September 2023 Issue of the Online Learning Journal

On behalf of the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), the proud publisher of the Online Learning Journal, it is my pleasure to provide a brief overview of the September issue of the Online Learning Journal. However, before introducing the new issue, I would like to highlight the ongoing success of the journal. Thanks to the support of OLC and our community, the Online Learning Journal now ranks in the 94th percentile of more than 1400 journals in education. Also, through this support, the Online Learning Journal remains fully open access. I would like to preface this introduction with a warm thank you to OLC, and I would encourage readers to join OLC’s community of educators, practitioners, and leaders here: https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/join/free/ 

In her introduction to the special conference section of this issue, Patsy Moskal of the University of Central Florida wrote, “Every year, the Online Learning Consortium hosts two flagship conferences: OLC Accelerate, held in the fall, and OLC Innovate, held jointly with MERLOT each spring. The Online Learning Journal solicits research papers from those who have presented at the most recent OLC Accelerate and Innovate conferences for the annual September issue. In this special section, we feature three articles that highlight some of the research related to online and blended learning. Much of the work showcased at our conferences presents case studies and research from faculty and practitioners in the field. The growing focus on online learning due to the pandemic has resulted in many new models, approaches, issues, and applications to address instructional needs in the virtual classroom. These provide a valuable opportunity to examine how faculty and researchers are adapting their instruction to provide quality online learning across various institutions and disciplines.”

The September issue of the Online Learning Journal also includes 13 articles from our regular submission process. These articles discuss supporting refugees in online settings, the importance of relationships in remote education settings, online engagement and how it may vary by cultural context, cognitive presence, online mentoring, modeling online student satisfaction, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and more.

Many thanks to Dr. Moskal for her work on the special issue section of the journal.  Also a huge thank you to our editors, authors, reviewers, and the staff at OLC for their many contributions to support the success of the journal.

Dr. Peter Shea

Editor-in-Chief: Online Learning Journal

University at Albany, State University of New York