This essay examines three issues that emerge from the literature on computer-mediated instruction and from the experience of teaching online oral communication courses: (1) To what extent can online courses realize economies of scale to reduce cost and increase enrollment? (2) What productive potential does tracking and monitoring online…

With online education continuing its meteoric rise, some educators continue to debate the efficacy of the medium--in particular, the ability to discuss complex subjects online. However, the online asynchronous discussion environment seems to offer some advantages over the traditional classroom including increased time for students to research and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are differences between different age and gender groups of adult learners when they are compared simultaneously on the number of messages they post, self-efficacy improvement and academic performance in an online learning environment. A two-way MANOVA revealed significant main and…

This article describes the practical application of social learning theory to build and sustain community in an asynchronous online learning environment. It presents ways that community-building can occur in a graduate online education program through the shared meaning-making processes occurring among students within and across interdisciplinary…

Four hundred and eight undergraduate students participated in this study that examined professor-student email communication, interpersonal relationship and teaching evaluation. Several findings have been gleaned. First, academic task was the most frequent email topic and social-relationship less frequent between professors and students. Second,…

Meaning making in new media presents new opportunities and challenges for those working in formal and informal educational contexts. How this impacts on a literacy curriculum that attempts both to deliver "the basics" and to respond to new technology demands careful exploration. This paper examines what we mean by digital literacy and how it…

As librarians work to prepare themselves and their colleagues to function in the rapidly growing world of information they often find themselves feeling alone and overwhelmed. One group of Ohio school librarians took on the daunting challenge of keeping up with the continually changing world of information technology and together developed an…

Nearly a decade ago the author wrote in one of the first widely-cited academic articles, Educational Researcher, about the educational role of the web. He argued that educators must be able to demonstrate that the web (1) can increase access to learning, (2) must not result in higher costs for learning, and (3) can lead to improved learning. These…

The article provides insights on how the design of discussion activities can be used to facilitate alternative learning objectives in the marketing curriculum. A review of the literature provides insight for making choices with regards to two aspects of discussion design: (a) the choice between face-to-face and online (i.e., threaded bulletin…

Studies on online social relationships have focused on how Internet use is associated with sociability, but have not compared the quality of online with offline relationships. On the other hand, studies on adolescent friendship formation have used school samples disregarding the Internet as a new social context for it. We took a different…

In the context of information and communication technologies in five Newfoundland coastal communities, this article deals with participatory research and outreach. Outreach in these communities, reeling from the near-collapse of the fishery and struggling to survive in a climate of neo-liberal restructuring, is considered to be a holistic…

In this study, the authors determined the individual learner characteristics of educators enrolled in online courses that influenced social presence (affective social communication). Findings reveal that the number of online courses taken, followed by computer-mediated communication proficiency, are significant predictors of social presence.…

The gaps between students' and faculty members' use of technology have widened. Many faculty members today have become so inundated with digital communications from students that it is not unusual for communication protocols and limitations to be specified in course syllabi. Most faculty members have home access to campus resources and use a…

Unfiltered--and some would say inaccurate--blogs are the Wild West of the Internet, where mostly young citizen journalists (more than half of all bloggers are under age 30) routinely ignore mainstream media niceties like fact checking, multiple sourcing, and balance. Conversational in tone, blogs represent a new and powerful form of special…

Discussion is one form of active learning, which has been linked to better learner outcomes. Little is known about the relationship between active learning through discussion and learner outcome in the online environment. Here, we construct an index of active learning online that includes the number of postings a student has read, the number of…