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Archive for the ‘Research’ Category

“I don’t conversate with those I don’t know”: The role of trust/distrust in online engagement

Digital spaces are populated by youth who navigate, consume, create, and distribute information through their participation as designers, contributors, respondents, and distributors. A key prerequisite to collaboration, participation and distributed knowledge is trust. The literature informs us that the creation of trust involves several variables: the individual, their experiences, familiarity, and the environment (online, offline, […]

Putting technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) in action: An integrated TPACK-design-based learning (DBL) approach

Design-based learning (DBL) has been considered a useful approach in teacher education because of its emphasis on the investigation of technology integration problems in design processes. Despite recent interest in understanding how technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) translates to action, limited research exists on how TPACK is developed within DBL contexts and what principles […]

e-Portfolios enhancing students’ self-directed learning: A systematic review of influencing factors

e-Portfolios have become increasingly popular among educators as learning tools. Some research even shows that e-portfolios can be utilised to facilitate the development of skills for self-directed learning. Such skills include self-assessment of performance, formulation of learning goals, and selection of future tasks. However, it is not yet clear under which conditions e-portfolios optimally facilitate […]

The Online Learner: Characteristics and Pedagogical Implications

Globalization has stretched the scope of the online learner population from a homogeneous profile of mostly adult, mostly employed, place-bound, goal-oriented, and intrinsically motivated to one that is heterogeneous, younger, dynamic, and responsive to rapid technological innovations. This paper describes the emerging characteristics of the online learner and ensuing pedagogical implications and suggests that exploratory […]

Mapping Research Trends from 35 years of Publications in Distance Education

Mapping Research Trends from 35 years of Publications in Distance Education This article maps out trends in distance education research and scholarship from 35 years of publications in the Distance Education journal. Titles and abstracts of 515 full papers were analyzed using the text-mining tool LeximancerTM to identify and describe themes in distance education research […]

Potential of digital teaching portfolios for establishing a professional learning community in higher education

Digital teaching portfolios (DTPs) are increasingly adopted in higher education for various purposes such as assessment, learning, and showcasing. This paper reports on a collective case study of four teaching staff who have developed DTPs with an emphasis on building a professional learning community at a higher education institution. A number of themes emerged from […]

Enhancing Student-Student Online Interaction: Exploring the Study Buddy Peer Review Activity

The study buddy is a learning strategy employed in a graduate distance course to promote informal peer reviewing of assignments before submission. This strategy promotes student-student interaction and helps break the social isolation of distance learning. Given the concern by Arum and Roksa (2011) that student-student interaction may be distracting from instead of contributing to […]

University students and faculty have positive perceptions of open/ alternative resources and their utilization in a textbook replacement initiative

The Kansas State University Open/Alternative Textbook Initiative provides grants to faculty members to replace textbooks with open/alternative educational resources (OAERs) that are available at no cost to students. Open educational resources are available for anyone to access, while alternative educational resources are not open. The objective of this study was to determine the perceptions towards […]

Download Report: The State of State: Postsecondary Data Systems

The State of State: Postsecondary Data System PSURSs are the primary means for states to collect data and analyze student progress, completions, and outcomes. Demands on these systems are increasing as policymakers, researchers, and consumers call for more accurate and comprehensive data concerning postsecondary education. Many states have tied institutional funding to performance metrics derived […]

Download Report: The Emerging Learning System

The Emerging Learning System For more than two decades, higher education leaders and associations, employers and policymakers have been asking tough questions about how well our nation’s colleges and universities prepare graduates to contribute successfully to a changing global workforce and society. Business leaders often express frustration that college graduates are not achieving the broad, […]

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