Considers elements that contribute to successful online conferences and combines strategies for developing and moderating an online conference with what to expect from the participating members. Topics include design considerations; member engagement; and the role of facilitators, including creating community and knowledge building. (Author/LRW)

Instructional design is at the heart of each educational endeavour. This process revolves around the steps through which the thoughtful productions of superior products are created. The ADDIE generic instructional design model emphasises five basic steps within the instructional design process: analyse, design, develop, implement and evaluate. The…

This article describes an approach to developing student reading materials that support middle school learners in a project-based, inquiry curriculum for grades 6 through 8. Reading materials are designed to encourage sense making beyond the classroom, as students read and write about science as it takes place in a classroom and as it occurs in…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review cross-disciplinary research on e-learning from workplace learning, educational technology, and instructional communication disciplines to identify relevant e-learning design principles. It aims to use these principles to propose an e-learning model that can guide the design of instructionally sound,…

The use of surveillance cameras in schools is not new, but just about everything involved with the technology and the way it is used is new. Surveillance equipment once was a precautionary system, relegated to the corner, where it gathered dust until an incident took place, then administrators would painstakingly roll out the video to investigate…

There is a common predicament faced by educational designers, that is, the lack of learning design tools for nontraditional pedagogies of learning. Because of this lack of alternatives, educational designers often use traditional design tools (such as task analysis) in contexts where nontraditional learning activities (such as collaborative…

In an effort to completely transform both teaching spaces and pedagogical orientation, a multi-stage project that tied professional development efforts for faculty and administrators to a redesign of existing classroom facilities was initiated. The goal was to simultaneously transform learning and spaces for learning in order to change the…

The Computing Curricula (2005) place Information Systems (IS) at the intersection of exact sciences (e.g. General Systems Theory), technology (e.g. Computer Science), and behavioral sciences (e.g. Sociology). This presents particular challenges for teaching and learning, as future IS professionals need to be equipped with a wide range of…

Word processing is part of every writer's set of competencies today, and as readers, their expectations of type have risen well beyond the old Courier font of typewriters. Yet only recently have writers had access to the thousands of different typefaces available today and had such power in making design choices. Type has been much studied and…

Development of criteria for the judgment of architectural quality is presented according to an eight-part system. Each criterion is explained in terms of a general statement and definitive questions to be asked. The standards developed are--(1) concept, (2) structure, (3) physical environment, (4) emotional environment, (5) materials, (6)…

A new on-campus apartment complex at a Texas university contains eight units, each containing four apartments, whose design was based on the amenities students valued both in an apartment complex and in individual units. (Author/MLF)

Explores the concept of validity in relation to games and simulations, including four aspects of validity that apply to simulations and games (psychological reality, structural validity, process validity, and predictive validity). Factors that may threaten validity during game design are discussed, and suggestions are made to avert these threats.…

Explains why installing a well-designed indoor climbing wall can draw new users to an athletic facility. Climbing-wall design elements and gear are discussed and a checklist for working with contractors is provided.(GR)

Animated models explicate the procedure to solve a problem, as well as the rationale behind this procedure. For abstract cognitive processes, animations might be beneficial, especially when a supportive pedagogical agent provides explanations. This article argues that animated models can be an effective instructional method, provided that they are…