A great deal of research has documented that interactions among students or between students and instructors are key to student success in an online learning setting. However, very little research has been statistically and systematically conducted to examine online instructors’ conscious and effortful use of scaffolding strategies to promote interactions in online courses. The purpose of this research was to develop a scale assessing online instructors’ use of scaffolding strategies to promote interactions. More...

This study explored whether learning-related anxiety would negatively affect intention to persist with e-learning among students with visual impairment, and examined the roles of three online interactions in the relationship between learning-related anxiety and intention to persist with e-learning. For this study, a convenience sample of e-learning students with visual impairment was collected in Seoul, Korea over three weeks from November to December 2012. More...

This study investigated the impact of face-to-face contact sessions and online discussion forums on the academic performance of students at an Open Distance Learning (ODL) university (N = 1,015). t-Tests for independent samples indicated that students who attended a written assignment preparation contact session performed significantly better in the written assignment than those students who did not attend this contact session [t(813) = 4.64, p = 0.00]; students who attended an examination preparation contact session did not perform significantly better in the examination than those students who did not attend this contact session [t(892) = 1.12, p = 0.26]; while students who used an online discussion forum performed significantly better in the final examination than those students who did not use this forum [t(1,013) = 4.04, p = 0.00]. More...

The constant technological development in education, and the potentiality of the resources offered by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), are challenges faced by teaching institutions in Brazil, especially by those institutions, which by the very nature of their services intend to provide distance education courses. More...

Open Assessment of Learning (OAoL) is an emerging educational concept derived from the incorporation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to education and is related with the Open Education Movement. In order to improve understanding of OAoL a literature review was conducted as a meta-synthesis of 100 studies on ICT-based assessment published from 1995 to 2015, selected from well-established peer-reviewed databases. More...

This study aimed to investigate and classify faculty members’ instructional priorities for adopting OER. In-depth interview data were collected from 10 faculty members from different regions and analyzed with NVivo 10. The original supposition was that the well-established instructional priorities, effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal would apply. More...

Open Educational Resources (OER) have the potential to replace traditional textbooks in higher education.  Previous studies indicate that use of OER results in high student and faculty satisfaction, lower costs, and similar or better educational outcomes. In this case study, we compared students using traditional textbooks with those using OER at Tidewater Community College to compare their performance on what we call course throughput rates, which is an aggregate of three variables – drop rates, withdrawal rates, and C or better rates. More...

The paper explores the change process that university teachers need to go through in order to become fluent with Open Education approaches. Based on a literature review and a set of interviews with a number of leading experts in the field of Open Educational Resources and Open Education, the paper puts forward an original definition of Open Educator which takes into account all the components of teachers’ work: learning design, teaching resources, pedagogical approaches and assessment methods- of teachers’ activities. More...

IRRODL, The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning - Archives

2016
Vol 17, No 6 (2016)
Vol 17, No 5 (2016)
Vol 17, No 4 (2016)
Vol 17, No 3 (2016)
Vol 17, No 2 (2016)
Vol 17, No 1 (2016): Special Issue: Research Papers in Online Learning Performance and Behaviour

2015
Vol 16, No 6 (2015): Special Issue: Towards a European perspective on Massive Open Online Courses
Vol 16, No 4 (2015)
Vol 16, No 5 (2015): Special Issue: OER and MOOCs
Vol 16, No 3 (2015)
Vol 16, No 2 (2015)
Vol 16, No 1 (2015)

2014
Vol 15, No 6 (2014)
Vol 15, No 5 (2014): Special Issue: Research into Massive Open Online Courses
Vol 15, No 4 (2014)
Vol 15, No 3 (2014)
Vol 15, No 2 (2014)
Vol 15, No 1 (2014)

2013
Vol 14, No 5 (2013)
Vol 14, No 4 (2013)
Vol 14, No 3 (2013)
Vol 14, No 2 (2013): Special Issue - Open Educational Resources: Opening Access to Knowledge
Vol 14, No 1 (2013)

2012
Vol 13, No 5 (2012): Special Issue: Technology-Enhanced Information Retrieval for Online Learning
Vol 13, No 4 (2012)
Vol 13, No 3 (2012)
Vol 13, No 2 (2012)
Vol 13, No 1 (2012)

2011
Vol 12, No 7 (2011): Special Issue - Emergent Learning, Connections, Design for Learning
Vol 12, No 6 (2011)

2011
Vol 12, No 5 (2011)
Vol 12, No 4 (2011): Special Issue - Frontiers in Open and Distance Learning in the North
Vol 12, No 3 (2011): Special Issue - Connectivism: Design and Delivery of Social Networked Learning
Vol 12, No 2 (2011)
Vol 12, No 1 (2011): Special Issue - Prior, Experiential and Informal Learning in the Age of Information and Communication Technologies

2010
Vol 11, No 3 (2010)
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Vol 11, No 1 (2010)

2009
Vol 10, No 6 (2009)
Vol 10, No 5 (2009): Special Issue - Openness and the Future of Higher Education
Vol 10, No 4 (2009): Regional Focus Issue - Open and Distance Learning in Africa
Vol 10, No 3 (2009)
Vol 10, No 2 (2009): Regional Focus Issue - Learning Technologies in the Middle East
Vol 10, No 1 (2009)

2008
Vol 9, No 3 (2008)
Vol 9, No 2 (2008)
Vol 9, No 1 (2008): Special Issue - Role of Distance Learning in the Right to Education

2007
Vol 8, No 3 (2007)
Vol 8, No 2 (2007): Special Issue - Mobile Learning
Vol 8, No 1 (2007): Regional Focus Issue - Open and Distance Education in Asia

2006
Vol 7, No 3 (2006)
Vol 7, No 2 (2006)
Vol 7, No 1 (2006)

2005
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2005
Vol 6, No 1 (2005): Special Issue: Strategic Enterprises Down Under

2004
Vol 5, No 3 (2004)
Vol 5, No 2 (2004)
Vol 5, No 1 (2004): Special Issue: Low Cost Distance Education Strategies

2003
Vol 4, No 2 (2003)
Vol 4, No 1 (2003)

2002
Vol 3, No 2 (2002)
Vol 3, No 1 (2002)
Vol 2, No 2 (2002)

2001
Vol 2, No 1 (2001)
Vol 1, No 2 (2001)

2000
Vol 1, No 1 (2000). More...

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) were initiated in the early 2000s by certain leading American and European universities. An integral part of the MOOC philosophy has been to provide open access to online learning. Despite their potential advantages to local audiences, faculty and institutions, the number of MOOCs offered from low and middle income countries (LMICs) remains low. The intent of this paper is to provide a reflective perspective on a MOOC recently offered from an LMIC, namely, Pakistan. More...