With the advent of the computer and the Internet, many higher institutions in Malaysia have begun to integrate conventional teaching with these two technologies. This approach in learning which is also called "blended learning" offers significant benefits, namely time and location shifting. However, the principles applied to activities…

While much is known about the characteristics of adult learners and even adult learners in online and distance education settings, very little CALL research is focused on online self-instructed learners, and even fewer studies focus on learners of less commonly taught languages (LCTLs), such as Macedonian, for whom traditional or even distance…

Virtual schooling was first employed in the mid-1990s and has become a common method of distance education used in K-12 jurisdictions. The most accepted definition of a virtual school is an entity approved by a state or governing body that offers courses through distance delivery--most commonly using the Internet. While virtual schools can be…

There has been increasing interest in informal learning in recent years alongside interest in how such learning can be supported by technology. However, relatively little is known about the extent to which adults make use of their own mobile devices to support informal learning. In this study, a survey was used to investigate whether, and to what…

Adult students have become the new majority in online distance education. Research in online distance education, however, is still predominantly based on the historical perspective of the traditional student profile. This study examines adult students' learning engagement in online courses and explores the impact of online course design models and…

Much Second Language Acquisition research focuses on young learners in the conventional classroom. Instructed adult learners, and in particular those who are learning at a distance, have attracted less attention. This group is substantial and growing: the Open University, the largest higher education language provider in the UK, alone recruits…

Four cases relating to the efforts of e-learning teams in valuing adult learners in their e-learning solutions were examined to better understand how e-learning teams value their adult learners within corporate settings. Two questions guided the analysis of the cases, they are: (1) What is the nature of the e-learning solutions in these cases? (2)…

As communities develop in cyberspace, distance education facilitators should recognize that, although community cannot be mandated, there are ways to foster a sense of community in distance learning environments: focus on human interaction, learning partnership, regular and consistent feedback, and course-based listservs. (SK)

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…

Describes an experiment that looked at how adult learners made use of their Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI[R]), a personality assessment tool, type to cope with the challenges of learning in an online environment. Presents results of the experiment, and draws tentative conclusions. Provides notes related to the four psychological dimensions of…

The purpose of this article was to investigate the factors that affect the dropout of adult learners in e-learning through an in-depth literature review. Although many studies related to e-learning have been conducted in the field of adult education or human resource development, relatively little concern has been given to why adult learners drop…

Discusses characteristics of older adult learners and the reasons that Web-based instruction provides the flexibility to meet the needs of adult learners. An examination of the literature shows that adult learners experience different constraints, motivations, and learning styles than do traditional college students, and distance-learning…

This study used the Delphi research method to develop the Online Adult Learning Inventory, an instrument to apply the principles of adult learning to Web-based instruction. Twelve experts in the fields of adult learning and online course development working with the researchers constructed the instrument and validated its content. (Contains 1…

The birth of modern continuing education as a structured university enterprise has been given impetus by the development of distance education. Instruction through and with a mix of technologies is a permanent and critically important part of distance education. Because of the heterogeneous quality of the adult student population, the introduction…

This paper describes two groups of students learning French online, one earning college credit through California's Coastline Community College and one studying for self-enrichment with the Annenberg/CPB Project and the University of Maryland University College. Students receive and are encouraged to explore weekly/semi-weekly current Web sites.…