From Platform Adoption to Pedagogical Design: Interaction, Feedback, and Access in Online Advertising Design Education

Interaction and feedback on digital platforms for English speaking practice in higher education: an integrative review

It is concluded that pedagogical value depended less on the isolated tool than on task design and the formative use of feedback, and hybrid sequences showed the most consistent pattern by combining individual rehearsal, teacher mediation, and peer interaction.

Exploring Hidden Structure and Improvised Practices Shaping Student Collaboration and Agency in Online Learning

The rapid adoption of digital technologies in higher education has reshaped how students learn, collaborate, and engage, yet assumptions that online learning automatically enhances educational experiences remain largely unexamined. This study examined how students organised academic activities and appropriate digital tools within a fully online learning environment. Framed through a sociocultural perspective on mediated action, the study employed a qualitative case study design involving over 60 students and 30 hours of semi-structured in-depth interviews with ten university students. Findings revealed an underexplored pattern of structured but non-linear group work, in which students improvised coordination practices through WhatsApp, Padlet, voice notes, calls, and peer reference. First-come, first-served task allocation, volunteer compilation, and peer-based checking enabled students to organise group work but also contributed to uneven participation and limited opportunities for negotiation. Students further adapted their learning activities to home commitments, connectivity problems, and asynchronous communication, often prioritising task completion and submission over deeper content scrutiny. These findings demonstrate that student agency in online learning involves substantial coordination work, as learners construct and adapt social structures around available digital tools. However, such agency does not necessarily produce equitable or meaningful participation. The study contributes to sociocultural understandings of online learning by showing how students actively construct mediated collaborative practices when physical co-presence is absent, highlighting the need for pedagogical structures that support coordination, participation, and meaningful feedback.

Student Perceptions of Open Pedagogy in Higher Education: A Factorial Survey Experiment on Presentation Format, Feedback Type, and Sharing Mode

The principles associated with Open Pedagogy are often presented as goals for higher education teaching, yet their acceptance depends on how students perceive such designs in learning situations. Since openness is typically enacted through a constellation of pedagogical features, it remains unclear how students integrate multiple openness-related design elements in realistic course settings. This study examined how variations in seminar design, specifically presentation format (individual vs. group presentation), feedback source (lecturer vs. peer feedback), and sharing mode (internal course sharing vs. external sharing on an open platform), shape students’ evaluations. An exploratory factorial survey experiment was conducted with 184 students enrolled in higher education institutions in German-speaking countries. Vignette data were collected via an online survey and analyzed using cumulative link mixed models to account for the ordinal response structure and repeated evaluations. The findings indicate that group presentations and lecturer feedback enhance perceived appeal, while external sharing of student work was associated with higher ratings of distinctiveness and perceived societal impact. Personality traits moderated some associations, particularly for evaluations of perceived impact, indicating that openness-related practices are not evaluated uniformly across students. The results suggest that different openness-related design features activate distinct evaluative logics in students’ assessments.

Educational Design Research

EXPLORING THE ROLE OF DIGITAL PLATFORMS IN SUPPORTING PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

This study explored the role of digital platforms in supporting project-based learning (PjBL) in higher education. A qualitative descriptive design was employed involving lecturers and undergraduate students with experience in digitally supported project-based learning. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis, and were analyzed using thematic analysis and data triangulation. The findings revealed five major roles of digital platforms: facilitating access to project resources and instructions, strengthening communication and collaboration, supporting project management and monitoring, promoting student engagement and autonomy, and enabling formative feedback and revision. Classroom observations showed that students used digital platforms for task distribution, information searching, collaborative production, project consultation, and submission. However, several challenges emerged, including unequal participation, differences in digital competence, unstable internet connectivity, and difficulties in handling large files. The study concludes that digital platforms are most effective when integrated with clear project structures, lecturer scaffolding, collaborative tasks, and continuous assessment rather than being used merely as repositories for learning materials. The findings highlight the importance of pedagogy-centered technology integration in maximizing the potential of PjBL in higher education.

“More Feedback, Please”: Student Perceptions of Active Learning Strategies for Formative Assessment to Enhance Sustainable Learning in Higher Education

This study examines a persistent puzzle in active learning research in education: why do pedagogically sound interventions not always translate into perceived student value? We analyzed Information and Communications (ICT) Engineering students’ perceptions of three structurally distinct activities (weekly quizzes, individual concept maps, and a finance escape room) within a compulsory business course. Using bipolar laddering, 133 positive and 72 negative perception elements were mapped onto four dimensions of theSustainable Learning in Education (SLE) framework: renewal and relearning, transferability, independent and collaborative learning, and active learning. Self-regulated learning (SRL) functioned as the mechanism linking environmental dimensions to student agency and engagement. Students perceived all three activities as useful for examination preparation, but through different cognitive pathways. Quizzes supported distributed retrieval practice and were valued for re-attempts, though their usefulness declined with weak exam alignment or limited access. Concept maps enabled synthesis and relational understanding, yet received the lowest student endorsement, largely because in some instances student work was not returned post-submission. The escape room achieved the strongest and most consistent endorsement for exam preparation, with perceived limitations related only to activity duration and syllabus coverage. Activity alignment with SLE dimensions was uneven: quizzes aligned principally with renewal, concept maps with transferability, and all activities with independent and collaborative learning in distinct ways. Active learning was present throughout, but not uniform. The central finding was that perceived usefulness depended less on activity type than on feedback distribution and continuity. When feedback loops broke, perceived value declined. Together, the activities, therefore, form a complementary course-level feedback system. Through this case study, we identified five design recommendations to be implemented in the next edition of the course, positioning feedback as a system-level variable.