The current learning environment is substantially different than what existed for most of the 20th century. Learners and teachers today must navigate in perpetually changing contexts where education is influenced by technological advancement and obsolescence, economic barriers, a changing employment landscape, and even international politics. Studies indicate that employers seek to hire graduates with strong skills in areas coalescing around international awareness, creativity, communication, leadership, and teamwork. Skills and experiences in these areas are necessary preparation for the current economy and to pursue jobs that do not exist yet, while providing some insulation against the obsolescence of industries that lack these characteristics. These interpersonal skills are not often the subject of students’ degrees, yet there are opportunities in online education to cultivate them. With increased interest in new career options comes the need to reconsider how to teach subjects in the increasingly online environment. Advancing Online Course Design and Pedagogy for the 21st Century Learning Environment is a critical reference book that navigates today’s dynamic education requirements and provides examples of how online learning can foster growth in skill areas necessary for career advancement through effective course design. Moreover, it helps educators gain insight into online pedagogy and course design for the 21st century learner and prepares them to convert traditional courses and enhance existing online courses, thereby supporting students’ growth and development in the highly dynamic online learning environment. Focusing on specific learning activities, assessments, engagement, communication techniques, and more, this book provides a valuable resource for those seeking to upgrade teaching and learning into the online environment, those that seek better employment outcomes for their students, and those seeking to explore contemporary online course design strategies or examples. This includes teachers, instructional designers, curriculum developers, academicians, researchers, and students.

Emerging technologies are becoming more prevalent in global classrooms. Traditional literacy pedagogies are shifting toward game-based pedagogy, addressing 21st century learners. Therefore, within this context there remains a need to study strategies to engage learners in meaning-making with some element of virtual design. Technology supports the universal design learning framework because it can increase the access to meaningful engagement in learning and reduce barriers. The Handbook of Research on Acquiring 21st Century Literacy Skills Through Game-Based Learning provides theoretical frameworks and empirical research findings in digital technology and multimodal ways of acquiring literacy skills in the 21st century. This book gains a better understanding of how technology can support leaner frameworks and highlights research on discovering new pedagogical boundaries by focusing on ways that the youth learn from digital sources such as video games. Covering topics such as elementary literacy learning, indigenous games, and student-worker training, this book is an essential resource for educators in K-12 and higher education, school administrators, academicians, pre-service teachers, game developers, researchers, and libraries.

Even though digital technologies are ubiquitous in education, assessment methods continue to employ traditional assessments even though they are inadequate to provide information about a student's reasoning and conceptual understanding. Digital-based assessment models allow students to demonstrate higher-order skills while integrating digital technologies as a powerful teaching tool. Digital technologies can support inquiry-based learning that is essential to developing a deep conceptual understanding of the content. The Handbook of Research on Digital-Based Assessment and Innovative Practices in Education identifies digital tools and applications for effective assessment of learning, shares various models of digital-based assessment in education, and considers best pedagogical practices for assessment in education. Covering a range of topics such as formative assessments, design thinking, virtual reality, and equity, this major reference work is crucial for educational technologists, instructional designers, policymakers, administrators, faculty, researchers, academicians, scholars, practitioners, instructors, and students.

The term learning analytics is used in the context of the use of analytics in e-learning environments. Learning analytics is used to improve quality. It uses data about students and their activities to provide better understanding and to improve student learning. The use of learning management systems, where the activity of the students can be easily accessed, potentiated the use of learning analytics to understand their route during the learning process, help students be aware of their progress, and detect situations where students can give up the course before its completion, which is a growing problem in e-learning environments. Advancing the Power of Learning Analytics and Big Data in Education provides insights concerning the use of learning analytics, the role and impact of analytics on education, and how learning analytics are designed, employed, and assessed. The chapters will discuss factors affecting learning analytics such as human factors, geographical factors, technological factors, and ethical and legal factors. This book is ideal for teachers, administrators, teacher educators, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the use of big data and learning analytics for improved student success and educational environments.

Digital content and learning technologies are now the norm at all levels of education. However, there is evidence to suggest that this digital shift is on a spectrum and the spectrum impacts learners in different ways. This means that some instructors who seek to integrate digital content may do so using traditional teaching methods while others use innovative practices to engage learners. Those who integrate innovative digital practices align their instructional practice with theories to facilitate student-centered pedagogies that support and improve the depth and scope of student learning. A primary characteristic of student-centered learning is facilitating collaborative learning using digital content and learning technologies to engage students as well as to enhance meaningful learning. The Handbook of Research on Facilitating Collaborative Learning Through Digital Content and Learning Technologies provides K-20 educators with alternative pedagogical and andragogical models that are innovative and incorporate digital content and learning technologies that promote constructive learning. Further, this book explores the relationship between constructivist learning, digital content, and learning technologies. A primary argument in this book is that constructivist teaching strategies such as collaborative learning coupled with digital content and purposeful learning technologies could benefit student learning in ways that are different from those practiced in traditional, non-digital learning environments. Covering topics such as instructional design, self-efficacy, and library engagement, this major reference work is an essential resource for pre-service teachers, teacher educators, faculty and administrators of K-20 education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

The potential to integrate augmented reality into educational settings has led to the development of myriad programs for implementing these transformative technologies into education. However, the transformative learning processes possible for learners can best be developed through integration in immersive virtual learning environments. The integration of augmented reality (AR) technologies into education involves matching the potential of AR with the most effective instructional model for immersing learners in the learning process. With current research focused heavily on blended or online learning, augmented reality fits right into the new technologies and trends that are being developed and utilized on a consistent basis. There is a need for research that provides detailed curriculum guides, templates for designing virtual worlds, evaluation processes, and immersive learning procedures that can be utilized to provide the best educational environment for student success. Implementing Augmented Reality Into Immersive Virtual Learning Environments provides current research for the integration of transformative new technologies into multiple educational settings. Examining the why, what, and how of integrating augmented reality into immersive virtual learning technologies, this book covers various educational settings, such as nursing education, sports coaching, language education, and more. While highlighting the benefits for virtual reality, its role in remote learning, the logistics of simulation, and branches of it such as gamification, this book is ideally intended for teachers, school administrators, teacher educators, practitioners, IT specialists, educational software developers, researchers, academicians, and students interested in integrating augmented reality in educational programs.

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened awareness of the need for social emotional learning throughout all educational contexts. Given this, schools, most often P-12 settings, have begun to embrace practices for addressing social emotional learning. While there is a growing body of research and literature on common practices of social emotional learning, there is no standard for its implementation. Exploring Social Emotional Learning in Diverse Academic Settings highlights unique and varied approaches to addressing social emotional learning and wellbeing in educational settings. It features a broad perspective on the topic, presenting approaches from a range of educational locations and contexts. Covering topics such as personal empowerment, academic challenges, and teacher stress, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for administrators and educators of both P-12 and higher education, school counselors, government officials, pre-service teachers, teacher educators, librarians, researchers, and academicians.