The digital age has changed how we communicate, inform ourselves, and even how we teach and learn. This study systematically analyses and compares the perspectives of university academics (N = 75) and university students (N = 206) from the field of teacher education on digitized teaching and learning. In a between-subjects design, participants of both groups were asked for their perspectives on dealing with digital media (i.e., general assessment of digital media, use of different media types and the role of digital media in university courses). Furthermore, they were asked for their own and their anticipated perspectives of each other, in particular, their assumed advantages of using digital media in university teaching. In sum, the findings indicate that it might be fruitful for university academics and students to exchange their views on the use of digital media for teaching and learning in higher education.

Massive open online courses are increasingly popular. One characteristic of most massive open online courses is that they are offering educational contents to masses of different individual learners. At the same time, a particular challenge for the individual learner could be the massiveness of such courses, that is, that one is part of a large crowd of other learners. Being one of many other individuals can have negative consequences on learning activities because an individual might experience a sense of virtual crowding. The experiment described in this article investigated how course type (xMOOC vs virtual seminar) and relevance of individual participation (low vs high) impact online learners’ engagement. Results showed that participants in an xMOOC condition referred to themselves and their peers to a greater extent when their participation was introduced as being highly relevant. Implications for the design of xMOOCs are discussed.

If learning materials are presented in either a conversational or formal language style, people will process them differently. This study reports an experiment in which 64 high school students watched an educational video in a massive open online course scenario in which the instructions were phrased either conversationally or formally.The video demonstrated and explained the psychological McGurk effect. After watching the video, participants performed a transfer task. Learning outcomes were assessed and answers were analysed by using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count.Results showed better learning outcomes for participants in the conversational (vs. formal) condition. Participants in the formal (vs. conversational) condition referred more to others in their answers. Implications for the design of massive open online courses are discussed.

No abstract