This volume is an important output of the ASSESSnet, an EU-funded project that aimed at investigating assessment practices in Virtual Exchange (VE) projects in Foreign Language (FL) courses at tertiary level. It starts with the discussion of selected aspects of VE and assessment design, and a summary of ASSESSnet project results. The following…

This descriptive narrative depicts an academic program that deploys a collaborative project model for delivering concurrent multimedia courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Applying this model, online master's students who are studying the management of technical communication activities remotely manage teams of on-campus undergraduate…

As younger generations become immersed in technology, museums and cultural institutions must create a familiar digital experience to cultivate connections with the 21st century visitor. Authors present an example of working with institutional content experts to create a digital outreach package that activates the museum's content to engage K-12…

Since 2000, I have been coordinating a web based virtual exchange project, Project Ibunka. Ibunka means different cultures in Japanese. It aims to provide opportunities of authentic interaction among EFL/ESL learners all over the world. The project has been giving English language learners from various countries opportunities to use English for…

This paper describes the project 'ITALO (MyLearning Log)', introduced as part of the Institution-Wide Language Programme (IWLP) at the University of Manchester. The project aimed to encourage student engagement with the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), monitor usage and effectiveness of the resources deployed, and develop learner autonomy.…

Combinations of Conventional Studio and Virtual Design Studio (VDS) have created valuable learning environments that take advantage of different instruments of communication and interaction. However, past experiences have reported limitations in regards to student engagement and motivation, especially when the studio projects encourage abstraction…

The main aim of this study is to assess the spatial perception of historical world heritage buildings using wearable technologies in an educational framework. The proposal seeks to complement the real experience of visiting the Casa Batlló Museum, an emblematic space (1904-1906, Antonio Gaudí, Barcelona). The main innovative feature of the project…

The paper reviews the lessons of planning and running an "Engineering Management" practitioner development programme in a partnership between BP and the University of Manchester. This distance-learning programme is for professional engineers in mid-career experienced in the engineering and support activities for delivering safe,…

The online learning has broadened the teaching spectrum from Face-to-Face to virtual environment, and this move has brought traditional teacher-centered instruction to learner-centered instruction. This paradigm shift appears to place demands on faculty to modify faculty's instruction roles that are different from those encountered in Face-to-Face…

The Euroversity Network project (2011-2014) has built a Good Practice Framework (GPF) that functions as a heuristic for course and activity designers wishing to develop courses and other materials for use in a range of virtual worlds. This framework has been tested with a number of courses during the running of the project and the aim is that it…

This study details the experiences from a pilot program aimed at virtually pairing pre-service teacher education candidates with fifth-grade students for the purposes of raising achievement and creating meaningful field experiences. Researchers paired the difficulties of traditional field experiences with the difficulties in vocabulary…

Purpose: This paper seeks to identify and develop an exploratory framework for conceptualising how teachers might use the affordances of Web 2.0 technologies to support their own professional learning. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws on a large corpus of literature and recent research evidence to identify the principal elements and…

The practical work component offers unique challenges for university science courses. This is even more pertinent in an Open and Distance Learning (ODL) environment like the Bindura University of Science Education's Virtual and Open Distance Learning (VODL) programme. Effective ODL education should be flexible enough to accommodate science…

One of the key concerns of educators is to come to know what works in language teaching and under which conditions (Intercultural) Communicative Competence can be furthered. This concern is even bigger among professionals experimenting or willing to experiment with new media. Following socio-constructivist theories of learning (Vygotsky, 1978) and…

Eight teams of elementary and middle school teachers developed pilot online courses for the North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) in the USA. A qualitative case study with focus groups and a follow-up survey helped to identify common needs of these non-traditional course designers during course development efforts. Findings suggest virtual…