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This systematic literature review paper critically examines the effectiveness of screencast feedback compared with text feedback in promoting student learning outcomes in online higher education. This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion surrounding feedback modalities and their impact on online learning environments.

This paper adopts a systematic review approach to synthesise and analyse existing studies investigating the use of screencast feedback in online higher education settings. A comprehensive search and selection process was employed to identify relevant literature. The selected studies were then analysed for their methodologies, findings and implications. This paper seeks to provide an overview of the current state of research, highlighting the benefits, challenges and potential impacts of screencast feedback on student learning outcomes.

The findings of this paper suggest that while there is a positive perception of screencast feedback among students and instructors, drawing definitive conclusions about its superiority over text feedback remains at the very beginning. Students generally appreciate the personalised, supportive and engaging nature of screencast feedback, particularly within the online learning context. However, challenges such as technical barriers and potential workload implications for instructors are also noted. Further empirical research is needed to comprehensively evaluate the comparative efficacy of screencast feedback, considering factors like online engagement, digital literacy and the impact on diverse student populations.

This review underscores the acute necessity for expansive and meticulously designed studies that can provide conclusive insights into the authentic potential of screencast feedback and its resonance within the unique landscape of online learning. Through rigorous inquiry, educators can discern the optimal strategies for harnessing the advantages of screencast feedback to enhance student learning outcomes, aligning harmoniously with the dynamics of virtual classrooms.

Screencast feedback emerges as a promising avenue to foster meaningful connections between instructors and learners. The review highlights that screencast feedback engenders a more dialogic interaction between lecturers and students, resulting in personalised, supportive and engaging feedback experiences.

The systematic review conducted underscores the positive reception of screencast feedback from both students and lecturers in this context. The findings are consistent with the principles of social constructivist theory, suggesting that the interactive and personalised nature of screencast feedback facilitates a richer educational experience for students, even within the confines of virtual classrooms (Vygotsky, 1978).

This innovative blend of methodologies contributes new insights that can inform educational practices and pedagogical strategies in online learning environments.

The psychological theory of self-determination postulated that gamification enhances learning engagement by intrinsically motivating learners to undertake tasks spontaneously. Gamification has then been integrated into adult learning as part of the initiative of learner-centred pedagogies to curb the low retention rates of adult learners who struggle with heavy work commitments, family obligations and financial pressure. Gamification, being one of the technological mediations, assumes the crucial role of engaging and retaining adult learners. Adult learners have received less attention in research when compared with conventional university students. The purpose of this study is to conduct a bibliographic analysis to assess the past, present and future publication trends of gamifying adult learning and to identify the research gap.

This study included publications related to gamification and adult learning from 2014 to 2022, extracted from Dimensions. A total of 79,864 publications were retrieved initially, and 3,469 publications were ultimately selected for final analysis after the refinement of the keyword search. VOSviewer was used for bibliographic coupling, keyword co-occurrence, clustering and co-citation analysis of countries.

The number of publications related to gamification in adult learning has decreased since its peak in 2020. The saturation is mainly concentrated in the USA, the UK and China, with similar levels of national income and technology advancement skills. However, gamification in adult learning remains a popular and growing research area in developing countries like Malaysia, which has huge potential due to government investments in education, technology and lifelong learning. There is also an evident research gap on gamification, adult learning and personality traits, which have not been covered in previous studies.

Prior research mostly focused on systematic literature reviews, while the use of bibliometric analysis could be a missing link in this research domain. This paper unveils the evolution of publications on this topic over time by scientifically analysing a large number of publications and rigorously identifying research gaps contributing to future research avenues.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight how accreditation of prior experiential learning (APEL) is implemented, the challenges faced by the APEL assessors while assessing candidates as well as to suggest recommendations for improving the APEL process.

This paper is written based on the critical reflection of two accreditation of prior experiential learning: admissions (APEL-A) assessors appointed from a Malaysian Qualifications Agency approved assessment centre. This process would add depth and breadth to the study based on the assessor’s experience.

The study identified five challenges in the implementation of APEL-A. They are limited literature and records of the existing practices, conceptualisation of the APEL process, complicated and time-consuming APEL process, standard of acceptance vary according to discipline and lack of continuous training for APEL assessors. The four recommendations for improvements are as follows: the need for transparent and clear guidelines, ensuring consistency in practices and fairness to those from conventional learning, integrating APEL as part of the institution’s academic policy and providing continuous training for all APEL assessors.

Until now, not much research has been done regarding its implementation in Malaysia. The number of learners enrolled through this form of assessment may be low but growing. The feedback on the implementation of the APEL-A assessment process would be greatly beneficial to the stakeholders involved in improving its implementation process. The highlighted challenges faced as well as the recommendations put forth may also be useful for the continuous improvement of the APEL-A assessment process. Relevant stakeholders would benefit from this study.

The purpose of this study aims to compare the academic performance and types of learning strategies used by APEL and regular entry undergraduates. It also explored the relationship between the academic performance and the types of learning strategies utilised by these two groups of undergraduate.

This quantitative study involved 400 undergraduates from an open distance learning (ODL) institution. A correlational research design was used in this study. Data were collected through archival data and questionnaire. Independent t-test and Pearson’s correlation analyses were performed using SPSS.

Regular entrants were found to perform slightly better than APEL entrants. There is no significant difference between the types of learning strategies used by APEL and regular entrants. For both groups, the higher performers adopted time and study environment management as well as effort regulation strategies. Besides this, there was no correlation between cognitive skills and peer learning with their academic performance. Meta-cognitive self-regulation and help-seeking which were found to affect the regular entrants’ academic performance did not correlate with those of APEL entrants.

This study was conducted within only one institution. The generalisation of findings may therefore be limited. Future studies could be conducted to include students from several institutions.

Time management training could be provided to students. Additional support, like foundation courses and supplementary readings, could be provided to APEL entrants to support their learning.

The findings would be beneficial to ODL institutions who offer APEL entry to understand the academic performance and learning strategies used by APEL entrants relative to regular entrants.