The goal of this study is to report the results of a comparative usability study conducted in 2008-2009 on two different course management systems (CMS), BlackBoard and Moodle. 135 students enrolled in the fall 2008 and spring 2009 section of Introduction to Educational Technology participated in the study (72 and 63 respectively). At the…

In this article, the researchers investigate different ways in which school age, 'generation net' children learn, through non-linear, mediated, collaborative 'making' environments, enabled by informal club settings and online 'builder' gaming and groups. In addition to this, the study will investigate these learning methods in relation to…

The present research offers an assessment of the online open source tools used in the L2 academic writing, teaching, and learning environment. As fairly little research has been conducted on how to best use online automated proofreaders for educational purposes, the objective of this study is to examine the potential of such online tools. Unlike…

Machine vision is an important subject in computer science and engineering degrees. For laboratory experimentation, it is desirable to have a complete and easy-to-use tool. In this work we present a Java library, oriented to teaching computer vision. We have designed and built the library from the scratch with emphasis on readability and…

ASCUE, the Association Supporting Computer Users in Education, is a group of people interested in small college computing issues. It is a blend of people from all over the country who use computers in their teaching, academic support, and administrative support functions. Begun in 1968 as CUETUG, the College and University Eleven-Thirty Users'…

Assessing student presentations can be made more reliable with video-recording and post-performance rating. Further, self assessment and peer assessment can aid in the learning process by students when using specific, easy-to-understand rubrics. A ten-year action research study involved video-recorded performance assessment tasks using a free,…

In this paper, we describe and investigate small group discussions of assigned readings in an online version of a "triple-entry activity" in a blended course used an annotation tool, "Marginalia". We wondered if students would interact in this structured, critical, reflective reading activity as effectively online as they had…

The Kansas State University Open/Alternative Textbook Initiative provides grants to faculty members to replace textbooks with open/alternative educational resources (OAERs) that are available at no cost to students. Open educational resources are available for anyone to access, while alternative educational resources are not open. The objective of…

Our study found that most students considered OER to be as good or better in terms of quality and engagement as traditional texts, while also allowing them to put saved funds toward their educational pursuits. As rising costs in higher education affect current and potential students, faculty and students are looking for ways to cut costs where…

This paper documents four years of a novel approach to teaching a two-course sequence in software engineering as part of the ABET-accredited computer science curriculum at the College of Charleston. This approach is team-based and centers on learning software engineering in the context of open source software projects. In the first course, teams…

Recent shifts in web map technology away from proprietary software and toward development on the Open Web Platform have increased the number and complexity of technical skills needed to do cartography on the Web. Web-based cartography curricula likewise must be adapted to prepare geography, cartography, and GIS students with the skills needed to…

The new pedagogical opportunities that massive open online course (MOOC) learning environments offer for the teaching of fee-paying students on university-accredited courses are of growing interest to educators. This paper presents a case study from a postgraduate-taught course at the Open University, UK, where a MOOC performed the dual role of a…

While teachers play an important role in education and supporting learning, many learners in under-resourced settings are not privileged to have access to teachers. Some of these underprivileged learners deal with the issue by engaging in self-determined and self-directed learning. Their efforts sometimes pay off with access to formal higher…

Open educational resources (OER) as an innovation to share educational resources has been influential in past decade and expected to bring changes to higher education worldwide. There is, however, very limited literature on OER usage, especially from the perspective of college students in developing countries, who are often projected as the…

Universitas Terbuka (UT) is Indonesia's higher education institution which implements distance education system. The term distance implies that learning is not performed face-to-face but there is geographically separation between students and teacher. Therefore, UT must provide many kinds of learning modes and learning support. To facilitate…