Distance and online education is increasing in importance in the offerings of many universities. As this occurs, instructors are developing ways to use new media to support traditional teaching practices. This is an important effort, as online education is still viewed with a degree of skepticism by some. By successfully transferring accepted…

Carrying out argumentative discussion online has become rather common in higher education. This task is traditionally supported by asynchronous collaboration tools, but this paper suggests that also synchronous supports could be useful. This paper focuses on scaffolding the knowledge construction: the work of two student moderators jointly…

This study examined the relationship between the quality of intra-group online collaboration among groups of undergraduate learners on the quality of products produced. The quality of online collaboration was assessed by the instructor and Teaching Assistant with the computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) process assessment tool. The…

Education delivery systems have evolved from content delivery mechanisms to collaborative environments. The next step in this evolution is to provide greater support for asynchronous learners, those that progress through course material with little or no support from the instructional team. The integration of Web technologies with artificial…

This study focuses on the prerequisites for successful communication and collaborative learning in a large multinational company experienced by human resource development (HRD) practitioners, who participated in a cross-cultural e-learning course. The participants were Finnish and Chinese employees, who used an asynchronous Web-based tool to study…

This paper reviews some of the key issues of what should be the cornerstone of a project-based learning approach with information and communication technology (ICT) and net-based multimedia learning resources. It refers to the LAVA Learning project where pedagogic, learning resources and computer-based tools have been developed to support a…

The needs of learners are changing rapidly and continually in response to an environment that is characterized by change at economic, political and technological levels. There is greater pressure on universities to work more closely with employers in contributing to the process of economic development through the creation of a skilled workforce.…

This report, the fifth in a series from the spring 1998 national survey, "Teaching, Learning, and Computing," provides a framework for defining the various dimensions of technology support. Research has shown that teachers lack adequate support for the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). In this report, the term…

The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the ways in which graduate students engage in interactive online university courses and use discussion as a tool for thinking and for socially negotiating meaning. In particular, it investigates the idea that discursive interaction in asynchronous, text-based, online courses may be uniquely suited to…

This paper concerns itself indirectly with the, as yet, unfounded fear held by many instructors: that relative to their students, they are computer illiterate. To the contrary, faculty teaching information technology designated classes in the Department of Health Sciences at East Tennessee State University have found that they are pacing…

Currently, university composition programs are experimenting with the delivery of online writing courses, without the component of face-to-face interaction. To assess the efficacy of this delivery medium, a study compared two groups of undergraduate students in a course on argumentative writing taught by the same instructor: one group taking the…

Computer mediated communication tools enable today's distance learners to engage in collaborative problem solving, threaded discussions, and peer tutoring through asynchronous distance learning environments. This paper suggests that these are best accomplished by establishing virtual learning communities, which break down traditional…

With the rapid development of computer technology in recent years, distance education, and especially computer-mediated communication (CMC), has expanded very quickly. The application of computer technology in education presents many unanswered questions, including issues related to impression formation and impression management in…

This paper describes the experiences of three university instructors facilitating computer-mediated communication among three teacher training courses at Indiana University, Bloomington and Northwest campuses, and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. The project utilized AltaVista Forum (now SiteScape Forum), a World Wide…

This book is a collection of articles that examine critical issues of technology, teaching, and learning in three areas: access, communication, and literacy. Following an Introduction by Jay Blanchard, articles are presented in three sections: Access and Opportunity; Online Communication; and Literacy. The articles include: "An Exploration of…