Data from 87 out of 250 faculty (34% response rate) responded to a two-page survey on Internet usage, attitudes, and perceived benefits and shortcomings. Overall, 73.6% of the faculty indicated a positive view of using the Internet for instructional purposes and 69.4% believed that the Internet is an effective teaching tool. However, only about…

This article describes an experiment that compared different methods of teaching undergraduates the fundamentals of negotiation analysis. Using student subjects, we compared three conditions: reading, lecture-only, and lecture accompanied by student use of a computerized negotiation support system (NSS). The authors examined two facets of…

Business organizations are increasingly adopting collaboration tools to increase communication within the firm. CAMS is a home-grown online collaborative environment which makes heavy use of participant's pictures. Participants, both faculty and students, were asked questions about the benefits and usefulness of pictures in the CAMS collaborative…

Investigating the participant structure that works in online courses helps us design for, and facilitate, collaboration. Learning communities and group work influence collaboration in online courses. We present an exploratory study of computer-mediated groups that used this model to participate in an online MA program in Educational Technology.…

This case study outlines the events of a recent summative computer-aided assessment (CAA) failure involving 280 first-year undergraduate students. Post-test analysis found that the central server had become unexpectedly overloaded, thereby causing the CAA to be abandoned. Practical advice on just what to do in the event of a summative CAA failure…

The paper presents a strategy for the systematic evaluation of course websites built under the project e3Learning that operates across three universities in Hong Kong. Tailor-made evaluation plans were produced for each website; the evaluation was conducted by an evaluation officer, and a report was provided to each teacher, thus supporting…

The School of Health Sciences at the University of Birmingham provided opportunities for the development of student learning communities and online resources within the neurological module of the BSc Physiotherapy degree programme. These learning communities were designed to facilitate peer and independent learning in core aspects underpinning…

The use of technology with engineering design students is well established, with shared workspaces being particularly supportive of the collaborative design process. This paper reports on a study where a design knowledge framework involving three learning loops was used to analyse the effectiveness of shared workspaces and digital repositories in…

This case study looks at the lessons learned from the ultimately successful implementation of the Blackboard Managed Learning Environment at Northumbria University and explores how these are now being applied to the matching implementation at a local further education college, which we are supporting. The study identifies key aspects that emerged…

The beneficial effects of learners interacting in online programmes have been widely reported. Indeed, online discussion is argued to promote student-centred learning. It is therefore reasonable to suggest that the benefits of online discussion should translate into improved student performance. The current study examined the frequency of online…

A shared document-based annotation tool was presented, and its usefulness in two different real-life web-based university-level courses (adult learners, n = 27 and adolescent learners, n = 23) was empirically investigated. The study design embodied three data collection phases: (1) a pretest measuring self-rated motivation, learning strategies,…

The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) offers 199 courses with online features to enhance the distance learning environment. The university has arranged these courses to provide students with greater flexibility in interacting with tutors, classmates, and the content itself. Integral to learner flexibility online is access, valuing computers and…

This paper outlines the possibilities for using broadband videoconferencing within the larger context of changing the focus for teaching from the teacher to the learners. It also explores opportunities that might be created by this technology to facilitate learner-centred engagement in learning and to provide new opportunities for collaboration…

This article presents results of a comparison between paper and computer tests of ability in Chemistry and Computing. A statistical model is employed to analyse the experimental data from almost 200 candidates. It is shown that there is no medium effect when specific traditional paper examinations in Chemistry and Computing are transferred into…

The aim of this study was to ascertain whether collaborative group work on a computer, facilitated by an adult, could provide a means for a primary schoolboy with Asperger's Syndrome (AS) -- moderately-highly affected in all areas of the "triad of impairments" -- to develop appropriate task-related interactions with his peers. Data were gathered…