East Carolina University recently hosted the first Virtual Worlds in Education Conference, a meeting held entirely in Second Life. The conference provided 135 faculty and administrators from around the world the ability to communicate and share their experiences on teaching, learning, and technology support in an online, multi-user virtual…

Presents guidelines for effective distance education planning that confront the issues of planning/organization, technology, and faculty development/academic policies. Concludes that understanding the unique characteristics and constraints of any particular program or target audience is the first step in selecting appropriate distance education…

Presents an overview of various efforts toward developing online education in China, and describes the progress that has been made both in the areas of higher education and basic education in recent years. Introduces some ongoing national projects related to online education. Discusses issues pertinent to online education and provides…

Discusses how the Web is used and applied in online learning in Taiwan. Presents five different aspects of how Web-based online learning is facilitated--courseware-, theory-, instruction-, community- and assessment-oriented--with detailed descriptions of projects implemented over the last several years. Emphasizes a call for a localized approach…

Argues that the tendency to focus on the technical aspects of distance learning contributes to the infrequency of distance learning methods usage in education and training. Discusses the technical and human dimensions of distance learning, resistance to change, user perspective, and inertia and entropy. Outlines 10 human dimension principles…

Analyzes three applications of online learning and technology in South Korea: development of single-mode virtual universities; online education in conventional universities; and Web-based corporate training. Concludes with principles of online learning derived from experiences in implementing such environments. (AEF)