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Archive for the ‘Higher Education’ Category

Increasing Social Presence in Online Learning through Small Group Discussions

Social presence is difficult to achieve, but an imperative component of online learning. In this study, we investigated the effect of group size on students’ perceptions of social presence in two graduate-level online courses, comparing small group versus whole class discussions. Our results indicated that when in small group discussions, students perceived a higher level […]

A Review of Research on Intercultural Learning through Computer-Based Digital Technologies

Intercultural communication is now a crucial part of our globalizing lives; however, not everyone has an opportunity to engage in an intercultural interaction with people from different cultures. Computer-based technologies are promising in creating environments for people to communicate with people from diverse cultures. This qualitative synthesis of quantitative and qualitative research therefore aimed to […]

A Social Learning Management System Supporting Feedback for Incorrect Answers based on Social Network Services

In this research, we propose a Social Learning Management System (SLMS) enabling real-time and reliable feedback for incorrect answers by learners using a social network service (SNS). The proposed system increases the accuracy of learners’ assessment results by using a confidence scale and a variety of social feedback that is created and shared through learners’ […]

Creating Open Textbooks: A Unique Partnership Between Oregon State University Libraries and Press and Open Oregon State

This article presents Oregon State University’s experience launching an innovative Open Textbook initiative in spring 2014. The partners, Open Oregon State and the Oregon State University Libraries and Press, aimed to reduce the cost of course materials for students while ensuring the content created was peer-reviewed and employed multimedia capabilities. This initiative sought to showcase […]

A Framework for the Ethics of Open Education

What difference does openness make to the ethics of teaching and research? This paper approaches this question both from the perspective of research into the use of open educational resources (OER) in teaching and learning. An outline of the nature and importance of ethics in education research is provided before the basic principles of research […]

How people learn in an asynchronous online learning environment: The relationships between graduate students’ learning strategies and learning satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between learners’ learning strategies and learning satisfaction in an asynchronous online learning environment, in an attempt to shed some light on how people learn in an online learning environment. One hundred and sixteen graduate students who were taking online learning courses participated in this study. […]

Student communication and study habits of first-year university students in the digital era

This paper reports on research into how first-university students communicate with peers and professors and their general study habits and to examine the possible relationship between students’ use of digital technologies. The research is positioned in the interpretive paradigm. We conclude that most students feel comfortable with digital technologies and they see Facebook/MySpace as more […]

Download Report: Learning to Adapt 2.0: The Evolution of Adaptive Learning in Higher Education

“Rethinking Higher Ed: A Case for Adaptive Learning” “The Adaptive Learning Revolution” “The Death of Textbooks?” “L’adaptive learning, la révolution qui vient” Breathless headlines like these from the past three years have heralded the great potential for adaptive learning to transform higher education. Nonetheless, investors, policy makers, pundits, and institutional leaders continue to ask whether […]

Learning Management Systems: A Shift Toward Learning and Academic Analytics

This paper presents the major findings from a study conducted with six different universities in the U.S. regarding their use of the learning analytics (LA) capabilities available within their learning management systems (LMS). Data was collected from an online survey instrument, in-depth interviews with IT directors and academic administrators, and a case study in Embry-Riddle […]

The Relationships Between Students’ Perceived Learning Styles and the Community of Inquiry Presences in a Graduate Online Course

In this paper, the author examined whether there is any correlation between students’ perceived learning styles as identified by Felder and Silverman (2002) and each of the three presences of the Garrison et al.’s Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (2000): the teaching presence, the social presence and the cognitive presence. First, the CoI survey was […]