After spending a year working on the development of a new online Master's programme in higher education, members of the development team were interviewed to reveal their thoughts about the nature of the programme. The dialogue of each interview was summarised as a concept map. Analysis of the resulting maps included a modified Bernsteinian…

In today's world where tuition fees continue to rise rapidly and the demand for higher education increases in both the developing and developed world, it is important to find additional and alternative learning pathways that learners can afford. Traditional education as we have known it has begun to change, allowing for new parallel learning…

This paper presents an innovative approach to e-learning by exploring a number of initiatives where there is a move towards collaborative use of Personal Development Plans (PDPs) integrated with e-portfolios as mechanisms for delivering such plans. It considers whether such a move towards more product orientated assessment might enhance student…

The use of the Web to deliver open, distance, and flexible learning has opened up the potential for social interaction and adaptive learning, but the usability, expressivity, and interoperability of the available tools leave much to be desired. This article explores these issues as they relate to teachers and learning designers through the case of…

Computer-Assisted Foreign Language Teaching and Learning: Technological Advances highlights new research and an original framework that brings together foreign language teaching, experiments and testing practices that utilize the most recent and widely used e-learning resources. This comprehensive collection of research will offer linguistic…

When asked what they would find most helpful to enable them to use technologies more in their teaching, most teachers say "give me examples, in my subject area" and "point me to relevant people I can discuss these issues with". Web 2.0 technologies--with their emphasis on sharing, networking and user production--seem to offer a…

Can we apply the best of Web 2.0 principles to an educational context? More specifically can we use this as a means of shifting teaching practice to a culture of sharing learning ideas and designs? This paper describes a new social networking site, "Cloudworks", which aims to provide a mechanism for sharing, discussing and finding…

"Impact" is possibly the most frequently evaluated construct associated with any kind of technological diffusion or adoption within educational settings. Seemingly endless research projects are funded to measure it and to validate the educational value we have become adept at inscribing into practically all novel technologies brought to…

Training health professionals within university environments has traditionally focused on face-to-face methods. Practitioners working within the UK National Health Service (NHS) have found it difficult to gain leave from work to attend for study due to the demands of the NHS and staff shortages. In response, the authors developed a distance…

This paper addresses the question: how can e-learning be embedded in traditional universities so that it contributes to the transformation of the university? The paper examines e-learning strategies in higher education, locating the institutional context within the broader framework of national and international policy drivers which link…

Background: The literature on immersive virtual worlds and e-learning to date largely indicates that technology has led the pedagogy. Although rationales for implementing e-learning have included flexibility of provision and supporting diversity, none of these recommendations has helped to provide strong pedagogical location. Furthermore, there is…

Collaborative Learning in group settings currently occurs across a substantial portion of the UK Higher Education curriculum. This style of learning has many roots including: Enterprise in Higher Education, Action Learning and Action Research, Problem Based Learning, and Practice Based Learning. As such our focus on Collaborative Learning…

Numerous studies have been undertaken demonstrating that online learning is an effective teaching tool, working best when combined with more conventional teaching methods. There is a paucity of data both examining the longitudinal blending of an e-module with more conventional modes of curriculum delivery and also relating to the time and…

The UK's 2001 Special Educational Needs and Disability Act has charged learning technologists with the responsibility of ensuring that electronic teaching materials can be accessed by disabled students. In an attempt to explore how learning technologists are developing practices to produce accessible electronic materials this paper will present a…