Laboratory experiments are often considered the defining characteristic of science courses. Such activities provide students with real-world contexts for applying scientific concepts, while also allowing them to develop scientific ways of thinking and promoting an interest in science. In recent years, an increasing number of campuses have moved…

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this study was to examine students' and instructors' perceptions of using ATutor as the learning content management system (LCMS) in e-learning courses at a distance university in Thailand. The population was composed of all 222 graduate students (census) and 10 instructors from an agricultural college at…

A recent survey study with 2515 pre-service teachers suggested an underlying structure to shelter ICT integration indicators. Eleven indicators were extracted, which were Teaching-Learning Methods, E-learning, E-interaction, Learning Communities, Infrastructure, Access, Ease of Use, Technical Assistance, Policy, Special Education and Health. In…

Composed of four sections -- Overall Developments, Corporate Training and Development, Higher Education, and K-12 Education -- this chapter synthesizes the findings of major annual reports including ASTD's "State of the Industry Report," the "EDUCAUSE Core Data Service Fiscal Year 2007 Summary Report," "The ECAR Study of…

At first glance, academic online and corporate e-learning appear the same. Few are aware that Web learning at companies and in schools is quite distinct. Once instruction begins, they clearly fall into separate camps. At companies, e-learning is highly mediated by technology, with trainers disappearing entirely, replaced largely on monitors by…

One of the difficulties in learning Chinese characters is distinguishing similar characters. This can cause misunderstanding and miscommunication in daily life. Thus, it is important for students learning the Chinese language to be able to distinguish similar characters and understand their proper usage. In this paper, the authors propose a game…

An effective online learning community requires the development of social presence, as this helps learners to project themselves online and feel a sense of community. A literature review found that cultural preferences are important in developing relationships online, which may explain why some learners in international contexts may not…

Introduction: A model to explore the relations among local and global relevance-based information behaviour is proposed that is based on objective and subjective measures of the relevance of the Website contents. Method: Global interest for the Website was researched using data on visits, while local use was explored with two surveys on the…

As soon as the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) announced last May that it would be giving all 400 incoming freshmen Apple iPads, a lively debate broke out online at TUAW.com (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) between people who saw it as a marketing gimmick to attract students and others who believed it was an honest attempt to implement a new…

This paper reflects on the current position of virtual learning environments (VLEs) in universities and speculates about likely future directions for e-learning. Using accepted models of technology innovation and looking at current Web trends, it considers the extent to which e-learning is truly embedded in institutions, how Web 2.0 is being used…

Although both the number of online learning opportunities and students with disabilities in higher education has increased over the last two decades, students with disabilities may be overlooked. The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes toward requesting accommodations in the online learning environment among college students with…

The move toward offering more online instruction at many academic institutions frequently takes the form of conversion of a traditional course to online format. Despite its prevalence, this special form of course development has received little research attention. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study of the faculty perspective…

Computer-based training (CBT) is a methodology for providing systematic, structured learning; a useful tool when properly designed. CBT has seen a resurgence given the serious games movement, which is at the forefront of integrating primarily entertainment computer-based games into education and training. This effort represents a multidisciplinary…

Much remains unknown in the increasingly important field of e-learning in organizations. Drawing on a large-scale survey of employees (N = 557) who had opportunities to participate in voluntary e-learning activities, the factors influencing participation in e-learning are explored in this empirical paper. It is hypothesized that key variables…

New information and communication technologies have been gaining widespread use in Distance Education (DE) models. At the same time, the uncertainty in the market demand for this form of higher education is such that the valuation of "e-Learning" projects has become increasingly difficult and complex. This is due to the fact that…