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Improving Outcomes for Non-Traditional Students in Online Distance Higher Education: A Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study
Online distance higher education (ODHE) has significantly expanded opportunities for participation in university study, enabling access for learners who may previously have been excluded from traditional higher education pathways. Many of these learners come from non-traditional backgrounds, including working-class or lower socio-economic status (SES) groups and students with lower prior educational attainment. While widening participation…
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Can low-risk introductory courses help solve adult learner retention problems in UK Further Education?
Technology, and more recently, the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, has prompted calls for an urgent need for adults to engage in lifelong learning and reskill to keep pace with technological advancements (Husomanovic, 2025). For adults in the UK, the primary avenues used for reskilling are Further Education and Higher Education. In the 2023/24 academic year, Further Education had 3,110,815 participants and Higher Education had 2,991,100 participants (UK Government, 2025). Both…
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Evaluating WhatsApp Usage for Equitable Academic Engagement at University of Kabianga
Background: The widespread adoption of WhatsApp for academic purposes in higher education institutions across sub-Saharan Africa has outpaced institutional policy frameworks, creating both opportunities for enhanced communication and challenges related to equity, professionalism, and pedagogical effectiveness. This study investigates the use of WhatsApp for academic engagement among undergraduate students and lecturers at the University of Kabianga (UoK), a…
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AI Ready? Measuring AI Literacy Readiness in Canadian K‑12 Teachers
This presentation will begin by introducing the global need for primary and secondary teacher AI literacy training and why specifically teachers in British Columbia (BC), Canada need these skills. It will discuss a research proposal on how to improve teacher AI readiness capabilities through a targeted six-week online AI literacy for teachers. The project would aim to answer: How does participation in a course on artificial intelligence literacy measurably improve K-12 BC teachers’ AI readiness? The proposed project could be used as a potential case study for…
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Blended MOOC Impact on Jamaican Teachers’ Demonstrated STEM Competency
Rationale Integrated STEM education is widely recognised as an effective approach for developing students’ problem-solving, critical thinking, and innovation skills required for the twenty-first century (Honey, Pearson and Schweingruber, 2014; Bybee, 2013). In Jamaica, the National Standards Curriculum (NSC) promotes interdisciplinary and inquiry-based learning through an integrated STEM approach (Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, 2016). However, research indicates that many primary and secondary teachers experience…
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Overcoming Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety using Immersive Virtual Reality
Foreign language speaking anxiety (FLSA) is a widely experienced phenomenon when learning a new language, characterised by the feeling of apprehension and fear when attempting to communicate (Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope, 1986). Rather than being a necessary discomfort of the learning process, many studies have identified this anxiety as having a negative impact on language learning achievement (Gardner et al., 1976; Krashen,…
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Keep tablets within young children’s reach: Promoting agency through digital learning
Technology is a contentious and emotive area within early years (EY) education, with variable teacher engagement. This is due to concerns such as pedagogical validity, safeguarding, and young children’s screen use (Bird and Edwards, 2016; Plowman, 2020; Vasconcellos, 2024). The removal of statutory EY technology teaching requirements in 2021 creates further complexity (Joines, 2024). This…
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Embedding AI-powered Assistive Technologies in inclusive Refugee Camp education: Pedagogical and Policy Frameworks for Equity and Engagement
Refugee education in camps such as Kakuma and Dadaab in Kenya faces persistent challenges of overcrowding, limited infrastructure, stigmatization, and inadequate teacher preparedness, leaving children, particularly those with disabilities, marginalized and excluded from meaningful learning opportunities. While global frameworks such as UNHCR’s Education Strategy 2030 and UNESCO’s ICT in Education agenda emphasize inclusion, current research offers limited insight into…
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Performing Behind the Screen: Student Nurses’ Experiences of Emotional Labour
Background This scholarship project uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore the experiences of emotional labour among undergraduate student nurses participating in synchronous online tutorials. The project is theoretically informed by Hochschild’s (1983) conceptualisation of emotional labour and is situated within a Communities of Practice (CoP) framework (Lave and Wenger, 1991). The concept of CoP informed the…