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Posts Tagged ‘Instructional Systems’

Dimensions of Openness: Beyond the Course as an Open Format in Online Education

The objective of the paper is to provide a framework for understanding the pedagogical opportunities of openness in education. The paper will argue that openness in education should not only be viewed as opening existing resources and courses to a broader audience. Openness is also a matter of providing insight and enable communication and collaboration […]

MOOCs and crowdsourcing: Massive courses and massive resources

Premised upon the observation that MOOC and crowdsourcing phenomena share several important characteristics, including IT mediation, large-scale human participation, and varying levels of openness to participants, this work systematizes a comparison of MOOC and crowdsourcing phenomena along these salient dimensions. In doing so, we learn that both domains share further common traits, including similarities in […]

A Comparative Study of Competency-Based Courses Demonstrating a Potential Measure of Course Quality and Student Success

While competency-based education is growing, standardized tools for evaluating the unique characteristics of course design in this domain are still under development. This preliminary research study evaluated the effectiveness of a rubric developed for assessing course design of competency-based courses in an undergraduate Information Technology and Administrative Management program. The rubric, which consisted of twenty-six […]

The space for social media in structured online learning

In this paper, we explore the benefits of using social media in an online educational setting, with a particular focus on the use of Facebook and Twitter by participants in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) developed to enable educators to learn about the Carpe Diem learning design process. We define social media as digital […]

Theories and Applications of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) : The Case for Hybrid Design

Initial research on learning in massive open online courses (MOOCs) primarily focused participation patterns and participant experiences. More recently, research has addressed learning theories and offered case studies of different pedagogical designs for MOOCs. Based on a meta-analysis and synthesis of the research literature, this study develops a conceptual model of prominent theories and applications […]

Who are the Open Learners? A Comparative Study Profiling non-Formal Users of Open Educational Resources

Open educational resources (OER) have been identified as having the potential to extend opportunities for learning to non-formal learners. However, little research has been conducted into the impact of OER on non-formal learners. This paper presents the results of a systematic survey of more than 3,000 users of open educational resources (OER). Data was collected […]

The Development of Mathematical Argumentation in an Unmoderated, Asynchronous Multi-User Dynamic Geometry Environment

This paper explores student interactions from the Virtual Math Teams-With-GeoGebra Project, a computer-supported collaborative learning environment that allows individuals to interact, collaborate, and discuss user-created dynamic mathematics objects.  Previous studies of virtual math teams have focused on the coconstruction of a joint problem space and the ways collaborative meaning making can be accomplished in the […]

Institutional Assessment and the Integrative Core Curriculum: Involving Students in the Development of an ePortfolio System

The majority of research on the implementation of ePortfolios focuses on curriculum, faculty development, or student buy-in. When ePortfolio systems have been described in technical terms, the focus has been on the functionality, affordances, and limitations of ePortfolio systems (e.g., TaskStream, LiveText), free web tools (e.g., Google Docs), and course management systems (e.g., Sakai). Seldom […]

Pre-Service Perspectives on E-Teaching: Assessing E-Teaching Using the EPEC Hierarchy of Conditions for E-Learning

This article examines pre-service teacher perspectives of teaching with an online synchronous (live-time) platform as a part of their training. Fifty-three students who participated in a blended learning (including both face-to-face and online lectures) course were assessed in a teaching simulation through an online presentation, and participated in questionnaires and interviews about their experiences as […]

Exploring College Students’ Online Help-Seeking Behavior in a Flipped Classroom with a Web-Based Help-Seeking Tool

Today’s generation often seeks help from each other in online environments; however, only a few investigated the role of Internet technologies and the nature of online help-seeking behavior in collaborative learning environments. This paper presents an educational design research project that examines college students’ online help-seeking behavior. The context was a large-enrollment science course that implemented a form of […]