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Teaching and learning via online delivery is increasingly becoming a norm for many higher education institutions worldwide. This alternative form of learning is characteristically unique and serves a number of purposes - for example, it is cost effective and convenient for full-time workers who wish to pursue academic studies, part time. Consequently, the acceptance of this mode has led to a rethinking in pedagogical strategies for educators and researchers alike. Educators and researchers have developed and used a myriad of innovations (e.g., animated pedagogical agents) to stimulate students' interests, intellectual curiosities, and to enhance critical thinking skills. Despite the effectiveness and advantages of online delivery, there are a number of pressing issues for continuing consideration and research development. Notably, one aspect that has received appreciable emphases is the cultivation of a social milieu, online, that may yield characteristics reflective of a traditional, face-to-face (FTF) classroom. Note worthy of this, for example, is a need for us to create a sense of realism (e.g., dynamic interaction) in students' learning. In a similar manner, there is recognition for educators to emulate a learning climate that binds learners, disregard of time and geographical differences. This feat, in our view, is not simplistic and entails a number of complexities that require continuing conceptualization. The main tenet of this chapter details a brief theoretical overview of online delivery in higher education contexts, and three identified issues that relate dialectically to this pedagogical approach to teaching and learning: (i) experiential feelings of realism; (ii) the facilitation, if possible, of critical thinking skills in an online learning climate; and (iii) the importance of cognitive overload in the presentation of information for online learning. We conclude this chapter with a scoping of recommendations for continuing research development and advancement. There are, in this analysis, a number of pressing issues for educators and researchers to consider - for example, how does the paradigm of online delivery relate to individuals' cognitive processes for learning? |
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