Recent studies have emphasized the significant implications of multimedia for the learning process. Even those researchers who take a less enthusiastic stand do not hesitate to assent that when blended with suitable pedagogical techniques and a proper design, the combined use of multiple media for the viewing and study of educational material can…

The mission of the NetPro European project is to develop project-based learning through the Internet. The NetPro project is creating tools and services to facilitate communication and collaboration between distant students, and to manage access and control of project deliverables. NetPro project teams form cross-institutional learning communities.…

In 1996, the Virtual University (VU) started as an online learning project at the University of Hagen (Germany) with a few courses and a small number of users. Today the VU has grown into a large learning platform with a student community of more than 10,000 and more than 200 learning events online. This paper describes some of the experiences…

Beginning in the 1997-98 school year, WestEd staff, with the support of the Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL), worked intensively with a group of five Chamorro teachers from Rota Elementary School (Hawaii) to develop culturally responsive, standards-based science units. The larger goal was to develop Web-based case examples of…

This paper deals with techniques for reducing the amount of work that needs to be redone each semester when one prepares an existing course Web site for a new class. The key concept is algorithmic generation of common page elements while still allowing full control over page content via WYSIWYG tools like Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia…

Influenced by constructivist philosophy and advances in technology, there is increasing interest in authentic activities as a basis for learning in both face-to-face and Web-based courses. Whereas traditionally, activities have primarily served as vehicles for practice of skills or processes, a more radical approach is to build a whole course of…

E-learning leads to changes in the way courses are conceived. Diffused through the Web, course content cannot be the pure transcription of a "classical" course. The students need to personalize it and to access it when they need it (just-in-time). The MEMORAe project aims at applying knowledge management techniques to improve the…

The rapid growth of Web-based instruction has raised many questions about the quality of online courses. It appears that many online courses are simply modeled after traditional forms of instruction instead of incorporating a design that takes advantage of the unique capabilities of Web-based learning environments. This paper describes a research…

Current e-learning models have been criticized by constructivists for providing content without a learning social context and have argued that such learning contexts need to be designed into e-learning programs. This paper takes issue with this approach, suggesting that it unnecessarily imports into e-learning assumptions and strategies from the…

This paper provides a view of learner relationship management that looks to examine the potential for learning systems across an organizational value chain by addressing the potential for learning solutions beyond the Human Resources function in an organization. It identifies a return on investment strategy to align the goals of the organization…

The purpose of this study was to design and develop a multimedia-based anchored program and to examine the effects of students' and group characteristics on the problem-solving process in anchored instruction with the multimedia program in a situated learning environment. Sixty-eight students were assigned to small groups via a stratified random…

The Didactics of Informatics research group at the University of Paderborn (Germany) is involved in efforts to design, implement and evaluate a curriculum for Media education for prospective teachers at the secondary school level. One major issue is the question of whether it is necessary for future teachers to learn the basic concepts of…

This paper provides an initial examination of over 614 undergraduate multimedia courses now available in the United Kingdom with discussion centered on reasons for recent course expansion. Areas of specific growth and issues of course design are presented in the analysis and discussion. Changes in the application of multimedia from…

This study examined the effects of including a technology literacy component in first-year students' programs at a liberal arts college. The program was designed to systematically help students use and critically evaluate the technology and what it can do to enhance the living and learning environment. The study employed a non-equivalent control…

Based on an analysis of the direction of library development and changes in librarians' social functions, this paper presents some key measures in the reform of library and information science education. The first section discusses the developing direction of the library cause under the network environment. The second section covers librarians'…