This paper will explore some of the practical options that are available to teachers as we move towards Assessment 2.0. Assessment 2.0 describes an environment in which the teacher sets tasks that allow students to use more dynamic, immersive and interactive environments for exploring and creating responses to sophisticated assessment tasks.…

Serious virtual worlds (SVWs) represent a great opportunity for learning and should embed a lot of high-quality contextualised information so that the player can take the most from his or her exploration of the environment. This requires defining new methodologies and tools for effective production. We have investigated this issue in implementing…

Mobile devices could facilitate human interaction and access to knowledge resources anytime and anywhere. With respect to wide application possibilities of mobile learning, investigating learners' acceptance towards it is an essential issue. Based on activity theory approach, this research explores positive factors for the acceptance of m-learning…

While past studies on user-interface design focused on a particular system or application using the experimental approach, we propose a theoretical model to assess the impact of perceived user-interface design (PUID) on continued usage intention (CUI) of self-paced e-learning tools in general. We argue that the impact of PUID is mediated by two…

This article reports on the e-Framework Reference Model for Assessment (FREMA) project that aimed at creating a reference model for the assessment domain: a guide to what resources (standards, projects, people, organisations, software, services and use cases) exist for the domain, aimed at helping strategists understand the state of e-learning…

This paper considers professional development in a context that is familiar and problematic to teaching teams in tertiary education everywhere, that of delivering online programmes with an ever-decreasing complement of staff. The Teaching Qualification Further Education (TQFE) teaching team at University of Dundee confronted the reality of reduced…

This paper explores the potential of Semantic Web technologies to support teaching and learning in a variety of higher education settings in which some form of case-based learning is the pedagogy of choice. It draws on the empirical work of a major three year research and development project in the United Kingdom: "Ensemble: Semantic…

This paper addresses the use of computer-based testing in distance education, based on the experience of Universitas Terbuka (UT), Indonesia. Computer-based testing has been developed at UT for reasons of meeting the specific needs of distance students as the following: (1) students' inability to sit for the scheduled test; (2) conflicting test…

This paper presents a comprehensive usability study conducted within the context of a Europe-wide project. The design of the evaluated e-learning platform is based on an innovative approach to the education of young Europeans by integrating into the curricula of a Europe-wide network of 14 schools different state-of-the-art technologies in…

In this article we propose a novel e-learning system, dedicated strictly to knowledge assessment tasks. In its functioning it utilizes web-based technologies, but its design differs radically from currently popular e-learning solutions which rely mostly on thin-client architecture. Our research proved that such architecture, while well suited for…

Supporting efficient data access in the mobile learning environment is becoming a hot research problem in recent years, and the problem becomes tougher when the clients are using light-weight mobile devices such as cell phones whose limited storage space prevents the clients from holding a large cache. A practical solution is to store the cache…

Existing adaptive e-learning methods are supported by student (user) profiling for capturing student characteristics, and course structuring for organizing learning materials according to topics and levels of difficulties. Adaptive courses are then generated by extracting materials from the course structure to match the criteria specified in the…

Fundamental concepts and definitions of electronic learning (eLearning) continue to emerge, and theories of eLearning that have been advanced thus far cover an array of academic perspectives including training and education, learning and knowledge, and technology and applications to specific market segments. Any study of the effectiveness and…

Argumentation is an important skill to learn. It is valuable not only in many professional contexts, such as the law, science, politics, and business, but also in everyday life. However, not many people are good arguers. In response to this, researchers and practitioners over the past 15-20 years have developed software tools both to support and…

This paper presents a quantitative approach to multimodal discourse analysis for analyzing online collaborative learning. The coding framework draws together the fields of systemic functional linguistics and Activity Theory to analyze interactions between collaborative-, content- and technology-related discourse. The approach is used to examine…