Lectures and seminars increasingly strive for continuous interactions between learners and the instructor. I study whether the communication program Slack contributes to these goals by analyzing daily activity statistics in methodological and project-based postgraduate courses at an Irish university. Both semester-long courses were taught online…

This design-based research study examines how a collaborative annotation tool, Perusall, supported the development of community within an asynchronous online graduate course. Students read and engaged with assigned texts uploaded to Perusall each week, providing numerous opportunities for students to interact and collaborate with each other using…

WhatsApp, the message-sharing social media app, is commonly used by students to collaborate on class assignments. This article examines the use of WhatsApp as part of a course gradable assignments and weekly pre- and postlecture discussions. This study is based on a survey and interviews conducted with undergraduate university students in the UAE…

This article aimed to identify the usefulness of using social networking sites (SNSs) in an English as a foreign language class. One hundred sixteen undergraduate students of diverse degrees from a polytechnic state-owned university in Ecuador participated in the study, which followed a quantitative design. A descriptive analysis and a linear…

With the advent of open source virtual environments, the associated cost reductions, and the more flexible options, avatar-based virtual reality environments are within reach of educators. By using and repurposing readily available virtual environments, instructors can bring engaging, community-building, and immersive learning opportunities to…

To assess the effectiveness of a cooperative learning activity, students were randomly assigned to small groups and asked to lead an online discussion. Responses to a survey administered at the completion of the course suggest that the activity was effective in meeting its goals of promoting student interaction and increasing perceived student…

This article focuses on meshing technology-enhanced learning with cooperative learning pedagogy, to address teaching/learning challenges in higher education online and hybrid courses. Illustrations of implementation are made using coursework exemplars. Start-up solutions and sample applications are summarized. The purposes of this article are to…

Business organizations are increasingly adopting collaboration tools to increase communication within the firm. CAMS is a home-grown online collaborative environment which makes heavy use of participant's pictures. Participants, both faculty and students, were asked questions about the benefits and usefulness of pictures in the CAMS collaborative…

Develops a simple tool to measure interactive learning in the context of computer-mediated communication (CMC). Describes the Measure of Interactivity in CMC (MICMC) and examines the reliability and validity of this measure. Subjects were fifth- and sixth-grade students in an inner city elementary school. Data analysis indicates MICMC is a useful…

Discusses a case study at Pepperdine University (California) in the Online Master of Arts in Educational Technology and the critical insights which can be used by similar university programs to influence their thinking of how to best prepare future learning communities in virtual discussions. Addresses key issues, benefits, and methods concerning…

Examines graduate students' perceptions of the educational value of their collaborative learning when using the Internet for course delivery. Respondents indicated that, although they enjoyed the convenience and opportunity for collaboration, a number of unsatisfactory elements were apparent with the instructional strategy and the delivery medium.…

In an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Computer & Information Technology (CIT) and Nursing (NSG) Departments at the Middletown and Hamilton regional campuses of Miami University (of Ohio), student team members created a Web-based application to create Electronic Nursing Notes. Students from the two departments worked together to…

This research examined whether collaborative hypermedia systems could improve upon results achieved in traditional collaborative and individual learning environments without a computer. The students did not feel positively disposed to sharing their ideas and work with their peers; the group experience did not improve the quality of individual…

Focuses on pedagogical communication patterns between students and tutors in a telecommunications learning environment. Results of evaluating student behavior in a set of telelearning computer science courses show that they differentiate between the personal dimension of communicating with others and the group dimension which enables true…