Asynchronous computer conferencing refers to the use of computer software and a network enabling participants to post messages that allow discourse to continue even though interactions may be extended over days and weeks. Asynchronous conferences are time-independent, adapting to multiple time zones and learner schedules. Such activities as…

Online education is established, growing, and here to stay. It is creating new opportunities for students and also for faculty, regulators of education, and the educational institutions themselves. Much of what is being learned by the practitioners will flow into the large numbers of blended courses that will be developed and delivered on most…

Attrition continues to be a major issue in higher education. Attrition rates for classes taught through distance education are 10-20% higher than classes taught in a face-to-face setting. Educators should engage students early and often, using different learning strategies customized to the class content and the students' pre-existing knowledge.…

This qualitative multi-case study explored the space where critical reflection and group development met within the online environment for the adult learner. Using critical reflection with adult learners through their responses to Stephen Brookfield's (1995) Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ) in the online environment precipitated instructional…

There is a continuing need to investigate how contemporary students in schools are writing the word, and their world, beyond modernist parameters of the page. This article explores the online writing of a senior English world literature class, located in a Western Canadian city, as examined through a recent qualitative case study. Borrowing a 17th…

With teacher shortages in both general and critical needs areas and constricting operating budgets, it is important for Colleges of Education to develop methods of providing alternative certification programs to reach larger segments of the population. One method of increasing the scope of potential preservice teachers is through the development…

The objective of this research was to compare the quality and quantity of teacher and student interaction in an on-line versus face-to-face learning environment. A Master's level course on nursing theories was taught by the same professor by both methods. Transcripts of the face-to-face class and on-line postings were analyzed to identify…

The opportunity to engage in discussion with others about teaching issues is essential to a teacher's professional development, and can potentially be afforded through online discussions. The following study explored the use of online discussion as a way to engage beginning teachers in professional development. An investigation was conducted to…

Communication is often not so much what people write or say but how they write and often what they do not say. Thus, meaning in real-world chat messages depends not only on the words they use but also on how they express meaning through nonverbal cues. Online chat is simple, direct, and unrestrained. While it contains many of the elements of…

In this article we describe the implementation of an emerging virtual learning environment to teach GIS and spatial sciences to distance education graduate students. We discuss the benefits and constraints of our mixed architecture with the main focus on the innovative hybrid architecture of the virtual GIS computer laboratory. Criteria that were…

Computer-mediated distance education holds potential for providing professional development opportunities for teachers. This study investigated teaching and learning through written asynchronous and synchronous communications in an online graduate education course. Types of student participation during four weeks of discussions in the course, two…

This article empirically validates an existing content analysis scheme and addresses a main concern of researchers about text-based, online transcripts in the form of code-recoding by mapping our scheme to the practical inquiry, cognitive presence model's five phases directly to realise higher-order thinking or critical thinking aspects for our…

Online and face-to-face courses are often viewed and studied as two distinct worlds, but the social field of the teacher who teaches them may well include both, and both the teacher and the courses he or she teaches may be transformed by the movement from one environment to the other. Susan Lowes explores this two-way interaction between…

How to move science-based labs online has been one of the main obstacles associated with the development of online science programs. In the spring of 2006 and again in 2007, we organized online workshops broadly based around the central theme of Moving the Lab Online. The objective of these workshops was to provide a forum for the exchange of…

RIT Online Learning courses have an overall course completion rate of 94%. For lower-division courses the rate is 92%, undergraduate 93%, and graduate 96%. In this case study we will share additional measurements we have used to monitor student success and describe strategies we have used to promote online discussion as a key component of…