This book details ways in which faculty members can design web-based and web-assisted instructional delivery approaches to provide students with the opportunity to learn anytime and anyplace. It stresses the paradigm shift in using technology as an alternative instructional delivery tool but at the same time recognizes that the course design and…

This article summarizes a quantitative study of the effects of animated agents in web-based instruction (WBI) on mathematics achievement and attitudes toward mathematics in postsecondary education. Eighty-one college students who were enrolled in a core mathematic course at a doctoral/research-extensive university in central Alabama participated…

This experimental study investigated the effectiveness of structured Web-Based Bulletin Board (WBB) discussions in improving the critical thinking (CT) skills of learners involved in veterinary distance learning, as well as their attitudes toward learning via WBBs. The two dependent variables were learners' CT skills and their attitudes toward…

Creating effective electronic tools for language learning frequently requires large data sets containing extensive examples of actual human language use. Collections of authentic language in spoken and written forms provide developers the means to enrich their applications with real world examples. As the Internet continues to expand…

In order to meet the growing demand for quality online education, Park University has adopted a model that provides a common framework for all of its online courses. Evelyn Knowles and Kathleen Kalata discuss the circumstances leading to the current system and describe the university's implementation of a course development process that ensures…

For decades, training has been one of the most common interventions used by organizations to improve the performance of their employees and teach them new ideas and skills. But owing to the cost of developing and delivering training, organizations have adopted alternative ways to enable employee performance while reducing the cost and minimizing…

This paper researches the effects that students' metacognitive knowledge has on their participation in online forum discussions, which form part of a web-based asynchronous course based on a constructivist instructional approach. Metacognitive knowledge increases learners' ability to be independent learners, which is an indispensable…

The latest installment of the Fordham Institute's "Creating Sound Policy for Digital Learning" series investigates one of the more controversial aspects of digital learning: How much does it cost? In this paper, the Parthenon Group uses interviews with more than fifty vendors and online-schooling experts to estimate today's average…

Will the digital-learning movement repeat the mistakes of the charter-school movement? How much more successful might today's charter universe look if yesterday's proponents had focused on the policies and practices needed to ensure its quality, freedom, and resources over the long term? What mistakes might have been avoided? Damaging scandals…

Purpose: To assess how the use of games contributes to students' science learning, interests, and attitudes about science. Methodology: The study sample was middle and high-school students in a large urban school district in 2012. A total of 1191 students participated in the game. The majority of students were Hispanic females of low…

This Facilitator's Guide is based on What Education Leaders Should Know about Virtual Education, an online course designed by the Center on Instruction and the New England Comprehensive Center. The Facilitator's Guide demonstrates step-by-step how to build the course on a learning management system (LMS) and provides instructions on all phases of…

One of the key concerns of educators is to come to know what works in language teaching and under which conditions (Intercultural) Communicative Competence can be furthered. This concern is even bigger among professionals experimenting or willing to experiment with new media. Following socio-constructivist theories of learning (Vygotsky, 1978) and…

This study reports findings from a year-long pilot study during which 991 students in 9 core courses in the Virginia State University School of Business replaced traditional textbooks with openly licensed books and other digital content. The university made a deliberate decision to use open textbooks that were copyrighted under the Creative…

This study investigated an innovative approach of program evaluation through analyses of student learning logs, demographic data, and end-of-course evaluation surveys in an online K-12 supplemental program. The results support the development of a program evaluation model for decision making on teaching and learning at the K-12 level. A case study…

This study empirically examines the instructional value of online video lectures--videos that a course's instructor prepares to supplement classroom or online-broadcast lectures. The study examines data from a classroom course, where the videos have a slower, more step-by-step lecture style than the classroom lectures; student use of videos is…