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Archive for the ‘Research’ Category

Student Perspectives of Assessment Strategies in Online Courses

Engaging professional adults in an online environment is a common challenge for online instructors.  Often the temptation or commonly used approach is to mirror face-to-face strategies and practices.  One premise of this study is that all strategies used in an online environment are assessment strategies, and as such should be considered for their value in […]

MOOC & B-learning: Students’ Barriers and Satisfaction in Formal and Non-formal Learning Environments

The study presents a comparative analysis of two virtual learning formats: one non-formal through a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and the other formal through b-learning. We compare the communication barriers and the satisfaction perceived by the students (N = 249) by developing a qualitative analysis using semi-structured questionnaires and content analysis of the virtual […]

“I am Different from Other Women in the World” The Experiences of Saudi Arabian Women Studying Online in International Master Programmes

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study that investigated seven female Saudi Arabian students of the University of Liverpool’s online Masters programmes. Qualitative, first-person research methods and hermeneutic phenomenology were chosen for the analysis and interpretation of transcripts (Langeveld, 1983; van Manen, 1997; Creswell, 2007, Roth, 2012). The principles of cultural anthropology (Hall & […]

Student perceptions and lessons learned from flipping a masters level public health course

The flipped classroom instructional model has emerged as an alternative to conventional lecture-based teaching that has dominated higher education for decades. In 2013, a cohort of graduate-level public health students participated in a flipped environmental and occupational health course. We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of this course. Using data collected from a post-course […]

Use of Twitter among Spanish communication-area faculty: Research, teaching and visibility

The relationship of social media and undergraduate students has been widely analyzed but studies regarding faculty’s point of view are scarce. This study explores the use of Twitter in Spanish communication-area faculty members. A total of 211 respondents answered an online survey. Most of these answers consider Twitter a tool for enhancing public visibility rather […]

E-books: Histories, trajectories, futures

This essay traces the historical trajectory of e-books in the U.S. and imagines their possible futures. Legal, economic, and technical developments that led to contemporary e-books reveal a tension between commercial and non-commercial programming. Commercial e-book designs control end uses, reduce production and distribution costs, stimulate consumption, and monitor user behaviors; however, alternative producers and […]

Adding Value: Open Online Learning and the MBA Rachel Fitzgerald1,

Evidence suggests that MOOCs are being used as a strategic tool to explore alternative models of course delivery (Allen & Seaman, 2013) and this paper shares insight into an example of such innovation for Business School Education. Gateway MBA draws on examples of open learning worldwide to create a MOOC to extend the MBA distance […]

Academic peer pressure in social media: Experiences from the heavy, the targeted and the restricted user

The degree of social media uptake in research practice differs greatly, across and within disciplines. This qualitative study explores the use of social media within a specific target group of researchers working in the field of technology-enhanced learning. The individual cases reveal a range from heavy use, leading to addiction, to very restricted or no […]

User Acceptance of a Proposed Self-Evaluation and Continuous Assessment System

In this report, we describe a survey of mathematics education apps in the Apple App Store, conducted as part of a research project to develop a tablet-based assessment prototype for elementary mathematics. This survey was performed with the goal of understanding the design principles and techniques used in mathematics apps designed for tablets. We focused […]

Designing for Educational Technology to Enhance the Experience of Learners in Distance Education: How Open Educational Resources, Learning Design and Moocs Are Influencing Learning

The area of learning has a justifiable claim to be a special case in how it can be enhanced or supported by technology. In areas such as commerce and web design the aim is usually to ensure efficiency and support specific actions such as purchasing or accessing information as quickly and easily as possible. Working with technology for […]