Nearly two billion children across the globe are growing up in an increasingly digital world. Yet even as the ways that kids engage with new technologies constantly evolve, our efforts to attend to their healthy development hasn't kept pace. It's time to prioritize the well-being of children in digital spaces, which we believe requires a…

Semantic Web technologies have been applied in educational settings for different purposes in recent years, with the type of application being mainly defined by the way in which knowledge is represented and exploited. The basic technology for knowledge representation in Semantic Web settings is the ontology, which represents a common, shareable…

The author reports on a "flip model" of instruction that has gotten national media attention lately, thanks to its promotion by Khan Academy, the high-profile nonprofit online-tutoring library created by Salman A. Khan, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate who was looking for a way to help his young relatives with their homework. The…

"Learning Theory and Online Technologies" offers a powerful overview of the current state of elearning, a foundation of its historical roots and growth, and a framework for distinguishing among the major approaches to elearning. It effectively addresses pedagogy (how to design an effective online environment for learning), evaluation (how to know…

The original PLATO music concept was to replace the human performer in the feedback process, wherein the composer specifies an action and monitors the outcome, with a computer-controlled device. The first device of this type is known as the Gooch Synthetic Woodwind (GSW), which attempted to provide some of the features needed in an interactive,…

Presents a case study that describes the design and implementation of a tutor-training program for prospective online tutors. Identifies key findings that will inform future staff development and training programs for prospective online tutors. Analyzes the effectiveness of individual components of the training program to which the tutors were…

During the past three years, the role of the instructional systems designer has taken on greater significance for instructors. This is because many faculty members have been asked to put their entire courses online over the World Wide Web. Instructors are now creating a substantial percentage of the online courses with little or no background in…

Describes the cognitive processes required to troubleshoot faults and describes an architecture based on that cognitive model for designing learning environments that engage novices in troubleshooting while supporting their construction of requisite knowledge. This model can be applied to different kinds of troubleshooting problems, enhancing the…

Presents 4 guiding concepts--organization, communication, collaboration, and enculturation--and 10 related principles for supporting instructors as they develop online courses. The principles are described using examples from the authors' experience as faculty development specialists. Principles focus on technical, pedagogical, and production…

How can instructional designers create executive education, seminar style (non-credit) courses that are short (one to two hours) but still provide a meaningful learning experience for managers and executives in an organization? Engaging and motivating learners in short courses without traditional assessment formats or external motivators such as…

Carnegie Mellon Online has been used to deliver several university courses to thousands of students at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) over the last 2 years. This paper describes the experiences gained from redesigning an introductory art history course using Carnegie Mellon Online to deliver supplemental course content. The…

This book provides information for researchers and practitioners on the current issues and best practices associated with electronic learning communities. Fourteen contributed chapters include: "Interactive Online Educational Experiences: E-volution of Graded Projects" (James Benjamin); "Hybrid Courses as Learning Communities"…

This paper focuses on developing, implementing and evaluating an online, graduate-level distance education course--the first distance-based course to be offered over the Internet for students in Turkey. The authors present experiences of setting up such a course when students and faculty are 10,000 miles apart. The limitations and difficulties…

This guide by Margaret Driscoll is for those involved in creation or support of an e-learning program. It covers technical and pedagogical aspects associated with the development and maintenance of web-based training (WBT). The accompanying CD-ROM contains templates, design documents, worksheets, and direct web links to additional information and…

Lists steps to follow when planning a course online: assess needs and necessary conditions to satisfy them; estimate development cost, effort, and implications; plan the virtual classroom; design the virtual classroom; prepare and distribute contents; enable communication; implement online student assessment methods; implement class management…