This study identifies and posits guidelines for assessing the skills and knowledge of online distance ducators. Findings derived from Cooper?s (1998) synthesis research method reveal sixteen skills that may be grouped into six areas that are thought to be essential for educators to teach successfully online. The study also shows that factors, like…

New technologies are used in many courses and for many occasions. Good teachers try to use the best tool and the best method to introduce or to treat difficult subjects by presenting the information in different ways: spoken words, written text, pictures, graphs, movies or by using interactive computer tools. It is a fact that students who…

Student participation in online learning activities is a growing priority for Australian government schools. 'Online projects' have emerged as a new learning form, building on non-computer problem-based learning approaches. This paper reports on a study of online learning projects implemented in classes from year 2 to year 11. The purported…

As most any high school or college English teacher can verify, it is the rare group of students that approaches the study of Shakespeare with anything other than a mixture of anxiety over the difficulty of making sense of the plays' language and annoyance that, once again, they will be forced to engage in an activity they find both unjustifiably…

Since the Internet was introduced in the field of Educational Technology, it has predominantly been seen as an instructional tool. A number of educational technologists point out that the Internet can be a powerful instructional tool that encourages learners to be involved in problem-solving by using a great deal of information and to enlarge and…

How did we build a site that has grown to more than 6,000 Web pages and 50 million hits per year--with a few part-time people, with no budget for the first five years, and a minimal budget the next five? We will describe an efficient and effective design process fundamental to our strategy that is essentially a method of disciplined inquiry. Our…

Online teaching and learning is making a significant impact on the fabric of higher education. In particular, online MBA programs have seen a rapid rise in student enrollments in recent years while the student enrollments in traditional in-residence MBA programs are in decline (Hayward, 2004; Lorenzo, 2004). This appears to be due, in part, to the…

The Internet was not invented for education at beginning (Pett Grabinger, 1995), but it has influenced educational systems considerably, especially by providing another way for distance learning. This powerful communication function is superior to any other educational media. Students can conduct their own self-directed learning without…

Interest in online education has grown rapidly over the past and will continue to grow. An increasing number of universities are offering online learning (OL) opportunities. Teacher professional development is part of this trend as well. Numerous recent studies of online teacher professional development environments have been published. Most…

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to study the organizational culture and context of two school sites in which instructional technology (IT) use by teachers is evident; to study what and who influences individual teacher preferences toward IT use; and to describe the relationship of Mary Douglas' (1982, 1989, 1992) grid and group…

The rapid growth of instructional technologies has provided college faculty with a vast array of educational resources and learning opportunities (Grasha, 2000; Kagima & Hausafus, 2001). As described in the relevant literature addressing this issue, there are several potential advantages in utilizing instructional technologies to enrich the…

Few universities are currently offering an online course with collaborative learning component in Instructional Design. This study shared information on an on-going evaluation of online Instructional Design courses from 94 graduate students who have taken this course, hoping to find out the most effective way to deliver similar courses. This…

According to the annual industry report in "Training" magazine, money spent on employee training dropped approximately six percent--the first time that training expenditures have dropped since the mid 1990's. At the same time, web-based training increased from 48% of all computer-based training to 61% in just one year (2002-2003). The most "bang…

Analyzing data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), this report examines how computer use produced generic benefit to all children and differential benefits to minority and poor children. Specifically, we examined computer use at home vis-a-vis computer use at school in relation to the academic performance of disadvantaged…

Professional education is increasingly facing accessibility challenges with the emergence of webbased learning. This paper summarizes related U.S. legislation, standards, guidelines, and validation tools to make web-based learning accessible for all potential learners. We also present lessons learned during the implementation of web accessibility…