The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives, including instruction in the higher education system. In this sudden and stressful change, faculty had to explore different opportunities and technologies to continue to deliver quality instruction to their students. Instructional design has always been an important topic for education…

To explore the potential applications of synchronous technology to enrich student learning, faculty members from an American regional state university and a Chinese regional university collaborated to find appropriate ways to integrate synchronous technology (e.g., Adobe Connect) into an educational technology program in the American university…

This paper has a dual aim: to situate functionalities among the complex of factors that help shape online interactions and to explore the heterogeneity of audio conferencing and its implications. Following a critical discursive synthesis of the treatment of variables in the literature, attention focuses on the distinctive and diverse…

This report describes the incorporation of digital learning elements in organic chemistry and biochemistry courses. The first example is the use of pen-based technology and a large-format PowerPoint slide to construct a map that integrates various metabolic pathways and control points. Students can use this map to visualize the integrated nature…

Web conferencing tools help educators from around the world collaborate in real time. Teachers, school counselors, and administrators need only to put on their headsets, check the time zone, and log on to meet and learn from educators across the globe. In this article, the author discusses how educators can use Web conferencing at their schools.…

This paper reports on the trial of web conferencing software conducted at a regional Australian university with a significant distance population. The paper shares preliminary findings, the views of participants and recommendations for future activity. To design and conduct the trial, an action research method was chosen because it is…

This article describes the influence of tool and task design on student interaction in language learning at a distance. Interaction in a multimodal desktop video conferencing environment, FlashMeeting, is analyzed from an ecological perspective with two main foci: participation rates and conversational feedback strategies. The quantitative…

This paper is a report of the replication of a seminal study on cognitive presence in computer mediated conferencing (CMC) by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2001). A comparison of cognitive presence coding by three different researchers is also demonstrated. The study re-ignites debates about what constitutes the segment of CMC data to be coded…

Technology was integrated into service-learning activities to create an interactive teaching method for undergraduate students at a large research institution. Chemistry students at the University of Central Florida partnered with high school students at Crooms Academy of Information Technology in interactive service learning projects. The…

This paper investigates the complex interactions that occur as teachers meet online to justify and negotiate their assessment judgements of student work across relatively large and geographically dispersed populations. Drawing from sociocultural theories of learning and technology, the technology is positioned as playing a role in either…

This month's column focuses on online Web conferencing software. This year promises to have the right mix of conditions to create significant growth in the use of these systems among libraries; library consortia, networks, and associations; and other library-related organizations. Travel budgets are being cut, librarian positions are being…

Tutor training for distance education is still necessary and through a face-to-face mode despite advances in digital delivery mechanism. A questionnaire records the before, during, and after training perceptions and feedback of tutors on the training conducted over 1 day. Tutors become aware of the uniqueness of the course materials and the…

At Dalarna University, Sweden, modes of communication are offered at many points of Kenning's continuum with a web-based learning platform, including asynchronous document exchange and collaborative writing tools, e-mail, recorded lectures in various formats, live streamed lectures with the possibility of text questions to the lecturer in real…

Asynchronous computer conferencing refers to the use of computer software and a network enabling participants to post messages that allow discourse to continue even though interactions may be extended over days and weeks. Asynchronous conferences are time-independent, adapting to multiple time zones and learner schedules. Such activities as…

Describes 38 introductory print materials the novice may consult before using the Internet, including guides and directories to resources; general information about the Internet; materials about Internet applications such as electronic mail, remote login, and file transfer; and information about Internet tools such as Archie, Gopher, and WAIS…