This study describes instructional design elements most valued by nontraditional adult learners in hybrid learning environments that combine limited face-to-face contact with online learning and collaboration. It identifies the online course features and instructional goals selected as most important by a sample of 67 adults. It then compares this…

"Online Collaborative Learning: Theory and Practice" provides a resource for researchers and practitioners in the area of online collaborative learning (also known as CSCL, computer-supported collaborative learning), particularly those working within a tertiary education environment. It includes articles of relevance to those interested in both…

E-learning is part of the wider debate on the changing role of higher education (HE). It is associated with the agenda on graduate employability and competencies for the knowledge economy (KE). Policy documents make explicit that participation in the KE is congruent with the acquisition of meta-skills. The role of HE is to provide for these…

Professors in higher education are experimenting with a wide array of techniques in order to preserve integrity of the academic evaluation process in the online environment. Current instructors perceive some increased risk of "cheating" in cyberspace classrooms, and some changes in the forms these incidents take. We anticipate the continuing…

Hypermedia has long been considered to have great potential to support educational tasks and applications. Many success stories of hypermedia support in education have been reported. Much of this work has been done in the context of traditional closed hypermedia systems rather than more contemporary open hypermedia systems. Developing hypermedia…

The paper discusses a blended learning concept for a university teacher training course for prospective teachers of English. The concept aims at purposeful learning using different methods and activities, various traditional and electronic media, learning spaces covering contact and distance learning, and task-based learning modules that begin…

Most Virtual Learning Environments are designed to be simple to use by staff and students alike. We report a case study where this feature has led academic staff to reject formal centralised training and teach themselves how to use the system. What has resulted is widespread use of the system but with poor pedagogic development, leading primarily…

This is an experimental study in the area of Didactics applied to the learning of English as a foreign language and complemented by CALL. The main objective of this work is to know the degree of incidence existing between two groups of students: one, based on conference-style classes where students, guided by the teacher, have to search for…

In this paper we argue that the use of audit trail data for research and evaluation purposes has attracted scepticism due to real and perceived difficulties associated with the data's interpretation. We suggest that educational technology researchers and evaluators need to better understand how audit trail data can be processed and analysed…

This paper explores the importance of interaction in the online teaching environment and the important role of staff development in developing teacher presence online. Professionally developing staff to use information and communication technologies is viewed from the standpoint of diffusion of innovation, moving from early adopters to mainstream…

The development of quality learning materials using new technology requires the use of a wide range of skills beyond those possessed by many academic staff. Obtaining quality online learning experiences may require academics to work in teams with others who provide educational design support and technical expertise. The effective management of a…

Web-based collaboration calls for professional skills and competences to the benefit of the quality of the collaboration and its output. Within this framework, educational virtual environments may provide a means for training upon these skills and in particular the collaborative ones. On the basis of the existing technological means such training…

The spread and utilization of information technology in the human services is examined using innovation diffusion theory. This examination is contextualized within the values basis of social work. Literature from the human services, the business sector, and the social sciences regarding the role of information technology is used to promote a…

This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Conference on Education and New Developments (END 2017), organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.). Education, in our contemporary world, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the…

The conference proceedings include the following papers: (1) The Arts Metaverse in Open Croquet: Exploring an Open Source 3-D Online Digital World (Ulrich Rauch and Tim Wang); (2) Beyond World of Warcraft: the Universe of MMOGs (Ruben R. Puentedura); (3) ClevelandPlus in Second Life (Wendy Shapiro, Lev Gonick, and Sue Shick); (4) Folksemantic:…