Communicating with students is one of the most important responsibilities for faculty in an online course. It can also be a puzzling process. Having a "communication plan" and understanding effective email strategies, along with proper timing and frequency of communicating with students, are all important pieces of this puzzle. We…

Students' relationships with their peers, teachers, and communities influence the ways in which they approach learning activities and the degree to which they benefit from them. Learning technologies, ranging from humanoid robots to text-based prompts on a computer screen, have a similar social influence on students. We envision a future in which…

AutoTutor helps students learn by holding a conversation in natural language. AutoTutor is adaptive to the learners' actions, verbal contributions, and in some systems their emotions. Many of AutoTutor's conversation patterns simulate human tutoring, but other patterns implement ideal pedagogies that open the door to computer tutors eclipsing…

Contribution: As expected, a partition-room environment negatively affects students' learning. An unexpected result of this study is that female students occasionally choose not to use the technology available in partition-rooms, to avoid undesirable facial exposure. Background: The main purpose of partition-rooms is to prevent male instructors…

Short messaging service (SMS) is perhaps the most popular mobile technology prevalent among students in higher education due to its ubiquitous nature and the capability of two-way communication. However, a major limitation in two-way text messaging is sending back a part of received data with the reply message. This limitation results in users of…

New tools for teaching with distance education afford students with a variety of modes of communication. This study examined students' interactions during an online science education course. All interactions that took place with Elluminate Chat, Elluminate Voice, and Moodle learning platforms were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. Interactions…

This study explores the potential contribution of Eggins and Slade's (2004) Speech Functions as tools for describing learners' participation patterns in Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (SCMC). Our analysis focuses on the relationship between learners' self-efficacy (i.e. personal judgments of second language performance capabilities)…

The low retention rates of students in science technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and STEM-related majors threaten the ability of the United States to maintain its prominence in science and technology and meet economic demand (Executive Office of the President, President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2012). One…

The emergence of multi-touch screen tablets has increased the opportunities for mobile learning, as the unique capabilities and affordances of these devices give them an educational advantage over other mobile technologies. Tablets are progressively finding their way into classrooms and transforming modes of learning and teaching. However,…

This study examines the use of technology for interaction by second-year college students in The Netherlands and its relationship with their integration and sense of belonging. The concepts of student integration and sense of belonging, as used in previous studies in The Netherlands, link student's persistence to their social interactions. Our…

The Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) common data vocabulary supports the collection and use of information about virtual and blended learning. The data element "Virtual Indicator", introduced in version 3 of CEDS, supports a range of virtual learning-related use cases. The Virtual Indicator element may be related to a Course…

Electronic technologies are playing an increasing role in mediating patterns of social interaction within the classroom. This trend includes augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems like light-weight smart tablets. AAC in general has proven effective for many children in regard to decreasing challenging behavior, enabling…

Blogs are a useful teaching tool for improving student writing and increasing class interaction. However, most studies have looked at individual blogs rather than blogs maintained by a whole class. We introduced assignments involving participation in class blogs to four science communication classes with enrolments of between 15 and 36 students.…

This action research study explored attitudes and expectations of faculty at a Midwestern university who taught at least one fully online course during 2014. The study focused on instructor perceptions toward and experiences with web-based instruction, particularly in the critical areas of assessment and feedback; course organization; interaction…

While e-support has been positioned as a means, to overcome some of the time and financial constraints to professional learning, it has largely failed to act as a medium for professional learning in physical education. Consequently, this paper positions teachers prior interest with social media acts as a type of "leverage" for using…