Policies exist in every aspect of people's lives from the landlord's policy on pets to the government's policy on literacy. As such, policy becomes the ideal place to begin to examine the articulation of distance education because policy inevitably marks the site where different kinds of political discourses and social practices intersect. By…

Online museums could benefit from digital "lifelike" characters in order to guide users to virtual tours and to customize the tour information to users' interests. Digital characters have been explored in online museum web sites with different degrees of interaction and modes of communication. Such research, however, does not explore…

Interactive activities offer innumerable possibilities within eLearning environments. As such, one possibility within the interactive activity realm is netconferencing, so as to support the learning objectives. Enhancements within the eLearning environment support the learner?s focus upon knowledge and conceptual framework of understanding.…

Explores business-related sites on the Russian Web and estimates usability for the Western user by focusing on the following: type of businesses; language on sites; communication capability; and response time of site servers. Findings suggest the Russian Web is more usable in terms of language and communication capability than ordering capability…

Provides a framework for analyzing the utility, usability, and likeability of Internet and World Wide Web services, and illustrates applications to scholarly communities. Highlights include human factors; measuring Internet utility through growth of utilization; utility of the Web; a layered-protocol model of discourse through the Internet;…

Considers media ecology, the study of media environments, as a perspective that is concerned with the social, cultural, and psychological impact of media and technology. Describes this perspective and uses its principles in a critique of emerging computer-based media and their use in education. (PA)

Proposes an approach to defining units of analysis for Internet communication research. Defines the term "Internet computer-mediated communication." Uses this definition as the basis for developing a set of definitions (media space, media class, media object, and media instance) as units of analysis. Illustrates these units with some examples. (SR)

A study's data sources were transcripts of online workshops held by the Canadian Labour Congress, an online survey and interviews with participants, and interaction analysis. Informal learning, particularly through unplanned online discussions, was critical to workshops' success. External resources played a role. Tacit dimensions of communication…

Describes the use of computer-mediated communication tools to expand the classroom learning community to include students at two universities. Focuses on efforts to develop a sense of community among online learners through active interaction, collaborative learning, socially constructed meaning, sharing of resources, and expressions of support.…

Presents a literature review that covers the following topics related to virtual communities: (1) information and virtual community; (2) virtual communities and communities of practice; (3) virtual communities and virtual arenas, including virtual community networks; and (4) networked virtual communities. (Contains 175 references.) (MES)

Explores the characteristics of youth who had formed close relationships with people they met on the Internet. Girls who had high levels of conflict with parents or were highly troubled were more likely to have close online relationships, as were boys who had low levels of communication with parents or were highly troubled. (Contains 19 references…

Describes studies with undergraduate business students concerning the use of technology for teaching. Findings indicated that the commonly-accepted "no-significant-difference effect" did not occur; in fact, students performed better when offered face-to-face interactions. (EV)

Distance education is an answer to the demand for flexibility in training. The aim is to build a virtual learning community on the basis of a knowledge model that meets different learning needs. This article analyzes possible innovations in corporate training, and proposes a framework that integrates all information sources and offers practice…

Explores social constructivist theory; investigates successful collaboration; discusses characteristics of communication in an electronic setting, arriving at solutions for improving the use and effectiveness of computer mediated communication environments. Strategies suggested are: structuring interaction with authentic tasks, questioning…

Examines the use of chaos theory in modelling time series data generated by computer-mediated communication (CMC). Data generated by CMC discussion groups are examined for the presence of chaotic behavior and to assess the variance which can be accounted for by the deterministic mechanism. (Author/LRW)