Describes TELD (Teaching by Examples and Learning by Doing), a Web-based online courseware engine for higher education. Topics include problem-based learning; project-based learning; case methods; TELD as a Web server; course materials; TELD as a search engine; and TELD as an online virtual classroom for electronic delivery of electronic…

A significant body of research suggests that wide differences in concept and vocabulary knowledge exacerbate the achievement gap among students, especially in schools with large numbers of children of poverty. Educators sometimes attribute this difference to the Matthew effect: the sad reality that having a well-developed vocabulary allows a…

This study focuses on the various playful uses of language that occurred during a semester-long study of two German language courses using one type of synchronous network-based medium, the MOO. Research and use of synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) have flourished in the study of second-language acquisition (SLA) since the late…

The culture and traditions of colleges and universities have been foci of attention by strategic planners, development officers and consultants. Developing a unique market niche to attract students and keep alumni affiliated is a constant struggle. As we build new electronic universities and add electronic courses and dimensions of existing…

Purpose: Online education has been growing rapidly, but has not had the benefit of the extensive teaching pedagogy development of traditional face-to-face teaching. This paper aims to provide a review of the current literature and present the results of a survey, conducted to determine the effectiveness of a graduate online subject.…

This paper presents the multimedia product for teaching Natural Sciences to 10-12 years old children. In this product three pedagogical agents, Teacher and two pupils guide the learner through the virtual environment. The inclusion of a team of pedagogical agents permits us to create a micro-model of lesson activity and gives a reliable support of…

Recent books and articles are full of definitions of the ideal electronic classroom, prescriptions of how to use web resources, and descriptions of the effects of such resources on teaching practices and learning. Yet Becker (1999) found that only 30% of those teachers who were internet-connected acknowledged using web resources with their…

This paper addresses the concept of student participation in learning processes within the health promoting schools approach. A model is used as a broad analytical framework to discuss selected aspects of the evaluation data on the Internet-based collaborative project titled "Virtual Classroom--ICT, Learning and Changes", recently…

This paper reports on changes in students' perceptions of technological, course conduct, and course outcome variables as they participated in multiple online courses over a 4-year period in a Midwestern U.S. University's MBA program. While there was little to no significant change in students' perceptions of learning between their first online…

In two experiments, students overheard two computer-controlled virtual agents discussing four computer literacy topics in dialog discourse and four in monologue discourse. In Experiment 1, the virtual tutee asked a series of deep questions in the dialog condition, but only one per topic in the monologue condition in both studies. In the dialog…

Doctoral research considered whether healthcare students were able to develop characteristics of Communities of Practice when engaged in an interprofessional online module. Using a case study approach the research included two phases. Within phase one a questionnaire was administered to the group of 109 healthcare students. These were analysed to…

In the United States, there were more than 500,000 enrollments in online courses in grades K-12 and more than one-third of public school districts offered some type of eLearning during the 2005-2006 school year. Research has been done on several virtual schools in North America; however, little information is available about current K-12…

One of the big fears digital technology provokes in people, perhaps those on college campuses more than anywhere else, is that its use will cause everyone to lose something unique to themselves. Assuming for a moment that this is true, it is a particularly dire vision for colleges and universities, where the institution's identity goes a long way…

Training firefighters is a difficult process in which emotions and nonverbal behaviors play an important role. The authors have developed a mixed reality environment for training a small group of firefighters, which takes into account these aspects. The assessment of the environment was made up of three phases: assessing the virtual agents to…

Writing, essentially a social act, is concerned with cognition and is allied to context. Most writing takes the form of dialogue and it is out of dialogic processes that language acquisition takes place. Writers and readers convene in the cognitive and social space that is at the heart of a discourse community. The social aspects of writing are…