Open educational resources (OER) have the potential to significantly impact the landscape of higher education. However, many users of OER find it difficult to adopt programmatically due to the barriers of awareness, quality assurance, institutional culture, and sustainability. This case study of the successful adoption of OER in an education department serves as a look into the conditions and practices that allowed for the promotion, continued use, and significant production of open educational resources. Six faculty members in the department were interviewed about their experiences with OER. The results indicate that the climate, technology, and opportunity costs surrounding tenure and promotion were key factors in the faculty’s experience with acting on their inclinations toward openness.

This dialogue with D. Randy Garrison and Stefan Stenbom revisits the foundational Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework in the context of rapid digital transformation and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Originally conceived for text-based online learning, the framework’s core elements—Social, Cognitive, and Teaching Presence—remain robust guides for fostering deep, collaborative learning in today’s complex multimodal and multilayered environments. The conversation explores how these presences manifest differently across various media, acknowledging that while indicators may evolve, the underlying structure remains constant. A central theme is the integration of AI, viewed primarily as a tool capable of augmenting human roles within the existing CoI structure. AI can support teaching presence tasks, simulate social cues, and even assist cognitive processes, but rather than constituting a new presence, it highlights the robustness and adaptability of the existing model in accommodating new technologies. However, maintaining the authenticity of community and safeguarding genuine emotional connection in AI-rich environments are critical challenges. The conversation highlights the potential risk of AI flattening inquiry into mere information assimilation if not implemented thoughtfully. Ultimately, the CoI framework is presented as an essential guide, emphasising the preservation of human agency, critical reflection, and collaborative meaning-making as core educational purposes, even as technology advances. The need to deliberately slow down inquiry for reflection in fast-paced, AI-driven contexts is further stressed.

This study aims to explore the intersection of Blended Learning (BL) and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) to uncover how these critical educational concepts are addressed in academic literature. The BL model, which combines face-to-face and online learning, has the potential to reduce educational inequalities, promote diverse perspectives, and create inclusive environments. EDI principles focus on ensuring equitable access, diversity, and inclusion in education. Using bibliometric and content analysis, this study examines how BL and EDI are reflected in academic contexts, based on 89 articles from the Web of Science database. The analysis focuses on thematic trends, methodologies, theoretical frameworks, and the role of EDI within BL. We identified five themes: digital accessibility, inclusive pedagogical practices, cultural and gender diversity, and technology integration. Bibliometric analysis highlighted leading authors, influential articles, and emerging research trends, demonstrating the interdisciplinary and dynamic nature of BL and EDI. The findings emphasize BL’s potential to address challenges related to EDI, such as reducing digital divides and supporting disadvantaged groups. However, existing barriers, including limited digital access and technological infrastructure, constrain inclusivity. The study underscores the need for policy frameworks and educational practices that prioritize EDI principles. It also highlights the importance of adopting innovative approaches in the design and implementation of BL environments. Overall, BL can serve as a powerful tool to advance diversity and inclusion goals in education, but realizing this potential fully requires sustained research efforts, global collaboration, and targeted interventions.

Student retention is evidently low in Open and Distance Educational (ODE) institutions. This study comprehensively analyzes the student retention patterns and demotivational challenges of ODE systems. The registered students of the Bachelor of Science degree program of the faculty of natural sciences of the Open University of Sri Lanka, was chosen as the sample of this study. The data revealed the lowest student retention in the first year (level 3) courses (65–75%) compared to the higher-level courses (92–95%). The online questionnaire survey showed that 35% of persistent students felt demotivated at some point. Using a Likert scale, students rated 44 potential demotivational factors based on the degree of the influence on their demotivation. The top three demotivational factors were: 1) packed semesters, 2) low flexibility in the program, and 3) social and political disappointment. Further, several other statistically significant relationships were identified: 1) Female students (70% of the sample) are significantly affected by the low flexibility of the program compared to their male counterparts 2) The married (27%) and employed (60%) students were significantly demotivated by the external factors related to job and family commitments and life crises. 3) 70% of the students who selected Tamil as the study language during the first year were severely demotivated due to their inadequate competency in the second language (English). Based on the findings, we suggest improving the flexibility of the academic activities, especially in the first year, to increase the satisfaction of the persistent students. Further, implementing a less rigorous academic schedule may reduce academic burden and enhance retention.

This review of Critical Digital Pedagogy in Higher Education by Carlos Eduardo Flores Moreno explores the different sections and chapters presented in the book: “Shared Learning and Trust”, that focuses on alternative teaching methods; “Critical consciousness”, that focuses on the use of digital tools for critical thinking; “Change”, focusing on the potential of technology in education; “Hope”, focusing on how technologies can be used to improve society as a whole. The authors focused on different perspectives, mainly founded on Critical Thought and Social Justice, to bring new methodologies and interpretations on how to use technology in education, moving away from hegemonic populations and traditional methods, while considering the social issues that many minoritized groups suffered, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article explores the role of self-efficacy in distance education. We argue that self-efficacy in distance education needs to be considered in terms of dimensions different from face-to-face education. Based on our literature review, we highlight three critical dimensions of self-efficacy in distance education: academic, learning, and social. To evaluate our framework, we surveyed students enrolled in six bachelor’s programs at a Distance University of Applied Sciences in Germany to measure the dimensions and evaluate their interrelationships. Our findings reveal that each of the three dimensions of self-efficacy contains unique characteristics. Regarding the academic dimension, we found that writing a thesis is the most challenging task for students regarding self-efficacy. Interestingly, there was a strong correlation between students’ self-efficacy in academic competence and their self-efficacy in problem-solving and confidence in completing their study program. Regarding the learning dimension, we found that self-efficacy in time management is crucial, as it affects all other items in this domain. Although there was no strong correlation in the social dimension, it is worth further exploring the self-efficacy in private support and resilience. A regression analysis indicates that demographic factors influence social self-efficacy, particularly semester and gender, with higher semesters and female students exhibiting lower values. When questioning students on desired support during their study, they expressed a need for subject-related assistance and more opportunities to interact with peers. In conclusion, our framework provides valuable insights into self-efficacy in distance education and emphasises the need to consider the different dimensions contributing to the concept’s complexity.

This study investigates the following research questions in the Canadian and US contexts: 1) To what extent do those working at post-secondary institutions expect the future of post-secondary education to change over the next five years? 2) Do they feel ready for the changes that the future might bring? 3) Are they feeling optimistic or pessimistic about the future? In Spring 2023, Bay View Analytics and the Canadian Digital Learning Research Association (CDLRA) conducted US and Canadian survey studies to address these questions. Overall, the findings from both countries suggest that those working in post-secondary education expect the future to be different from the present and rate themselves as somewhat ready for these changes. Feelings of optimism and pessimism vary by country and may be explained by contextual factors unique to the differences between Canadian and US culture and policies; however, the qualitative analysis did not reveal any distinctive reasons for such differences. Overall, the findings clearly indicate that post-secondary education is well-poised for further digital transformation in the near future.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly evolving field that is influencing every aspect of life. Generative AI (GenAI) as a sub-branch of AI is used to create content in various formats such as text, images, video, and audio. This paper discusses the implications of GenAI for Open Educational Practices (OEP), highlighting the potential affordances and challenges. GenAI can address the challenges within the OEP by leveraging openness and ethical use. GenAI’s “generative” nature and human-like language capability can provide resources such as course material, activities, examples, questions, assessment, and learning outcomes in the context of OEP. With machine learning and deep learning infrastructure, it can support the discoverability and accessibility of open resources by increasing the metadata quality. GenAI can automatically score student assignments, answer their questions, and provide instant feedback to address the lack of interaction and feedback that arises due to the large number of students, especially in massive open online courses (MOOC). On the other hand, GenAI brings challenges such as data privacy and security, copyright, biased outputs, and the generation of false information. The conclusions emphasize the importance of a nuanced approach that considers not only the advantages but also the risks associated with adopting GenAI in the OEP world. Researching and developing how to apply these technologies to education is important to shape the future of education.

This paper examines the experiences of a group of values education teachers who are studying in a customized scholarship and online graduate program under the Linking Standards and Quality Practice (LiSQuP) project in the Philippines. It aimed to explore the attitudes, benefits, and challenges encountered by the values education teachers by participating in the LiSQuP program. Embedded single case study research design was used, and qualitative content analysis was utilized for analyzing and interpreting the data. Recorded focus group interview, online survey documents, observations, and participatory contact were used to obtain the data from the 30 participants who are LiSQuP scholars and teachers of values education in the public schools of the Philippines. Based on the findings of the study, the following results were drawn: 1) The participants exhibited adaptive and positive attitude towards the LiSQuP program; 2) The participants benefited from the program in terms of professional and personal development; and 3) The participants struggled with various factors related to time, program design, and personal traits. The rewarding and challenging experiences of the participants in this study may inform the project management team and other higher education institutions with similar online programs to enhance opportunities for a more responsive and collaborative online learning community for diverse graduate distance learners.

The academic success of first-year students’ learning in science faculties is by no means assured, especially in an Open Distance Learning setting with its limited number of face-to-face encounters between students and lecturers or tutors. Therefore, such encounters should be highly efficient in view of the considerable amount of knowledge transfer to students. The University of South Africa (Unisa) makes provision for contact sessions of 15 hours per semester for selected modules in an attempt to elevate the pedagogical efficiency of these sessions by focusing on the threshold concepts as an innovative way of learning. This paper shows that tutorials adopting the threshold concepts approach have the potential to make students academically more successful. The focus of this study is an introductory information systems module that teaches the Python programming language. Our statistical analysis demonstrated that the year marks and final exam scores of the participating students were frequently higher than those of the students in the control group.