Assesses the factors that universities need to consider when developing a strategic response to "borderless education," discusses certain instruments which may be used in strategic analysis, and considers some options in the areas of organizational structures, support infrastructure, personnel policy, and quality assurance. (EV)

Discusses current demands on teaching staff in United Kingdom higher education and the impact these demands have when teaching through electronic resources. Topics include collaborative small-group learning; transferable skills; nontraditional students; the role of the tutor; social theories of education; and a case study of virtual seminars for…

Discusses how teachers in higher education are taking a new look at teaching and course management as new teaching roles are learned in the virtual classroom for online learning environments, particularly as facilitators and mentors of learning communities. Considers principles for good practice and needed competencies for online teachers.…

In this paper, Larkin and Gould's (1999) activity theory methodology for defining work-related roles and Burns' (1963) analysis of organismic organizational form are merged into a model that describes associate and leadership roles and relationships in virtual organizations. The effects of a lack of shared physical space and face-to-face social…

This article presents Virtual Radiopharmacy Laboratory (VR LAB), a virtual laboratory accessible through the Internet. VR LAB is designed and implemented in the framework of the VirRAD European project. This laboratory represents a 3D simulation of a radio-pharmacy laboratory, where learners, represented by 3D avatars, can experiment on…

Learning communities gained attention in 1984 after the publication of the "Involvement in Learning" report, which was sponsored by the U.S. Education Department. The authors of the report stated that active engagement in learning processes enhances learning and leads to two fundamental principles: (1) The amount of student learning and personal…

This article assesses the pedagogic value of the "chat" facility in the Blackboard integrated learning platform. It draws on a case study carried out by the author in the 2001-2 academic session. A level three class in research methods involved students in group working away from class and student feedback indicated that more support was needed to…

The potential of virtual environments for teaching people with autism has been positively promoted in recent years. The present study aimed to systematically investigate this potential with 12 participants with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs), each individually matched with comparison participants according to either verbal IQ or performance…

The first U.S. charter school opened in 1992, and the scale of the charter movement has since grown to 4,000 schools and more than a million students in 40 states plus the District of Columbia. With this growth has also come a contentious debate about the effects of the schools on their own students and on students in nearby traditional public…

For the thirty-fifth year, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the national AECT Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two…

This paper presents an instructional model, developed as part of a research in the Autonomous Metropolitan University, Azcapotzalco, Mexico City. Elements of virtual learning environments and cognitive functions in the learning process supported by didactic strategies are described. Some general characteristics of instructional design are included…

This study is concerned with online learners' "low" experiences. On the basis of Csikszentmihalyi's theory of flow, flow was conceptualised as a complex, multimentional, reflective construct composing of "enjoyment", "telepresence", "focused attention", "engagement" and "time distortion" on the part of learners. A flow model was put forward with…

This paper is part of a larger project in the area of research. The main purpose of this mediated discourse was to implement, observe and analyse experiences of teachers in a training project developed for two different settings in the classroom. The first was between international classrooms through cyberspace and the second was a cyberspace…

In this article, the author describes Penn High School's writing center, a technology-supported writing classroom which began in July 1994. The Penn writing center operates as a true "center"--a place for students and teachers, technology and talk, thinking and writing to come together. Every day, more than 200 students visit the writing…

The computer-supported Project Work classroom learning environment discussed in this paper represents a paradigm shift from teacher-centered to student-centered teaching and learning in Singapore schools. Besides the face-to-face weekly lessons in existing Project Work classrooms, the students engaged in computer-supported online forum…