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With the emergence of social software and the advance of web-based technologies, online learning networks provide invaluable opportunities for learning, whether formal or informal. Unlike top-down, instructor-centered, and carefully planned formal learning settings, informal learning networks offer more bottom-up, student-centered participatory but somewhat disorganized learning opportunities for students. This paper presents a research study where graduate students are surveyed in their use of informal and formal learning networks in online courses to understand the interaction between the two and how they impact each other. The findings showed that students and professors use both environments often, to optimize learning but online course design is usually not designed to consider informal experiences of the students. The results and illustrated course design framework may contribute to the discussion of blending informal and formal learning for online learning.

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Recent years have seen a growing interest in augmented reality (AR) technologies due to their potential for simulating real-life situations and creating authentic learning tasks. Studies have shown that AR enables engaging and interactive learning experiences (e.g. Bressler and Bodzin 2013; Klopfer and Sheldon 2010) and can benefit student learning (e.g. Bonner and Reinders 2018; Siegle 2019). However, although research in AR for education is not scarce, educators often do not have a learning experience design (LXD) approach that is supported by the recent findings of learning sciences and instructional design models. To bridge this gap, the present study introduces an AR-learning prototype developed by using SAM I (Successive Approximation Model I), and the Threshold Concepts Framework, employed for meaningful integration of AR into the learning process. A pre-survey and a post-survey method were utilised in the data gathering process to gauge students’ experience with the AR module. The findings show that the majority of students have not had educational experiences with AR prior to the study, and they struggled to find ways to incorporate this technology into their content areas in a meaningful way. Nonetheless, participants realised the value of AR and stated that they most likely would use this technology in the future. Based on the findings, the authors present a set of suggestions for instructors and LXDs, and provide recommendations for future research. This article is part of the special collection: Mobile Mixed Reality Enhanced Learning edited by Thom Cochrane, James Birt, Helen Farley, Vickel Narayan and Fiona Smart. More papers from this collection can be found here.

In this case study, a group of graduate students in an Educational Technology Program were surveyed in their use of emerging technologies. The purpose of this survey was to examine the extent of emerging technology use and investigate how they aligned with students’ formal, non-formal, and informal e-learning experiences. Suggestions for new technologies and tips for implementation are also provided.

Effort is still needed to make computational thinking (CT) a 21st century skill taught widely across multiple subjects. Since using or solving problems with computers is not specific to any single discipline, we can expect that in the near future, there will be further interdisciplinary research to understand the impact of computation across a range of academic fields. Our hope is that as more Special Issues like ours, or books and articles are published, the field will mature and provide datadriven support to curriculum design and assessment efforts.