This paper compares the perceptions of two groups of students who participated in the first cohort of the WebIT online Master of Science Degree in Instructional Technology at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville over a two-year period. The program completers (n=11) are the students who completed and graduated from the WebIT program. The…

This paper shares the perceptions of a group of 11 successful online students regarding the value of the collaborative learning community that developed as part of their participation in the first cohort of the WebIT online Master of Science Degree in Instructional Technology program, at The University of Tennessee at Knoxville during 2008-2010.…

Service-Learning (SL) as an instructional method is growing in popularity for giving back to the community while connecting the experience to course content. However, little has been published on using SL for online business students. This study highlights an exploratory mixed-methods, multiple case study of an online business leadership and…

Using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, the author conducted a mixed method research study to examine the existence of the three CoI elements in a graduate-level educational technology online course. The author also looked at student perceptions and preference for community in online learning. High mean scores on the CoI showed that all…

Engaging professional adults in an online environment is a common challenge for online instructors. Often the temptation or commonly used approach is to mirror face-to-face strategies and practices. One premise of this study is that all strategies used in an online environment are assessment strategies, and as such should be considered for their…

This study explores students' choices of verbal and text interaction in a synchronous Live Virtual Classroom (LVC) environment that mixed onsite and online learners. Data were collected from analysis of recorded LVC sessions and post-course interviews with students in two different offerings of a graduate instructional design course that used…

The widespread use of innovative web-based technology in recent years has led to significant changes in the way students learn, communicate, and interact with one another. This exploratory single subject Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) study, conducted in a hybrid graduate course, was designed to determine if web-based tools like…

The Community of Inquiry Framework posits teaching, social and cognitive presence interact to create the learning experience in online environments (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2001). To date, considerable research has been conducted which employs the framework with promising results (Akyol et al., 2009). However, significant work is needed…

Online education is a rapidly growing phenomenon for science teachers. Using a sample of 40 online science courses for teachers offered during the 2004-2005 academic year, the Learning Science Online (LSO) study explores what characteristics of online science courses are most strongly associated with positive learning outcomes among science…

Recently, webinar (web seminar) tools (e.g., Elluminate, Adobe Acrobat Connect, Live Meeting) have been attracting more and more attention with the advancement of online learning technologies because webinar tools facilitate real-time communication and enrich the interactivity in an online learning environment. Corporations have long adopted…

Literature suggests that developing a community of learners is the key to a successful online-learning experience. In this study, the instructor of a multimedia authoring course adopted a synchronous communication tool (Yahoo Messenger) to interact with learners orally on a weekly basis and, thereby, to establish a sense among the learners that…

This study explores the extent to which subjective norm beliefs of online learners shape perceptions of ease-of-use and usefulness for the use of course delivery systems. Subjective norm beliefs represent the influence that instructors, mentors, and peers have on students to use the course delivery system. The results show that instructor and…

The Kolb Learning Style Inventory was used to identify differences between the learning styles of 168 students in traditional face-to-face courses and students in matched courses taught online. Additionally, the data for the online courses were divided by gender to determine if gender was a factor. Results of the analysis found that there was a…

Following the theory that a community of practice must be comprised of three elements: domain, community, and practice (Wenger, 2001), this case study examines the extent to which a university was successful in establishing a community of learners in their orientation program for online graduate students. Specifically, it explores the objectives…

A 3rd party provider approached university faculty and administration to develop an on-line program for the Master's degree in educational administration and leadership. While the monetary benefits of an online delivery were attractive, the institution rested its final decision on the instructional merits of the plan. The faculty used a 3rd party…