Colleges and universities must seek or develop the most competitive enrollment management tools in order to reach and admit qualified students. However, institutions that utilize transactional Web features are more effective if they can personalize services by providing useful customized information in real time for the prospect. Well crafted high…

The innovation of education seems to be self-evident. Boosted by a wide range of new technologies, educational institutes all over the world are innovating their educational systems, in order to extend their services, to improve their performances or to reduce costs. The apparent self-evidence of educational innovation hardly prompts the…

Education is a social practice and the ability to interact socially is important to social cognitive learning and social learning. Online education is frequently criticized because it lacks social interaction, a sense of social engagement, and the benefits of learning with others. Social ability with computer-mediated social mechanisms is key to…

Angela Jacklin is a senior lecturer in education and director of student support at the University of Sussex. William Farr is a teacher at a primary school in Sussex, and a former MA student at Sussex University. In the project reported in this article, they worked together to consider how valuable the computer may be as a medium to enhance social…

Based on existing Learning Object taxonomies, this article suggests an alternative Learning Object taxonomy, combined with a general Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) framework, aiming to transfer the modularized concept of Learning Objects to modularized Virtual Learning Environments. The taxonomy and SOA-framework exposes a need for a clearer…

The need for e-learning systems that support a diverse set of pedagogical requirements has been identified as an important issue in web-based education. Until now, significant research and development effort has been devoted to aiming towards web-based educational systems tailored to specific pedagogical approaches. The most advanced of them are…

The "Hebrew Online Module" is an authoring and evaluation tool designed for administrating online assignments in Hebrew and English. While similar commercial products are readily available, only a few accommodate right-to-left languages such as Hebrew or Arabic. The module, a standalone tool, complements the class environment by freeing class time…

In the communities dealing with the design and implementation of on-line teaching and training (higher education, government, industry), SCORM is a hot topic these days. The "Sharable Content Object Reference Model" is a standard for the packaging and deployment of Web-based "learning objects," defined by Bob Banks as "a relatively small, reusable…

Alternative browsers are gaining significant market share, and both Apple and Microsoft are releasing OS upgrades which portend some interesting changes in Web development. Of particular interest for language learning professionals may be new developments in the area of Web browser based applications, particularly using an approach dubbed "Ajax."…

Teaching is becoming one of the most challenging professions in our society where knowledge is expanding rapidly and modern technologies are demanding teachers to learn how to use these technologies in their teaching. While new technologies increase teachers' training needs, they also offer part of the solution. Information and communication…

We investigated whether students liked and learned more from PowerPoint presentations than from overhead transparencies. Students were exposed to lectures supported by transparencies and two different types of PowerPoint presentations. At the end of the semester, students preferred PowerPoint presentations but this preference was not found on…

Our University of Alabama introductory astronomy course has large enrollments, with the usual problems of low attendance and students putting off studying until just before major exams--with predictable consequences. We tried one strategy--cooperatively answering quiz questions--during our May 2002 interim term. Classes were long: three hours a…

Seminaries across North America are continuing to expand their use of technology for theological education. This article explores eight issues surrounding the strategic planning process when it comes to technology. These have to do with the obstacles to fresh thinking, the current best practices in strategic planning processes, detailed…

In order to capture current educational practices in eLearning courses, more advanced "learning design" capabilities are needed than are provided by the open eLearning specifications hitherto available. Specifically, these fall short in terms of multi-role workflows, collaborative peer-interaction, personalization and support for learning…

As universities and history departments argue over how best to make history "relevant" to students of the twenty-first century, and as professors are increasingly under pressure to integrate technology into their courses, many questions remain unanswered as to the usefulness, reliability, and pedagogical soundness of the new and ever-changing…