This study reports on a teacher's ongoing design activities in a fully online language course when the class was in progress. The aims were, firstly, to provide first-hand experience and insight into a teacher's design work in a real-life, technology-enhanced learning (TEL) classroom; and secondly, to facilitate reflective analysis of the emerging…

This paper describes a range of models and methods for synthesizing diverse forms of research evidence. Although this topic is applicable to many contexts (e.g. education, health care), the focus here is on the research traditions of distance education and online learning. Thirteen models and methods are described, and seven examples from distance…

The use of the Web to deliver open, distance, and flexible learning has opened up the potential for social interaction and adaptive learning, but the usability, expressivity, and interoperability of the available tools leave much to be desired. This article explores these issues as they relate to teachers and learning designers through the case of…

Distance and blended collaborative learning settings are usually characterized by different "social structures" defined in terms of groups' number, dimension, and composition; these structures are variable and can change within the same activity. This variability poses additional complexity to instructional designers, when they are…

Student retention rates are a constant concern in higher education, but this concern has become especially challenging as online courses become more common and there are widespread reports of low completion rates for online, self-study courses. We evaluated four self-study online pharmacy courses with a history of very high completion rates for…

Online instructors need to take on a multi-dimensional role and to be an effective online educator they are required to possess a varied and wider range of competencies. Preparing teachers for online education involves preparing them for a wide variety of roles and developing related competencies. However, the extent of emphasis required to be…

Group social structure provides a comfortable and predictable context for interaction in learning environments. Students in face-to-face learning environments process social information about others in order to assess traits, predict behaviors, and determine qualifications for assuming particular responsibilities within a group. In online learning…

Questionnaire responses of 457 students and 602 tutors were used to investigate conceptions of a "good tutor." In each case, factor analysis identified scales that reflected key constructs; cluster analysis identified subgroups with different patterns of scale scores; and discriminant analysis determined the scales that contributed the…

A key component of conventional distance education organizations has been the network of local study centres, set up to serve as a bridge between students and the educational organization. With the capacity of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enable direct contact between the educational institution and its dispersed students,…

This qualitative study examines perceptions and use of assignment feedback among adult beginner modern foreign language learners on higher education distance learning courses. A survey of responses to feedback on assignments by 43 Open University students on beginner language courses in Spanish, French, and German indicated that respondents can be…

Motivating learners to continue to study and enjoy learning is one of the critical factors in distance education. Flow theory is a useful framework for studying the individual experience of learning through using computers. In this study, I examine students' emotional and cognitive responses to distance learning systems by constructing two models…

Monitoring the learning process in computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments is a key element for supporting the efficacy of tutor actions. This article proposes an approach for analysing learning processes in a CSCL environment to support tutors in their monitoring tasks. The approach entails tracking the interactions within…

This study explored student-led facilitation strategies used to overcome the challenges of instructor-dominated facilitation, enhance the sense of learning community, and encourage student participation in online discussions. It presents a series of cases of students' facilitation strategies and using qualitative data analysis of discussion…

Discusses the effects that information and communication technologies are having on education, particularly the introduction of online courses; and describes a study at the Ghent University that examines how students cope with a re-engineered course that is task-based and how it affects their learning styles. Examines the results from tested…

How do educators and instructional designers assess the effectiveness of the learning environments they design? One important means of ensuring the effectiveness of instruction in distance and face-to-face settings is through provision of learner support. Increasingly, as learners utilize the World Wide Web for collaborative learning, support…