Archive for the ‘Learning Design’ Category

Designing and Implementing Web-based Scaffolding Tools for Technology-enhanced Socioscientific Inquiry

This study explores how web-based scaffolding tools provide instructional support while implementing a socio-scientific inquiry (SSI) unit in a science classroom. This case study focused on how students used web-based scaffolding tools during SSI activities, and how students perceived the SSI unit and the scaffolding tools embedded in the SSI activities. A web-based SSI unit […]

Reading Online in Foreign Languages: A Study of Strategy Use

Scores of studies have established that when learning online, students must be equipped with different sets of strategies and skills than in a physical classroom setting (Anderson, 2003; Broadbent & Poon, 2015; Coiro, 2007; Leu et al., 2007; Michinov, Brunot, Le Bohec, Juhel, & Delaval, 2011; Salmon, 2013).  The present study, by virtue of exploring […]

Web-based Collaborative Writing in L2 Contexts: Methodological Insights from Text Mining

The increasingly widespread use of social software (e.g., Wikis, Google Docs) in second language (L2) settings has brought a renewed attention to collaborative writing. Although the current methodological approaches to examining collaborative writing are valuable to understand L2 students’ interactional patterns or perceived experiences, they can be insufficient to capture the quantity and quality of […]

Knowledge retention in capstone experiences: An analysis of online and face-to-face courses

This research chronicles the development of a capstone experience by a regional comprehensive university. The process began with a multi-year project during which the faculty annually reviewed the results with a view to determining if the class provided the deep learning culminating experiences anticipated. A major measure of success was the desire to replicate the […]

Collaborative Online Inquiry: Exploring Students’ Skills in Locating, Reading, and Communicating Information

This study examines third, fourth, and fifth grade students’ reasoning that was captured as they engaged collaboratively in a teacher designed inquiry task. This task focused on choosing eco-friendly toys for a fictitious local toy store. Results indicated that students were more expressive with reasoning when they shared their ideas orally, but were less apt […]

Giving Back: Exploring Service-Learning in an Online Learning Environment

Service-Learning (SL) as an instructional method is growing in popularity for giving back to the community while connecting the experience to course content. However, little has been published on using SL for online business students. This study highlights an exploratory mixed-methods, multiple case study of an online business leadership and ethics course utilizing SL as […]

Evaluation of Virtual Objects: Contributions for the Learning Process

The constant technological development in education, and the potentiality of the resources offered by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), are challenges faced by teaching institutions in Brazil, especially by those institutions, which by the very nature of their services intend to provide distance education courses. In such a scene, one sees the use of technology […]

From an Online Cohort Towards a Community of Inquiry: International Students’ Interaction Patterns in an Online Doctorate Program

The current study explored the interaction patterns of a cohort of international students in a Professional Doctorate of Higher Education program (EdD) in order to establish the extent to which (if at all) the cohort evolved into an authentic online learning community. Phase 1 of the study consisted of a retrospective audit of three out […]

Adding to the mix: Students use of Facebook groups and blackboard discussion forums in higher education

This paper reports on a case study of the use of Facebook in learning and teaching in higher education. Facebook was used as a venue for online discussion to support the existing Learning Management System (in this case Blackboard) in the unit Internet Collaboration and Organisation as part of the Internet Communications degree taught fully […]

Maintaining Momentum Toward Graduation: OER and the Course Throughput Rate

Open Educational Resources (OER) have the potential to replace traditional textbooks in higher education.  Previous studies indicate that use of OER results in high student and faculty satisfaction, lower costs, and similar or better educational outcomes. In this case study, we compared students using traditional textbooks with those using OER at Tidewater Community College to compare […]