Purpose: In the process of the implementation of the eBologna program and the recent change of the university system, curricula at German universities have been redesigned; courses have been condensed and learning content has been re-structured into modules, each of which requires an evaluation. Simultaneously, skills required for working in…

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to recognise that as educators moving into, or already in, a Web 2.0 world, we are likely to experience anxiety, and to explore the implications for educational design in a Web 2.0 world. Design/methodology/approach: The objectives are achieved as the result of recent successes with the commissioners for two…

Purpose: Elementary teachers' understanding of mathematics is a significant contributor to student success with mathematics. Consequently, teacher educators are frequently charged with the responsibility of supporting the development of prospective elementary teachers' mathematics content knowledge as they re-learn concepts in ways they are…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to document and analyse the author's first two years of developing a pedagogy that meaningfully incorporates the content creation and social collaboration functions of digital technologies. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses self-study methodology to describe, interpret, and challenge excerpts from…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the usability of a remote learning system in its initial development phase, using a quantitative usability evaluation method through Markov models. Design/methodology/approach: The paper opted for an exploratory study. The data of interest of the research correspond to the possible accesses of users…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose an indexing and teaching focus mining system for lecture videos recorded in an unconstrained environment. Design/methodology/approach: By applying the proposed algorithms in this paper, the slide structure can be reconstructed by extracting slide images from the video. Instead of applying…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the usability (effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction) of e-feedback interfaces. The experiment compares a traditional visual approach with a multimodal approach in order to determine the impact of multimodal metaphors upon the user's understanding, reasoning and engagement with the…

Purpose: This paper seeks to describe XML technologies and to show how they can be applied for developing web-based courses and supporting authors who do not have much experience with the preparation of web-based courses. Design/methodology/approach: When developing online courses the academic staff has to address the following problem--how to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe vector graphics for web lectures, focusing on the experiences with Adobe Flash 9 and SVG. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents experiences made during the development and everyday use of two versions of the lecture-recording system virtPresenter. The first of these versions is based on…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce some new functions achieved in a web-based multimedia courseware, which is developed by Flash software and used by part-time graduate students. Design/methodology/approach: The courseware uses Adobe Flash CS3 as its development software, which supports Actionscript language, FMS and FLV technology…

Purpose: Social navigation is an emerging trend for navigation in hypermedia. With social navigation, users can be guided through large volumes of learning content by cues which integrate the browsing history of past users. Earlier papers have shown that social navigation is suitable for navigation not only in classic hypermedia but also in…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the design and implementation of music courseware that features a music search system that uses impression keywords. The paper applies the courseware to "Kansei" (sensibility) development for elementary and junior high school students. The objectives of this courseware are to cultivate…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present an example of how the synergy of different competences in students' teams, out-of-the-box thinking style and various motivation factors in a culturally diverse learning environment is the foundation for knowledge construction, driven by the idea generation process and co-creation--the so-called…

Purpose: Research on the nature of blended learning and its features has led to a variety of approaches to the practice of blended learning. The purpose of this paper is to provide an alternative practice model, the TSOI hybrid learning model (HLM) to enhance the blended learning experiences in science education. Design/methodology/approach: The…

Design prescriptions to create web-based courses and sites that are dynamic, easy-to-use, interactive and data-driven, emerge from a "how to do it" approach. Unfortunately, the theory behind these methods, prescriptions, procedures or tools, is rarely provided and the important terms, such as "easy-to-use", to which these…