This research investigated faculty choice of web-based technologies for interaction in online economics courses and students' perception of those technologies. The literature review of online interaction has established the importance of learner-learner, learner-instructor and learner-content interaction in distance learning. However, some…

Classroom management is a challenge for beginning teachers. To address this challenge, a model to provide support for beginning teachers was developed, consisting of a one-day workshop on classroom management, followed with online support extending over eight weeks. Specific classroom management strategies included (a) developing a foundation…

This paper draws on current research and analyzes participant interactions in a 12-week leadership online training course with students from 14 Latin American countries. The paper systematizes the experience of the Inter-American Institute for Social Development (INDES) and constitutes a case study of an experience in a regional, non-academic…

Purpose: This study investigates the impact of online synchronous audio and video systems on the performance of cooperative learning in decision making and intellective tasks. Design/methodology/approach: In total, 156 subjects, divided into 46 groups, were invited to resolve decision and intellective tasks in text messaging and audio conferencing…

More universities are offering online instruction for students though we know little about effective online learning. Some have found online instruction increases student participation while others have reported that students prefer the traditional face-to-face format. This study of gifted education graduate students follows the expectation that…

Participation is a complex process, engaging the whole person, implying cognitive, emotional and relational aspects. In online open and distant learning, group work is a commonly used strategy, given its collaborative nature and constructivist framework ([Bates and Poole, 2003], [Garrison and Anderson, 2003] and [Jonassen, 2005]). In this context,…

We have developed a set of tools for improving online collaborative learning including an automated expert that monitors and moderates discussions, and additional tools to evaluate contributions, semantically search all posted comments, access a library of hundreds of digital books and provide reports to instructors. The technology behind these…

The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if instructors' use of mini audio presentations (MAPs) in online discussions serves as an effective facilitation method, particularly when the content contains specific facilitation markers including reinforcement, recognition, and reward (three Rs). Instructors posted MAPs as audio file attachments…

This case study investigated 12 graduate students' online collaborative experiences and attitudes in an instructional design course. The instructor divided students into 4 groups based on their academic backgrounds. Content analysis of asynchronous group discussion board messages was used to measure degrees of collaboration of each group in terms…

Describes a study of a graduate level online course that investigated whether the systematic use of instructor-initiated audio emails, as a supplement to regular textual forms of communication, would increase students' participation in group discussion and result in more favorable student perceptions of student/faculty relationships and quality of…

Constructivism is the philosophy that has been cited most frequently in the past 20 years in education. It has been argued that a constructivist philosophy offers a means of education that would result in knowledge generation and creation; therefore, it is superior to other views. Making the shift toward a constructivist philosophy, however,…

The purpose of this paper is to show how data mining may offer promise as a strategy for discovering and building alternative representations for the data underlying asynchronous discussion forums. Presently, the instructor's view of the output of a threaded forum is limited to reviewing a transcript or print version of the written dialogue…

The action research study described in this report outlines the design and implementation of a unit of blended instruction in a traditional high school English classroom. Twenty technical high school students in an 11th grade Honors English class engaged in a variety of internet-based activities in conjunction with traditional learning activities…

As online professional development courses for teachers have grown, the discussion forum has become a locus of considerable research. This study analyzes the discussion forums in four different sessions of a short (4-week) online course for teachers from six schools in three states. This study also compares four methodologies, all of which have a…

This article is based on a study involving 126 International Baccalaureate (IB) teachers in more than 30 countries who, through the use of asynchronous online discussion forums, shared how they teach and simultaneously reflected upon how they conceptualize global citizenship. Data analysis revealed that participants developed new understandings…