Asynchronous discussion technologies offer the advantage of providing time for reflection essential for higher order cognitive thinking. In the context of a ten-week graphic design foundations course in the Digital Graphic Design program at Vancouver Community College, this advantage provides an avenue for advancing critical discussion of design…

This article presents the author's response to Randy Garrison's article titled, "Implications of Online and Blended Learning for the Conceptual Development and Practice of Distance Education." Garrison's article seems to have missed many important developments relating to distance education and obscures the evolution of distance…

The purpose of this study was to investigate learning in communities of inquiry (CoI) as the terms are defined in Garrison, Anderson, and Archer's (2000) framework. We identified 252 reports from 2000-2008 that referenced the framework, and we reviewed them using Ogawan and Malen's (1991) strategy for synthesizing multi-vocal bodies of literature.…

This study explores attitudes towards and affecting online learning implementation (OLI). In recent years there has been greater acceptance of online learning (OL) by institutional decision-makers, as evidenced by higher levels of institutional involvement; nevertheless, the increase in faculty acceptance lags behind. This gap affects the…

Motivation in distance education (DE) has been studied mostly at the postsecondary level with few studies having been conducted at the high-school level. This paper breaks with this tradition by reporting on the perspectives on motivation of 42 Canadian high-school DE teachers. Data collection involved one-hour long, semi-structured telephone…

Discipline is a vital, yet largely overlooked, factor in research on e-learning course design. This study investigated disciplinary differences in the instructional design of e-learning, by comparing how instructors of mathematics-related disciplines versus others: a) met the challenges of their discipline in e-learning and b) perceived the…

While there has been research into the provision of "distance" and "off-campus" education, both in relation to technology and to curriculum, little attention has been given to the experiences of students studying in geographically remote locations, where the remoteness has been an aspect of investigation. This study aimed to…

In 1997 the British Columbia Open University (BCOU) adopted a virtualization strategy based primarily on twinning off-line independent study distance education courses (textbook-based with study guide and telephone and e-mail tutor support) with alternate online versions (textbook-based with integrated conferencing and communications provided…

On April 1, 1983, thirteen "enthusiastic, daring, creative and resourceful" (Landstrom, 1993, p. 113) Canadian distance educators who were attending an international conference on telecourses gathered in a hotel room in Washington DC to socialize. They left that evening with a dream: a Canadian distance education association. Now, after…

The objective of this research was to compare the quality and quantity of teacher and student interaction in an on-line versus face-to-face learning environment. A Master's level course on nursing theories was taught by the same professor by both methods. Transcripts of the face-to-face class and on-line postings were analyzed to identify…

This study explored relations between students' motivational and cognitive orientations as assessed by the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), and their attitudes and choices relating to online lecture viewing. Examination performance was also assessed to determine if there were particular affinities between certain…

Investigating 121 learners' experiences with videoconferencing, this study used path analysis to examine the postulates of Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance. A major focus was estimating the effects of the dimensions of dialog, structure, learner autonomy, and transactional distance--the constituent concepts of Moore's theory--on learning…

The potential impact of on-line learning in health care is significant. By providing access to educational material from an internet-connected computer anytime and anywhere, healthcare workers (HCWs), whose workload demands are often changing and somewhat unpredictable, have increased ability to self-educate. For example, the growing recognition…

Builds on the results of earlier research that investigated principles that facilitate higher levels of learning in Internet-based distance learning university courses. Explores how these can be applied to Internet-based distance learning environments, using results of questionnaires from experts and scholars that considered complex abstracted…

Discussion of the use of computer-assisted instruction in distance education focuses on computer-assisted language learning (CALL). Topics discussed include computer-managed instruction (CMI); computer-aided learning (CAL); computer conferencing; the current status of CALL hardware; computer-assisted tests; summative evaluation; and theories of…