The field of learning analytics was founded with the goal to harness vast amounts of data about learning collected by the extensive use of technology. After the early formation, the field has now entered the next phase of maturation with a growing community who has an evident impact on research, practice, policy, and decision-making. Although…

While reflection continues to be promoted as a central feature of teachers' continuous professional development (CPD) activities in Scotland and elsewhere, a wider debate across professions and national boundaries has opened as to how reflection might be re-conceptualised to restore its social and critical dimensions. This paper seeks to…

Instructional design may help make educational research more useful and influential. In this discussion, I argue that instructional design anchor points (IDAPs) are the basis for this kind of research. In short, IDAPs are educational tools or approaches that can be studied to generate design guidelines. The study of IDAPs may become more useful…

The paper deals with the contribution of empirical psychology to the problems of instruction and proposes a conceptual framework to promote helpful interactions between experimenters and teachers of children with learning difficulties. Both groups share a common concern, the definition of tasks by testing instructions in action. (Author/DB)

Responds to a critique by Alistair Inglis of a previous article dealing with instructional industrialism and educational technology in open learning and distance education. Topics include paradigm shifts; instructional design; behaviorism and cognitive psychology; the relationship between practice, research, and theory; and possibilities for…

Presents a response to David Solomon's paper "Toward a Post-Modern Agenda in Instructional Technology" (issue 48 number 4 page 5 of "Educational Technology Research and Development"), by offering an example of how postmodern perspectives can be used in instructional technology research and development. (Contains 43 references.) (AEF)

Review of recent research on effective teaching examines six areas of higher education teaching: (1) teaching dimensions and behaviors; (2) teaching considerations (including instructional design, methods, and teaching styles); (3) teaching and motivation; (4) teaching and teacher assessment and evaluation; (5) teaching technologies; and (6)…

In this article, the author presents Fox (2005) argument on functional contextualism and his assessment of the current conceptual frameworks in the field of instructional design and technology. The often unquestioning espousal of constructivism in the field of instructional design and technology has caused problems for a number of reasons. Fox…

This report of the Conference on Electronic Text for Higher Education presents summaries of the principal presentations and discussions at each of eight sessions. Those sessions, with their presenters, include: (1) "Perspective: Electronic Text in Higher Education" (John Witherspoon, Mara Mayor); (2) "Theme and Variations: What Is…

Discusses changes needed in the field of educational technology and recommends future directions. Topics discussed include instructional theories; descriptive versus prescriptive theories; analysis versus synthesis; a formative evaluation approach to research; the relationship of research and development; organizational methods for instruction;…