Over the last two decades, students and teachers, across educational levels and disciplines, have been subject to a variety of school reform efforts. Nevertheless, some instructional practices, such as portfolio assessment, persist and grow in popularity even in the midst of changing educational reform goals and shifting priorities. Teacher…

Student retention in higher education has become a critical focus in recent years. This paper describes the efforts of Lone Star College-Online and its Online Student Support Services unit to build and implement a comprehensive suite of services for online students with the intention of enhancing the online student experience and ultimately,…

One of the cornerstones of the AgShare program is the application of an information loop of action research in the training of graduate students to generate new and practical educational materials and interventions for creating open education research (OER) modules for teaching at universities, and for designing interventions and training…

In today's world where tuition fees continue to rise rapidly and the demand for higher education increases in both the developing and developed world, it is important to find additional and alternative learning pathways that learners can afford. Traditional education as we have known it has begun to change, allowing for new parallel learning…

This paper proposes both theoretical and empirical approaches to differentiating the community of inquiry (CoI) in online classes at individual and group levels. Following the example of research on organizational climate, it assesses the strength of shared perceptions of teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence. The paper…

Research conducted in various settings suggests that preparation and support for online instructors should be considered separately from comparable efforts for instructors in face-to-face environments. However, few studies provide empirical data that outline the ways in which preparation to teach online should differ, and only a handful link these…

Online learning provides extensive opportunities for individuals with disabilities to enroll in degree and certificate programs. However, accessibility must be central to online course development since this can have a profound effect on student engagement, academic performance, and completion rates. This article provides a unique perspective on…

As more colleges add online courses and fully online programs, the need to offer online supports to students becomes more apparent. The connection to an adviser is critical for all students, but for online students it can serve as their primary connection to the institution. In Fall 2011 a pilot study was conducted at the Community College of…

This action research study explored the change in face-to-face teaching practices as a result of faculty professional development for online teaching. Faculty's initial teaching model is typically born from that of their own teachers, and they teach as they were taught. However, few have any online experience as a student or a teacher. Learning to…

The United States is in a bind. On the one hand, it needs millions of additional citizens with at least one year of successful post-secondary experience to adapt to the knowledge economy. The Gates and Lumina Foundations, as well as President Obama have championed this goal in different ways. On the other hand, it has a post-secondary system that…

Given the complex environment in which the U.S. military operates, leaders at all levels must be prepared for a force that is more responsive to regional combatant commanders needs, better employs joint capabilities, facilitates force packaging and rapid deployment, and fights self contained units in non-linear, non-contiguous battle space. This…

The aim of AgShare is to create a scalable and sustainable collaboration of existing organizations for African publishing, localizing, and sharing of science-based teaching and learning materials that fill critical resource gaps in African MSc agriculture curriculum. Shared innovative practices are emerging through the AgShare projects, not only…

The Faculty of Education, University of Brasilia, implemented an online undergraduate degree program for classroom teachers (student-teacher) who have not yet completed their studies. There are 1800 classroom teachers in the Brazilian state of Acre, bordering Peru and Bolivia, who have completed only high school. However, a new directive from the…

As higher education moves increasingly to blended and fully online environments, smaller institutions often ask whether this is a desirable trend. They face many challenges in transforming their largely face- to-face didactic teaching traditions to the technology mediated learning environments. Learning effectiveness and student satisfaction are…

Recently, attempts have been made to use Weblogs and other personal webpublishing technologies to support individual and social reflection in higher education. Weblogs can be highly individual and reflective in nature, and students' experiences and perceptions of the technology and practice are of primary importance in furthering educational use.…