In on-demand education, students often experience problems with directing their own learning processes. A Structured Task Evaluation and Planning Portfolio (STEPP) was designed to help students develop 3 basic self-directed learning skills: Assessing the quality of own performance, formulating learning needs, and selecting future learning tasks. A…

In the fall of 1996, the Computer Science Department at Virginia Tech initiated a joint project with the Montgomery County Public Schools in Virginia to determine how ready access to networked computing in the fifth grade would affect long-term student achievement. This project examines what can be achieved if technology access, support, and…

Reviews Internet tools for online college-level guided study courses (a term synonymous with correspondence course) and discusses bureaucratic issues that must be dealt with. Presents a model for an online guided study course that maximizes the power of the Internet while ensuring that courses are effective and manageable. (AEF)

This paper discusses the impact of the virtual campus on teacher and learning. It begins with a section that discusses what a virtual campus is and presents two models of the virtual campus. The second section summarizes factors that fuel the growth of non-traditional providers and drive major changes in the ways in which traditional universities…

A review of research in distance education indicates that results are consistent in that there is no significant difference in achievement attributable to the delivery system. This paper attempts to look beyond these studies by examining research related to: learner interaction and control, two different approaches to multiple learning styles, and…

Focuses on instructional and learning systems in distance education. Highlights include: learner-centeredness of distance education; instructor's role; relevant content to individual needs; balancing roles of instructors and learners; personalizing instruction; ramifications for instructional and learning system design; and architecture of dynamic…

This paper focuses on the human side of networking in education, emphasizing that people working together can create new solutions to old problems. Discussion includes increased links to information through the Internet and new resources entering the classroom; team-teaching, cooperative learning, and learner-centered instruction; and distance…

The purpose of this paper is to advance the argument that universities should move toward using distance education as rapidly and as fully as possible. The paper discusses three reasons to support the proposition: (1) Technological advances have brought us to a point that most of the university curriculum can be individualized and delivered via…

A survey of 53 undergraduates at Aberdeen University (Scotland) to assess the quality and nature of student's learning in a Web-based system. Shows students exercised greater freedom in studying, had little difficulty accessing computers, and experienced few technical failures. Study found students printed Web documents immediately and few sought…

The challenge corporations face today is how to provide information efficiently and effectively to staff who need it. This article discusses basic learning principles; self-paced learning; online learning; facilitated (instructor-led) learning; role of instructor as facilitator; and technology for facilitated online learning. (AEF)

Although it is evident that the Industrial Age has given way to the Information Age, educational institutions are still using Industrial Age models of instruction that encourage passive learning and stress knowledge mastery. In the media-rich Information Age, educators must shift to instructional models that put learners at the core of both the…

The Macquarie University (Australia) vision is to provide flexible learning options for all students. This will involve the dual development of resource-based curricula and information technology (IT) capacity across the university. This paper highlights major issues underpinning the design, development, and delivery of flexible learning and how…

The goal of the Carnegie Mellon Online project is to build an infrastructure for delivery of courses via the World Wide Web. The project aims to deliver educational content and to assess student competency in support of courses across the Carnegie Mellon University (Pennsylvania) curriculum and beyond, thereby providing an asynchronous,…

This monograph in the Urban Diversity Series describes the The Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL)initiative, relates it to research dealing with instruction generally and computer-mediated instruction specifically, and discusses its implications for education. ADL was undertaken to make instructional material universally accessible primarily, but…

Along with the growth of electronic communication in higher education, is the rise of virtual classrooms. Virtual classrooms exist because of technologies such as electronic mail, listservs, chat rooms, and World Wide Web pages. This qualitative research study examined one graduate course which was offered entirely over the Internet. Data from…