Online discussion boards are commonplace in higher education courses, intended either to supplement or in certain cases, replace face-to-face conversations. This article considers discussion boards from the perspective of David Kantor and Otto Scharmer's generative conversational models. It goes on to establish a rationale for applying these…

Constructivism is a theory related to knowledge and learning, focusing on learners' subjective initiative, based on which the interactive approach has been proved to play a crucial role in language learning. Accordingly, the interactive approach can also be applied to translation teaching since translation itself is a bilingual transformational…

Tutors often make use of explanations that do not promote learning. One reason for the ineffectiveness of explanations might lie in tutors' failure to take into account a tutee's understanding in order to individualize instruction. To test whether tutors provide more effective explanations when they are assisted in assessing a tutee's…

In this course, students encounter reactions and mechanisms in the context of landmark syntheses of biologically important molecules. Students closely examine pairs of syntheses of related or identical molecules to facilitate their appreciation for synthetic strategy. They then write short, creative papers that critically compare the two synthetic…

In this paper, we draw on Bernstein's [1996. "Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique." London: Taylor and Francis] notion of "framing" of pedagogical communication to propose a framework for use in specific literacy contexts. Here, we illustrate how this framework has emerged from an examination of text response online…

This paper presents the Helsinki-Lappi project (HelLa) co-run by two Finnish universities: the University of Helsinki, and the University of Lapland. The general aim of the project is to study, develop, and assess how different training programs relate to educational use of information and communication technologies (ICT). The project is expected…

The information technology/information systems (IT/IS) education sector needs to come up with creative ways of thinking about on-line education. In this paper, the major themes in the literature on on-line education to date are highlighted with a view to identifying issues that are either missing or under-emphasized. Next, the "radical model of…

One of the potential negative effects of online courses is a loss of social relationships and a loss of the sense of community that is usually present on a traditional campus. This paper presents evidence that collaborative learning strategies, which require relatively small classes or groups actively mentored by an instructor, are necessary in…

Trends in pedagogy and in technology are converging to make distance learning environments of the 21st century. Trends in pedagogy have encouraged the movement away from the learner as a passive recipient of information and toward a more active model of learning. Earlier generations of distance learning media and methods were ill-suited to the…