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Archive for the ‘Research’ Category

Online MBA Asynchronous Discussion Workload and Value Perceptions for Instructors and Learners: Working Toward an Integrated Educational Model for Professional Adults

This paper reviews the outcomes of a year-long survey examining the perceived workload and value of asynchronous discussion shared by MBA adult learners and instructors engaged in the same classes. Results are characterized for each stakeholder group (instructors or learners) and compared between them. The different response profiles of learners and instructors are discussed as […]

Student Moderators in Asynchronous Online Discussion: A Question of Questions

Much current research exalts the benefits of having students facilitate weekly discussions in asynchronous online courses. This study seeks to add to what is known about student moderation through an analysis of the types of questions students use to spur each discussion. Prior experimental work has demonstrated that the types of questions posed by instructors […]

Student Assessment in Online Learning: Challenges and Effective Practices

Assessment of student learning is a fundamental aspect of instruction. Special challenges and affordances exist in assessing student learning in online environments. This two-phase study investigated the types of assessment methods being used in online courses and the ways in which the online environment facilitates or constrains particular methods. In Phase One, syllabi from 24 […]

Evaluating Program Effectiveness for an Online Elementary Education Cohort

Online classes and even fully online programs are becoming efficient means of providing teacher preparation opportunities to students, especially to those who have limited access to on-campus classes. But teacher education programs and school districts need to be confident that teachers are of high quality and ready to teach. The results of the longitudinal study […]

Aligning Web-based Tools to the Research Process Cycle: A Resource for Collaborative Research Projects

Using John Creswell’s Research Process Cycle as a framework, this article describes various web-based collaborative technologies useful for enhancing the organization and efficiency of educational research. Visualization tools (Cacoo) assist researchers in identifying a research problem. Resource storage tools (Delicious, Mendeley, EasyBib) improve the collection and organization of resources for a literature review. Content development […]

Understanding Students’ Online Interaction: Analysis of Discussion Board Postings

The purpose of this paper was to report on the findings of a study examining students’ online interaction patterns. The context of the study was a graduate online class delivered via Blackboard®. The primary data for the study came from students’ discussion board postings, online learning journals, and course grades. Various data analysis methods such […]

Developing a Model for ePortfolio Design: A Studio Approach

After developing and testing a model for integrative collaboration at Eastern Kentucky University’s Noel Studio for Academic Creativity, we offer results that highlight the potential for peer review to significantly and positively impact the ePortfolio design process for students. The results of this classroom/studio collaboration suggest that students who participated in consultations at the Noel […]

Assessment for Complex Learning Resources: Development and Validation of an Integrated Model

Today’s e-learning systems meet the challenge to provide interactive, personalized environments that support self-regulated learning as well as social collaboration and simulation. At the same time assessment procedures have to be adapted to the new learning environments by moving from isolated summative assessments to integrated assessment forms. Therefore, learning experiences enriched with complex didactic resources […]

Towards Adaptive E-Learning using Decision Support Systems

The significance of personalization towards learners’ needs has recently been agreed by all web-based instructional researchers. This study presents a novel ontology semantic-based approach to design an e-learning Decision Support System (DSS) which includes major adaptive features. The ontologically modelled learner, learning domain and content are separately designed to support personalized adaptive learning. The proposed […]

Open content for elearning: Cross-institutional collaboration for education and training in a digital environment

The University of the West Indies Open Campus and Athabasca University conducted a pilot workshop to see if open educational resources (OER) could be used to construct curricula. UWIOC was interested in increasing distance education offerings and Athabasca University was interested in expanding programming to offer an online graduate program in Instructional Design. A workshop […]