Motivation and Dropout Rates in Online Courses

In today’s society, our basic physiological and safety needs, as per Maslow’s hierarchy, are mostly satisfied. Consequently, it is challenging to argue that we are making decisions to attain a task or goal to fulfill our low-level needs. Instead, we seek to satisfy higher needs such as  (see, e.g., Uses and Gratification Theory ): Cognitive […]

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Understanding Collaborative Learning: Cognitive Mechanisms and Factors for Success

Rochelle and Tesley define collaborative learning as a “coordinated and synchronous activity that results from a continuous attempt to construct and maintain a shared conception of a problem.” This succinctly summarizes “two or more people’s attempts to learn something together.” Although these definitions are not conflicting, they shed light on different aspects of collaborative learning. […]

Towards an Ideal Blend

The onset of digitalization and information technologies has set a new stage for learners and educators alike. Today, addressing all learning preferences — on the spectrum of conventional in-person setting to digital online learning — remains a priority. Navigating this spectrum in a manner that takes advantage of both ends may be the ideal blended […]

Learning in Communities: Embracing our Social Nature

Humans are inherently social. We are accustomed to collaborating and learning from one another — to a narrower sense in small groups and to a broader sense in communities. Community of practice is formed when historical learning develops into an informal and dynamic social structure between participants who share a common interest and engage in […]

My journey towards open learning – sharing and openness (Topic 2)

The facade of my open learning journey started with open access publishing. This is perhaps one common ground for researchers and educators to understand the importance of open learning and sharing. The basic principle that underpins innovation and knowledge is the availability of existing knowledge to be accessible to anyone who wishes to scrutinize it […]

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Enhanching engagement in an online teaching environment

In this blog post I reflect on what I have learned about creating engaging online activities for synchronous  learning. For those who might not be that familiar with the concept of synchronous learning, it means that students are required to log in and participate in class at a specific time each week as compared to […]