This paper presents a case study where twelve graduate students undertook the demanding role of the adaptive e-course developer and worked collaboratively on an authentic and complex design task in the context of open and distance tertiary education. The students had to work in groups in order to conceptualise and design a learning scenario for…

e-Learning has entered the mainstream in higher education and many institutions are implementing technology-mediated learning at some level. This paper outlines the case of a course taught jointly in 2010 over three months by two graduate programmes in management at the University of Tsukuba in Japan and the Grenoble Ecole de Management in France…

The purpose of this program evaluation study was to design, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of incorporating an online learning community as part of a comprehensive new-teacher induction program. The researcher, who serves as the middle school principal and new induction coordinator for the school district, used a mixed-method approach…

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,…

Questionnaires were mailed to 138 students in 55 communities in British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon, who had enrolled from their homes in an introductory psychology distance education course; 92 responses were received. In addition to an integrated, open learning course package in print form, students could also watch a weekly one-hour live…

As a regional institution serving the needs of 11 different island nations of the South West Pacific, the University of the South Pacific (USP) is, along with its on-campus face-to-face teaching activity, deeply committed to and reliant on distance study methods. Both of these activities at the university are the principal responsibility of a…

The Office of Institutional Research at Johnson County Community College (JCCC), Kansas, conducted a survey to help determine the level of interest in Internet training courses. Surveys were mailed in November 1998 to 9,982 individuals selected from six lists representing the JCCC Business and Industry Division's current and potential clients. A…

The evaluation of distance education courses at the FernUniversitat was an important focus of interest during the initial stages of its development (1974-1980), when courses were being developed for five major departments and the number of students enrolled was increasing rapidly. Since teaching began immediately, a formative evaluation approach…

This project had three goals: (1) to seek out the policies and practices currently in place to prepare academic teaching staff to develop, write, and teach in distance education; (2) to identify effective professional preparation and staff development practices for distance education currently in use in Australian postsecondary institutions; and…

Presents a cross-sectional, quantitative descriptive study that examined community college professors' attitudes toward online learning. Results indicated that instructors realize the large role of technology and its potential to contribute to increased learning. Confidence in their computer skills was high, and they felt that the increased time…

Numerous studies have been undertaken demonstrating that online learning is an effective teaching tool, working best when combined with more conventional teaching methods. There is a paucity of data both examining the longitudinal blending of an e-module with more conventional modes of curriculum delivery and also relating to the time and…

This paper describes the theoretical foundations of an online course to teach clinical educators how to convert a traditional face-to-face course for either flexible or distance delivery. We describe the design research approach to the creation of the course and the pedagogical theory behind the course development. We also present the details of…

In fall 1988, Arctic College (AC--Northwest Territories, Canada) in collaboration with Athabasca University (AU--Alberta, Canada) initiated the University Transfer Program (UTP) to provide first-year university education for full- and part-time students at the Yellowknife campus of AC. Program content, standards, and instruction were maintained by…

The problem addressed in this practicum was that most teachers at the author's middle school were not fully using the school's network resources in their day-to-day classroom activities, in spite of district technology initiatives. The goal of the practicum was to empower a cadre of representative mentor teachers to fully utilize the school…

This book, which is intended for individuals involved in recruiting and teaching students in open and distance learning (ODL) situations, examines academic and nonacademic student support issues in ODL. The following are among the topics discussed in the book's 14 chapters: (1) models and definitions of ODL systems; (2) rationale for student…