Even as higher education institutions offer more distance education courses, the attrition rate in these courses remains higher than face-to-face courses. One of the most cited reason by students who drop out of distance education classes is the lack of social interaction. Educational technology researchers have studied this problem from a sense…

In recent years, e-learning has been used in a chemical engineering subject in the final course of a mining engineering degree, a subject concerned with fuel technology. The low results obtained by students in this subject have led the teacher to search for new strategies to increase grades. Such strategies have consisted of incorporating into the…

In the past decade, virtual worlds have progressed from isolated sectors of the Internet, inhabited by computer and fantasy role-playing enthusiasts, to one of the fastest growing sectors in the gaming industry. In the process, they have established themselves as promising venues for the delivery of online instruction. Unfortunately, during that…

Virtual school programs--especially online high school courses--are gaining traction in school districts around the country. While offering online courses was once the exclusive province of large state, nonprofit and for-profit organizations and companies, districts and even individual schools are now starting virtual schools of their own. Not…

This study examines the users' experiences with three-dimensional (3D) virtual environments to investigate the areas of development as a learning application. For the investigation, the modified technology acceptance model (TAM) is used with constructs from expectation-confirmation theory (ECT). Users' responses to questions about cognitive…

An analysis of data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement and multiyear analysis of pretest/posttest scores in introductory criminal justice courses revealed there was a systemic decline in student engagement and achievement. Because of this analysis, a commercial virtual learning tool (CJI) that purported great success in…

This article describes an implementation of interactive virtual environments that have been designed for supporting the education of technical skills in material processing technology. The developed web-based systems provide the capability to train students in the technical skills of material processing technology without the need to work on…

Virtual education is moving into that intersection where rising popularity meets calls for greater accountability. How the virtual education movement responds to those calls will have a significant impact on how it evolves in K-12 over the next five to 10 years. This report tackles this shift in the virtual education landscape. It examines the…

Michigan State University Extension conducted its first virtual conference, attended by more than 600 staff, with a weeklong menu of over 100 online meetings and learning sessions. Providing multiple types of pre-conference hands-on training to small groups using Adobe Connect Pro was an important key to success. Other success factors were pre and…

This special report examines how K-12 professional development is taking a more digital and freewheeling approach to educator training. The report--which also features a webinar and online chat--shows how professional development programs are now blending face-to-face and online training, incorporating social networking tools, offering…

This article examines the affordances of virtual worlds for initiating a transformative learning experience for adults. In particular, it addresses the capacity of virtual worlds to allow creation of an alternate self which requires some level of personal self-reflection; provide atypical experiences that can initiate reflection; allow experience…

Interest in game-based learning for K-12 is growing. Thus, helping teachers understand how to use these new pedagogies is important. This paper presents a cross-case study of the development of teacher professional development for the River City project, a games-based multi-user virtual environment science curriculum project for middle school…

Using 3D virtual environments for educational purposes is becoming attractive because of their rich presentation and interaction capabilities. Furthermore, dynamically adapting the 3D virtual environment to the personal preferences, prior knowledge, skills and competence, learning goals, and the personal or (social) context in which the learning…

Over the past twenty years phenomenal developments in technology have changed the nature of education. Students now have access to a vast range of resources 24/7. This instant access has created a certain expectation on the part of the student and there must now be very few, if any, courses taught in higher education where the lecturer does not…

Virtual learning environments (VLE) constitute the current information systems' (IS) category for electronically supported corporate training and development. Frequently supposed advantages of using VLE refer, for instance, to the efficiency, individuality, ubiquity, timeliness and task orientation of learning. However, a crucial precondition of…