What's it really like to learn online?Learning Online: The Student Experience Online learning is ubiquitous for millions of students worldwide, yet our understanding of student experiences in online learning settings is limited. The geographic distance that separates faculty from students in an online environment is its signature feature, but it is also one that risks widening the gulf between teachers and learners. In Learning Online, George Veletsianos argues that in order to critique, understand, and improve online learning, we must examine it through the lens of student experience. Approaching the topic with stories that elicit empathy, compassion, and care, Veletsianos relays the diverse day-to-day experiences of online learners. Each in-depth chapter follows a single learner's experience while focusing on an important or noteworthy aspect of online learning, tackling everything from demographics, attrition, motivation, and loneliness to cheating, openness, flexibility, social media, and digital divides. Veletsianos also draws on these case studies to offer recommendations for the future and lessons learned. The elusive nature of online learners' experiences, the book reveals, is a problem because it prevents us from doing better: from designing more effective online courses, from making evidence-informed decisions about online education, and from coming to our work with the full sense of empathy that our students deserve. Writing in an evocative, accessible, and concise manner, Veletsianos concretely demonstrates why it is so important to pay closer attention to the stories of students-who may have instructive and insightful ideas about the future of education.

Social media and online social networks are expected to transform academia and the scholarly process. However, intense emotions permeate scholars' online practices and an increasing number of academics are finding themselves in trouble in networked spaces. In reality, the evidence describing scholars' experiences in online social networks and social media is fragmented. As a result, the ways that social media are used and experienced by scholars are not well understood. Social Media in Academia examines the day-to-day realities of social media and online networks for scholarship and illuminates the opportunities, tensions, conflicts, and inequities that exist in these spaces. The book concludes with suggestions for institutions, individual scholars, and doctoral students regarding online participation, social media, networked practice, and public scholarship.

Social media and online social networks are expected to transform academia and the scholarly process. However, intense emotions permeate scholars' online practices and an increasing number of academics are finding themselves in trouble in networked spaces. In reality, the evidence describing scholars' experiences in online social networks and social media is fragmented. As a result, the ways that social media are used and experienced by scholars are not well understood. Social Media in Academia examines the day-to-day realities of social media and online networks for scholarship and illuminates the opportunities, tensions, conflicts, and inequities that exist in these spaces. The book concludes with suggestions for institutions, individual scholars, and doctoral students regarding online participation, social media, networked practice, and public scholarship.

Educational systems worldwide are facing an enormous shift as aresult of sociocultural, political, economic, and technologicalchanges. The technologies and practices that have developed over thelast decade have been heralded as opportunities to transform bothonline and traditional education systems. While proponents of these newideas often postulate that they have the potential to address theeducational problems facing both students and institutions and thatthey could provide an opportunity to rethink the ways that education isorganized and enacted, there is little evidence of emergingtechnologies and practices in use in online education. Becauseresearchers and practitioners interested in these possibilities oftenreside in various disciplines and academic departments the sharing anddissemination of their work across often rigid boundaries is aformidable task. Contributors to Emergence and Innovation in Digital Learninginclude individuals who are shaping the future of online learning withtheir innovative applications and investigations on the impact ofissues such as openness, analytics, MOOCs, and social media. Buildingon work first published in Emerging Technologies in DistanceEducation, the contributors to this collection harness thedispersed knowledge in online education to provide a one-stop localefor work on emergent approaches in the field. Their conclusions willinfluence the adoption and success of these approaches to education andwill enable researchers and practitioners to conceptualize, critique,and enhance their understanding of the foundations and applications ofnew technologies.