Information retrieval in the context of virtual universities deals with the representation, organization, and access to learning objects. The representation and organization of learning objects should provide the learner with an easy access to the learning objects. In this article, we give an overview of the ONES system, and analyze the relevance…

A personalized e-learning framework based on a user-interactive question-answering (QA) system is proposed, in which a user-modeling approach is used to capture personal information of students and a personalized answer extraction algorithm is proposed for personalized automatic answering. In our approach, a topic ontology (or concept hierarchy)…

This article presents systems that use speech technology, to emulate the one-on-one interaction a student can get from a virtual instructor. A web-based learning tool, the Learn IN Context (LINC+) system, designed and used in a real mixed-mode learning context for a computer (C++ language) programming course taught at the Université de Moncton…

With Internet usage in the United States at an all-time high, information technology use in education has continued to increase. Research has shown that many students are utilizing these materials to search out information and assist with completing class assignments. Many college students have described the Internet as a functional tool that…

Ask Jeeves has added a number of new search features that make it a very useful web search tool for K-12 users. Although it cannot compete with Google in database size, Ask Jeeves is showing that it can compete in search results. With its array of new features--Web Answers, Zoom Search, Smart Search; previewed site viewing; and My Jeeves-Ask…

Chinese brush calligraphy is a valuable civilization legacy and a high art of scholarship. It is still popular in Chinese banners, newspaper mastheads, university names, and celebration gifts. There are Web sites that try to help people enjoy and learn Chinese calligraphy. However, there lacks advanced services such as content-based retrieval or…

This article reports on methodological approaches to evaluate the relevance and quality of educational research publications. In the first section it focuses on the ISI Social Science Citation Index and shows that this standard instrument for bibliometric measurement is insufficient for the representation of European educational research. In the…

Academic libraries customize, support, and provide access to myriad information systems, each with complex graphical user interfaces. The number of possible information entry points on an academic library Web site is both daunting to the end-user and consistently challenging to library Web site designers. Faced with the challenges inherent in…

This study investigates the efficiency of the Google search engine at retrieving items from 26 UK Institutional Repositories, covering a wide range of subject areas. One item is chosen from each repository and four searches are carried out: two keyword searches and two full title searches, each using both Google and then Google Scholar. A further…

The Internet is a natural place to look for images that teachers can use in lessons and students can use in projects and assignments. Google, Yahoo, AltaVista--many of these popular search engines offer image searching. Usually there is a tab to click at the top of the page to select image searching; just enter a search term and go! However, this…

This research was undertaken to study and improve the marketing efforts of the Department of Educational Technology (EDTECH) at Boise State University, recognizing the need to generate revenues based upon the new self-support structure instituted at the university and EDTECH Department. In investigating the marketing opportunities for the…

The purpose of this study is to understand how beginning teachers actually utilize online resources in their everyday teaching contexts. Using a qualitative interview study design, the researchers investigated beginning teachers' use of online resources in three dimensions: professional tasks, emotional/personal support, and teaching practice. The…

Discusses how to find digital images on the Web. Considers images and copyright; provides an overview of the search capabilities of six search engines, including AltaVista, Google, AllTheWeb.com, Ditto.com, Picsearch, and Lycos; and describes specialized image search engines. (LRW)

Discusses latent semantic indexing (LSI) that would allow search engines to reduce the dimension of the document space by mapping it into a space spanned by conceptual indices. Topics include vector space models; singular value decomposition (SVD); unitary operators; the Haar transform; and new algorithms. (Author/LRW)

Discusses the deficiencies of search engines and the importance of metadata and examines three models of metadata retrieval: distributed; distributed data with a centralized index; and centralized union catalog. Highlights include the Z39.50 protocol; the OAI (Open Archives Initiative) protocol; virtual union catalogs; and a pan-European model.…