Distance education started being limited in comparison to traditional education. Distance teachers and educational organizations have overcome most of these limits, but some other limits still remain as challenges. One of these challenges is to collaboratively learn concepts in an immersive way, similarly to the education "in situ".…

Active-learning environments such as those found in a flipped classroom are known to increase student performance, although how these gains are realized over the course of a semester is less well understood. In an upper-level lecture course designed primarily for biochemistry majors, we examine how students attain improved learning outcomes, as…

With the development of e-learning, the quality of web-based courses attracts extensive interest. This paper draws upon the results conducted amongst students enrolled in an online language course at a northern Chinese university. The design of the course aims to create the learner-centered environment: personalized learning environment,…

Geospatially enabled learning technologies may enhance Earth science learning by placing emphasis on geographic space, visualization, scale, representation, and geospatial thinking and reasoning (GTR) skills. This study examined if and how a series of Web geographic information system investigations that the researchers developed improved urban…

Although research has demonstrated that an increased rapport between instructors and learners can positively relate with increased learning gains, perhaps mediated by the positive attitudes toward the course and self-efficacy beliefs in the coursework, little has been done to test what instructional strategies might increase this rapport in online…

When properly employed, technology may enhance and support learning opportunities available to any student, at any location, and at any time. Determining which instructional and delivery methods are best for a specific individual, group of students, community, or circumstance demands that high-quality data be available to students, parents,…

Increasingly, the traditional professional development (PD) model at 4-year institutions fails to meet the evolving needs of faculty. The traditional model of PD faces unique implementation challenges, including developing offerings that appeal to a wide range of disciplines and topics, dealing with limited faculty availability, physical/campus…

With the inception of the web now being more than 20 years ago, many web-based learning technology systems (LTS) have had a long life and have undergone many changes, both affecting content and infrastructure technologies. A change factor model can capture the various factors causing LTS to change. Methods for change-aware design of LTS have been…

In the last two decades, there was a proliferation of programming exercise formats that hinders interoperability in automatic assessment. In the lack of a widely accepted standard, a pragmatic solution is to convert content among the existing formats. BabeLO is a programming exercise converter providing services to a network of heterogeneous…

The number of U.S. teachers participating in some form of distance education is on the rise, yet compared to many nations, distance-based professional learning is fairly new in the U.S. What are common elements of effective global distance education for teachers, and what lessons do they hold for those who design similar programs in the U.S.? Over…

Using effective assessment techniques can improve an instructor's understanding of student needs and support learner-centered classrooms. Evaluating student learning takes on a new meaning in online classroom environment where students and instructors do not share physical proximity. According to Garrison (2011), the assessment strategies used to…

Students are required to choose courses they are interested in for the coming semester. Due to restrictions, including lack of sufficient resources and overheads of running several courses, some universities might not offer all of a student's desirable courses. Universities must know every student's demands for every course prior to each semester…

This study explored the reliability and validity of Web-based portfolio self-assessment. Participants were 72 senior high school students enrolled in a computer application course. The students created learning portfolios, viewed peers' work, and performed self-assessment on the Web-based portfolio assessment system. The results indicated: 1)…

Teachers always have been and always will be the essential element in the classroom. They can create magic inside four walls, but they have never been able to create learning environments outside the classroom like they can today, thanks to blended learning. Blended learning allows students and teachers to break free of the isolation of the…

This dissertation examines the type of training currently available to potential online instructors in order to generate a graduate-level degree program design effectively offering online pedagogy. Current online teacher training is largely based on acquisition of technological skills, such as mastering the operational components of a platform…