The aim of this paper is to investigate, from a student perspective, how English communication skills are taught in Oman's schools and higher education institutions. Previous research has documented the lack of communicative ability in English among school and higher education graduates in Oman (Al-Issa, 2007; Moody, 2009). However, the reasons…

For over ten years, the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and nine regional Educational Service Districts (ESDs) have partnered to implement a variety of state and federal initiatives to support improving student learning and services to support school districts across the state. This document presents an agreement…

This article discusses the growth and current state of learning communities (LCs) in higher education. It reviews literature on the impact of LCs, highlighting a sample of single-institution studies and describing results from multi-institutional studies. LCs have been a growing movement aimed at educational reform for decades, and evidence…

Today, there is a real challenge to enable personalized access to information. Several systems have been proposed to address this challenge including Adaptive Hypermedia Systems (AHSs). However, the specification of adaptation strategies remains a difficult task for creators of such systems. In this paper, we consider the problem of the definition…

In large measure the authors agree with Tobias and Fletcher's (2012) comments stating that clearer operational definitions of game features are needed to enable research on games and learning. The authors cannot accept that games are a subset of simulations, preferring to identify instances when games and simulations overlap and when they do not.…

There is a widely held belief in e-learning circles that pedagogy must come before technology. In this paper it is argued that, not only is that not true, but that it is a weak distinction as pedagogies, insofar as they represent a set of techniques and tools for learning, are as much technologies as the computers, forums, virtual classrooms and…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore faculty definitions of college-level learning in order to develop a universal definition to assist employers, career counselors, and academic institutions in assessing college-level workplace learning. Design/methodology/approach: Faculty were administered an electronic survey to gather definitions…

The continuously growing demand for program results has produced an increased need for evaluation capacity building (ECB). The "Integrative ECB Model" was developed to integrate concepts from existing ECB theory literature and to structure a synthesis of the empirical ECB literature. The study used a broad-based research synthesis method with…

This chapter introduces the concept of benchmarking and how higher education institutions began to use benchmarking for a variety of purposes. Here, benchmarking is defined as a strategic and structured approach whereby an organization compares aspects of its processes and/or outcomes to those of another organization or set of organizations to…

While references to the Treaty of Waitangi and/or biculturalism are an accepted part of the New Zealand education policy landscape, there is often a lack of consensus around the meaning, and therefore the practice implications, of the term 'biculturalism'. This difficulty can be explained by viewing biculturalism as a discourse that has continued…

Research done over the last 15 years has promoted the need for a concise, common definition of cybercrime. Hardesty and Ball (NW3C, 1996) contended that once a universal definition was agreed upon, common procedures for investigation could be established. Cybercrime training is also essential in the investigation of this type of crime. This…

In 1999, the changing goals of American schools were explored in "Education Week" through the events, achievements, and personalities that had formed United States education in the 20th century. First a series of articles, the collection was later published in book form as "Lessons of a Century: A Nation's Schools Come of Age."…

How holistically is human creativity defined, investigated, and understood? Until recently, most scientific research on creativity has focused on its positive side. However, creativity might not only be a desirable resource but also be a potential threat. In order to redefine creativity we need to analyze and understand definitions, collocations,…

Wilhelm offers us a definition of "third spaces" as "more democratic and dialogic spaces than a classroom, as well as a metaphor for a space in which new, hybrid, and challenging discourses and real-world knowledge and applications are created." With helpful background and examples, he urges us to create such spaces for our students, adamant that…

While many talk about the cloud, few actually understand it. Three organizations' definitions come to the forefront when defining the cloud: Gartner, Forrester, and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST). Although both Gartner and Forrester provide definitions of cloud computing, the NIST definition is concise and uses…