Online teacher education is an important alternative in response to the problem of teacher shortage. The format of interaction is critical in leveraging social and intellectual connection between learners. Yet, few studies have examined this issue in online teacher preparation. In this study, we examined two commonly used interactional formats…

Extensive research supports the claim that student-instructor interaction is an essential element of successful online teaching. It is less clear, however, whether teaching presence is discipline-specific, or how it may be affected by the personal and professional background of individual instructors. This article describes the quantitative…

Given that our current educational context has required many educators to utilize online instruction in some capacity over the past year, the purpose of this paper is to describe how literacy specialists and teachers can use digital tools to remotely engage in data-based decision-making within a collaborative professional learning community.…

Given the widespread adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards in the United States, there is a need to study new models of professional development to prepare teachers to enact practice-based visions of science learning and to address problems of access to reach teachers nationwide. While studies of online professional development offer…

According to the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000), an enriching educational experience online in a collaborative learning environment requires three interdependent elements: social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence. Social presence provides interaction in the online environment that allows…

This research investigates the social and socialization practices within an online professional development web seminar. The aim of this study was to identify the kinds of social and community building practices that occur in online professional development webinars by exploring how communication tools such as chat are used for community building…

Background: New emerging online technologies have made dynamic changes in the structure of the online environment possible to address varying needs of diverse learners. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the changes that occurred in online instructional design and strategies in mathematics education courses taught over a course of…

This article details the results of an action research study which investigated how teachers used online learning community spaces to develop and support their teaching and learning of the Jewish Court of All Time (JCAT), a web-mediated, character-playing, simulation game that engages participants with social, historical and cultural curricula.…

This article discusses the possibilities that tacit knowledge could provide for social constructivist pedagogies; in particular, pedagogies for online learning. Arguing that the tacit dimension of knowledge is critical for meaning making in situated learning practices and for a community of practice to function, the article considers whether…

In an effort to expand existing research on the barriers of instructors experience in online learning environments (OLEs), a qualitative study was conducted at a large mid-Atlantic university. Six instructors teaching in different OLE formats (e.g., asynchronous, hybrid, and synchronous via videoconferencing) participated in two focus groups in…

This article discusses whether the very act of accessing online students' experiences of teaching may itself foster students' sense of belonging to a learning community. The article reports and reflects on the application of Brookfield's critical incident questionnaire (CIQ) in postgraduate courses delivered online in 2008-2010 through the…

This paper describes the implementation of an online discussion forum as a means of facilitating case-based learning in an intermediate financial accounting course. The paper commences with a review of case-based learning literature and the use of online discussions as a delivery platform, linking these pedagogical approaches to the emerging needs…

This study analysed the role of knowledge management (KM) tools used to cultivate a community of practice (CP) in its knowledge creation (KC), transfer, learning processes. The goal of such observations was to determine requirements that KM tools should address for the specific CP formed by Deaf and non-Deaf members of the CP. The CP studied is a…

This study explored rural middle-school students' participation in an online summer reading course. The research question explored the patterns and practices of the student's participation in an online reading course and the instructional moves made by the teacher. Data were gathered from a small group (n = 4) of rural middle school students…

This study provides a simultaneous examination of all components of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000; Anderson, Rourke, Garrison & Archer, 2001; and Rourke, Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 1999) and seeks to extend previous work into the nature, development, and relationships between the constructs of…