Although the need for new educational technologies is increasing, the process for disseminating these innovations remains a challenge. A literature review shows that few studies have thoroughly investigated this area. Furthermore, there is no comprehensive framework or coordinated research agenda that may be used to guide such investigation. This…

Learners need to have good reasons to engage and accept e-learning. They need to understand that unless they do, the outcomes will be less favourable. The technology acceptance model (TAM) is the most widely recognized model addressing why users accept or reject technology. This study describes the development and evaluation of a virtual…

Web-based learning progresses as access to the Internet grows. As learners and educators in virtual learning communities, we strive for ways to measure how well teachers teach and learners learn. While the literature is replete with articles and books discussing online learning from the perspective of social and teaching presence, there are few…

Storytelling may be a powerful instructional approach for engaging learners and facilitating e-learning. However, relatively little is known about how to apply story within the context of systematic instructional design processes and claims for the effectiveness of storytelling in training and education have been primarily anecdotal and…

Online learning may be particularly sensitive to self-regulatory trade-offs between maintaining interest and performance. Undergraduates in online or on-campus sections of the same course rated strategies used to motivate studying for the first exam, and interest after the first exam and at semester's end. First exam and final class grades were…

The Classroom Community Scale (Rovai, 2002b) was used to examine faculty and student perceptions of students' sense of community at two points during an academic semester. The study also examined the relationship between student sense of community scores and their final course grades. A non-experimental research design was used by the researcher…

This paper reports on a project in which students' interactions with learning environments are investigated from the perspective of the spatial factors. Our research examines a significant dimension generated under the interrelationship between the subject and the virtual space, by establishing that spatial dimensions may determine the level of…

The study reported here focused on assessing teacher quality in online environments. The purpose of the study was to explore the feasibility of using the same method Tennessee currently uses to gauge teaching quality of traditionally-delivered courses to determine teaching quality in the online environment. Research questions were: (1) Is there a…

This paper describes the effect of teacher comments, students' demographic information and learning management system utilisation on student final scores in algebra courses in a K-12 virtual learning environment. Students taking algebra courses in a state virtual school in the Midwestern US region during 2007-2008 participated in this study.…

This study examined faculty characteristics and behaviors in 46 MBA courses conducted over a two-year period. We found that both formal instructor activities, referred to in the online learning literature as teaching presence, and informal instructor activities, known as immediacy behaviors, were positive predictors of student perceived learning…

This study investigated an innovative approach of program evaluation through analyses of student learning logs, demographic data, and end-of-course evaluation surveys in an online K-12 supplemental program. The results support the development of a program evaluation model for decision making on teaching and learning at the K-12 level. A case study…

In order to examine current online course delivery systems, the authors created and conducted a survey that examined both face-to-face (FTF) and online education (OE) classes offered at 46 universities and some community colleges in the United States, as well as at some foreign universities. Students were asked whether they preferred FTF or OE…

The causal relationships among the three presences in the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework are explored and tested in this paper. The CoI framework has been used extensively in the research and practice of online and blended learning contexts. With the development of a survey instrument based on the CoI framework, it is possible to test the…

The purpose of the study was to determine if the constructs of teaching presence and the sense of community function as predictors of perceived student learning in an online course. Each participating online student completed an online survey comprised of an informed consent, an item regarding their perception of learning (Richmond et al., 1987),…

This study examines the influence of instructional design and management style on student achievement and satisfaction in a web-based distance learning environment. From the literature review, two major instructional design and management styles in web-based distance education were conceptualized as structure and interpersonal interaction. To…