The COVID-19 pandemic forced many researchers to adapt their studies from in-person to remote, using digital tools. Although established in ethnographic research, digital tools change how the researcher and participants can experience co-presence. This paper presents findings from an ethnography of an art museum's learning team during remote…

Teacher preparation programs have been slow to answer calls to prepare teachers for the online learning environment, leaving many online teachers needing to learn on the job. However, little research has examined how online teachers grow as educators while teaching online. One way to better understand this growth is to examine the changes online…

When schools in Pennsylvania and across the nation were suddenly shuttered in March due to COVID-19, teachers were faced with an enormous challenge: how to effectively teach and engage their students remotely when the vast majority had never done so before. In order to meet this challenge, teachers turned to an array of digital tools-such as Zoom,…

This article is a case study that aimed at understanding the dynamics of two complementary communities involved in a distance education graduate program: one community of practice formed by the instructors and instructional developers, who designed and developed the program, and another created by the students and instructor in one of the online…

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University--Worldwide serves more than 36,000 online students across the globe, many of whom are military and other non-traditional students, offering 34 undergraduate, graduate, and professional education/workforce certificate programs, presented both online and via blended delivery modes. The centralized model of online…

Chinese classrooms, whether on school grounds or online, have long suffered from a lack of interactivity. Many online classes simply provide recorded lectures to which students listen after downloading. This format only reinforces the negative effects of passive non-participatory learning. At the e-Learning Lab of Shanghai Jiaotong University…

Drawing on research literature on online discussion and on reading and learning from the text, we argue that research on learning from text has much to offer but has been largely absent in informing the design and study of online learning environments. We propose several key issues to be considered in research and development of online discussion,…

Online computer conferences used to assist distance learning courses often fail because the moderator-usually the instructor responsible for the conference-is not properly trained in techniques that build a community of learners. It has often been assumed that the skills required to create a vibrant classroom discussion translate easily to an…

In the transition from traditional teaching and learning to eLearning, the authors advocate avoiding disruptive approaches. The authors claim that many virtual university and corporate university efforts worldwide try to showcase big leaps forward, yet lack sustainability, suffer from in-vitro conditions, and leave behind the big mass of teachers.…

Highlights developments at the Center for Distance Learning at the State University of New York's Empire State College. Describes two types of instructional applications: (1) the textbook, course guide and tutor as the primary mode of instruction, with a technological tool/activity as an additional assignment; and (2) the textbook and course guide…

Presents 4 guiding concepts--organization, communication, collaboration, and enculturation--and 10 related principles for supporting instructors as they develop online courses. The principles are described using examples from the authors' experience as faculty development specialists. Principles focus on technical, pedagogical, and production…

This book provides information for researchers and practitioners on the current issues and best practices associated with electronic learning communities. Fourteen contributed chapters include: "Interactive Online Educational Experiences: E-volution of Graded Projects" (James Benjamin); "Hybrid Courses as Learning Communities"…

Reports on the development of an asynchronous learning environment for teaching introductory macroeconomics to approximately 200 distance education students. The research supports evidence in the literature that computer mediated communication an in particular, collaborative learning, can make a positive difference to the educational experience of…

Lists steps to follow when planning a course online: assess needs and necessary conditions to satisfy them; estimate development cost, effort, and implications; plan the virtual classroom; design the virtual classroom; prepare and distribute contents; enable communication; implement online student assessment methods; implement class management…

This paper draws on an extensive review of literature associated with telecommuting and looks at features that might affect the offering and take-up of distance education, particularly distance education involving computer applications, telecommunications and web-based, off-campus delivery of courses or components of courses. The issue is…