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This chapter discusses the human response to the global crisis that is COVID-19, in the context of behavior change, drawing on relevant evidence from research and theory to demonstrate how it is that in the current crisis humans are facing a threat to their way of life. The authors argue that the intuitive response to this threat interferes with common sense and the ability to do the right thing, and further challenges the notion that humans are rational and logical in their decision-making. Suggestions are made to mitigate feelings of threat at an individual and societal level, including the need for social policies that condemn social behaviors that fuel rather than stifle anxiety, and the application of evidence-based approaches to how the byproducts of threat can be circumvented.

In this special issue of the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, we take a step back from the events of the last 2 years and the changes that we have seen in the education arena, to remember that which has remained constant – how students learn best. Developing teaching and learning pedagogy based on lasting education theory and practice makes the past of education relevant to the present and future and creates a context where innovation can be scaled and taken further, from a single instance of impact to many. In this editorial, we present an argument for going back to our roots and present examples of the effective use of established theories of learning that continue to advance online education practice. We discuss the scaling of educational best practice to more students and more institutions, and we provide recommendations for creating sustainable and lasting future practice.

Online education has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, however not all courses can easily be translated to the online mode of delivery, including those that require substantial academic research support and infrastructure, such as a traditional research project. To overcome this challenge, Monash University’s School of Psychological Sciences developed the Research Portal, a fully online research system, initially to support its fully online Graduate Diploma of Psychology Advanced (GDPA). The pioneering, expandable, and transferable Research Portal is a convenient and comprehensive one-stop capacity for scoping, designing, conducting, analysing, storing, and writing-up a research project fully online. One of the unique features of the Research Portal is the Virtual Lab which allows users to select and/or create psychological measurement tools, and to acquire human research data by conducting and contributing to the development of online experiments, surveys, and databases. This chapter describes the context, development, course application, and utilisation of the Research Portal. The chapter also presents findings from an evaluation of the usability and user satisfaction of the Research Portal. The Research Portal has bridged the gap between online and traditional research, which substantially benefits on-campus as well as online education and research. This world-first research teaching support system has made a type of course previously thought impossible, the GDPA, a reality.

Teaching and learning in higher education are being evaluated more and more based on the extent to which they contribute to students’ work readiness. Work readiness skills include non-technical, non-clinical, generic and transferrable skills, such as teamwork, communication and problem-solving—some of the most necessary skills desired by employers (Acnielsen Research Services, Employer satisfaction with graduate skills: Research report, Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, ACT, 2000; Commonwealth of Australia, Employability skills for the future, Department of Education, Science and Training, Canberra, ACT, 2002). Broader aspects of work readiness that have been measured in university students include organisational acumen, social intelligence, personal characteristics and work competence (Caballero, Walker, & Fuller‐Tyszkiewicz, 2010). Professional skills such as creativity and critical thinking are all the more important in a digital era (Grand-Clement, Digital learning: Education and skills in the ditigal age, Corsham Institute, RAND Europe, St George’s House, Cambridge, UK, 2017). As such, there is a general shift in interest in higher education to educational practices that cultivate collaboration, teamwork and other interpersonal and soft skills, which often rely on face-to-face interaction (Hill et al., Chemist Education, Research and Practice 20:68–84, 2019). This chapter will operationalise work readiness and discuss how it is addressed in higher education, both within online and on-campus modes. Recommendations will be provided as to how to embed work readiness skills into online education curriculum, specifically to assist students to develop work readiness and to empower educators to position graduates to enter the workforce with their best foot forward.

Online education is our brave new education world, providing unique challenges and opportunities for its rapidly growing numbers of students, instructors and course developers. The brave new opportunities of online education include an opportunity for online course educators to develop, teach and refine online courses based on empirical evidence of the comparative value of various online course feature possibilities. Basing online course development on research evidence allows online education best practice. As such, online education research programmes are increasingly necessary to guide the optimal advance of online education. This chapter describes the development, implementation and lessons learned by a particular early online education research programme—the Monash Online—Psychology Education Division (MO-PED). The MO-PED was started to support the research evidence-based development and refinement of a particular course—Monash University’s fully online fourth-year level Graduate Diploma of Psychology Advanced (GDPA)—and grew to support non course specific online education research and associated research collaborations. The key MO-PED online education research collaboration has been with King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN). MO-PED’s online education research has included explorations of the importance of building an online sense of community, understanding the drivers and barriers of effective online study, and with King’s College, London, investigating the benefits of online mindfulness course components.

In universities that are expanding their presence in online education, there can be opportunities to harness the experience of staff from a range of faculties to develop staff capacity and enhance student learning experiences. A collaborative cross-faculty approach at Monash University has led to the development of the Monash Online Education Community of Practice (MOEC). This chapter outlines the process used to engage staff and build the community through a series of events and initiatives which culminated in the launch of MOEC and the development of a portal to support interaction and ongoing MOEC activities. As a tangible demonstration of the cross-faculty collaboration built through MOEC, members developed a new online learning hub which will provide an enhanced orientation experience for students studying online at Monash University. Opportunities exist to enhance understanding of the impacts of this and other communities of practice initiatives at the levels of the individual, the community and the organisation.

Online education teaching and learning practice is advancing as it expands education in a way that exceeds the boundaries of time and place. Alongside this, investments are being increasingly made by institutions with the aim of enhancing students’ sense of immersion into the learning experience. However, despite best efforts, the distance between the student and the institution during distance education including online education cannot be totally removed. This chapter will explore “distance” and its psychological manifestations in education delivered in the online mode. It will be demonstrated that online teaching and learning practice can be shaped and structured such that an optimal amount of distance between a student and his/her institution can be achieved and, where needed, transcended, to reduce feelings of isolation and increase accountability for learning, both of which can be compromised in this mode of study (Metcalfe & Haugen, 2018). Recommendations are made for the contextualisation of learning and the reduction of the perceived distance between students and each other, students and their teachers, and students and their institutions.

This study challenges understandings on the ‘redundancy effect’ of cognitive load theory and visual/verbal classifications of dual-coding theory. Current understandings assert that a multimedia mix of narration and text displayed via e-learning leads to cognitive overload, thus, impeding learning[1][2]. Previous research suggests that for optimal learning to occur, the most effective multimedia mix for e-learning presentation is the use of pictures and narration[3][4][5][6]. The study was undertaken with 90 undergraduate students at a British University. Participants were allocated to one of three groups. Each group used a different multimedia mix of a music e-learning program. The experiment groups were; Redundancy mode, Modality mode and Mixed mode. Participant’s prior level of music learning was assessed, as was their level of knowledge after using the system. Results indicate that the Redundancy mode is most effective for learning, that is, the simultaneous presentation of text and narration enables significantly more optimal learning that modality modes (i.e. Narration and graphics) and Mixed modes (i.e. text and graphics). These findings challenge the currently accepted stance on the redundancy effect in e-learning design.

Individuals are more inclined to trust a person they perceive as similar to themselves. Nevertheless, the perceived similarity of another person can be distorted by many personality and contextual factors. This study assessed whether neuroticism is related to perceived similarity and whether the familiarity of a context influences this association. Specifically, 87 participants received a hypothetical resume that described an applicant. Participants rated this job applicant along a series of trait adjectives. Furthermore, they completed the NEO FFI to characterize their own personality. While evaluating the job applicant, background music was presented, and this music was familiar to only a portion of participants. Participants with elevated levels of neuroticism were more likely to perceive the applicant as dissimilar to themselves on openness and extraversion. This perceived dissimilarity in extraversion was especially pronounced when the music was rated as familiar. These findings were ascribed to the sensitivity towards threat that underpins neuroticism, which provokes an inflated recognition of differences in familiar contexts.

When individuals hear recognizable music, they are likely to perceive another person in the environment as more familiar-through a process of assimilation. This familiarity might promote trust and thus inhibit a systematic scrutiny of this person. To assess the effect of recognizable music on the perception and evaluation of other individuals, 87 participants received two hypothetical resumes that were submitted by job applicants. They evaluated the personality of these applicants and designated the candidate they believed was preferable. During this procedure, background music was presented, and this music was familiar to only a subset of participants. Participants who regarded the music as familiar were more likely to perceive the candidates as extraverted. These participants were also more likely to prefer the candidate who demonstrated superior expertise but submitted a less attractive resume, which suggests that familiar music promoted a systematic rather than superficial analysis. (ProQuest-CSA LLC: ... denotes obscured text omitted.) Music can dramatically influence the decisions, judgments, and behavior of individuals (e.g., Campbell. 1996; Hallam, Price, & Katsarou, 2002; Husain, Thompson, & Schellenberg, 2002; Pates, Karageorghis, Fryer, & Maynard, 2003; Sollberger, Reber, & Eckstein, 2003). For example, soothing music can promote compliance to the requests of salespersons (Chebat, Vaillant, & GelinasChebat, 2000). Indeed, in addition to mood, many features of music can impinge upon the cognition and behavior of individuals, including tempo, timbre, and style (see Bruner, 1990). Thus music is ubiquitous in electronic advertisements as well as other customer interfaces, such as retail stores and even websites. The music in these contexts is often an extract of a previous recording. Occasionally, however, this music is composed specifically for a campaign or organization. In other words, the extent to which the music is familiar can vary considerably. The effect of music familiarity on the information processing of individuals has, however, received scant attention (although see Rainey & Larsen, 2002). This study underscores some of the benefits and drawbacks that accrue when familiar, recognizable music is presented. Effect of Recognizable Music on the Perceived Familiarity of Other Individuals Although the relative merits of recognizable rather than novel music have not been explored comprehensively, a plethora of studies has revealed that familiarity of persons, objects, and contexts can affect the information processing of humans. Indeed, an object or person is typically perceived more favorably after a few exposures, even when this exposure is subliminal (e.g. Complon, Williamson, Murphy, & Heller, 2002; Harmon-Jones, 2001 ; Yamada, 2004; Zajonc, 1968). As a typical illustration, customers were more likely to comply with the requests of a salesperson they had encountered incidentally before, even if they were not aware of this encounter (Burger, Soroka, Gonzago, Murphy, & Somervell, 2001 ). Conceivably, objects or persons might seem familiar even if they have not been encountered before. For example, the context or environment potentially could bias the perceived familiarity of objects or persons. According to recent research, the perceived familiarity of one object, such as an extract of music, can determine the perceived familiarity of another object. In one study, for example, new music CDs that were promoted on a website were especially likely to be perceived as unfamiliar when this site also reviewed popular bands as well (Cooke, Sujan, Sujan, & Weitz, 2002). A corollary of this finding is that recognizable music could influence the perceived familiarity of persons in the environment. When individuals are exposed to music they have heard frequently before, persons in the environment might also seem more familiar, a bias called "assimilation" (e. …

Positive emotions have been implicated in the development of coping resources and resilience for psychological health across various significant life events. Childbirth is often an event that incites positive emotions in a woman, and it may be that such emotions have an immobilizing effect on the onset of post natal depressive symptoms. In efforts to examine the influence of positive emotions on women during their transition into motherhood, the present study assessed 195 women across two stages: before and after childbirth. The aim of the study was to examine the variety of positive emotions that arise from childbirth, the relationship of positive emotions that arise from childbirth to maternity and other demographic variables and the relation between positive emotions that arise from childbirth and depressive post natal symptoms. Results revealed a significant manifestation of specific positive emotions such as joyfulness, pride, and interest after childbirth. Participants between the ages of 30 and 34 experienced a greater variety and intensity of positive emotions before and after. In turn, a negative relationship was found between the experience of positive emotion intensity and post natal depressive symptomatology. Factors such as education level, whether the birth was planned or not, and environmental and partner support were found to relate significantly to the manifestation of positive emotions.

Burnout is a variable that continues to sustain international research interest. The most widely adopted tool measuring the burnout syndrome is the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The present study attempted to examine the psychometric properties and factorial structure of the MBI amongst a sample of 536 professional health specialists in Greece. The results indicated satisfactory reliability through internal consistency for all three dimensions. However, a factor analysis did not produce conclusive evidence of a tripartite construct, but rather the predominance of a single primary factor (emotional exhaustion), and a secondary factor (depersonalization). The results confirm previous findings advocating the uni-factorial or bi-factorial nature of the construct.