Online communities are meeting places for learners on the Internet designed to facilitate interaction and collaboration among people who share common interests and needs. Most participants are drawn by an opportunity to share a sense of community with like-minded strangers, regardless of were they live. School communities can be distinguished by…

Pedagogical experts contend that students learn best when they are actively involved in and responsible for their own learning. In a student-centered learning environment, the instructor ideally serves primarily as a learning resource or facilitator. With the guidance of the instructor, students in active learning environments strive for…

Over a period of 10 years, we have developed a sustainable process of online portfolio assessment that demonstrates both reliability and validity, using both qualitative and quantitative measures. The sustainable cycle is that, each semester, we assess a random sampling of the students' work that they have posted, as per our instructions, in an…

Purpose: To provide practical information on two electronic journal-related products implemented in Library and Information Services at University of Wales Swansea. Design/methodology/approach: An overview is provided of the evaluation of electronic journal management products undertaken and subsequent implementation. Findings: Serials Solutions…

In the past decade, the most important technological innovation in higher education has been the enhancement of academic courses with Web-based information and tools. Given the success and popularity of numerous Web-based innovations, the author and two colleagues wondered whether the benefits of technology use could be scaled up from the course…

This study examines the effects of using Texas Instruments' Voyage 200 calculator (V200), a graphing calculator with a built-in computer algebra system (CAS), on attitudes towards CAS and achievement in mathematics of junior college students (17 year olds). Students' attitudes towards CAS were examined using a 40-item Likert-type instrument…

Practical investigation tasks are part of the Dutch examination programme of senior secondary education. In mathematics and science, pupils are expected to develop a broad range of research skills, which includes connecting real world phenomena with the scientific world, understanding the problems at hand and asking the right questions, making a…

Research into the uses of digital literacy in the classroom is still in its infancy. Despite the proliferation of theoretical literature on "new literacies", "multiliteracies", and "technoliteracies" and their impact on education there are fewer studies based on a systematic analysis of the new literacy practices that…

Drawing on ancient Greek mythology, this article traces the learning experiences of 164 pre-service education students as they make the transition from a conventional face-to-face (f-2-f) learning environment to an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) rich setting. Influenced by Social Presence Theory (Short, Williams & Christie,…

We have developed a laboratory course that demonstrates how evolution can be taught as a participatory, investigative science at the undergraduate college or advanced secondary high school level. The course emphasizes the applied importance of evolution to areas such as medicine and agriculture. Because many instructors face budgetary or other…

The purpose of this study was to test two hypotheses: (1) that participation in a course providing theory and practice in the classroom use of technology promotes its use and results in gained competence in technology use; and (2) that functional relations exist among the availability of technology in the classroom, technology utilization, and…

Online discussion is a common tool to create learner-learner interaction. Whole class discussions can result in potentially hundreds of postings with students spending more time creating the illusion of participation as opposed to critical reflection and deeper learning. The purpose of this study was to determine quality of online discussion based…

This article describes an exploratory study of two Web-based learning environments designed to teach helping skills to human service students. Participants used either an interactive pedagogical agent environment or read a helper-client script. Environments were compared and learning gains were assessed in each of the environments, along with user…

The effects of computer-presented automatization exercises in a group of 14 poor readers were assessed in comparison to a matched control group of 14 poor readers that received computer-presented exercises aimed at the use of context for word identification and comprehension. Training took place three sessions a week for 15 minutes per session and…

In this paper, we examine the effects of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) on adult at-risk learners in fundamental mathematics education. This examination includes comparing the results of adult learners experiencing learning with CAI with those who do not. Further, we explore and present viable teaching and learning strategies for at-risk…