This quasi-experimental study compares preferences for the amount of instructional guidance between creative and noncreative learners. Instructional guidance is implemented as a two-level factor represented as two variants of a visual design task, only differing in the amount of verbal guidance they gave. Dependent preference outcomes were…

As the practice of e-learning continues to proliferate, online educators, especially in the computing disciplines, are facing special challenges, due to the lack of relevant literature, the technical nature of the courses, and the perceived need for direct student support mechanisms. This paper presents a constructivist instructional approach to…

This article reviews research pertaining to the use aesthetics design, and usability in education. This article focuses on defining the role of visual elements and aesthetics in the user interface while exploring the importance of their application in a web-based learning environment. Research demonstrates that aesthetics are pivotal in…

In January 2009 the School of Education, University of Western Sydney decided to appoint an e-learning officer with the aim of improving the quality of online learning environments across course units. The e-learning officer had built a strong relationship with 45 academics across two campuses, with a positive impact on the application of…

This paper is a mathematical (Boolean) analysis a set of cognitive maps called Thinking Maps[R], based on Albert Upton's semantic principles developed in his seminal works, Design for Thinking (1961) and Creative Analysis (1961). Albert Upton can be seen as a brilliant thinker who was before his time or after his time depending on the future of…

Storytelling may be a powerful instructional approach for engaging learners and facilitating e-learning. However, relatively little is known about how to apply story within the context of systematic instructional design processes and claims for the effectiveness of storytelling in training and education have been primarily anecdotal and…

As graphically driven, animated, interactive applications offer educators new opportunities for shaping course content, new avenues for research arise as well. Along with these developments comes a need to study the effectiveness of the individual tools at our disposal as well as various methods for integrating those tools in a classroom setting.…

This article describes the creation of a fully online master's program for e-learning specialist training. This program is the first of its kind in Japan. As background information, Japan's general trends in e-learning are described, including activities of the e-Learning Consortium Japan and National Institute of Multimedia in Education. Such…

This article highlights the processes and best practices adopted by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore in implementing their mission-critical e-learning services for a population of 28,000 students and 1,100 faculty members. The various phases of this rapid growth in e-learning from the initial genesis in achieving mass buy-in by…

E-Learning is a new form of pedagogy for learning in the 21st century. E-Teachers are e-Learning instructional designers, facilitators of interaction, and subject matter experts. The roles of e-Teachers are to enhance learners' cognitive engagement and interaction. This is achieved by using the benefits of computer mediated communication--greater…

Online delivery of university-level courses has grown exponentially in the last decade and is increasingly being recognised as a viable and effective alternative to face-to-face classroom teaching. Many scholars have already written about the benefits and best practices of online teaching in general. However, not many studies have paid specific…

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are increasingly used by Higher Education Institutions to manage and enhance teaching and learning, and research. Discussion, chat, scheduling, and other collaboration tools make VLEs especially useful systems for designing and managing complex group projects. In the spring semester of 2006, students at the…

For organisations with hierarchical management and training cultures, e-learning provides opportunities for standardising content, delivery, and course management while challenging traditional teacher-student relationships. This research based case study of the Australian Army provided a longitudinal perspective of the diverse factors influencing…

The need for e-learning systems that support a diverse set of pedagogical requirements has been identified as an important issue in web-based education. Until now, significant research and development effort has been devoted to aiming towards web-based educational systems tailored to specific pedagogical approaches. The most advanced of them are…

In recent years, tertiary institutions in developed countries have made extensive use of Course Management Systems (CMSs), software packages designed to help educators create online learning communities. To date, however, such packages have been little used in higher education institutions (HEIs) in China. In this article, we describe the…