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The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that affect students’ behavioral intentions to use virtual classrooms at Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) in Jordan.

A quantitative research approach was adopted, an online survey method was used and the data were collected among students at PSUT in Jordan. A total of 511 responses were usable for analysis. A structural equation modeling partial least squares technique was used to examine the hypothesized model.

The findings reveal that the proposed factors have direct and indirect relationships with behavioral intentions to use virtual classrooms. They show that students’ satisfaction has a direct influence on behavioral intention, while other variables such as instructor characteristics, virtual classroom quality, perceived self-efficacy, perceived organizational support, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness have an indirect effect on behavioral intentions to use virtual classrooms.

The study was conducted at PSUT in Jordan, which could limit the generalizability of the findings. Furthermore, the present study measured students’ behavioral intentions to use virtual classrooms and future research should consider the actual use of virtual classrooms.

The findings of this study offer significant and useful information to policymakers, instructors, developers and students regarding the use of virtual classrooms in universities. Based on students’ needs and readiness, the findings identify which factors to consider when developing an e-learning system to enhance learning and teaching performance.

This study extends existing knowledge by developing a conceptual model to identify the key factors of virtual classroom adoption in higher education institutions in Arab countries. This study contributes to the literature in the context of e-learning by validating an extended technology acceptance model from an Arab countries perspective and considering the differences in culture, learning style and physical environment compared to developed countries.

Preparing future teachers requires teacher educators to share both theory and its translation to best practice. Traditional approaches to this learning process include textbooks, case studies, role-play, observation, and eventually fieldwork in a classroom. Understanding what their future students need or appropriately responding to situations in the classroom is far different than the reality of teaching in schools. Although case studies provide an opportunity for perspective taking, collaboration, and developing problem solving skills in a safe environment, it is still a relatively passive experience. The use of virtual worlds to create engaging simulations offers a possibility in bridging this gap between theory and practice. The School of Education and Human Services at Seton Hall University has designed a virtual world simulation to provide college students with the opportunity to be immersed in a virtual classroom setting in which they take on the roles of avatar teachers and grade school students who may require various modifications/accommodations. This chapter will discuss the design and implementation of this project. Data were collected on the students’ experiences in order to assess possible learning gains, affordances of the technology, and lessons learned for future educators who are considering the implementation of virtual world technologies.

This paper aims to examine three distinct aspects of authenticity that pre-service teachers (PSTs) experience when they engage with virtual classroom environments to develop their content-intensive instructional practice – task authenticity, student avatar authenticity and performance authenticity – and their perceptions about the usefulness of the simulated teaching experience to support their learning.

This paper explored these conceptions of authenticity and usefulness within a larger research study whose goal was to develop virtual environment tools to help elementary PSTs learn how to engage in one ambitious teaching practice: facilitating discussions that engage students in argumentation. To examine these aspects of authenticity and usefulness, this paper used a general qualitative deductive analysis approach to examine data from 104 interviews with 26 case study teachers and examined patterns in PSTs’ perceptions within and across interviews and authenticity aspects.

While these PSTs strongly value the utility of these tools to support their learning, findings point to variation in their perceptions of authenticity. Findings showed that most PSTs perceived the tasks as an authentic representation of the work of teaching. However, their perceptions of task authenticity did not always align with their perceptions of avatar or performance authenticity.

This paper argues that these three aspects of authenticity relate to, but expand upon, the broader notions of presence and plausibility noted in the literature on virtual environments and should be taken up more directly in future studies of users’ perceptions of virtual environments both within and outside of educational contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to present critical educator reflections on the pivot from the traditional physical accounting classroom to the virtual learning environment amidst COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

This paper outlines the reflexive experiences of two accounting educators on their scholarly journey into virtual learning and their inhabiting of the virtual accounting classroom. We adopt a critical stance in exploring what has been lost and insights gained.

We heed caution in the ongoing reliance on digital technologies and virtual learning that strip accounting education of its richness and complexity. Although the virtual learning environment brings with it benefits of accessibility and flexibility, it fails to replace the complexity of human connection, authenticity and informal spontaneity found in face-to-face learning. We further contend that COVID-19 presents an opportunity to rethink accounting education. We encourage educators to embrace this opportunity as a force for educational transformation; to reimagine an accounting education that embraces change, ambiguity and humanistic qualities such as empathy, compassion and humility.

Our critical educator reflections explore the impact of COVID-19 on the humanistic qualities at the heart of education and on the future of accounting education. This paper contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning during global pandemics and other crises.

This study aims to explore if and to what extent an online avatar-assisted virtual classroom can work to alleviate groups of Japanese university students’ anxiety around giving spoken presentations. It also explores how to create a more inclusive language learning environment and encourage interaction between the students in the virtual classroom.

A self-reported survey compares the same group of students’ responses to three learning contexts: an everyday in-person or conventional English learning classroom; an online videoconferencing-based classroom, via Zoom; and an online “virtual” or avatar-based classroom simulation, via the software “Gather”.

The findings suggest that the avatar-assisted virtual classroom helps students experience the least amount of fear and apprehension when speaking out loud in English and improves their speaking confidence. Similar to the findings in terms of everyday in-person lessons, the overwhelming majority of students attending Zoom lessons showed high levels of anxiety toward speaking out loud.

Challenges making use of the target language remain a persistent source of stress for Japanese students. The global shift toward online learning and the associated technologies have created opportunities to experiment with novel approaches to teaching. The discussion considers the data in the context of online classroom environments and existing speaking anxiety research. While the sample size is small, this study seeks to provide a safe and non-threatening learning environment for disadvantaged and diverse students, as well as suggestions for further research.

This study explores the impact of virtual classrooms as an emerging classroom typology in comparison to the physical classrooms in the design process. Two case studies were held in order to infer design students' classroom preferences in the project lifecycle. The findings put forth figures that compare two forms of design communication in the two classroom types in terms of their contribution to design development. Although the students acknowledged many advantages of web-based communication in the virtual classroom, they indicated that they are unwilling to let go off face-to-face encounters with the instructors and fellow students in the physical classroom. It is asserted that the future design studio will be an integrated learning environment where both physical and virtual encounters will be presented to the student. Utilizing the positive aspects of both communication techniques, a hybrid setting for the design studio is introduced, comprising the physical classroom as well as the virtual one. The proposed use for the hybrid setting is grouped under 3 phases according to the stage of the design process; as the initial, development and final phases. Within this framework, it is inferred that the design studio of the future will be an integrated form of space, where the physical meets the virtual.

The purpose of this paper is to identify student clusters based on patterns of behavioural, cognitive, emotional, collaborative and social engagement in virtual classrooms, within the context of higher education. The study also attempts to explore the differences amongst the student clusters with respect to various motivating and demotivating teaching behaviours.

The study relies on the self-determination theory to describe the dynamics related to various motivating and demotivating teaching behaviours and five different dimensions of student engagement in virtual classrooms. The data were collected from a convenience sample of 831 students from higher educational institutions in the Delhi – National Capital Region of India. Cluster analysis was performed to classify students into mutually exclusive groups based on five student engagement dimensions.

The findings revealed three student clusters: ‘fully-engaged’, ‘externally-engaged’ and ‘individually-engaged’ students. The findings also provided insights into varied correlations between specific dimensions of motivating/demotivating teaching behaviours and student engagement.

Considering the multi-dimensionality of student engagement as well as teaching behaviours, the study adopts a person-centred approach to understand different clusters of students in virtual classrooms and investigate the relationship between teaching behaviours and student engagement dimensions.

The purpose of this paper is to propose the use of a virtual reality (VR)-based approach to improve teacher education and life-long professional development. Through constant training in real-life based situations but within a safe three-dimensional virtual school environment, teachers are given the opportunity to experience and learn how to react to different types of incidents that may take place in a school environment.

The current paper presents the design cycle that was followed for the implementation of the VR teacher training system. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated with a case study that aimed to promote teachers’ understanding of student’s problematic situations related to substance use. As part of the experimental investigation, the impact of the VR system on participants’ emotions and mood states is evaluated through Electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements, heart rate (HR) recordings and self-reported data.

Results indicate significant changes to participant’s negative emotional and mood states, suggesting that the scenario and the VR experience had a strong impact on them. Moreover, participants’ HR was increased during the experiment, while the analysis of the EEG signal indicated that the participants experienced a stressful situation that could justify the change in their negative emotions and mood states.

The proposed VR-based approach aims to provide an innovative framework to teacher education and the related training methodology. In the long-term, the proposed VR system aims to form a new paradigm of teacher training, an alternative safe method that will allow user-teachers to learn through trial and error techniques that reflect real-life situations within a three-dimensional school space and without the risk of harming real students. To the best of our knowledge this is one of the first systematic attempts to use a VR-based methodology to address real teachers’ needs. The development of the VR application is linked to both strong theoretical foundations in education derived from the literature but also from real teachers’ problems and requirements derived from an extensive literature analysis, survey and interviews with experts including teachers, school counselors and psychologists. The VR tool addresses specific teachers’ competences as outcome, after an extensive documentation of existing Teachers’ Competence Models and significant guidance by experts who pointed specific competencies of primary importance to teachers.

This study describes how two organisations transitioned to teaching Lean online during and post Covid-19. This study aims to establish how Lean teaching and training can be designed and delivered effectively online without adverse effects on the student’s learning experience of Lean concepts.

A case study approach was used to review the design, application and results of the transition to online Lean teaching and training. Qualitative and quantitative methods were deployed to assess the results.

Online Lean learning and application were assured via the design of practical problem-based teaching environments, aided by using the virtual classroom as an obeya room and as a kaizen environment where students worked in teams. Students were enabled to learn and apply Lean tools practically and reflect on their learnings.

This study demonstrates that effective online design can ensure. Lean methods are understood without affecting the student's learning, classroom experience and grasp of concepts.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the first studies on implementing Lean training and education online during COVID-19 under the lens of both a training provider and university education viewpoint. The changes validated best practices for virtual Lean education and training in the organisations under study, maintained post-COVID.

The on‐line world has increased the range of possibilities for corporate training. Employees can follow virtual training packages at their own pace without leaving their workstations. Employers can save money on costly off‐site training and do not lose irreplaceable working days. However, to date, there has been little research into how the whole on‐line learning experience compares with knowledge acquired via traditional classroom techniques. A new US study into an on‐line five course inventory control qualification at a Fortune 50 company gives fascinating insights into the realities of virtual learning.