The COVID-19 outbreak in late 2019 required a complete shift to online learning across all educational institutions, including universities. The rapid transition to online learning globally meant that many educators were suddenly tasked with adapting their classroom-based pedagogy to the online space. While this was undoubtedly challenging for teachers and students, it also opened up possibilities for reimagining the delivery of content, along with creating increased access for students who had barriers for studying remotely before the impact of COVID-19. The study discussed in this paper examines the experiences of students studying at a regional Australian university that already offered online courses, and whose instructors were already using a diverse range of online delivery tools. Specifically, the study sought to investigate how instructors used interactive strategies to promote student engagement, and how the interaction between learner and content influences student engagement. With research showing that online students typically have higher attrition rates than their on-campus counterparts, engagement has been identified as an important factor in online learning. Online interaction in particular is considered to be instrumental in influencing student engagement and positively impacting student satisfaction, persistence, and academic performance. Data collected from interviews conducted with two different cohorts of students, studying two different courses (mathematics education and Chinese language) at the same university, demonstrated ways instructors utilised interactive online pedagogies to engage students with potentially challenging course content. The study has implications for online educators who are looking for ways to adapt their on-campus courses to online delivery, with a focus on engaging and maintaining online students’ interest and ongoing participation in their courses.

This study aimed to identify factors influencing student engagement in online and blended courses at one Australian regional university. It applied a data science approach to learning and teaching data gathered from the learning management system used at this university. Data were collected and analysed from 23 subjects, spanning over 5500 student enrolments and 406 lecturer and tutor roles, over a five-year period. Based on a theoretical framework adapted from Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework by Garrison et al. (2000), the data were segregated into three groups for analysis: Student Engagement, Course Content and Teacher Input. The data analysis revealed a positive correlation between Student Engagement and Teacher Input, and interestingly, a negative correlation between Student Engagement and Course Content when a certain threshold was exceeded. The findings of the study offer useful suggestions for future course design, and pedagogical approaches teachers can adopt to foster student engagement.

The article reports on a study that incorporated an immersive 3 D virtual environment, created in Second Life (SL) into the curriculum of a Chinese program, including its development, implementation and evaluation. This innovation supplemented classroom teaching of Chinese language throughout one semester at a regional Australian university. Using the existing resource called Chinese Island (CI) created by a major urban Australian university, the primary aim of this study was to probe student’s perceptions about the resource. Due to curriculum differences between two universities, customised language and culture learning tasks based on the learnt textbook content were designed on CI, with instructions and associated quizzes hosted in a private Moodle site—a widely-used learning management system (LMS) environment. Twenty-eight mixed-level undergraduate Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) students participated in a survey, and seven of these students were interviewed. The questionnaire and interview data were collected and analysed during the study. Following analysis, results indicated that students welcomed the experiential learning opportunity to explore Chinese culture and language outside the classroom afforded by CI. Anecdotal evidence suggested that students became more aware of the complicated pragmatic issues in real life communication. The survey results, including the participants’ responses to open-ended questions, are discussed in this paper. Pedagogical implications and directions for further research are also considered.

The outbreak of COVID-19 worldwide in 2020 has posed tremendous challenges to higher education globally. Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) is among the many areas affected by the pandemic. The unexpected transition to online teaching has increased challenges for improving and/or retaining students’ language proficiency. WeChat, a popular social application in China, was widely used for TEFL at Chinese universities before COVID-19. However, it remains unclear whether the use of WeChat can facilitate Chinese university students’ English-language lexical proficiency during the pandemic. To fill this gap, the aim of the present study was two-fold: (1) it initially explored the relationship between the variables including students’ academic years, genders, and academic faculties/disciplines, and their lexical proficiency; and (2) it evaluated the effectiveness of a WeChat-assisted lexical learning (WALL) program in facilitating learning outcomes of English-language vocabulary. One hundred and thirty-three students at a university in Northern China participated in the WALL program for three weeks. As the results indicated, the independent variables had no correlation with the students’ lexical proficiency. More importantly, the students had a decline in the test scores after using the program, compared to their initial test scores. Moreover, the difference was reported to be medium. The findings further proposed questions on applying WeChat to vocabulary teaching in a large-scaled transition. The study is expected to provide insights for tertiary institutions, language practitioners, and student stakeholders to troubleshoot the potential problems regarding implementing WeChat-based TEFL pedagogies.

This study examines the transformative role of educational technologies in higher education, with a focus on their impact on student engagement and collaboration in online and hybrid learning environments. It draws on data from 11 educators at an Australian university across Education, Health Sciences, and Humanities disciplines. Utilising the online tool Padlet, these educators facilitated interactive activities that enhanced teaching and learning. This article analyses Padlet’s unique features and how they were employed to optimise student engagement and learning outcomes. Semi-structured interviews reveal how Padlet supported multimedia presentations, group work, and discussions. The findings underscore the versatility of Padlet in promoting critical thinking and knowledge sharing, ultimately enhancing the student experience in both online and hybrid learning settings. This study encourages educators to adopt innovative strategies that incorporate Padlet and similar technologies to enhance their teaching practices.

This article reports on a study of an intensive three-week culture intervention program, delivered via VooV Meeting (an online meeting platform) as an additional opportunity for CFL students at a Vietnamese university in December 2021. The primary aim was to explore students’ perceptions and experiences of learning about Chinese culture in a non-target language environment since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two hundred and nine mixed-level undergraduate CFL students participated in a survey administered via Google Forms. Overall results indicated that students valued the opportunity offered by this program to learn Chinese culture and acknowledged the importance of cultural study in CFL. There appeared to be different preferences among male and female students and the different year groups in choosing the contents and methods of cultural learning. Additionally, students expressed concerns about using technology in language and culture learning despite its benefits, especially in the absence of real-life human interactions and communications due to travel restrictions. One significant finding was that students recognised teachers’ essential role in learning culture. The survey results, in particular the participants’ responses to open-ended questions, are discussed in this paper. The understanding gained from this study is expected to provide Chinese language professionals and practitioners with insights and suggestions on how Chinese culture can be better integrated into CFL through appropriate and effective teaching strategies in a post-pandemic era.