In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, our institution, like others in higher education, suspended face- to-face classes and offered remote learning as an alternative.  We report five cases of undergraduate and graduate courses that transitioned from a face-to-face to a remote mode. Each case will provide a detailed description of how the course was moved to an online mode, how the course was managed, the instructors’ previous experience in online teaching, their self-reflection on the process of transitioning to remote learning and their recommendations for a more successful experience in a similar potential scenario in the future.  Further, we report the students’ perspectives based on their responses to an online survey.  The combined results of the cases reported in this study reflect the resilience on both sides. A sudden shutdown of the university along with disease- related fears caused anxiety both for the students and instructors regardless of previous experience in online education. However, having online material pre-pandemic, possessing the technical skills, and previous online teaching or learning experience as well as having the infrastructure in place, facilitated the smooth navigation of the courses. The mode of delivery of the course (synchronous, asynchronous or blended) did not have an effect on students’ satisfaction.

This study examined factors that contributed to the success of online learners in an online professional development course. Research instruments included an online survey and learners' activity logs in an online professional development course for 512 in-service teachers. The findings showed that there were several factors affecting online learners' success in online professional development. In addition, there were also significant differences between successful and unsuccessful online learners in terms of course login frequency and learning activities viewed.

This exploratory multiple case study attempted to examine whether game-based learning activities had any impacts on students' academic performances and behaviors, and what perceptions the teachers had toward implementing games into their classrooms. Data used in this study included 101 students' pre and post-test scores, and four structured written reflection papers by four STEM classroom teachers. The results indicated that students' academic performances improved during the week GBL was implemented. In addition, their behaviors were noticed to change positively. Finally, teachers' perceptions about GBL changed before and after they integrated the games into their classroom. The study was concluded with discussions, implementation of using GBL in STEM classrooms and suggestions for future studies.

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Students’ perspective on the higher educators’ performance matters because the ultimate goal of teaching is education quality and students’ satisfaction. Student evaluations are important to university professors to improve their teaching quality and in many cases, secure their promotion and tenureship. Excellent teaching does not have a universal definition, and students often have different perspectives on effective and excellent teaching. In this study, we examined the factors contributing to excellent teaching as rated by students on the website ratemyprofessors.com, a popular website among students to rate their educators voluntarily. The information from this website can be valuable, despite all the critics it has received, given that students provide feedback on a volunteer basis to help their peers with selecting the best class. The website provides a forum for opinions that are not influenced by fear of possible consequences, such as a low grade or tension with faculty. Our study results show that the five top characteristics that are important to students include being caring, respectful, inspirational, as well as giving good feedback, and delivering “amazing” lectures. Further data analysis shows that subject content, in terms of manageable workload, reasonable content difficulty, and grading, can influence students' ratings. The findings indicate that students value interpersonal relationships and cherish individualized feedback and receiving personal support.