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With video games being a source of leisure and learning, educators and researchers alike are interested in understanding children's motivation for playing video games as a way to learn. This study explores student motivation and engagement levels in playing two math video games in the game Club Penguin. Method: This is a qualitative case study conducted in a North American elementary school after-school program. It involves two children ages eight and nine playing math games. Data sources in this study include interviews, observations and video recordings of game playing. Findings: Participants in this study are not always motivated to play math video games. They can sustain engagement in game playing for seven to twelve minutes before seeking another game or activity. Participants show some signs of disengagement during math game playing.

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Despite being the fifth largest country on earth, Brazil's representation in video games, from stories to settings to characters, has been limited. Brazilian settings in video games include the exoticized Amazon or the famous shantytowns, the favelas. Portrayals of the favelas turn them into shooting galleries, built on stereotypes of lawlessness and militarism. Brazilian video game characters are built on signifiers of Brasilidade, or "Brazilian-ness," including the

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Although online learning has increased as a delivery method of instruction in higher education, learners may still feel isolated from the instructor and peers due to a lack of physical presence. Thus, intentional and purposeful online course design is necessary. To remediate feelings of isolation, cooperative learning strategies have been implemented in online courses, resulting in positive outcomes. A long-term cooperative learning project based on social interdependence theory (SIT) has been implemented into two asynchronous online courses at two different higher education institutions. A mixed-method, design-based research study was conducted to examine students’ attitudes towards cooperative learning. Participants of this study included undergraduate and graduate students who completed pre-and post-surveys. Classroom artifacts were also collected to analyze the group work and dynamics. Even though the quantitative results showed a decrease in students’ attitudes towards cooperative learning, qualitative data indicated that students benefited from this experience. Qualitative data also provided further insights on the group dynamics. Students’ high expectations of group work, faculty support, and shared sense of responsibility among group members could have affected their perceptions of cooperative learning. This study was the first cycle of a multi-cycle effort to develop a robust cooperative learning activity that will benefit learners in future courses.

Student isolation and retention rates are persistent issues in online learning. Research has shown that an important component of student performance and satisfaction is instructor presence (Picciano, 2002). Instructor presence includes three elements: 1) Teaching presence, 2) Instructor immediacy, and 3) Social presence (Mandemach, Gonzales, & Garrett, 2006). This chapter will use this definition of instructor presence to outline best pedagogical practices with concrete examples to increase instructor presence in asynchronous online courses. Each section will begin with a definition and research on that construct followed by best practices with concrete examples.