Although the importance of boundary spanning in blended and online learning is widely acknowledged, most educational research has ignored whether and how students learn from others outside their assigned group. One potential approach for understanding cross-boundary knowledge sharing is Social Network Analysis (SNA). In this article, we apply four…

Many concurrent variables appear to influence people when they interact anonymously, either face-to-face (F2F) or in computer-mediated communications (CMC).This paper presents the results of a small exploratory research, conducted in a medical company in Italy, to investigate how the use of pseudonyms influences CMC behaviours. The study involved…

Compared with learning in classrooms, classical e-learning systems are less adaptive and once a system that supports a particular strategy has been designed and implemented, it is less likely to change according to student's interactions and preferences. Remote educational systems should be developed to ensure as much as necessary the…

Studying networked learning (NL) by applying social network analysis (SNA) has gained popularity in recent years. However, it appears that in the context of NL the choice of SNA indices is very often dictated by using easily achievable SNA tools. Most studies in this field only involve a single group of students and utilise simple indices, such as…

Web-based self-learning (WBSL) has received a lot of attention in recent years due to the vast amount of varied materials available in the Web 2.0 environment. However, this large amount of material also has resulted in a serious problem of cognitive overload that degrades the efficacy of learning. In this study, an information graphics method is…

The use of instant messaging to support e-learning will continue to gain importance because of its speed, effectiveness, and low cost. This study developed an MSN agent to mediate and facilitate students' learning in a Web-based course. The students' acceptance of the MSN agent and its effect on learning community identification and learning…

This study examined the use of weblogs as a means to promote student teachers' reflective practice. The assumption was explored that weblogs are suitable tools to support and stimulate reflection on action in teacher training and consequently to enhance the students' ability to reflect. Three groups of student teachers used weblogs to reflect on…

This paper reports on a naturalistic study of peer-to-peer learning, in a live, online video meeting context. Over a six-month period a group of international students of animation attended 99 live, online "study group" events amounting to around 120 hours of live "broadcast meeting time". Some meetings were very large, with up to 34 participants,…

Achieving student participation, it has been argued, is one of the most important challenges in distance education. This explorative study examines whether a synchronous communication medium, instant messaging (IM), may enable students to participate more actively in online group work. When comparing two groups that adopted IM with two groups that…