This paper examines international students’ intercultural experiences during an online course on global media education that was co-organised in 2021 and 2022 by universities in Lapland, Finland and Hong Kong, China. The COVID-19 pandemic started an exponential ascent for teaching and learning in online environments. This is likely to continue in the globalising post-pandemic world, in which the participants are becoming increasingly international and from diverse backgrounds. For positive online intercultural encounters, online pedagogies that enhance intercultural understanding and the development of intercultural communication skills are needed. Through a content analysis of the students’ learning diaries, this paper investigates the ways in which cultural diversity was experienced during online teaching and learning and how the students’ perceptions and cultural sensitivity developed during the courses. The findings are reflected in the five pillars of the online pedagogical framework, which is then expanded to encompass the dimension of intercultural communication to support the development of intercultural sensitivity and interrelationships among students. We propose a pedagogical model for online teaching and learning in intercultural contexts that can support equity and quality in e-learning, or so-called e-quality. This paper concludes by recommending international collaborative teaching in authentic situations for the promotion of intercultural understanding and communication. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The COVID-19 pandemic posed novel challenges to language teachers and learners, as 'emergency remote teaching' became a necessity in order for teachers and learners to isolate from one another. Much has already been written about the nature of those challenges and language teachers' response to them, which response frequently made use of video-conferencing technology like Zoom in order to facilitate remote interaction, teaching and learning. The existing work has focused heavily on teacher experiences, including the kinds of strategies and competencies that teachers made use of when 'doing' synchronous online learning. However, much less work has examined the student experience. In addition, one challenge consistently identified in the literature is that of fostering meaningful interaction and engagement. In this viewpoint article, we apply the concept of 'virtual distance' to the activity of project-based learning taking place at a university in Hong Kong and mediated by digital technologies as part of emergency remote teaching. We report on the emergence of a socio-technical divide in one particular student team and teacher strategies that tend to bridge the divide. We offer suggestions on how the lessons learned from this experience can inform project-based learning in the post-pandemic future. Copyright © 2023 SAGE Publications.

The adoption of online learning approach in education is becoming more popular around the world to overcome the time and spatial barriers of traditional face-to-face learning. The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the normality of learning and avoiding face-to-face activities is one tactic to minimise the spread of COVID-19. This study investigated the perception of online learning from students' and teachers' perspectives compared to traditional face-to-face learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten focus group interviews were conducted, nine of which involved fifty-five students, while the remaining one involved eight full-time teachers. All informants were recruited from two Hong Kong tertiary educational institutions: the Hong Kong Community College, and the School of Professional Education and Executive Development of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The Community of Inquiry model and Pedagogy-driven, Learner-Centred, Objective-Oriented and Technology-Enable model were adopted as a framework to analyse students' and teachers' perceptions of social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence. Qualitative content analysis indicated that teacher-student and student–student interactions were the biggest challenge in online learning, and this affected the acquisition and application of knowledge in terms of cognitive presence. Other factors such as personality, learning environment, and technical skills affected the perception of both online and face-to-face learning. Copyright © 2023 Springer Nature.

The COVID-19 global pandemic continues, and in Hong Kong numerous measures have been put in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus. One of the many facets of life that is being affected is education, with many face-to-face classes suspended and students having to go online for lessons. The virus continues to be active in the city, so our usual way of assisting secondary school students' character-building through visitation to elderly homes is restricted. Now we can only provide such service-learning in online mode. This paper explores how an online project helped adolescents in a boys' secondary school apply and adapt principles taught previously in their course dealing with positive character strengths such as kindness, love, social intelligence, gratitude, teamwork, and perseverance. Copyright © 2023 Routledge.

Colleges around the world have adopted emergency online learning to continue with teaching and learning activities during COVID-19. Existing research has indicated that this teaching mode is perceived negatively by many college students. The difficulty students encounter in emergency online learning can adversely affect their mental health and academic performance. To shed further light on how emergency online learning may have impeded college students' academic functioning and adjustment, this study examined the association between online learning stress and academic coping and the mediating roles of academic self-efficacy and academic hope. It was conducted in early 2021, a year after the outbreak of the pandemic. Ninety-nine Chinese college students in Hong Kong were recruited and they completed an online questionnaire for this study. Results showed that online learning stress was negatively associated with approach academic coping and social support seeking, and the associations were mediated by academic hope. On the other hand, online learning stress was positively associated with avoidance academic coping, which was not mediated by academic hope. The mediation effects of academic self-efficacy were all non-significant. In sum, college students used more passive and maladaptive coping to handle academic problems when they experienced more online learning stress, and this was partly explained by lower levels of academic hope. Copyright © 2023 Taylor & Francis.

Synchronous online teaching through video-conferencing software (VCS) has become a common mode of instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. This mode brings unique challenges for teachers that require specific professional digital competences. One such challenge is conducting formative assessment. Through the use of in-depth interviews with nine Hong Kong university teachers who had taught synchronously online for one semester, this exploratory study explored the challenges of conducting formative assessment during synchronous online lessons and the strategies teachers deploy to conduct formative assessment. The findings indicate that the key difficulties include gathering information on students' needs, checking students' understanding, giving individual feedback, and building relationships with students. To address these challenges, the teachers suggested four pedagogical strategies: (1) Combine synchronous with asynchronous approaches; (2) Utilise breakout rooms; (3) Utilise poll functions of the VCS and combine it with other online platforms; and (4) Provide time before or after lessons for informal conversations. The findings suggest that teachers need to develop specific pedagogical strategies to conduct formative assessment. This provides an initial conceptualisation of one important dimension of Professional Digital Competence, teaching using digital technologies, and one aspect of that dimension, how teachers use digital tools and strategies to conduct formative assessment. Copyright © 2023 Taylor & Francis.

Following the increasing use of online learning among academic institutions worldwide, this study examined the relationships between enjoyment of study, study engagement, learning performance, and informal learning. Based on the intrinsic motivation theory, enjoyment of study is posited to motivate students to engage in their studies and affects their learning performance. In this study, study engagement was used as a mediator between enjoyment of study, learning performance, and informal learning. Data were collected from 137 undergraduate students in a Hong Kong university who participated in online learning for an academic semester. The results indicated that enjoyment of study and study engagement were positively related to learning performance and informal learning. Study engagement partially and fully mediated the relationships of enjoyment of study with learning performance and informal learning, respectively. Theoretical and practical implications for enjoyment of study in online learning are discussed. Copyright © 2023 University of the West Indies Open Campus.

This exploratory study aimed to examine university teachers' conceptions and articulation of care amidst online teaching. The pandemic-initiated sudden changes to online platform-based teaching and consequently caused many teachers to critically reflect on those affective and relational behaviors and interactions that are possible during physically-embodied pedagogy, but that are either no longer possible or even undesirable online. This has resulted in a research gap that we feel this study addresses, by drawing on the reflections and experiences of nine caring academic and teaching staff in a Hong Kong public university. Thematic analysis of these reflections relating to the practice of, and barriers to, care emphasised the overarching theme of the centrality of presence about, and for, students. This overarching theme was complemented by two sub-themes relating to 'lacking physical presence as a barrier to care' and 'building an online presence for articulation of care'. On the basis of these exploratory findings, we offer preliminary arguments relating to a caring pedagogical approach underpinned by a deepening of presence and learning collaboration. This paper, we argue, adds to the body of knowledge in the under-researched area of teacher care amidst online teaching, and suggests a future theorisation of online care within higher education pedagogy. Copyright © 2023 Taylor & Francis.

This study investigated how the acceptance and use of self-regulatory strategies in online learning affected Hong Kong secondary school students' participation in online learning. A self-reported questionnaire was distributed to 1381 students from six secondary schools. Findings of the descriptive analysis indicated that students did not frequently use most types of online self-regulatory strategies. Although they agreed that the online learning methods were easy to use and facilitated learning, they did not actively participate in online learning activities and showed a low tendency to continuation. Further, structural equation modeling indicated that the effect of strategy use on actual participation was stronger than that of user acceptance. The former had a significant indirect effect on actual participation through the strong effect it had on user acceptance. Consequently, suggestions have been made for improving the instructional design of online learning and increasing students' willingness and readiness to participate in online learning. Copyright © 2023 Springer.

This study analyzed the variation in teachers’ mathematical educational values between distance and traditional face-to-face teaching. Enabled by the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, the research explored the impact of remote teaching on primary and secondary mathematics education in Hong Kong. An online survey, completed by 109 practicing mathematics teachers, assessed their pre-existing educational values and their adaptability to the shift towards distance teaching, as well as their teaching practices. Findings indicated that despite the multitude of digital teaching tools, the implementation of most mathematical educational values was more restricted in distance teaching. Rationalism and Control were prioritized, reflecting the challenges of assessing student progress remotely. Among the 13 values identified, Fun and Engagement, along with Thinking and Problem-solving, Achievement, and Reasoning, were significantly diminished, highlighting the shortcomings of one-way and superficial concept-based teaching. The study concludes that distance teaching, when completely isolated from traditional methods, may not offer the benefits suggested in the literature, impacting student engagement, motivation, and higher-order thinking. This necessitates a unique curriculum development model to effectively incorporate blended and self-directed learning. Copyright © 2023 Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Inc.