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This research aims to understand how satisfied students were with their online learning experience and how actively engaged they were in their studies.

To study the breadth and depth of students' experiences and fully address the research aims, the researchers utilized a mixed method. Through a survey questionnaire with both closed-ended and open-ended questions, student responses were gathered. On a five-point Likert scale, the closed-ended questions were co-constructed. The research participants included students attending Pakistan's private university in Karachi. Participants from all programs were the authors' focus (i.e. undergraduate and graduate). A total of 552 students completed the survey questionnaire.

The study reveals students' level of satisfaction with their online encounters. Contextual restrictions, such as power outages, bad internet, a lack of a private place and administrative problems, make it difficult to access and connect during learning sessions. Additionally, the student's perception of online learning as being more secure and safe in terms of their physical safety was an intriguing finding. They also see the integration of online and in-person learning as advantageous because it might reduce travel expenses and time while also giving them access to independent study resources. Given its many benefits, this research supports the use of online learning in higher education. Online education promotes a healthy mix of teacher- and student-centered instruction.

Moreover, the findings indicate that effective non-verbal communication occurs when students interact with a teacher and colleague face-to-face. In a face-to-face teaching situation, good body language may inspire, engage and motivate students. Better learning outcomes result from being able to interpret people's body language, whether it be eye contact or posture, and alter the topic and approach. Keeping in view the recent nature of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, no research has been carried out on this topic to date or on such a wide-scale transition to online learning, specifically in the context of higher education in Pakistan (Dincer, 2018). This research is unique in its kind as it focuses on the impact of online learning on the affective domain as well.

Given the contextual concerns, teachers must find alternative educational insights that will enable students to reduce listening demands, improve self-learning and promote engagement.

Therefore, in the authors' context, it is a unique finding that students felt socially isolated. While numerous studies have examined anxiety, still there is still a dearth of literature regarding stress factors (Dincer, 2018). The current study provided substantial information on the impact of online learning on students' stress levels, and the consequence is that they were strained out because they felt socially isolated. Additionally, these findings are in alignment with the qualitative data showing a problem of student isolation and a lack of engagement. Since the face-to-face mode had provided them with the time and space, they were able to engage in educational socialization outside the boundaries of the classroom, such as casual conversations during breaks, gatherings at coffee shops and working on group projects at the library.

This research was conducted in the context of Pakistan.

In response to coronavirus disease 2019, California State University Long Beach (CSULB) announced mandatory online course conversions on March 12, 2020. The College of Business designed a Student Online Learning Experience Survey to explore learners' experience, needs, expectations and challenges in the online learning environment.

The time-sensitive survey questions were administered using Qualtrics with Institutional Review Board approval. The authors used 5-point Likert scales to rate students' experience and satisfaction and performed statistical analysis. They assessed students' written comments to further corroborate statistical findings.

The results identify students' satisfaction are highly correlated to content coverage and interaction of online learning technologies. A combination of BeachBoard, Zoom, e-mails and publisher's website is valued most by the learners. Project-based experiential design is ranked #1 by graduate students. Noticeably, the upward trend of satisfaction with online modality from sophomore to senior is probably attributable to learners' maturity and number of years studied at CSU system. Overall, students generally dislike proctoring devices due to concerns of privacy, inequalities, mental stress, etc.

The evidence-based results offer innovative pedagogical recommendations for business education in higher education.

While prior studies examine student perceptions and satisfaction within the online education system, the study aims to deeply investigate the students' experience after a large-scale two-week institutional emergency course conversion mandate. This study systematically reviews students' experience with four aspects of online learning: (1) the adequacy of instructional designs; (2) the effectiveness of technology; (3) the appropriateness of the online learning material and (4) the integrity of online assessment and testing tools.

Skilled graduates delivered through vocational programmes are critical to ensure the future growth of emerging economies. This study explored students' reflections and experiences of online teaching and learning (T&L) during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. The study specifically focused on the transferable skills students acquired and their relevance to working in the local retail and hospitality industries.

Following a case study research design, this study retrospectively delved into the multi-perspectives of students enrolled in vocational programmes. A total of 145 students completed reflective questions via a Qualtrics link regarding the topic in question. Student reflections were grouped and analysed for recurring themes using Atlas.ti. Through thematic analysis, two topical themes emerged related to transferable skills development and the usefulness of skills for future work.

The findings suggest that although students had to rely on online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, they still developed vital transferable skills, including communication, teamwork, organisational, self-management, flexibility, technology, metacognition and problem-solving.

The findings offer valuable input into planning and developing student-centric online courses to facilitate the development of desired transferable skills. Findings could also guide best T&L practices regarding how education and training across digital platforms could be used to ensure that graduates are prepared to navigate the future complexities of working in ever-changing globalised industries.

This study provides new insights into the evolution of T&L and how unexpected situations could provide an opportunity to hone desired skills and prepare students for employment and the 21st century workplace.

With the ongoing catastrophe of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world seems to have come to a standstill. Daily living routines, work, and schools predominantly launched into a state of confusion, and people across the globe excessively find ways to cope with their experiences of this traumatic disaster. Concerning schools, the pandemic has dramatically challenged the education system with teaching and learning processes managed remotely, utilising online platforms. This paper explores university students’ perception of online learning, specifically during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, to uncover how they respond to this ‘new normal’ digital mode of teaching and learning and how they seek to regain control over the sudden shift in their lives. Through interviews with students from Universiti Darussalam (UBD) and Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali UNISSA, this original article reveals students’ transformative behaviours during online learning, and institutional supports that contribute to the shaping of students' online learning experiences in Brunei.

In a fast evolving labour market, higher education graduates need to develop employability competences. Key in becoming employable is the ability to reflect on learning experiences, both within a curriculum as well as extra-curricular and work placements. This paper wants to conceptualise how an online learning platform might entail a reflective practice that systematically supports students in reflecting on their learning experiences.

When studying online learning platforms for developing students' employability competences, it became clear that the effectiveness of the platform depends on how the platform guides students' reflective practice. In turn, the authors studied which features (tools, services and resources) of the online learning platform are guiding the reflective practice.

This resulted in the introduction of an online learning platform, containing a comprehensive set of online learning tools and services, which supports students' reflective practice and, in turn, their employability competences. The online platform facilitates both feedback from curricular and work-related learning experiences and can be used as a start by students for showcasing their employability competences. The reflective practice consists of a recurrent, systematic process of reflection, containing various phases: become aware, analyse current state, draft and plan a solution, take action and, finally, reflect in and on action.

Future research revolves around studying the features of online learning platforms and their role in fostering students' reflection and employability competences.

The conceptual model provides concrete indicators on how to implement online learning platforms for supporting students' reflection and employability competences.

This is the first article that analyses an online learning platform that guides students' reflective practice and fosters their employability competences. The authors provide concrete suggestions on how to model the online platform, building further on reflective practice theory.

In this paper we provide evidence of successful online learning experience with UAE students at Zayed University in the UAE. First we describe the processes and technologies used in delivering the online course "Virtual Business Challenges". Based on survey results we discuss students’ evaluations and experience and the technologies used. Overall, students had a positive learning experience in the course.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an online faculty development pilot course on how to engage students online. A framework was used, referred to as the Trifecta of Student Engagement, for the design of the course. The Trifecta of Student Engagement proposes that students, in order to be fully engaged in a course, need to be engaged with their course content, with their peers and with their instructor. The course has three units of content that each correspond to the Trifecta of Student Engagement. This course has gone through one pilot with faculty and has impacted students and faculty positively.

An online faculty development course was piloted with eight faculty members across a range of disciplines who participated in the program. After taking the course, they had to apply the Trifecta of Student Engagement framework to a course they taught and share what they did via written report, webinar, or web presentation. This study summarized the faculty participants’ written reports and presentations as well as provided a qualitative evaluation on the impact this course had on students and faculty.

After faculty applied the Trifecta of Student Engagement framework to courses taught, faculty saw an improvement in student engagement, satisfaction, learning and achievement. Three faculty surveyed students to determine their engagement and satisfaction and found students to respond positively to the use of tools and activities for student-to-content engagement, student-to-student engagement and student-to-instructor engagement. Two faculty examined student grades to determine if there were changes in student outcomes. One professor saw average grades increase by 11 percent. Another professor saw grades improve by 8 percent. She also found that student assessment of learning increased by 0.57. Both faculty attributed the improvement to the effectiveness of the teaching strategies employed.

This research is limited to the eight faculty who participated in the pilot. Some faculty used methods to attempt to measure the impacts of their teaching practices by surveying students and looking at student performance data. A second pilot is needed for additional faculty to take the course and apply the Trifecta of Engagement framework to generate more data for impact.

Institutions looking to create an online teaching professional development course for faculty can utilize the Trifecta of Student Engagement framework for their course design. Additionally, faculty can read about tools and strategies that they can immediately apply to create more student-to-content engagement, student-to-student engagement and student-to-instructor engagement.

Faculty can be more intentional in how they engage students in their online course experience.

This paper adds to the literature on faculty development regarding student-centered teaching practices. Other institutions looking to create a faculty development course or program that utilizes a student-centered framework may find aspects of this paper useful for their own online teaching professional development initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the literature regarding the academic online learning experience under the lens of broad personality traits, in the transition from traditional to online learning due to global coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19).

The systematic literature review is based on preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) method and includes indexed empirical studies in academic institutes during the period of COVID-19 outbreak.

Electronic sources identified 103 references; while after the elimination of duplicates and irrelevant titles, 42 papers were forwarded for abstract screening and later full-text assessment. Of these, 14 met the eligibility criteria. Finally, nine studies were included in the literature review profiling and in the qualitative analysis.

The research insights provided in this study are useful in terms of enhancing the view that link broad personality traits and various learning outcomes, during the necessitated transition to online learning by the public health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article aims to explore student views from a UK higher educational institution about the concept of remote online higher educational delivery. Students were asked about opinions towards working remotely and the psychological impact this had upon students and students' studies. The research provided students with the opportunity to reflect upon whether the practice of delivering education remotely continues to provide students with a beneficial student learning experience.

The research adopted a case study methodology utilising a mixed methods approach via questionnaire-based research. In total, 894 students completed the questionnaire. The aim of the research was to obtain a wide breadth of student opinion from multidisciplinary backgrounds to ascertain whether students' learning experience differed per subject area.

The research identified some interesting findings, namely that certain participants considered that learning remotely online was beneficial for instant feedback, supported motivation and fostered communities of practice. Negative perspectives related to feeling isolated, unmotivated and a preference towards face-to-face (F2F) delivery. One of the main areas of conflict identified from this study is that the aspect of engagement can impact students' online learning both positively and negatively.

The study provides an in-depth multidisciplinary student tertiary perspective relating to online remote learning. The findings from this study can be useful for educators to reflect upon and inform educational policy in relation to how best to facilitate and support the student learning experience off-campus.

In this opinion article, the authors share their experiences with and perspectives on course design requirements and barriers when applying challenge-based learning (CBL) in an online sustainability education setting. CBL is an established learning approach for (higher) sustainability education. It enables teachers to engage students with open, real-life grand challenges through inter-/transdisciplinary student team collaboration. However, empirical research is scarce and mainly based on face-to-face CBL case studies. Thus far, the opportunities to apply CBL in online educational settings are also underinvestigated.

Using the TPACK framework, the authors address technological, pedagogical and content knowledge related to CBL and online sustainability education. The integration of the different components is discussed, providing teachers and course designers insight into design requirements and barriers.

This paper supports the promising future of online CBL for sustainability education, especially in the context of inter-/national inter-university collaboration, yet emphasizes the need for deliberate use of online collaboration and teaching tools.