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Patterns And Principles For Blended Synchronous Learning: Engaging Remote And Face-To-Face Learners In Rich-Media Real-Time Collaborative Activities

Blended synchronous learning involves using rich-media technologies to enable remote and face-to-face students to jointly participate in the same live classes. This article presents blended synchronous learning designs from seven case studies that were part of a project funded by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching and articulates principles for implementation as espoused […]

StoryScape from MIT Media Lab: Create Stories Together

Writing a storybook has never been easier! Access StoryScape

Peer Grading in a MOOC: Reliability, Validity, and Perceived Effects

Peer grading offers a scalable and sustainable way of providing assessment and feedback to a massive student population. However, currently there is little empirical evidence to support the credentials of peer grading as a learning assessment method in the MOOC context. To address this research need, this study examined 1,825 peer grading assignments collected from […]

Understanding Social Learning Behaviors via a Virtual Field Trip

This is a multidisciplinary study investigating how a virtual rather than face-to-face field trip can be conducted in a real-world setting and how students respond to such a social learning opportunity. Our participants followed a story of a stroke patient at her virtual home and in a virtual hospital via a teaching vignette. They were […]

Digital Cameras and Information Literacy: Innovations from the Field

The authors describe a learning exercise for an English composition information literacy instruction session that merges technology with active learning and is fun and engaging. Librarians introduced digital cameras into library instruction. Students filmed one another as they searched the online catalog to locate call numbers, investigate subject headings, and find books on the shelves. […]

Promising uses of technology in education in poor, rural and isolated communities around the world

One persistent challenge for educational policymakers and planners related to the potential use of informational and communication technologies (ICTs) in remote, low income communities around the world is that most products, services, usage models, expertise, and research related to ICT use in education come from high-income contexts and environments. The World Bank Blog Post

New Book: Culture and Online Learning –Global Perspectives and Research

Edited by Insung Jung , Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena Culture plays an overarching role that impacts investment, planning, design, development, delivery, and the learning outcomes of online education. This groundbreaking book remedies a dearth of empirical research on how digital cultures and teaching and learning cultures intersect, and offers grounded theory and practical guidance on how […]

University faculty’s perspectives on the roles of e-instructors and their online instruction practice

Despite the rapid use of e-Learning in higher education, the beliefs of instructors about and their practices during online instruction have been seldom addressed. This study explores the role perceptions of e-instructors in higher education. In total, 106 instructors from 20 Taiwanese universities filled out a questionnaire. Analytical results indicate that “content expertise” and “instructional […]

Ghosts, stars, and learning online: Analysis of interaction patterns in student online discussions

Discussions are commonly used in online teaching and have been shown to foster student learning and collaboration. This case study uses content analysis to explore the interaction patterns of student online discussions during a semester-long teacher preparation course using concepts from sociometry. Findings suggest that interaction patterns were influenced by the content of student posts. […]

Distance learning needs re-tooling, captains tell chief

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (Army News Service, July 18, 2014) — It was to be a panacea. It could save money and reduce the carbon footprint by eliminating travel costs, decrease the need for infrastructure and perhaps even instructors, while allowing students to learn on their own time, in their own spaces, on their own devices. […]