Distance education has been at the forefront of forging unique partnerships to facilitate learning. The purpose of this case study was to describe a business-education collaboration between General Nutrition Corporation, Inc. and the University of Florida, involving a series of online courses in introductory nutrition. Utilizing a competency-based…

In the Norwegian DoCTA and DoCTA NSS projects, we aimed to bring a theoretical perspective to the design of ICT-mediated learning environments that support the sociocultural aspects of human interaction and to evaluate their use. By taking a sociocultural perspective on learning activity focussing on the interpersonal social interaction in…

Although there is great interest, and considerable investment, in adopting technology within Higher Education, it is less clear what this change means to the people who implement or experience it. Presently, there is no consistent framework used to study and explain this phenomenon. In this paper, we propose a framework that can structure and…

This paper addresses some key design issues in e-learning, and its integration with knowledge management. The underlying premise is that the purpose of e-learning is useful knowledge, and that the design of e-learning should therefore be integrated with the design of related knowledge management--particularly personal knowledge management.…

The English department at North Carolina State University faced a rapid, large-scale transition of a number of its professional writing courses from traditional classes to online courses. Recognizing that numerous barriers, including unresolved administrative issues, faculty resistance, and lack of training could impede this process,…

An Administrator's Guide to Online Education is an essential resource for the higher education administrator. Unlike most books regarding online education, this book is not about teaching; it is about effectively administrating an online education program. Grounded in existing distance education theory, and drawing from best practices, current…

Online learning has become a well-respected alternative to traditional bricks and mortar. Almost every institution of higher education in the United States, and many secondary educational institutions, feature opportunities for students to take courses, if not earn an entire degree, online. Community colleges have been at the forefront of this…

This article deals with providing support for the execution of pedagogical scenarios in Learning Management Systems. It takes an engineering point of view to identifies actors, design and use processes. Next it defines the necessary capabilities of a platform so that actors can manage or use pedagogical scenarios. The second part of the article is…

Accompanying awareness of the potential for lifelong learning to secure social inclusion and economic survival, e-learning has grown in significance and a fragile consensus about its purposes has emerged among stakeholders. The University for Industry (Ufi) and its e-learning arm, learndirect, have focused efforts especially (but not entirely)…

Evaluation activities provide vital information on which to base planning and implementation decisions related to today's rapidly changing educational environment. This article discusses the context of and rationale for the rigorous, well-planned evaluation of online courses and programs; differentiates among evaluation, assessment, and research;…

Inverness Research studied the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) Seminars on Science program for eight years, from its inception in 1998 to 2006. This paper presents teacher survey ratings for "Genetics, Genomics, Genethics", along with profiles of three teachers who took the course. Course takers report on the annual follow-up…

Since its establishment in the 1860s, Washington's higher education system has evolved rapidly to meet a myriad of state needs in fields as diverse as agriculture, bioscience, chemistry, environmental sciences, engineering, medicine, law, business, computer science, and architecture. Today, higher education, like other vital state functions, faces…

Online learning is one of the most important topics in distance learning, but practitioners and researchers have experienced difficulty in defining the process. "Online Assessment and Measurement: Foundations and Challenges" approaches the topic by finding a common ground to properly analyze online assessment and measurement. "Online Assessment…

This paper describes the application of a mixed-evaluation method, published elsewhere, to three different learning scenarios. The method defines how to combine social network analysis with qualitative and quantitative analysis in order to study participatory aspects of learning in CSCL contexts. The three case studies include a course-long,…

In this paper, ULearn (University of Surrey learning on-line) and e-learning techniques are used to enhance the students' understanding and participation in Dynamics modules for an undergraduate programme in the School of Engineering, University of Surrey. The Dynamics modules are taught at Levels 2 and 3 and contain several mechanisms and…