This article provides an overview of the ways in which data and text mining have potential as research methodologies in composition studies. It introduces data mining in the context of the field of composition studies and discusses ways in which this methodology can complement and extend our existing research practices by blending the best of what…

This design-based research project focuses on documenting statistical learning among 16-17-year-old Finnish upper secondary school students (N = 78) in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. One novel value of this study is in reporting the shift from teacher-led mathematical teaching to autonomous small-group learning in…

This work explores some methodological challenges in the application of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to the study of "Asynchronous Learning Networks" (ALN). Our interest in the SNA is situated within the framework of the study of Distributed Teaching Presence (DTP), understood as the exercise of educational influence, through a multi-method…

This study proposes a new method named the IIS-map-based method for analyzing interactions in face-to-face collaborative learning settings. This analysis method is conducted in three steps: firstly, drawing an initial IIS-map according to collaborative tasks; secondly, coding and segmenting information flows into information items of IIS; thirdly,…

A lack of good information about what youth are doing with new media stimulates fears and hopes about the relationship between young people and digital technologies. This article focuses on new modes of inquiry into youth new media use, highlighting the challenges, complexities, and opportunities inherent in studying young people's digital…

Content analysis has dominated computer-mediated communication and educational technology studies for some time, and a review of its practices applied to online corpus of data or messages is overdue. We are confronted with complexity given the various foci, nuances and models for theorising learning and applying methods. One common suggestion to…

The aim of this research study is to investigate the articles published between 2003-2007 in "Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology" ("TOJET") in order to reveal the trends and issues addressed in this electronic journal for the field of educational technology. The specific purposes of this article are to reveal: (1) the methodologies…

This article reviews and categorizes empirical studies related to instructional technology that were published in three prominent journals: "Educational Technology Research and Development, Instructional Science," and the "Journal of Educational Computing Research" from the year 2000 through 2004. Four questions guided this review: 1) What…

This article presents a review of seven national governments' online collections of adult literacy-related research. This study explored the type of learning associated with official web spaces by asking the following research questions: (1) What kind of research do these governments present on their websites? (2) How is the presentation…

The six chapters of this theme issue provide an overview of empirical content analysis, ranging from classical to computer-assisted content analysis as they relate to educational research. The contributions to this volume show that content analysis can be used to analyze data that constitute reactions to stimuli introduced in the study. (SLD)

This article reviews content analysis studies aimed to assess critical thinking in computer-mediated communication. It also discusses theories and content analysis models that encourage critical thinking skills in asynchronous learning environments and reviews theories and factors that may foster critical thinking skills and new knowledge…

This study describes the results of an analysis of the 293 papers published in the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) annual proceedings for the years 1996 through 2000. The primary purposes of this study are to identify the major topics or themes that were investigated in papers published in the proceedings over a…

The articles published in four prominent distance education journals between 1997 and 2002 were categorized and the references cited were tallied. The study provides an opportunity to examine research topics, methods, and citation trends. The results can be used to review current research trends and to explore potential research directions.…

Illustrates how Radial Basis Function (RBF) network techniques can be used to explore questions concerning authorship of historic documents. Demonstrates the utility and potential for using quantitative techniques to assist in the decision-making process in relatively subjective disciplines. Compares RBF neural network techniques with more…

This annotated bibliography identifies issues affecting the on-line teaching environment by assembling a variety of quantitative and qualitative studies. Studies in the bibliography are divided into two major categories: (1) topical studies, which contain papers that focus primarily on one issue affecting teaching on-line (student…