We report on the use of email lists as a supplement to teaching. We argue that email lists can provide a valuable students-instructor communication channel and describe the process of setting up and managing such lists. A case study of email messages exchanged in an introductory operations research course is also included. The case illustrates how…

Today, a variety of web-based learning environments have been developed for educational purposes, especially in higher education and continuing education courses. At the same time many studies have reported how networked interaction in many learning projects results in superficial and experience-based discussion, and does not reach the level of…

More and more, adult learners are finding the convenience and flexibility of online learning a match for their learning goals and busy lifestyles. Online degree programs, courses, and virtual universities targeting adult learners have proliferated in the past decade. Although students can easily locate an online course or degree program that's…

This paper presents a methodology designed to explore the role of context in collaborative knowledge construction activity in asynchronous web-based discussion. The discussions of two student groups participating in a web-based teacher education course were compared. The comparison aimed to highlight the differences and similarities between the…

This paper examines the use of face-to-face peer review (FFPR) and computer-mediated peer review (CMPR) in an Asian English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) academic writing context. The participants were 33 English majors from a university of science and technology in Taiwan, a new type of school offering 2-year associate degree programs in foreign…

This paper illustrates a 5-year case study (from 2001 to 2005) regarding a course in educational technology that involved from 100 to 150 student teachers per year for a total of more than 500 trainees. Since the first version of the course, which was entirely based on a face-to-face approach, computer mediated collaborative learning techniques…

This article discusses the relationship between procedural and conceptual problem solving in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment designed within the field of science education. The contribution of this article, and our understanding of this phenomenon, is anchored in our socio-cultural interpretation, and that implies…

This article features the 14 winners of the 2008 Campus Technology Innovators. This article offers an insider's view of the winners' campus technology initiatives, their project leads, and vendor partners jointly recognized for a unique ability to advance teaching, learning, administration, and operation on North American college and university…

Rapid development of computer-based instructional methods, combined with the rapid evolution of the Internet and the World Wide Web, have made it technologically possible to develop fully interactive self-study materials. While programmed instruction methods were developed in the 1960s and early 1970s, they were not widely used and, although…

Research into desktop videoconferencing in 1994 indicated it could be successfully used to improve the quality of interaction between students and teachers and to improve the quality of learning concepts and processes difficult to teach in non-visual distance education. This paper describes a desktop videoconferencing project trial between…

Arguing that whenever new technology is adopted, instructors should always consider the purpose of promoting study. This Digest offers suggestions about using the computer as a study and learning aid. The Digest first discusses independent study, collaborative study, and interdisciplinary work with the help of the computer. The Digest then…

While Purdue University Calumet (PUC) (Hammond, Indiana) has been a receiver of distance education for a number of years, a number of faculty expressed interest in developing courseware that would allow PUC to be a provider. After a distance education mission statement and goals were outlined, a pilot course was established. The distance education…

Just as the spoken word, virtual discourse in the listserv-assisted composition class unites the writer and the audience into a group. On-line writing takes the form of dialogue, and the reading of the on-line text does not shatter the audience but gathers them into collectivity. Since writing on the listserv is less rule-governed, students are…

This report is one of a series from a project entitled "Case Studies in Evaluating the Benefits and Costs of Mediated Instruction and Distributed Learning," funded through a Field-Initiated Studies Educational Research Grant. The case study subject is the use of Daedalus courseware, an interactive program that allows all participants to…

This paper describes a prototype software tool for support of peer-to-peer conversation in distance education courses in text-based asynchronous mode, utilizing the visual structure of multiple threads of conversation. The theoretical basis for this design is a comparative analysis of oral, written, and electronic communication that enables the…