Group projects are an important part of many educational programs. In these projects, groupware tools like shared workspaces, shared editors, and synchronous or asynchronous communication tools (video conferencing, chat, email, forum) are often utilized. For synchronous collaboration, video conferencing systems are often used since they allow for…

As online education expands, cultivating a sense of belonging becomes increasingly complex, especially for students who may never set foot on a physical campus. In this article, we explore the nuanced nature of fostering a sense of belonging and mattering among distance learners on our own campus, Indiana University (IU) East. To address these…

In this plenary session, Paige Ware wanted to talk about how telecollaboration and virtual exchange has offered a creative space to animate as educators over the last 20 or 30 years. Because the focus is on teacher education and because over the last ten years her focus has been on teacher education, she wanted to talk about some of the key…

The focus of all of this intense interchange was the shape and future of learning institutions. Our charge was to accept the challenge of an Information Age and acknowledge, at the conceptual as well as at the methodological level, the responsibilities of learning at an epistemic moment when learning itself is the most dramatic medium of that…

To explore the potential applications of synchronous technology to enrich student learning, faculty members from an American regional state university and a Chinese regional university collaborated to find appropriate ways to integrate synchronous technology (e.g., Adobe Connect) into an educational technology program in the American university…

Within the field of higher education, there are situations where the learner is not well served in a classroom setting. Problematic issues such as scheduling, critical mass, time, pace and location have the potential to be counterbalanced by e-learning. Within this, the asynchronous nature of today's online learning environments and computer…

This paper has a dual aim: to situate functionalities among the complex of factors that help shape online interactions and to explore the heterogeneity of audio conferencing and its implications. Following a critical discursive synthesis of the treatment of variables in the literature, attention focuses on the distinctive and diverse…

In the past two decades, as new capabilities for video communication have emerged, their use in educational contexts has steadily increased. Initially located in higher education, the use of videoconferencing for a broad range of learning purposes is now established in many schools. Although a considerable body of literature exists that describes…

Looking back on the use of distance education tools by religious groups, one word that stands out is change. The old adage "We've never done it that way before" will become less valid as religious bodies find themselves in the midst of a world inundated with online possibilities that call them to question how they interact with members…

This study investigated the online practices of students enrolled in graduate-level distance education courses. Using interviews and a questionnaire as data sources, the study sought to: (a) identify common practices that students adopt in asynchronous discussions, and (b) gain an understanding of why students adopt them. An analysis of the data…

This paper presents a macro speech act analysis of computer-mediated conferencing on a university course on language pedagogy. Students read scholarly articles on language learning and discussed them online, in order to make sense of them collaboratively in preparation for a reflective essay. The study explores how the course participants made use…

This study aimed to clarify the relationship between media, learners' perception of social presence, and output in communicative learning using synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC). In this study, we developed four types of SCMC: videoconferencing (image and voice), audioconferencing (voice but no image), text chat with image (image…

There has been extensive reporting on the interactional characteristics of multi-participant text-based chat rooms. In these chat rooms there are several students typing at the same time, often on more than one topic. As a result, it is not uncommon to see multiple overlapping utterances. Despite these communicative challenges, research suggests…

The concept and use of the synchronous and asynchronous forms of virtual conferencing is central to the experience of global design education. Easy and ready access to people and information worldwide is at the heart of a paradigm shift in design practice and education, defined by collaboration and digital technology. The dream of smooth, global…

Because there are few native speakers of English in Taiwan, students of English in Taiwan are often poorly motivated, having few opportunities to develop their skills and learn about American culture outside of class. Recent advancements in distance education allow live audio and video teleconferences via the Internet, a technology that has the…