Asynchronous text based discussion boards are included in many online courses, however strategies to compare their use within and between courses, from a disciplinary standpoint, have not been well documented in the literature. The goal of this project was to develop a multi-factor metric which could be used to characterize discussion board use in a large data set (n=11,596 message posts) and t...

Nursing faculty need to understand the unique aspects of online learning environments and develop new pedagogies for teaching in the virtual classroom. The concept of community is important in online learning and a strong sense of community can enhance student engagement and improve learning outcomes in online courses. Student perceptions of community in online learning environments were explor...

Interviews with the directors or program chairs of Canada’s seven graduate schools of library and information studies revealed that schools face four common issues: (1) relocation within the university administrative structure or partnership with other academic units, (2) introduction of broader curriculum menus and more flexible course schedules, (3) closer liaison with industry for research f...

Interactivity is often discussed in constructivist approaches to education, which enable the student to evolve, understand, or construct new ideas from existing concepts. Constructivist approaches rely on active participation in the learning situation. Interaction and participation are crucial ingredients in the learning process. But interactivity, as a specific learning concept that underlies ...

The Active Ageing Framework has been adapted as a global strategy in ageing policies, practices and research over the last decade. Lifelong learning, however, has not been fully integrated into this discourse. Using survey data provided by 416 adults (aged 60 years and above) enrolled in non-formal general-interest courses in a public continuing education programme in Canada, this study examine...

Interactivity is often discussed in constructivist approaches to education, which enable the student to evolve, understand, or construct new ideas from existing concepts. Constructivist approaches rely on active participation in the learning situation. Interaction and participation are crucial ingredients in the learning process. But interactivity, as a specific learning concept that underlies ...

eLearning collaborative pedagogy assumes that interaction is important for successful courses, yet questions exist regarding the nature and extent of the interaction and its effects on student performance. Although the majority of past studies focus on students’ perceptions of the quality and quantity of their interactions and the benefits they gained in e-learning, no research has examined the...

Participation in the classroom has dropped precipitously in recent years. We describe the design and use of ActiveClass, an application for encouraging in-class participation using personal wireless devices. This system has been used in three sections of two different lower-division courses in computer programming at UCSD. Using ecologies as a method of analysis, these settings provide a rich s...

This paper discusses examination, focusing on the possibilities available in ALN based learning. ALN is an acronym for asynchronous learning networks and in this research this means a web based learning environment supporting anywhere/anytime learning. The notion of mandatory participation in learning activities is argued to be more viable in ALNs rather than traditional classrooms. Mandatory p...

The West Virginia K-12 RuralNet Project was an NSF funded program to train inservice teachers on integrating the Internet into science and mathematics curriculum. The program involved training inservice teachers through an intensive summer workshop and supplemental online courses. This study examines the effects of the project on the long-term self-efficacy of inservice teachers and their use o...