Call for Special Issue–Instructional Communication Competence and Instructor Social Presence: Enhancing Teaching and Learning in the Online EnvironmentCall for Special Issue–

The coronavirus pandemic mandated unexpected ‘instant transitions’ to remote learning and accelerated student demand for online courses. As a result, colleges and universities in the U.S. and around the world began and have continued to expand their online courses and degree programs. The online learning industry is projected to pass $370 billion by 2026 and one third of post-secondary school administrators indicate they will continue to offer both remote and online course options even after their campuses completely resume offering in-person, face-to-face courses. Students have demonstrated there is an increased demand for online courses as well. A national survey of 1,413 students, registered at U.S. higher education institutions in fall 2020 and spring 2021, said their experiences with learning remotely during the pandemic left them with a positive attitude toward online and hybrid courses. This increased interest calls attention to the need for more scholarly examination of online teaching and learning.

Despite calls for increased research into the contemporary pedagogical challenges and opportunities embedded in online education, research endeavors to date have been scattered across academic disciplines, localized in disciplinary silos, resulting in at least two shortcomings. First, much if not most research on how to enhance online teaching and learning tends to be more useful to particular academic areas of study. While those efforts are valuable to a given discipline, they don’t always address online pedagogical commonalities and challenges that cut across the silos. Second, the results of such studies typically are published in discipline-specific journals, so are not often read by a broader audience of researchers and teachers who might benefit from them. In reality, online education is now ubiquitous across higher education, across disciplines, and across institutional types. To address these two shortcomings, there is a need to engage in more multidisciplinary and international discussions and examinations of online education pedagogy that bridges disciplinary boundaries. Moreover, such scholarship needs to be more abundantly available to a wider audience in an open access format. Enter this collaborative Research Topic jointly hosted by Frontiers in Communication and Frontiers in Education: “Instructional Communication Competence and Instructor Presence: Enhancing Teaching and Learning in the Online Environment.”

The scope, breadth, and depth of contributions to this collection is broad and may include theoretical and reflection essays, as well as empirical and applied studies, using any established methodology. Submissions may focus on but not be limited to themes such as:

– critical challenges inherent in online education and instructional communication related to online pedagogy
– unique opportunities available in the online environment for enhancing teaching and learning
– discipline-specific approaches to online education potentially of value or interest across disciplines
– successful strategies for instructors transitioning from in-seat to online education
– recommendations and best practices for designing and developing online courses
– instructional methods for engaging students in online courses and online course content
– useful approaches to assessing student learning in the online environment.

To further clarify this scope, a tangible example may be useful. Presently, the editors of this Research Topic represent two separate areas of scholarly inquiry: the field of online education that studies a notion referred to as ‘instructor presence,’ and the field of instructional communication that studies the notion of ‘instructor immediacy.’ The substance of this Research Topic has emerged from collaborative discussions of these editors about their approaches to research about presence and immediacy in the online environment.

More details here: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/47567/instructional-communication-competence-and-instructor-social-presence-enhancing-teaching-and-learnin

Educational Technology & Society Call for papers for a Special Issue on Educational Design Research for Human Beings’ Learning Access – Centering Accessibility, Equity, and Inclusion

In an era when digital and immersive technologies surrounding human beings, inclusion, equity, and accessibility become a rising focus to serve and center human in education (Estes et al., 2020; Sulecio de Alvarez & Dickson-Deane, 2018). These can be expressed in ubiquitous technologies, such as captions in media (Downey, 2007) and with mobile devices to access MOOCs (Park et al., 2019). These can also be emerging technologies or special domain research, such as educational design research for participants with special needs or identity using technology in education. With the development of technologies and their evolving affordances, it is becoming crucially important to design and develop these products for life and learning with the needs of all human beings in mind, regardless of race, gender, age, identity expressions, ethnicity identity, socioeconomic status, and abilities.

This special issue invites papers on educational design research with focus on emerging technologies serving learners with special needs and diverse backgrounds of gender, race, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, identity expression, ability, and capability. Educational design research is defined as “the iterative development of solutions to practical and complex educational problems, and also provides the context for empirical investigation” (McKenney & Reeves, 2019, p. 6). With the iterative nature, educational design research papers in this special issue are anticipated to provide human-centered study and solution with an inclusive lens of novice types of research methods, research process, user or learner experience design, human-product and human-context interactions, product testing and evaluation, and their societal impacts.

This special issue solicits educational design research papers on emerging technologies, with foci on learning access, serving learners with special needs, enhancing their learning progress, and assessing learning with different tools and formats and in different contexts, centering inclusion. The design research can be at different development stages, ranging from needs and context analysis, learner/user experience, prototype design and development, to implementation and evaluation stage. However, empirical data or evidence at various testing stages (e.g., pilot testing, learner/user experience surveys, formative evaluation, summative evaluation) are strongly encouraged to be included to support the research. The goal of this special issue is to promote the educational research and development of special technologies and create equity and accessibility driven technology-facilitated educational environments.

Click here for more information

Guest Editors:

Xun Ge, Ph.D.

Professor, University of Oklahoma, USA

Juhong Christie Liu, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, James Madison University, USA

Zhe Li, Ph.D.

Research Faculty, University of Osaka, Japan

Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education

Provides a unique and comprehensive overview of ODDE in the age of digital transformation in education Offers an in-depth discussion on various issues related to ODDE from historical and cross-cultural perspectives Allows researchers, scholars and students to conduct their own research and learning agendas Provides free and unlimited access to all chapters as an open access publication.

This open access handbook offers a one-stop-shop for both new and established researchers, educators, policy makers and administrators in the field of open, distance and digital education (ODDE) to gain a comprehensive overview of the history, theory and practice at all levels of ODDE, and at the same time stimulates in-depth discussions on various themes and issues of ODDE for today and future. Researchers, scholars and students in the field of ODDE can use this handbook as a major reference to conduct their own research and learning agendas. To cover the field comprehensively, the handbook is structured following the 3M framework developed by one of the chief editors Zawacki-Richter. The 3M framework categorizes the major research areas and issues in ODDE on three levels. Accordingly, the handbook is divided into six sections in total, two section at each of the three levels: 1) Macro Level – ODDE Systems and Theories, 2) Meso Level – Institutional Perspectives, Management and Organization, and 3) Micro Level – Learning and Teaching in ODDE. This is an open access book.

https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-981-19-2080-6

Educational Technology Conferences 2022 & 2023

The following list was adapted from Clayton R. Wright’s Educational Technology and Education Conferences List #48. Please refer to Wright’s complete list for other conferences as well as each conference website for more details. Each year I attend AECT, AERA, and 1-2 other local or regional conferences. I use this list to identify what conferences I might attend. Thus, this list is focused on my research interests and/or convenient or interesting locations. Double-check each conference because some more are bound to be canceled.

DECEMBER 2022

JANUARY 2023

  • January 3-6, 2023 Hawaii International Conference on Education, 21st annual. (1,150+ attendees from 21 countries) Co-sponsored by Chaminade University of Honolulu, California State University East Bay, Drexel University, Pepperdine University, the University of Louisville, and the National Girls and Women of Color Council, Inc. The event will be held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, USA. http://www.hiceducation.org/
  • January 6-8, 2023 International Conference on Advances in Education and Information Technology (AEIT), 4th. Tokyo, Japan. http://www.aeit.net/
  • January 12, 2023 New Approaches to Teaching and Learning Conference. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, USA. https://instructionaldev.umassd.edu/annual-conference/
  • January 25-28, 2023 Higher Education Consortium for Special Education (HECSE) Exceptional Children Winter Summit, Embassy Suites DC Convention Center, Washington, D.C., USA. https://hecse.net/events/winter-summit-2/ or http://hecse.net/blog/upcoming-events/meetings/ or https://hecse.net/events/conference-meetings/
  • January 30-February 3, 2023 Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) Convention and Exposition, 42nd annual. (8,000 attendees, 450 exhibiting companies) Texas, USA. https://convention.tcea.org/
  • January 31-February 4, 2023 Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATiA) Conference. (3,200 attendees.) To be held online and at the Caribe Royale, Orlando, Florida, USA. https://www.atia.org/atia-2023/ 

FEBRUARY 2023

MARCH 2023

APRIL 2023

MAY 2023

JUNE 2023

JULY 2023

AUGUST 2023

  • August 2-3, 2023 Accessibility and Inclusion Online Conference. Organized by The Learning Guild (Formerly, the eLearning Guild). https://www.learningguild.com/online-conferences/content/5842/online-conferences-home
  • August 3-5, 2023 American Psychological Association (APA) Annual Convention, 131st. (The association has over 122,000 members.) Washington, D.C., USA. https://convention.apa.org/future-conventions
  • August 17-21, 2023 American Sociological Association (ASA), 118th. (4,600+ presenters, 3,000 research papers) Philadelphia Convention Center and Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. https://www.asanet.org/news-events/meetings or https://www.asanet.org/annual-meeting/future-meetings
  • August 21-22, 2023 National Disability Summit, 14th annual. (The purpose of the event is to discuss and review “the progress and initiatives in supporting people with disability and their families to maximise independence and participation by creating greater choice”.) To be delivered online and at the Crown Melbourne Hotel, Melbourne, Australia. https://www.informa.com.au/conferences/?pages=3 or https://www.informa.com.au/event/conference/policy-and-government/national-disability-summit/
  • August 21-22, 2023 European Educational Research Association (EERA) Emerging Researchers’ Conference. Glasgow, United Kingdom. https://eera-ecer.de/ecer-2023-glasgow/
  • August 22-25, 2023 European Educational Research Association (EERA) Conference: The Value of Diversity in Education and Educational Research. Organized by the European Educational Research Association (EERA). Hosted by the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom. https://eera-ecer.de/ecer-2023-glasgow/
  • August 22-26, 2023 European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction: Education as a Hope in Uncertain Times, 20th biennial. Hosted by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the University of Macedonia, Greece. To be held in Thessaloniki, Greece. https://www.earli.org/EARLI2023
  • August 28-September 1, 2023 Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE) Conference: Assistive Technology for Shaping a Sustainable and Inclusive Society, 17th. Paris, France. https://aaate.net/activities/conferences/ or https://icchp-aaate.org/
  • August 28-September 1, 2023 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACT): Design for Equality and Justice, 19th biennial. (“Increasingly computer science as a discipline is becoming concerned about issues of justice and equality – from fake news to rights for robots, from the ethics of driverless vehicles to the gamergate controversy.”) Organized by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). University of York, York, United Kingdom. https://interact2023.org/

SEPTEMBER 2023

OCTOBER 2023

NOVEMBER 2023

DECEMBER 2023

FEBRUARY 2024

  • February 18-21, 2024 Instructional Technology Council (ITC) eLearning Annual Conference. Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. https://www.itcnetwork.org/
  • February 26-28, 2024 Digital Learning Annual Conference (DLAC): Delivering on the Real Promise of Online, Hybrid and Digital Learning. Organized by the Evergreen Education Group based in Durango, Colorado, USA. To be held in Austin, Texas, USA. https://www.deelac.com/future-dlac-dates

MARCH 2024

MAY 2024

  • May 11-16, 2024 Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Conferenceof theAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM). Honolulu, Hawai’i, USA. https://sigchi.org/conferences/upcoming-conferences/
  • May 15-17, 2024 Stockholm International Conference of Research on Vocational Education and Training, 9th. (In 2022, the conference venue was the Viking Line’s M/S Gabriella cruise to Helsinki, Finland.) Stockholm, Sweden. https://stockholminternationalvet.com/

JULY 2024

AUGUST 2024

SEPTEMBER 2024

OCTOBER 2024

FEBRUARY 2025

  • February 24-26, 2025 Digital Learning Annual Conference (DLAC): Delivering on the Real Promise of Online, Hybrid and Digital Learning. Organized by the Evergreen Education Group based in Durango, Colorado, USA. Marriott Marquis, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. https://www.deelac.com/ or https://www.deelac.com/future-dlac-dates

MARCH 2025

OCTOBER 2025

  • October 27-29, 2025 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference. (“For higher education information technology professionals and technology providers from around the world”) To be held online and in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. https://events.educause.edu/3-year-event-calendar

JTILT SPECIAL ISSUE ON ACCESSIBILITY

The Journal of Technology-Integrated Lessons and Teaching is seeking lessons, activities, and other instructional materials used by educators in P-16+ contexts (and their international equivalents) regarding accessibility. Initial manuscripts are due January 8, 2023 with an expected publication date of June 2023. Visit the journal’s website to read the full announcement.