Partnering with private industry is presented as a sensible solution to some faculties at institutions of higher education during the current economic downturn. The authors discuss the historic context for increased efficiencies and provide descriptions of how two institutions responded to the prospect of "collaborating" with a corporation. In one…

In this article, I describe the process that five graduate students used to collect oral histories about racial desegregation in a community in southern Illinois. Using these stories, I and a project team developed a unique online learning environment that facilitates and assesses the user's abilities to engage in historical thinking as a means…

Many consider online courses to be an inferior alternative to traditional face-to-face (f2f) courses because exam cheating is thought to occur more often in online courses. This study examines how the assessment design in online courses contributes to this perception. Following a literature review, the assessment design in a sample of online…

The Open University, an open distance learning institution, is increasingly using a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) that requires internet access. This paper investigates how the move to a VLE has affected one group of students who do not have internet access--offender learners studying in prison. Members of the armed forces and secure hospital…

Creating new distance e-learning modules requires considerable staff expertise. To help develop and expand this, mentoring holds promise. However, in lifelong learning provision, potential module creators are often very distant from potential mentors and asynchronously available. E-mentoring might overcome these logistical constraints. This study…

The rapid development of computer-supported collaborative environments has highlighted the need for collaborative knowledge construction devices. Because most available mindtools do not promote collaboration, there is a need for social mindtools that can be used in collaborative learning situations. We have used activity theory as a conceptual…

This paper discusses the harmonizing role of technology and interaction in a qualitative study on blended problem-based learning within the context of academic development in higher education. Within this setting, and as both designers and tutors in blended PBL, it is important to seek best practices for how to combine instructional strategies in…

Problem-based learning, or PBL, is a student-centered instructional approach that is derived from constructivist epistemology. It is based upon ill-structured real-world problems with the goal of strengthening and developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills in learners. Initially utilized in medical schools to strengthen diagnostic…

Early childhood educators are responsible for providing young children with the best possible early care and education. Research on child care workers' education has shown that professional preparation makes a significant impact on children's cognitive and emotional development (National Association for the Education of Young Children [NAEYC],…

Written environments in online learning enable professional discourse to be analysed in depth and provide greater knowledge for improving learning and for planning and delivering courses aimed at professional development. Until now, research into professional discourse has highlighted the importance of interaction in the development of…

As a first-year superintendent, Nick Polyak has yet to conduct a search for a principal to lead one of his four schools in the Illinois Valley Central School District in Chillicothe, Ill. When that opportunity does come, Polyak is quite sure he'll be skeptical of any candidate whose curriculum vitae lists courses or entire degrees completed in…

This article provides personal reflections about aspects of the draft "National Educational Technology Plan 2010". Its focus is on ideas in the Plan that could be foundational for transforming our industrial-era schooling system. In sharing these thoughts, the author is speaking only for himself: they do not necessarily reflect the discussions or…

Employability has become a global buzz-word: instructors in higher education are increasingly being called upon to produce highly employable students who will in turn contribute to the financial capital of the country's economy. For vocational subjects and degrees for which clear links to industry may be envisaged (such as IT, Business, Technology…

The for-profit e-learning company K12 Inc. grew 40 percent last year, generating $385 million in revenue by providing virtual courses to 70,000 students across the country. Connections Academy, another such provider, generated about $120 million in revenue serving up online courses to some 20,000 students. And last month, the education technology…

Personalized instruction is seen as a desideratum of today's e-learning systems. The focus of this paper is on those platforms that use learning styles as personalization criterion called learning style-based adaptive educational systems. The paper presents an innovative approach based on an integrative set of learning preferences that alleviates…