This study examined the Internet's impact on college students' daily lives and the impact of that use on their academic and social routines. Students from 27 colleges and universities participated. The sample was tested and found to be reflective of the national population of college students. Roughly half the students were given a questionnaire…

Shared virtual worlds are innovative applications where several users, represented by Avatars, simultaneously access via Internet a 3D space. Users cooperate through interaction with the environment and with each other, manipulating objects and chatting as they go. Apart from in the well documented online action games industry, now often played…

Educational technology and the ways in which it is used have undergone considerable changes of the last three decades. Various technology-driven change agents have been responsible for the ways in which this subject has evolved from "chalk and talk" through multimedia to sophisticated virtual reality training environments. Increasingly,…

A decisive factor for new technologies is always the added value with respect to the efficiency and capacity of traditional technologies. This also is true when considering the impact of new technologies in training applications. New types of applications have been developed during the last few years to incorporate information technology in the…

Liverpool John Moores University (JMU) is one of the largest universities in the United Kingdom. It is a multi-faculty institution with in excess of 20,000 students. Its first learning strategy, in 1995, sought to identify and make explicit the University's commitment to learning development and to integrate this in the context of other University…

Today, although much debate surrounds the effectiveness of including graphics in Web-based distance education courses, most course authors agree that such courses should productively engage students so that quality of learning actually occurs. But what is productive engagement in a world of electronic communication and text? This paper offers a…

This paper discusses the results of a study that compared two different course delivery methods. One of these used the Internet exclusively for module delivery while the other used a traditional campus setting. The two delivery methods were compared in order to determine if the Internet method was as good as the traditional approach. Results and…

Two popular learning environments, TeleTOP and Blackboard, are implemented for specific educational contexts in many universities and other institutions. The goal is to increase the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education, particularly network technology or Web-based systems. These electronic learning environments do not…

Virtual learning environments (VLEs) are often perceived by education establishments as an opportunity to widen access without traditional overheads. An integral part of most VLEs is asynchronous computer conferencing and on-line moderators must help students migrate quickly to the new virtual environment to minimize learning disruption. This…

Developing a course for online study by off-campus students requires a major change of approach to teaching and learning. This study outlines the constructivist theoretical basis and the approach to teaching applied in the development of a humanities course. The study includes analysis of the turning points in the students' learning as identified…

This paper presents the Helsinki-Lappi project (HelLa) co-run by two Finnish universities: the University of Helsinki, and the University of Lapland. The general aim of the project is to study, develop, and assess how different training programs relate to educational use of information and communication technologies (ICT). The project is expected…

The purpose of this paper is to advance the argument that universities should move toward using distance education as rapidly and as fully as possible. The paper discusses three reasons to support the proposition: (1) Technological advances have brought us to a point that most of the university curriculum can be individualized and delivered via…

This paper presents results of research on an intensive online graduate level course in Web-based instruction (WBI) delivered via the same medium. The classes, offered concurrently at the University of Memphis and at Georgia State University, provide students with experiences centered around three areas: being a student in an online environment;…

This book offers suggestions for developing well-planned and effective computer-mediated distance learning. Part 1 lays the foundation for a distance education framework. Chapter 1 explores issues involved in teaching and learning when learning moves into the online environment. Chapter 2 looks at the essence of the framework--the importance of…

This proceedings of the sixth annual Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference contains the following papers: "They're Not Just Big Kids: Motivating Adult Learners" (Karen Jarrett Thoms); "A Computer Integrated Biology Laboratory Experience" (James B. Kring); "Building Web Sites for Mathematics Courses: Some Answers to…