing students higher order thinking (i.e. reflective thinking skills) in virtual laboratory enabled learning in the university level. For addressing these, this study borrowed the merits of virtual laboratory and Know-Want-Learn (KWL) reflective thinking approach, with considering the development of students reflective thinking, to support university students to learn physical chemistry concepts. To examine the impacts of this virtual lab with KWL reflective thinking approach on students’ conceptual understanding and reflections, a quasi-experimental research was conducted among 30 students in experimental group and 28 students in control group in a university located in the north of China. Positive learning outcomes including were received based on quantitative and qualitative data analysis of pre-and post-test scores, questionnaire, reflection journals and selected interview. The study could inform the pedagogical design and the implementation of virtual lab for developing students’ higher order thinking skills in the university level.

The adoption of online teaching and learning in educational settings poses a notable challenge to teachers as they are required to implement student-centered pedagogy in online learning environments. This is often hindered by teachers' insufficient preparation in this area. The current study hinges on two underexplored aspects that may explain this challenge among faculty teaching in teacher training colleges, both related to the link between professionals and their workplace: innovative work behavior and personal accountability. This study sought to examine higher education teachers’ perceived innovative behavior and personal accountability as precursors of their reported distance learning practices during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Data were gathered from 303 faculty members from public teacher training colleges. Data were analyzed by using Partial Least Squares—Structural Equation Modeling. Based on our findings, innovative teachers reported using more student-centered approaches in distance learning than traditional practices. Another finding showed that high levels of external accountability were associated with traditional teaching routines focused on setting clear rules for student behavior in online environments and enforcing these rules. Hence, teachers who placed an emphasis on delivering timely reports to their managers and believed they should be evaluated by their students’ final grades, were more inclined towards traditional approaches to teaching. Internal accountable teachers tended to employ adaptive instructional practices, underscoring the quality of the learning process. Implementations and directions for future research are discussed.

In this qualitative study we investigated the experiences of instructional designers as they sought to build quality into online courses. Through semi-structured interviews, we explored what enabled and hindered their pursuit of quality, how they experienced their efforts in this regard, what mattered to them, and complexities that accompanied this pursuit. Our analysis of participant experiences suggested four themes: (1) connections between quality and designers’ ability to act autonomously; (2) connections between quality and collaborative, team-based relationships; (3) ambivalence due to tensions between autonomy and collaboration; and (4) ways of coping with limits on autonomy and collaboration. We conclude our report with implications for instructional design practice, suggesting that the pursuit of quality often requires creative work arounds and is informed by affective judgements that lie beyond the purview of traditional instructional design processes.

Evaluation is a crucial part of the teaching and learning process in any higher education institution and one that has gone through a deep change. This has been particularly true since the Bologna Declaration (http://www.ehea.info/page-ministerial-conference-bologna-1999, 1999) ushered in the European higher education area, with the subsequent major rise in the employment of continuous assessment methods focused on student participation. This article analyses the impact on academic performance of e-continuous assessment based on e-tests on a virtual platform as a previous step towards the substitution of the traditional evaluation system, based on a final exam, with a continuous evaluation system, prescribed as an alternative preferred by the regulations of multiple Spanish universities. Microeconometric models have been applied to a database of 250 first-year students on the Business Administration and Management course at the University of Seville (Spain). Our findings show that e-tests could prevent the risk of students dropping out and could also provide a credible predictor of students’ academic marks in the theoretical contents of the subject, but not in those of a practical or applied nature. Based on the results of this evaluation, an e-continuous assessment has been developed in the subject, which has become the majority option for students, with 90% participation, while also increasing pass rates. Moreover, the positive effect of a computing environment does not appear to be limited to the classroom, but also extends to students’ home environments. This teaching experience shows that the swift feedback that e-tools provides, especially in especially in environments of large class size such as in the class evaluated, could support instructors’ personal tutoring of students’ progress and promote a greater implementation of e-continuous assessment in Spanish higher education.

The focus of this study was on identifying patterns of student behavior to support data-informed decision-making which would then improve the learning experience and learning outcomes of online English language courses. Learning analytics approach (or more specifically cluster analysis) was used to identify engagement patterns in online learning. Relevant information was obtained from learning behavior data, and student behavior was modeled based on the seven indicators of engagement. Cluster analysis results were presented in the form of three scenarios: (1) grammar-focused semester, (2) vocabulary-focused semester and, (3) overall one-year course activity (grammar-focused and vocabulary-focused semester together). Each scenario helped identify four clusters and revealed different behavioral patterns (Scenario 1: “Restrained”, “Focused”, “Cautious”, and “Social”; Scenario 2: “Result-oriented”, “Restrained”, “Cautious”, and “Active”; Scenario 3: “Cautious”, “Restrained”, “Result-oriented”, and “Focused”). Some patterns are stable and present in all three scenarios (“Restrained” and “Cautious”), while others seem to be specific to a particular learning context. The subsequent expert analysis phase offers an interpretation of the identified patterns, guidelines for the adjustment of the learning process, and a consideration of pedagogical, ethical and technical implications of this approach. Depending on the level of automation, targeted adjustment might be done by human or nonhuman operator. Taking this into consideration, this paper proposes an approach to managing behavioral engagement patterns of students in a course-based virtual learning environment. The approach encompasses four steps which need to be implemented periodically depending on the course material dynamics, so the future delivery methods in the e-learning course could be adapted accordingly.

The use of ill-structured case examples as an instructional strategy to teach ethical lessons is well-supported in the literature, however, case examples often lack an emotional or affective component. Given the importance of crafting cases for learners, more research is needed to better understand how to construct and present case examples to enhance learning outcomes, specifically related to the influence of emotive content. This study was conducted to assess the effect of emotive content on knowledge acquisition and ethical sense-making. The study employed a posttest-only control group design. Emotive content was defined as information related to the character’s emotional reactions or feelings, background, beliefs, physical appearance, and/or goal focus of the character. Participants were 71 graduate-level Master of Social Work students at a university in the coastal U.S. Results contribute to the growing body of literature regarding the effect of emotion in processing and manipulating complex information. The results suggest that the addition of emotive content to a case example may distract or overwhelm learners. Case examples should be constructed using clear and simple information.

Aviation is a multidisciplinary subject that has influenced human development over the last century. Learning about aviation exposes students to principles of flight, earth science, aeronautical engineering, language, aviation communication and airmanship. In higher education, many non-aviation undergraduates participate in aviation related activities to have a first glimpse of the aviation industry and equip themselves with basic concepts. This study aims to examine learning perception among 82 university students who have participated in a series of online aviation career exploration activities during the pandemic in Hong Kong and China. They participated in virtual visits and career talks led by aviation professionals, hands-on flight simulation activities and online discussion in an online lab setting. A mixed research method was employed with the use of a motivational survey, teachers’ observation and semi-structured interviews to understand students’ learning perceptions. This study found that flying laboratory activities could effectively motivate students to learn aviation and improve their aviation knowledge. This could promote students’ aviation industry optimism, which may help the industry to recover in the post-pandemic world. This article offers recommendations for online engineering educators to use emerging technologies to teach aviation for future career preparation.

The purposes of this study were (1) to introduce a virtual dental lab designed to support students’ virtual clinical examinations in a dentistry program in South Korea and (2) to determine how dental students’ levels of expertise (low, medium, or high) influence their clinical performance in terms of dwell time on each tooth location, total examination time, and perceived task load in the virtual dental lab. A total of 93 students participated in the study. Participants were assigned to one of three groups based on their expertise levels and performed virtual reality simulation tasks of detecting and diagnosing dental caries in two clinical cases. The outcome variables were participants’ clinical examination performance (total dwell time on the virtual dental mirror and total examination time) and perceived task load (separated into six subcomponents: mental demands, physical demands, temporal demands, effort, performance, and frustration). The results suggest that the level of expertise significantly affected the performance of dental examinations in all areas except the anterior maxillary teeth. Both total dwell time on the dental mirror and total examination time were significantly shorter for the high expertise group than for the medium and low expertise groups. In addition, the high expertise group rated task load significantly lower for mental demands (p < .05, Cohen’s d = 0.70) and effort (p < .05, Cohen’s d = 0.75) than did the low expertise group.

Distance education programs have become the preferred option for most higher education institutions to continue teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the effectiveness of some online courses, especially those engineering courses with experimentation activities, remains disputed. The main challenge is fostering collaborative problem solving skills for novice students as online collaboration increases their cognitive load. This research thus tapped into novice engineering students’ cognitive load to develop a more granular, multimodal view of how cognitive load influences student performance in collaborative problem solving during virtual experimentation activities. The findings of this research provided significant implications for the future design and implementation of virtual laboratories in computer science engineering education.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, medical education institutions were suddenly and unexpectedly faced with making significant changes in delivering their clinical assessments to comply with social distancing requirements and limited access to clinical education centres. Seeking a potential solution to these new circumstances, we designed, implemented and evaluated an online virtual OSCE, as a ‘proof of concept’ intervention study. Our qualitative research involved document analysis of the stages of decision-making and consultation in designing the intervention, and thematic analysis based on the perspectives and experiences of the key stakeholders (final year students, clinical examiners, simulated patients and faculty staff who acted as station assistants), gathered through surveys with Likert-scale questions and free text comments, and online discussion groups which were recorded and transcribed. From our analysis, we identified four themes: optimising assessment design for online delivery, ensuring clinical authenticity, recognising and addressing feelings and apprehensions, and anticipating challenges through incident planning and risk mitigation. Through the data gathered at each stage of the intervention, and the involvement of key stakeholders in the design and evaluation, our study highlights examples of effective practice for future applications of online technologies in assessment, provides guidance for designing and implementing online virtual assessment, and lays a foundation for comparative, longitudinal research on the significant and increasing roles played by technology in healthcare professional education and practice.

Socially shared metacognition is important for effective collaborative problem solving in virtual laboratory settings, A holistic account of socially shared metacognition in virtual laboratory settings is needed to advance our understanding, but previous studies have only focused on the isolated effect of each dimension on problem solving. This study thus applied learning analytics techniques to develop a comprehensive understanding of socially shared metacognition during collaborative problem solving in virtual laboratories. We manually coded 126 collaborative problem-solving scenarios in a virtual physics laboratory and then employed K-Means clustering analysis to identify patterns of socially shared metacognition. Four clusters were discovered. Statistical analysis was performed to investigate how the clusters were associated with the outcome of collaborative problem solving and also how they related to the difficulty level of problems. The findings of this study provided theoretical implications to advance the understanding of socially shared metacognition in virtual laboratory settings and also practical implications to foster effective collaborative problem solving in those settings.

In engineering education laboratories serve as experiential learning aimed at engaging students. The past decades saw an increased use of online laboratories, including virtual and remote labs. Remote labs, providing online interfaces to physical labs, allow students to conduct experiments with real-world equipment anywhere and at any time. However, this advantage challenges active student engagement. Little evidence is available on effective pedagogies for student engagement in remote labs. This paper aims to identify how a remote lab assignment based on active learning pedagogy in higher engineering education supports student engagement, with the overarching aim to promote students’ transfer skills from theory to practice. Our research question, “What impact does an active learning pedagogy have on students’ engagement with a remote lab?“, was answered with a case study of two courses on systems and control in higher engineering education. Data included digital traces, course evaluations, interviews, and observations. Students reported how remote labs, to be used anywhere at any time, require self-regulation and scheduling of experiments. However, accompanying open-ended lab assignments encouraged students to engage with the lab and the theoretical content of the course by creating a ‘need-to-know.’ Our results furthermore suggest the need for a structured arrangement of open-ended lab assignment, lab preparation, teamwork supporting peer learning and discussion, progress meetings focused on feedback and formative assessment, and reports focused on reflection. Engagement can be strengthened by support for students before and during the experiments, clear signposting about the experiment and lab set-up, and pre-structuring of lab activities.

This special issue presents recent work of virtual-, remote- or web-based laboratories in higher education. The special issue shows a large variety of online laboratories with different technical and educational approaches from around the world, all from the fields of technical or engineering education. All included articles describe the design of their online laboratories in the respective specific educational context and use empirical data to showcase the effectiveness or efficiency of the laboratory and the educational value of the laboratory in the respective context. For example, authors answer questions like “Is the laboratory effective, and does the design support learners to reach the intended learning goals of the online laboratory?” The design case studies do not rely on subjective learner views but use quantitative or qualitative research methods such as surveys, interviews, and guided observations to assess, evaluate, or improve the online laboratory design. The articles span domain fields from online laboratories in medical and dental education as well as engineering education to otherwise less discussed fields like the field of aviation.

The articles included in this Special Issue demonstrate the considerable diversity in both online laboratory approaches, encompassing technologies and implemented pedagogical approaches, as well as the range of educational research methods employed. Given the varying technical and educational contexts, it is crucial to employ distinct assessment frameworks to evaluate these approaches effectively. In line with this perspective, this editorial aims to not only summarize the Special Issue inclusions but also contribute to the discourse and research on virtual labs by introducing and examining a highly adaptable heuristic-based methodology for evaluating educational settings such as online laboratories.

Cheating in online exams without face-to-face proctoring has been a general concern for academic instructors during the crisis caused by COVID-19. The main goal of this work is to evaluate the cost of these dishonest practices by comparing the academic performance of webcam-proctored students and their unproctored peers in an online gradable test. With this aim in mind, we carried out a randomized field experiment using a simple video surveillance system through Google Meet during an online closed-book final exam of an Introduction to Microeconomics course. Given that all conditions except for webcam monitoring were identical, differences in between-subjects scores are attributed to academic dishonesty. After controlling for potential confounding factors, including gender, academic degree, instructor, previous score and whether students were repeaters or not, we found that those students who were proctored via webcam obtained statistically significant lower scores in the final exam than those who were not using this surveillance system with a low level of invasiveness. Inspection of the potential factors behind these differences in scores suggests that the poorer performance of proctored students is more related to academic dishonesty than to reasons involving anxiety or heterogeneity factors.

Use of online video lectures is increasingly common. However, students may struggle to self-regulate their attention and passively process the content. This study examined whether, and for whom, different types of embedded learning prompts improve student learning from video lectures. Undergraduate physics students (N = 253) watched an online, asynchronous physics lecture video as part of their course content. Students were randomly assigned to receive embedded cognitive prompts, metacognitive prompts, or a no-prompt control condition during the video, then took a quiz. A subset of students also reported perceived cognitive load after the video. Overall, students who received cognitive prompts exhibited higher quiz scores than students in the control condition. Scores in the metacognitive prompt condition did not differ from those of either other condition, demonstrating a middling effect. Perceived cognitive load did not differ between conditions. A subset of students additionally completed measures of individual differences in study approaches and metacognitive skills. Students who reported having more disorganized study approaches benefited the most from cognitive prompts. Individual differences in surface/deep processing approaches and metacognitive skills did not interact with prompt condition. These findings detail a simple intervention to increase cognitive engagement during online lectures while not increasing the reported mental effort required. These prompts may be most effective for students who otherwise have difficulty organizing their study time.

Institutions of higher education are interested in supporting the academic success of their students in the most effective ways possible. Increasingly, this means engaging students in a blend of both online and in-person learning activities as well as connecting students with supportive communities in both modalities. This research explores the efforts of an institution that is trying to create positive post-secondary learning experiences for thousands of adults who have experienced significant barriers to accessing higher education through traditional routes. Students around the world are supported through both online and local, in-person communities created to support their academic engagement. In this study we used social network analysis to examine and compare the influence of both in-person and online support communities on student affective and cognitive engagement. We also compared the strength of engagement support from peers, teachers, and personal family/friend networks. We found significant differences in the strength, frequency, and type of support offered by the online and in-person aspects of the program as well as in the students’ self-reported engagement and enjoyment between the two modalities. While in-person communities in this context had the greatest impact on both blended and in-person student engagement, the online community also had a significant effect on student engagement. This research adds to the blended learning literature by illustrating that course communities are not only distinguished based on time and actors, but also by modality. Support communities that occur in blended and online contexts affect student engagement in different, and often complementary, ways.