With the movement in education towards collaborative learning, it is becoming more important that learners be able to work together in groups and teams. Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) have been used successfully to teach individuals, but so far only a few ITSs have been used for the purpose of training teams. This is due to the difficulty of…

This applied database exercise utilizes a scenario-based case study to teach the basics of Microsoft Access and database management in introduction to information systems and introduction to database course. The case includes background information on a start-up business (i.e., Carol's Travel Club), description of functional business requirements,…

There is now a preponderance of evidence suggesting that the types of online course management software (OCMS) used in purely online undergraduate college courses, do not meet the needs of younger immature students. These students often lack the learning skills necessary to succeed in such courses, nor do the popular OCMS include the vigilance…

It is one thing to produce an innovative, construct-based assessment task; it's another to produce 10 a year that are comparable in difficulty, measure the same competencies, are free of differential item functioning, and can be scaled and equated. These challenges contributed to the failure of the performance (or authentic) assessment movement of…

Educators can use video to gain invaluable information about their students. A concern is that collecting videos online can create an increased security risk for children. The purpose of this article is to provide ethical and legal guidelines for designing video-based apps for mobile devices and the web. By reviewing the literature, law, and code…

This paper describes the theoretical basis and development of the iSELF: an Internet-tool for Self-Evaluation and Learner Feedback to stimulate self-directed learning in ubiquitous learning environments. In ubiquitous learning, learners follow their own trails of interest, scaffolded by coaches, peers and tools for thinking and learning.…

This paper presents both the pedagogical design principles and the challenges faced during the development of a mobile app, Chinese Characters First Steps, to support recognising, learning and practising writing Chinese characters at beginners' level, including the difficult balance between pedagogy and technical affordances. We also present the…

This is a critical phase for Open Educational Resources (OER) movement: on one side the number of OER is increasing rapidly, and on other side debates about quality of OER-based courseware are heating up. These debates emanate from the fact that OER-based courseware are supposed to help users to follow a logical learning path and get an engaging,…

Providing accessible library services and instruction to distance users with disabilities can seem daunting. This article, which grew out of a webinar presented by the author to the Health Science Special Interest Group of ACRL, provides practical strategies to help content creators utilize built-in accessibility features and provides a resources…

Semantic Web technologies have been applied in educational settings for different purposes in recent years, with the type of application being mainly defined by the way in which knowledge is represented and exploited. The basic technology for knowledge representation in Semantic Web settings is the ontology, which represents a common, shareable…

This article presents the design and development of i*CATch, a construction kit for physical and wearable computing that was designed to be scalable, plug-and-play, and to provide support for iterative and exploratory learning. It consists of a standardized construction interface that can be adapted for a wide range of soft textiles or electronic…

A WebQuest is an inquiry-based online learning technique. This technique has been widely adopted in K-16 education. Therefore, it is important that conditions of effective WebQuest design are defined. Through this article the author presents techniques for improving WebQuest design based on current research. More specifically, the author analyzes…

While researchers are examining the role of playing games to learn, others are looking at using game design as an instructional tool. However, game-design software may require additional time to train both teachers and students. In this article, the authors discuss the use of Microsoft PowerPoint as a tool for game-design instruction and the…

The design and implementation of remote laboratories present different levels of complexity according to the nature of the equipments operated by the remote laboratory, the requirements imposed on the accessing computers, the network linking the user to the laboratory, and the type of experiments the laboratory supports. This paper addresses the…

These days, with learning management system (LMS) offerings just about everywhere, online courses are almost as prevalent as classes taught in traditional classrooms with professors and students present at lecterns and desks. Many colleges and universities turn to vendors to help them create these courses, a service that software providers such as…