Students have various motivations for participating and engaging in courses offered by distance education technologies over the Internet. While many of these courses have traditionally been Web-based asynchronous offerings, enhanced technology and reduced costs of IP-enabled teleconferenced synchronous course sections are encouraging more…

This article introduces a new computer conferencing metric called Scan Rate, which is a measure of students' and instructors' online reading speed. The term "scan" refers to the practice of either skimming through a message at an unusually rapid pace or reading a message partially and then stopping before the end is reached. It is…

In 2006 and 2008, two large trans-national residential summer schools on conservation science were organized as intensive programs. Learners were not only second/third cycle students in both exact sciences and humanities, but further practicing restorers; consequently their educational background, and even their way of approaching scientific…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on a study into how a three-dimensional (3D) virtual world (Second Life) can facilitate socialisation and team working among students working on a team project at a distance. This models the situation in many commercial sectors where work is increasingly being conducted across time zones and between…

At Dalarna University, Sweden, modes of communication are offered at many points of Kenning's continuum with a web-based learning platform, including asynchronous document exchange and collaborative writing tools, e-mail, recorded lectures in various formats, live streamed lectures with the possibility of text questions to the lecturer in real…

In fall of 2004, Carnegie Mellon University embarked on a bold educational experiment, the establishment of an overseas branch campus at Education City in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. Carnegie Mellon's decision to open up shop in the Middle East was by no means unique; indeed, Carnegie Mellon is just one of a growing number of institutions to…

Arizona State University Service Learning students use the Electronic Forum to enhance their Service Learning experience. By requiring 2 entries a week as the writing component of their "ENG 484 Internship"--and counting it as 25% of their grades--students are given structured opportunities to reflect critically on their service…

This guide is intended as a brief orientation to the Bulletin Board System (BBS) used by the California Educational Research Cooperative (CERC) in a continuing effort to expand support services to its member districts and ancillary providers through operation of an electronic networking system. This facility provides a means through which…

This manual is intended to provide guidance to those interested in establishing an electronic bulletin board system (BBS) that enables users to send and read messages both individually and by teleconferencing, and to transfer files to and from the system. The manual begins with a definition of a BBS and explains its uses and facilities. It then…

The second of two volumes, this report provides a brief description of a 1987 conference on distance education together with 21 papers that were presented in the informational sessions. The papers included in this volume are: (1) "Evaluation of Student Outcomes in Distance Education" (Charles Feasley); (2) "Principles of Effective Video…

A study examined teleconferencing applications that can assist educators in meeting Georgia's postsecondary vocational education needs. Three forms of teleconferencing were studied--audio conferencing, computer conferencing, and video conferencing. The study included a literature review, two pilot studies, and a survey to identify the ways in…

In this study of current and potential users of teleconferencing media in post-high school settings, more than 50 teleconferencing systems in the United States and Canada were surveyed. Researchers examined instructional, administrative, student service, and interorganizational uses of teleconferencing in educational organizations ranging from…

The interactive monitoring of group communication through computers is a procedure analogous to biofeedback, and small group communication computer programs have been developed with monitoring software that has been used to evaluate the impact of the medium on group communication. There is presently no technical reason that such information could…

This paper describes the operations of the Nuclear Safety Analysis Center. Established soon after an accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, its efforts were initially directed towards a detailed analysis of the accident. Continuing functions include: (1) the analysis of generic nuclear safety issues,…

A unique two-way, interactive aural communications system operated by the University of Wisconsin-Extension and serving over 100 locations throughout the state is described and its application to distance music education is explained. A brief survey of telephone use in education is presented, as well as studies relating the effectiveness of…