For academics who administer, design, and develop courses for online graduate programs, emphasis is placed on creating student-centered experiences that are grounded in scholarly learning and instructional theory using state-of-the art technology. This study sought to identify discussion strategies that would enhance the student learning…

This article discusses effective leadership in educational environments and in particular focuses on the current situation at the University of South Africa (UNISA). The end of Apartheid in South Africa has brought many opportunities but also some challenges especially in education. Three conditions that contribute to ensuring strong distance…

Professor Ricardo Torres Kompen is a leading proponent for, and researcher in, personal learning environments (PLEs). During his interview, Torres Kompen clarified his research on PLEs, particularly the digital toolbox within PLEs. He elaborated on experiences with implementing PLE initiatives, personal insights on using social media and Web 2.0…

The changes precipitated by today's computer-based technologies are perhaps no more keenly felt than in the field of education, where technological innovation signals fundamental transformations in the manner in which educational programs will be delivered to 21st century students. Online learning is providing higher education institutions with an…

This study explores the relationship between graduate students' communication practices and their perceived sense of program-level community within a graduate program. The program under study consists of both traditional on-campus students, as well as students who take classes via a distributed-learning model. This particular program has made a…

This study examined online group discussion from students' perspectives to determine what characteristics students identify as meaningful to their online learning. Participants were 142 graduate students in the Southeast. The multiple regression results revealed that quality of online discussion was positively associated with communication media,…

Distance education has created new challenges with respect to the course evaluation process. This study aimed to determine if the adopted Telecourse Evaluation Questionnaire (TEQ) could be used to effectively evaluate a course developed for multisite distance delivery and taught by a team of instructors. It utilized a pretest and posttest…

The North Carolina Virtual Public School completed its first session during the summer of 2007. Evaluation results revealed differences between accelerated and credit recovery students, including a significantly higher likelihood for accelerated students to rate their courses as high quality, to express interest in taking another online course,…

The purpose of this study is to determine whether "equivalent learning experiences" ensure equivalency, in the Internet-based and face-to-face interaction methods on learning results and student satisfaction. In the experimental process of this study, the effect of the Internet-based and face-to-face learning on the equivalency in learning…

The current study involves a comparison of student levels of engagement, ability to learn autonomously, and interaction with peers and faculty in two different learning settings: a large lecture hall and online. Results suggest that learning mechanism drives the styles of learning and teaching practiced in traditional and online learning settings.…

Despite technological and pedagogical improvements, obstacles continue in certain areas of distance education, including a lack of interaction among students and instructors and associated feelings of disconnectedness from the campus community. This article explores the study results of a blended learning, distance education graduate program…

This article examines the issues and barriers to effective online course design, recent research concerning guidelines for designing effective online courses (Bannan-Ritlan, 2002; Hirumi, 2005; Koszalka & Ganesan, 2004; Northrup, 2001), and research-based instructional design guidelines for course design (Kemp, Morrison, & Ross, 1998). It then…

This article explores student perceptions of social task development in an online group project and poses recommendations for implementation of group projects. Qualitative methods were used to analyze student perceptions of social task development in online group project. Respect, "being nice," follow the rules/follow the leader, communication,…

This naturalistic inquiry explored the theory of transactional distance by investigating how a novice adult learner experiences an online environment. Three themes that are related to how the novice learner reduces the transactional distance space emerged from an analysis of interview transcripts: creating a voice for learning, connecting in a…

The purpose of the study was to empirically investigate the institutional approach to distance education, and examine whether the factors of concerns for program cost and faculty participation could statistically predict adoption of technology-mediated distance education (TMDE) among higher-education institutions. It is elusive to base the…