While online course offerings have steadily risen over the last decade and it is estimated that 32% of college students have taken an online course (Allen & Seaman, 2013), the process of preparing students for blended and online courses has varied and is inconsistent across institutions. Attrition rates for online courses have been…

Universities and colleges have been developing institutional continuity plans to protect their ability to function within an environment of increasing uncertainties caused by natural and man-made disasters and events. Within the academic context, distance learning strategies have emerged as critical components for program continuity. This research…

In August 2010, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, speaking informally at a technology conference, said technological innovations should be able to lower the cost of college to $2,000 a year. Mr. Gates's comments reportedly caught the attention of Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican of Texas, who came up with his own back-of-the-envelope estimate of how…

Low retention rates for students enrolled in online developmental reading courses prompted instructors at 1 large Texas community college to examine their online classrooms for elements that were creating psychological distance and disconnectedness for their students. The purpose of this action research study was to assess the efficacy of using a…

Western Governors University Texas (WGU Texas), where the author is chancellor, is not an easy institution to describe. It just does not fit the profile of most traditional universities, even the newer for-profit and online ones. It brings the work of a national, online, nonprofit university into a state, and it embraces a competency-based…

This quasi-experimental research study evaluated two intact undergraduate engineering statics classes at a private university in Texas. Students in the control group received traditional lecture, readings and homework assignments. Those in the experimental group also were given access to a complete set of online video lectures and videos…

As cyberschooling options expand, it is vital that we understand the nuances of these particular learning opportunities. Because little research exists on leaders of K-12 cyberschools, this exploratory case study had two purposes. We first examined how 18 cyberschool leaders in the United States obtained their position. Second, we explored the…

Approximately 5 million secondary students take family and consumer sciences (FCS) classes in the United States each year (AAFCS, 2012). Most states reported a shortage of FCS teachers (Werhan & Way, 2006). Programs to prepare FCS teachers are essential to maintaining the pool of teachers, but they are becoming scarce. One potential source of…

This paper discusses the effectiveness of the videoconferencing software Blackboard Collaborate for carrying out instruction at college level to students attending classes synchronously at multiple locations. The paper describes the motivation for this study, a brief literature review on the subject, the methodology used, and the results obtained.…

Educators have become increasingly interested in the learning benefits that mobile technology can provide to students in and out of classrooms. While there is considerable enthusiasm for using mobile devices to support learning with their multimedia capabilities, portability, connectivity, and flexibility, there is a paucity of research evidence…

This quasi-experimental mixed methods study examined the use of e-readers during guided reading instruction and its impact on 5th grade students' reading motivation, attitude toward reading, and reading comprehension. For 10 weeks, 19 students received guided reading instruction by means of the traditional paper/text format, while 16 students…

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education has become one of the main priorities in the United States. Science education communities and researchers advocate for integration of STEM disciplines throughout the teaching curriculum. This requires teacher knowledge in STEM disciplines, as well as competence in scientific…

The purpose of this descriptive quantitative study was to examine the quality elements of online learning in a regional doctoral program. Utilizing the six quality dimensions of Hathaway's (2009) theory of online learning quality as a framework, the study investigated instructor-learner, learner-learner, learner-content, learner-interface,…

This article describes one school of social work's innovative online elective course to prepare Masters of Social Work (MSW) students for practice with the military, veterans and their families. Developed as part of a university-wide Veterans Initiative, this online course keeps the focus on the student veteran and uses the best practices of…

Each year, "Campus Technology" ("CT") gazes across higher ed horizons to identify the most innovative IT programs at colleges and universities around the globe. The projects "CT" profiles are inspiring examples of technology making a difference on campus--at least at that moment. The question is, have they stood the…