Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be enhanced with the so-called learning-by-doing, designing the courses in a way that the learners are involved in a more active way in the learning process. Within the options for increasing learners' interaction in MOOCs, it is possible to integrate (third-party) external tools as part of the instructional…

Online professional learning websites provide a unique window into how teachers make self-directed choices about their own professional development. This study extends previous research on how teachers use online resource repositories to examine how teachers make choices about resource use on a professional learning website. The website, the…

This paper explores the roles played by cloud computing technologies and social media in facilitating a learning community for online group collaborative learning, and particularly explores opportunities and challenges in leveraging culturally responsive teaching (CRT) awareness in educational technology. It describes implementation of a…

In this paper, guidelines for designing virtual change agents (VCAs) are proposed to support students' affective and motivational needs in order to promote personalized learning in online remedial mathematics courses. Automated, dynamic, and personalized support is emphasized in the guidelines through maximizing "interactions" between VCAs and…

It is now possible to create flexible learning environments without time and distance barriers on the internet. However, research has shown that learners typically experience isolation and alienation in online learning environments. These negative experiences can be reduced by enhancing social presence. In order to better facilitate the perceived…

This study investigated Korean and foreign students' perception of the teacher's role in multicultural online learning environments in Korea. On the basis of a literature review, a survey questionnaire was developed and piloted with 248 university students in Korea. The questionnaire was subsequently modified on the basis of the results of the…

Although online learning is expanding in availability and popularity, the high dropout rates remain a challenging problem. In this paper, we reviewed the existing empirical studies on online course dropouts in post-secondary education that were published during the last 10 years. We identified 69 factors that influence students' decisions to…

Successful online students must learn and maintain motivation to learn. The Self-regulation of Motivation (SRM) model (Sansone and Thoman 2005) suggests two kinds of motivation are essential: Goals-defined (i.e., value and expectancy of learning), and experience-defined (i.e., whether interesting). The Regulating Motivation and Performance Online…

Experienced teachers, tasked with mentoring, often find themselves inundated with large amounts of didactic information as they prepare for guiding new interns. In an effort to develop training that would both prepare new mentors and revitalize experienced mentors, a state Educational Professional Standards Board enlisted the help of instructional…

Although learning styles are considered as an important factor in education, students often have to learn in courses that do not support their learning styles. A challenge for technology facilitated learning is therefore to assist and help students to cope with courses that do not match their learning styles by training and developing their less…

This paper explores the design of a Web-based tutorial for Activity Analysis offered within an undergraduate course of occupational therapy and how its design features influenced meaningful learning from the students' perspective. This tutorial, using a case-based format, offers a learner-directed approach to students and the application of…

This article describes a blueprint for an online learning environment that is based on prominent instructional design and assessment theories for supporting learning in complex domains. The core of this environment consists of formative assessment tasks (i.e., assessment "for" learning) that center on professional situations. For each professional…

The purpose of this study was to identify and validate items applicable to evaluating online courses at the postsecondary level. Items were derived from a review of the literature. Four judges rated the similarity of the items by making pair-wise comparisons utilizing multidimensional scaling (MDS). The study consisted of five stages. Stage I…

The discussion forum is a significant component of online courses. Instructors and students rely on these asynchronous forums to engage one another in ways that potentially promote critical thinking, meaningful problem solving, and knowledge construction. In spite of the importance of these forums, predominantly used methods for assessing the…

While literature suggests that college students may be less reluctant to seek help in online rather than traditional courses, little is known about how online instructors give help in ways that lead to increased student help seeking and academic success. In this study, we used theories and research on learning assistance and scaffolding, teacher…