With the current issue of student retention and attrition as a major aspect of online education, this interpretivist qualitative case study sought to determine whether online facilitators and online student-to-student relationships affect online graduate students’ ability to complete their modules and achieve student learning objectives and outcomes (LOO). This study encompassed CoI (Community of Inquiry) and surveyed 54 participants who indicated that the three interdependent presences that form part of CoI (cognitive, social, and teaching) were instrumental in helping them to complete their modules and to achieve student learning objectives and outcomes (LOO). Students’ feedback on online facilitators exemplified their cognitive presence in the form of statements linked to triggering events and exploring of ideas. However, there were few statements connected to integration and none linked to resolution. Overall, most of the data collected connected to subsets of teaching and social presences rather than cognitive presence. Additionally, students’ feedback on their peers suggests that social presence that fosters group cohesion is the most critical factor to assist in completion of the modules and achieving student LOO. Open communication was also indicated and, to a lesser degree, personal/affective subsets of social presence were evident. The findings of this study suggest that more research is needed on the components of the three presences and their relationship to students’ ability to complete the module and achieve student LOO.

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. Results indicated that Trinidadian female participants were optimistic, hopeful, and resilient, filled with self-efficacy, and contained high levels of collective self-esteem. IntroductionNewspaper headlines in Trinidad continue to convey issues of school violence and other serious incidences related to education. With such obvious concerns for the education system, teachers' psychological capital in the form of their adaptability and coping mechanisms need to be analysed. An examination of the teachers' psychological capital such as hope, optimism, selfefficacy, and resilience could indicate how teachers are dealing with the increase in school indiscipline among students. Teachers and how they identify with their peers are just as important as understanding whether they will succumb to teacher burn out or somehow find within themselves that motivation that characterizes the indomitable human spirit to persevere.

Unique in its diverse cross-section of sources, this review article is a philosophical study towards the future role of online university education. Set within the realistic context of the external forces affecting higher education, it bridges the gap between the perspective of industry and that of higher education. We posit that online education is an opportunity equalizer, positioned to help citizens of lesser developed economies form and upskill to compete in employability with those of developed countries. Both the individuals and the economies of these countries benefit. The purpose of this article is to overview the main factors influencing the ability for higher education to provide this opportunity. Possible challenges are illuminated in the context of the real lived experiences of students. A wide range of sources are canvassed, explaining the external environment within which educational systems and the university exist. Rather than providing answers, this article raises pertinent questions with an understanding of higher education's current state of flux.

Abstract:With the exponential advancement of technology, global sharing, industrialization and economic development, national and global cultures are becoming more collective. More importantly, this fundamental paradigm shift is affecting national and global educational leadership cultures. Therefore, the power/distance index (PDI); individualism versus collectivism (IDV); uncertainty avoidance index (UAI); masculinity/femininity (MAS); and long-term orientation versus short-term orientation (LTO); are of interest when considering national and global cultures. These cultural dimensions can be exemplified in the responses of eight female educational leaders: three Canadians and one from Jamaica and Trinidad; two Grenadians and one Lebanese. This qualitative methodology in the form of a phenomenological study found that all respondents displayed varying degrees of each aspect of Hofstede's five cultural dimensions which can be charted along a continuum from high to low index factors. Each dimension is linked to different leadership styles. PDI is linked to servant leadership, IDV is linked to shared/participatory leadership, UAI is linked to transformational leadership and emergent leadership, and MAS is linked to people versus task-oriented leadership. In each case, the slight variances in responses reflect the microcosm of the macrocosm where each country's particular culture is mirrored. Recommendations are made for a more androgynous leadership style as well as more androgynous socialization processes if national and global educational leadership cultures are to become less gendered and more instrumental and functional based on the demands of the particular environment. It is expected that a focus could be placed on transcultural rather than intercultural studies in leadership and education.