"Moneyball," the popular film adaptation of Michael Lewis's book on baseball, provides an engaging vehicle for teaching evidence-based management and decision-making bias, two topics that students without prior work experience may struggle to grasp. This article provides clip-by-clip examples of probing questions that can be used to…

Online learning is evolving into much more than discussions via Blackboard. Today's online learners are spending time engaged in discussions, meeting in virtual classrooms, and combining online and on-the-ground learning, even if they live time zones away from campus. In response, universities are adjusting their curriculum, learning expectations,…

When Blackboard unveiled its U.S. patent for 44 features of learning management systems and then filed a patent infringement suit against Design2Learn, the response of the educational technology community was negative and swift. Stephen Downes discusses why many educators oppose Blackboard's proprietary claims to technologies long considered in…

Discusses distance education programs in higher education and describes the Eastern Mediterranean University (Cyprus) Learning Management System which was developed while the online program was offered to on-campus students. Explains functions of the system, including user enrollment, course management, lectures, quizzes, announcements,…

Although traditional surveys are a valuable tool for college institutional researchers and others gathering data to support quality improvement programs, focus groups offer another technique for understanding university community members' needs and opinions by probing areas of special interest. University of Miami (Florida) experience illustrates…

Web-based learning environments are a great asset only if they are designed well and used as intended. The urgency to create courses in response to the growing demand for online learning has resulted in a hurried push to drop PowerPoint notes into Web-based course management systems (WBCMSs), devise an electronic quiz, put together a few…

Designer support is critical for facilitating collaboration and knowledge construction in an online learning environment. Designer support in this paper refers to the mechanisms that a designer builds in a technology-mediated environment to facilitate online learning. This paper focuses on two aspects of designer support: 1) creating a shared…

One of the most powerful technology tools available to science teachers is often the least used. A course management system (CMS) is a web-based application that provides an online distance learning platform for teachers and students. CMS platforms such as Blackboard, WebCT, Jenzabar, and Desire-2-Learn provide many opportunities for good science…