By Laeed Zaghlami. The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has announced strict new rules for doctoral students who fail to submit their theses in the requisite four years after ministry figures revealed that over 1,000 PhD projects were outstanding – some for up to nine years. More...
University of Zimbabwe guns for top-10 status in Africa
By Tonderayi Mukeredzi. Zimbabwe’s flagship university has set its sights on being one of the top 10 universities on the African continent by the year 2020, according to its vice-chancellor. Students are less sanguine about its prospects, however. More...
Call for campus dress code triggers mixed response
By Ashraf Khaled. A call by Egyptian parliamentarians to enforce a dress code on university campuses has received mixed responses in the Middle Eastern country. Read more...
A Survey of the Collaboration Rate of Authors in the E-Learning Subject Area over a 10-Year Period (2005-2014)
Partnership is one of the mechanisms of scientific development, and scientific collaboration or co-authorship is considered a key element in the progress of science. This study is a survey with a scientometric approach focusing on the field of e-learning products over 10 years. In an Advanced Search of the Web of Science, the following search formula was used: TS=("m-learning" OR "mlearning" OR "mobile learning" OR "online learning" OR "virtual learning" OR "distance learning" OR "electronic learning"). More...
Student Voices on the Roles of Instructors in Asynchronous Learning Environments in the 21st Century
This paper determines which instructional roles and outputs are important in the 21st century from the perspective of students in asynchronous learning environments. This research work uses a literature review, in-depth interviews with experts, and a pilot study with students to define the instructors’ outputs. Following this, roles are determined by using a quantitative methodology (in a sample of 925 students). More...
Analysis of Time-on-Task, Behavior Experiences, and Performance in Two Online Courses with Different Authentic Learning Tasks
This paper reports the findings of a comparative analysis of online learner behavioral interactions, time-on-task, attendance, and performance at different points throughout a semester (beginning, during, and end) based on two online courses: one course offering authentic discussion-based learning activities and the other course offering authentic design/development-based learning activities. More...
A Study of the Priority of Roles and Competencies of Open University Tutors in China
This study aims to identify the priority of the roles and competencies of tutors working in the e-learning environments where the tutors are experiencing the changes brought by reforming traditional TV and broadcasting university to open universities. The mixed methods, DACUM, non-participatory observation, and questionnaires were used to identify the priority of the roles and competencies of tutors. More...
Using the Community of Inquiry Framework to Scaffold Online Tutoring
Tutoring involves providing learners with a suitable level of structure and guidance to support their learning. This study reports on an exploration of how to design such structure and guidance (i.e., learning scaffolds) in the Chinese online educational context, and in so doing, answer the following two questions: (a) What scaffolding strategies are needed to design online tutoring, and (b) How should different levels of scaffolding intensity be emphasized in different stages of online tutoring in such educational contexts. More...
Reaching Students in Online Courses Using Alternative Formats
This research was conducted to explore whether students enrolled in graduate level courses found some Universal Design for Learning (UDL) strategies useful and if they actually used them. The strategies we investigated were presenting course information in alternative formats including PowerPoints with voiceover, screencasts, and videos as an alternative to text resources. In addition, students were invited to submit assignments in alternative formats as well as text. More...
Networked Scholarship and Motivations for Social Media use in Scholarly Communication
Research on scholars’ use of social media suggests that these sites are increasingly being used to enhance scholarly communication by strengthening relationships, facilitating collaboration among peers, publishing and sharing research products, and discussing research topics in open and public formats. However, very few studies have investigated perceptions and attitudes towards social media use for scholarly communication of large cohorts of scholars at national level. More...