More instructors at every educational level are developing online courses and adding online components to face-to-face courses on an ever-broadening array of topics each semester. This paper provides recommendations for designing and maintaining online learning environments that encourage active learning, interaction, and academic integrity based…

Over the past several years, scholars of teaching and learning have demonstrated the potential of collaborative learning strategies for improving student learning. This paper examines the use of computer-mediated communication to promote collaborative student learning in large introductory sociology courses. Specifically, we summarize a project we…

Australian schools are expected to integrate various uses of digital technology across all subject areas. In many schools the effectiveness of this has been questionable with little application to the development of student's creativity. This paper reports on a pilot study investigating children's creativity during computer-based activities.…

In this article, cooperative learning is discussed as an instructional strategy that encourages students to work together and that enhances motivation for learning (Johnson & Johnson, 1989; Polloway, Patton, & Serna, 2001). Cooperative learning is presented through the depiction of a scenario inspired by observations made during a research…

This paper looks at the employment of metalanguage by advanced English L2 users engaged in Dictogloss, a form-focused collaborative writing task, and compares it with that in an earlier study of intermediate learners. First, three commonly employed types of metalinguistic terms are recognised, listed and compared with those reported in a study of…

This essay describes how interclass collaboration in the context of an in-depth interdisciplinary discussion and analysis of global problems can yield significant benefits in the development of ESL students' sense of efficacy, their literacy, and their critical thinking skills. Collaborative lessons expose the students to new and varied…

This study uses two national data sets to explore the relationship between faculty practices and student engagement. Our findings suggest that students report higher levels of engagement and learning at institutions where faculty members use active and collaborative learning techniques, engage students in experiences, emphasize higher-order…

Colleges and universities have made considerable effort to get students to use information technology productively. This study uses data from the 2003 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to investigate the relationships between student uses of information technology and other forms of student engagement. There…

What might geography in "the universities" look like if geographers seriously confronted the growing dichotomy between research and teaching? This challenge goes to the heart of "the university" as a site of learning. The authors argue that the globalizing character of higher education gives urgency to re-charting the…

Using a literacy project as illustration, I make a case for action research as an approach for external innovators who seek to effect educational change. Collaboration between the innovator and those for whom the innovation is intended, rather than power, is the key ingredient in bringing about change. Clients must be actively involved at all…

Two different technologies, groupware (a shared workspace) and shared wireless laptop computers, were implemented in a project design class in a civil engineering course. The research interest was in the way these technologies supported resource sharing within and across project groups and in the forms of group collaboration that resulted. The…

The development of innovative and competitive products and mastery of IT&T technologies are crucial for a company's long-term success in the global market. The main flag bearers for development are product developers, but it is questionable whether the existing systems are appropriate for the education of such professionals. For example, one…

Educational literature is overflowing with testimonials, data, and research confirming that collaborative group work, at its best, produces better results (Baer 2003; Johnson and Johnson 1994; McKeachie 2002). Many claim that students enjoy group work and that it leads to both increased learning and enhanced social skills. If this is commonly…

Existing educational systems built for cooperative and collaborative activities are most often based on the client/server paradigm of distributed computing. This article shows that a new model for distributed computing, Peer-to-Peer (P2P), provides new opportunities for building distributed educational applications. It begins by reviewing general…

Institutions across the U.S. have designed and implemented first-year experience programs that have gone a long way toward affecting student success. Retention rates have increased at some institutions as a result of these interventions, and first-year students often get the support they need to negotiate the transition into college. Now many…