In the 21st century, easy access to visually rich, immersive, student-centered, virtual applications could augment or replace text-based learning. However, the new developments are offset by the lack of insight into pedagogies needed to guide educators through a visual learning environment. The purpose of this directed content analysis was to…

With English as the lingua franca, numerous universities in non-English speaking countries offer programs with English medium of instruction (EMI) to receive international recognition in academia. These universities utilize their websites as primary sources for attracting prospective students and faculty from abroad. Drawing upon the distinction…

The battle between educators and entertainers continues when it comes to gaming. While this is so, the edutainment battleground has expanded to include actors outside formal schooling agencies, namely International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs). These actors employ digital games with the aim to educate and activate towards specific social…

The aim of the Inter-Life Project was to investigate the use of virtual worlds and creative practices to support the acquisition of transition skills for young people to enhance their management of important life events. In particular, the authors have been investigating the role of the Inter-Life virtual worlds in supporting the development of…

Experiential learning allows students to connect previous experiences with new ideas. Second Life (SL) is a virtual world that allows students to simulate real-world experiences. SL was utilized as an educational tool in an agricultural risk and crisis communications course. Weekly journal entries pertaining to the SL simulation were analyzed to…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify and describe some of the dimensions of scientific collaborations using high throughput computing (HTC) through the lens of a virtual team performance framework. A secondary purpose was to assess the viability of using a virtual team performance framework to study scientific collaborations using…

Small-group medical problem-based learning (PBL) was a pioneering form of collaborative learning at the university level. It has traditionally been delivered in face-to-face text-based format. With the advancement of computer technology and progress in CSCL, educational researchers are now exploring how to design digitally-implemented scaffolding…

While many reports espouse the potential impact that 3-D virtual worlds are expected to have on teaching and learning in higher education in a few years, there are few empirical studies that inform instructional design and learning assessment in virtual worlds. This study explores the nature and process of learning in Second Life in a graduate…

This article presents a qualitative case study that uses discourse and social semiotic analysis methods in order to examine the rhetorical construction of fictional personas within an online role play used for learning in the college classroom. Of special focus are the differing patterns of semiotic resource use (for example, language and…

This study investigated potential differences in learning between two instructional activities: reading from a text and using a computer simulation. Participants were undergraduate students with limited knowledge of the domain topic (project management). Participants in both conditions (Simulation and Text) improved equally on a decontextualized,…