The spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) is placing impossible demands on distance education. With the closure of schools and colleges, teachers are being given only weeks to put their courses online regardless of their lack of online experience and support facilities. In the United States of America, international students who fail to continue…

The authors recognized a close similarity between practices used in online genealogy research and those common in online education. Uses of a popular online database service were examined within a peer instruction community dedicated to researching a family history topic. Three community subgroups were divided into leaders, who base their work on…

The statement by Hunter R. Rawlings III that "there are no good studies on what constitutes bad online pedagogy" coincides with the creation of a Global Learning Council to define the guidelines that previous online educators have allegedly failed to identify. This article discusses these disparaging remarks by the President of the…

This commentary discusses reasons that lead scholars to feel entitled to make judgements in areas where they have little or no expertise. Three current reports about the future of online learning are considered, issued by the Global Learning Council, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Gates Foundation. Two of these publications contain…

The launch of the "Journal of Learning for Development" occurs at a critical time for the education and development field. The "massive open online course" concept currently being implemented by Western educators is considered as a potential cost-saver in developing nations also. MOOCs based on reliable pedagogical principles…

This article examines the current interest of educators in flipped learning. Although this concept has developed in the online and distance education literature over two decades, numerous current writers are attributing it to an idea formed in 2007 by two K-12 teachers in Colorado, USA. The mechanisms that generate such myths are examined, with…

The bicentenary in 2011 of the Luddite Revolt prompts us to ask "what would Ned Ludd think of today's automated styles of distance education?" He would no doubt echo the common criticism that educational technologies create an impersonal style of teaching and learning, and devalue the teacher. He would probably agree that online methods…

Imaginary worlds have been devised by artists and commentators for centuries to focus satirical attention on society's problems. The increasing sophistication of three-dimensional graphics software is generating comparable "virtual worlds" for educational usage. Can such worlds play a satirical role suggesting developments in distance…

The increasing range of options provided by two popular conferencing freeware products, "Yahoo Messenger" and "MSN Messenger," are discussed. Each tool contains features designed primarily for entertainment purposes, which can be customized for use in online education. This report provides suggestions for optimizing the educational potential of…