Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell signed legislation this month promoting the growth of virtual schools. The new law requires the state to develop policies for approving and monitoring a wide array of private and nonprofit online education providers. The legislative action in Virginia is the most recent major policy move by a state to expand the…

Education has changed as a result of technological advances. Distance learning, particularly online learning, has rapidly increased its presence in higher education. At the same time, a new generation of students characterized as being the first generation to grow up with the Internet, are entering college. This generation, commonly called…

The popularity and rise in online courses have somewhat taken the author by surprise. Starting as a college instructor three years ago, the author has witnessed the tremendous interest in online programming. In fact, it is the fastest growing enrollment at the kindergarten-12th grade and higher educational levels. At the university level,…

The purpose of this case study was to compare the pedagogical and affective efficiency and efficacy of creative prose fiction writing workshops taught via asynchronous computer-mediated online distance education with creative prose fiction writing workshops taught face-to-face in order to better understand their operational pedagogy and…

Fall term of 2006, a web-assisted undergraduate mathematics course was taught at the University of Idaho: Math 235 Mathematics for Elementary Teachers I. The course goals were: To foster a deep understanding of critical mathematical content; and to promote the development of mathematical communication and collaboration concepts, skills, and…

Technology training is a resource-intensive endeavor with inherent potential for waste. Such training is commonly offered in live, face-to-face workshops on campus, without charge, by colleges and universities who value technology skills in their faculty, staff, and students. The true cost to the institution begins with the space used for…

This article describes a quasi-experimental comparison of two master's level social work classes delivering content on human behavior in the social environment. One class, delivered face-to-face, was largely synchronous. The other class, delivered using distance technologies, was more asynchronous than the first. The authors hypothesized that…

The authors describe the implementation of a teaching strategy combining case-based instruction (CBI) and asynchronous online discussions in two large educational psychology classes. Based on previous use of case studies and on recommendations developed through previous research on asynchronous online discussions, they predicted that students…

Research in the field of computer supported collaborative learning stresses the need to foster the collaborative process in view of attaining optimal cognitive involvement of all participants, a higher level of metacognitive regulation and an increased level of affective involvement. The present study involved 80 third-year university students,…

This paper presents a macro speech act analysis of computer-mediated conferencing on a university course on language pedagogy. Students read scholarly articles on language learning and discussed them online, in order to make sense of them collaboratively in preparation for a reflective essay. The study explores how the course participants made use…

Studies of classroom behavior and learning outcomes have demonstrated that student discussion leads to better learner outcomes. Do these effects, which are based on studies of face-to-face interaction, transfer to the virtual classroom? Existing studies of online postings in asynchronous discussion forums have primarily studied the effects on the…

This article presents a study carried out in the area of distance learning electronic forums. Based on the relevant bibliographic review, electronic forums are increasingly becoming part of the learning process. The specific study was stimulated by previous works relevant to the modelling of the behaviour of IT students at Hellenic Open University…

Personal learning networks (PLNs) are not new. People have long relied on their families, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances to supplement their knowledge about the world. But the times are changing. Information and communication technologies (ICT), including an ever-growing repertoire of open source applications, have freed content from the…

This article examines the impact of the introduction of roles and the added value of self-assessment on students' level of knowledge construction in online asynchronous discussions in a first-year university course in instructional sciences. Students' postings in 20 discussion groups were used as the research data for this study. All messages,…

There is an increasing impression among online geography educators that interaction can be developed based on specific teaching and learning methods. The authors developed a practical research study to investigate this issue. The study was based on advanced graduate courses in geography at Beijing Normal University and Texas State University.…