GIS has shown promise in Project Based Learning (PBL) environments, but many obstacles exist in its integration into school curriculums. This article discusses the development and utilization of an online GIS tool that was created to illustrate that the perceptual gap between relevance and ease of use of GIS software can be bridged at the K-12…

This article explores how the Internet and mobile broadband technologies that are transforming the work of business professionals may be applied to the work of teachers and students in K-20 schooling, with similarly transformative outcomes. First, they discuss the ways in which ubiquitous mobile technologies are changing 21st century business.…

An increasing number of instructors are seeking to provide students with online anatomy resources. Many researchers have attempted to identify associations between resource use and student learning but few studies discuss the importance of usability testing in resource design and modification. Usability testing provides information about ease of…

Researchers at American University investigated user preferences for discovery layer features, interface design, and content. They tested local implementations of WorldCat Local and Aquabrowser by conducting a group test with eighteen students and individual tests with ten students. Students searched a given question and a topic of their choosing…

Many college undergraduates lack basic financial management knowledge and skills while bearing ever increasing debt burdens upon graduation. In order to encourage students to become aware of their spending patterns and weigh those patterns against personal values, a self-monitoring project was implemented as a class activity. The resulting effect…

The present study provides a controlled study of the effectiveness of an online graduate preparation program, The Virtual Advisor. The effects of the Virtual Advisor were compared to a website control and a wait-list control group in relation to a range of graduate school preparation variables. Students who utilized The Virtual Advisor were…

A recommender system is a piece of software that helps users to identify the most interesting and relevant learning items from a large number of items. Recommender systems may be based on collaborative filtering (by user ratings), content-based filtering (by keywords), and hybrid filtering (by both collaborative and content-based filtering).…

As more of commerce, entertainment, communication, and learning are occurring over the Web, the amount of data online activities generate is skyrocketing. Commercial entities have led the way in developing techniques for harvesting insights from this mass of data for use in identifying likely consumers of their products, in refining their products…

Presented at the 23rd Annual Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) Conference in Atlanta, GA, in September 2011. Admitted Class Evaluation Service (ACES) is the College Board's free online service that predicts how admitted students will perform at a college or university generally, and how successful students will be in specific…

The present study reports the results of a controlled examination of the effectiveness of an online graduate preparation program, the Virtual Advisor. The effects of the Virtual Advisor were compared to a website preparation group and a wait-list control group. Results indicated that, compared to the control group, students who utilized the…

Objective: To investigate sleep patterns and problems of university business students. Participants: Undergraduate Chinese business students in Hong Kong. Methods: Self-reported questionnaires were completed during class lectures and through online system. Results: Of the 620 participating students (mean age 19.9 years), sleep duration was…

The author reported on the effectiveness of online quizzes in introductory finance courses. He found completion of quizzes near the time when the teacher presents the material in class lectures to be associated with a moderate and statistically significant increase in performance on exams. Feedback to students on their quiz performance did not…

New hardware such as mobile handheld devices and digital cameras; new online social venues such as social networking, microblogging, and online photo sharing sites; and new infrastructures such as the global positioning system are beginning to establish new practices--what the author refers to as "sociolocative"--that combine data about a physical…

The Association Supporting Computer Users in Education (ASCUE) is a group of people interested in small college computing issues. It is a blend of people from all over the country who use computers in their teaching, academic support, and administrative support functions. ASCUE has a strong tradition of bringing its members together to pool their…

Following a review of the online delivery of distance education programs within the School of Information Studies (SIS) program at Charles Sturt University, a team of academics worked with an external consultant to design a purpose built SIS Learning Centre in Second Life (SL), a 3D virtual world environment in which people (via their avatars) may…