Today's global educational environment includes the emergence of adult learners participating in formal and informal educational encounters for the purposes of professional development or personal enrichment. These learners must possess the conceptual and attitudinal idea of self-directed learning in order to be skilled workers and fulfilled human…

Distance Education, nowadays defined more as Open and Distance Learning, dates back to 1800s. Once considered as using non-traditional approaches and delivery methods compared to conventional campus-based education, distance education now has become a mainstream form of education increasing its popularity and use in the 21st century. Distance…

This article presents evaluation data regarding the MAPIS3 architecture which is proposed as a solution for the data-transfer among various tools to promote flexible collaborative learning designs. We describe the problem that this architecture deals with as "tool orchestration" in collaborative learning settings. This term refers to a…

Trends in higher education include accelerated online learning and an increase in adult learners. The retention of these learners is essential for universities. This study used an exploratory case study methodology to examine factors facilitating the retention of women in an accelerated, online teacher education program. Using the Priorities…

Problem-based learning (PBL) challenges traditional views of teaching and learning as the learner determines, to a large extent with support from a skilled facilitator, what topics will be explored, to what depth and which processes will be used. This paper presents the implementation of problem-based learning methodologies in an online Bachelor's…

A commonly advocated best practice for classroom assessment is to make the assessments authentic. Authentic is often used as meaning the mirroring of real-world tasks or expectations. There is no consensus, however, in the actual definition of the term or the characteristics of an authentic classroom assessment. Sometimes, the realistic component…

With classroom observation and stimulated recall interviews as research instruments, the present study investigated some of the factors that affected learners' attention to teacher talk in nine English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms. The results revealed five such factors, namely, learners' self evaluation of their language knowledge, the…

The research reported in this paper is an investigation of the application of adult learning principles in designing learning activities for teachers' life-long development. The exploration is illustrated by qualitative data from a case study of adult educators' and adult learners' insights and experiences of a teacher development course organised…

At-risk student bodies in public school districts have very different cultures of learning from mainstream learning communities. Policies and practices in schools tend to isolate these student bodies for convenience in administration and instruction, and little consideration is given to whether these experiences of isolation from the larger…

In the process of assessing and ensuring quality university studies, students have an important role as partners in the learning community. In this empirical study we therefore analysed the learning experiences to which they themselves attributed a significant influence. We were interested in the type of those influences and the key…

To support the growth of its blended courses, Bronx Community College (BCC), a unit of the City University of New York (CUNY), participated in a CUNY-sponsored initiative to increase blended learning options for students. The initiative allowed BCC to expand its existing faculty development program. This paper describes major aspects of the…

This study explored how college experiences, as perceived by adult students, influenced their decisions on persistence. Specifically, the role students' perceptions of their college experiences played in their decisions to persist in college or voluntarily depart without completing a degree was examined. A grounded theory approach was used…

The present questionnaire-based study was conducted in 2010 in order to examine 677 Greek Second Chance School (SCS) students' perceptions about the cognitive and socio-affective outcomes of project-based learning. Data elaboration, statistical and factor analysis showed that the participants found that project-based learning offered a second…

After the 1992 Further and Higher Education Reform Act enabled polytechnics and the qualifying franchised colleges to be renamed universities or higher education institutions, the dominance of the rhetoric of skill development aggravated long-standing schisms between further and higher education about whether or not degree-level courses should be…

This study examines the processes by which early childhood educators and their mentors negotiated the social and emotional aspects of their working relationships. Twenty-five mentors worked with over 200 infant/toddler caregivers and preschool educators as part of a community-wide professional development initiative. Qualitative data were obtained…