Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • I have read this checklist and confirm that all items have been addressed prior to submission.
  • I confirm that this submission complies with OLJ authorship and publication ethics standards, including that all authors meet authorship criteria and that no third-party service has submitted the manuscript or assigned authorship positions.
  • Core Requirements

    My manuscript aligns with the journal’s scope (online/blended learning research with clear pedagogical or design implications).

    The work is original, not under review elsewhere, and not previously published.

    All authors are listed as contributors in the submission metadata at the time of submission.
  • Manuscript Quality & Structure

    The manuscript is complete and includes all required sections (e.g., abstract, methods, results, discussion, references).

    The research design, methods, and analysis are appropriate, clearly described, and replicable.

    The manuscript meets APA 7th edition style and is free of grammatical or formatting errors.

    The manuscript avoids promotion of specific products or tools.
  • Ethics & Transparency

    Required statements are included: ethics/IRB, conflicts of interest, funding, data availability, and AI use.

    Any use of AI tools has been clearly disclosed and described.

    I understand the manuscript will be screened for plagiarism and AI-generated content.
  • Submission & Formatting

    The manuscript file is in Word format and fully blinded for peer review.

    All references include DOIs or URLs where available.

    Figures, tables, and formatting follow journal and APA guidelines.

    The manuscript does not exceed the word limit.
  • Accessibility & Compliance

    Accessibility checks have been completed (e.g., alt text, accessible tables).

    The manuscript meets all journal formatting and submission requirements.

Author Guidelines

Full guidelines for Authors can be found on the Author Guidelines page.

Manuscript Integrity Screening:
All manuscripts that advance to the external peer-review stage are screened using iThenticate to assess originality, identify text recycling, and detect potential plagiarism. In addition, OLJ employs AI-generated content detection tools to ensure transparency and ethical authorship. Authors must fully disclose any use of generative AI in the preparation of the manuscript, including assistance with writing, data analysis, image generation, coding, or translation. Undisclosed AI involvement, significant text overlap, or evidence of plagiarism may result in requests for clarification, revision, or editorial decline.

 

AI, Emerging Technology, and Digital Transformation

Focus: AI integration, automation, innovation in digital learning systems.

Blended and Experiential Learning

Focus: models, outcomes, and design of hybrid, hyflex, and experiential online learning.

Community of Inquiry and Learning Design

Focus: presence, interaction, and engagement design in online/blended environments.

Equity, Access, and Inclusion

Focus: accessibility, digital inclusion, OER, and equitable participation.

Ethical Assessment and Academic Integrity

Focus: assessment design, ethical teaching, evaluation frameworks, AI-driven integrity.

Faculty Development and Institutional Strategy

Focus: faculty roles, training, leadership, and strategic institutional transformation.

Innovation and Impact at Minority-Serving and Online-Only Institutions

Focus: It extends “Equity and Institutional Strategy” by foregrounding institutional context — MSIs, community colleges, and online-only universities — where much innovation in equity and access happens.

International and Cross-Institutional Collaboration

Focus: global, cultural, and sectoral diversity in online and blended education.

Research Syntheses and Theoretical Frameworks

Focus: systematic reviews, scoping studies, meta-analyses, and theoretical model development.

Special Conference Issues

AERA SIG, EADTU, OLC Accelerate, etc.

Special Topics and Case Studies in Online Learning

Focus: applied and context-specific implementations; flexible category for empirical work not tied to other sections.

Student Experience, Engagement, and Success

Focus: learner experience, motivation, interaction, and persistence.

Topical Spotlights

e.g., “Higher Education in an AI-Transformed World,” “COVID-19,” etc.

Copyright Notice

As a condition of publication, the author agrees to apply the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License to OLJ articles.

Under this license, anyone may copy, distribute, display, perform, adapt, and build upon OLJ articles in any medium or format, at no cost and without further permission, provided that appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and the Online Learning Journal, a link to the license is provided, and any changes are indicated. Users may not suggest endorsement by the author(s) or the journal.

Author(s) hold copyright in their work and retain publishing rights without restriction. The Online Learning Journal retains the right to be identified as the original publisher.

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