Despite several researchers reporting evidence that 3D Virtual Worlds can be used to effectively support educational processes in recent years, the integration of this technology in real learning processes is not as commonplace as in other educational technologies. Instructional designers have to balance the cost associated with the development of…

In recent years, bio-inspired approach to design has gained considerable interest between designers, engineers and end-users. However, there are difficulties in introducing bio-inspiration concepts in the university curriculum in that they involve multi-disciplinary work, which can only possibly be successfully delivered by a team with integrated…

Purpose: Today's requirements concerning successful learning support comprise a variety of application scenarios. Therefore, the development of supporting software preferably aims at modular design. This article discusses requirements regarding flexibility of e-learning systems and presents important principles, which should be met by successful…

The quasi-experimental field study with 174 advanced engineering students analysed the possibilities to assist the requirement analysis when solving design problems. Technical check lists are in common practice for assisting the requirement analysis. We wondered if a generic question answering system (GQAS) aiming at the "semantic relationships"…

Online learning space design becomes a significant issue with the proliferation of online learning in higher education. Never before has the instructor been given such a privilege in building and molding the learning space to fulfill his/her instructional aspirations. However, enormous challenges are present to the instructor in taking advantage…

Institutions of higher education have invested heavily in learning management systems (LMS) for creating course websites. Yet, how to assess LMS effectiveness is not fully agreed upon. Based on institutional theory, this article considers student satisfaction as indicative of LMS success and proposes a lens of critical success factors (CSF) as a…

Many efforts to improve the interplay between usability evaluation and software development rely either on better methods for conducting usability evaluations or on better formats for presenting evaluation results in ways that are useful for software designers and developers. Both of these approaches depend on a complete division of work between…

Traditional colleges who have implemented distance education programs would benefit from using instructional design processes to develop their courses. Instructional design processes provide the framework for designing and delivering quality online learning programs in a highly-competitive educational market. Traditional college leaders play a…

This article presents generalisations drawn from experience gained designing and renewing study programmes so that the use of learning outcomes became the underlying principle of curriculum organisation. Conceptions of a purpose (profile), aim and outcomes of a study programme are presented, their formulation requirements are discussed and…

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of reflective thinking effects in the process of designing software on students' learning performances. The study contends that reflective thinking is a useful teaching strategy to improve learning performance among lower achieving students. Participants were students from two groups: Higher…

The design and development research, first proposed by Brown and Collins in the 1990s, is currently among the well-known methods in educational research to test theory and validate its practicality. The method is also known as developmental research, design research, design-based research, formative research and design-cased and possesses…

In recent years, e-learning has become a valuable tool for an increasing number of visually impaired (VI) learners. The benefits of this technology include: (1) remote learning for VI students; (2) the possibility for teachers living far from schools or universities to provide remote instructional assistance to VI students; and (3) continuing…

This article describes how the author applied principles of universal design to hybrid course materials to increase student understanding and, ultimately, success. Pulling the three principles of universal design--consistency, color, and icon representation--into the author's Blackboard course allowed her to change the types of reading skills…

The explosive growth of the Internet has made the knowledge and skills for creating Web pages into general subjects that all students should learn. It is now common to teach the technical side of the production of Web pages and many teaching materials have been developed. However teaching the aesthetic side of Web page design has been neglected,…

The prevalence of feature-based 3D modeling in industry has necessitated the accumulation and maintenance of standard feature libraries. Currently, firms who use standard features to design parts are storing and utilizing these libraries through their existing product data management (PDM) systems. Standard features have enabled companies to…