Making universal access to education compatible with different paths of learning is one of the great challenges of the last century. Technology has provided solutions to access information, for communication and collaborative work. Blockchain emerges as a technology that can be useful for the development of an evaluation model of individualized…

This paper reports the findings of an action research that was carried out to measure the effectiveness of integrating a social networking website "Edmodo" in students' writing performance in an EFL classroom at Arab Open University (Oman Branch). The participants were 25 students studying English in the Foundation Programme. Along with…

Language education has a rich history of research and scholarship focusing on the effectiveness of learning activities and the impact these have on student behaviour and outcomes. One of the basic assumptions in foreign language pedagogy and CALL in particular is that learners want to be able to communicate effectively with native speakers of…

The concept of language learner autonomy has influenced Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) to the extent that Schwienhorst (2012) informs us of a paradigm change in CALL design in the light of learner autonomy. CALL is not considered a tool anymore, but a learner environment available to language learners anywhere in the world. Based on a…

Success in open educational resources (OER) has been reported by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA and the Open University in the UK, among others. It is unclear, however, how valuable OER are in learning and teaching. Approaches to OER policy and sustainability are just two other key aspects that remain unresolved across the…

This paper presents and discusses the initial findings of a mobile language learning project undertaken in the context of an undergraduate distance-learning French language programme at The Open University (UK). The overall objective of the project was to investigate students' experiences when using their own portable devices for additional…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implications of usability and learnability in learning management systems (LMS) by considering the experiences of information and communications technology (ICT) experts and non-experts in using the LMS of an open-distance university. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses task-based…

An online group work project for off campus students, using wikis as the collaboration platform, has been conducted successfully for several years. Students were given the opportunity and technical means to collaborate, and staff could assess individual students' participation. However, the actual level of collaboration was less than hoped for,…

This investigation compared outcomes in disabled and non-disabled students taking courses by distance learning with the Open University UK in 2003. Students with mental health difficulties showed poorer course completion than non-disabled students. Students with restricted mobility and students with other disabilities showed lower pass rates than…

Questionnaire responses of 457 students and 602 tutors were used to investigate conceptions of a "good tutor." In each case, factor analysis identified scales that reflected key constructs; cluster analysis identified subgroups with different patterns of scale scores; and discriminant analysis determined the scales that contributed the…

This paper reports on a study which investigates the implementation of a synchronous e-learning system ("Interwise") for online tutorials on an information technology related course offered by the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK). It examines a set of interview data related to students' and tutors' views on the use of the system.…

The recent revolution in information technology (IT) has significantly challenged society's perception and thinking about the world in which we live. Because of its many advantages, distance learning has been identified by educators, scholars, academicians, and researchers as one of the most effective ways to improve the quality of learning. This…

In the past, computing facilities at the Open University in the United Kingdom have been provided through terminals and modems in local study centers. A new policy to implement home computer use will rely on student owned microcomputers. While this policy reflects a commitment to increasing the use of computers as distance education aids, it may…

The international literature on learning at a distance is reviewed with attention to student participation, faculty issues, the technology of delivery, necessary support systems, and the organization and process of distance education. Distance education is used in many content areas in economically diverse countries. Individuals who must learn at…

This paper discusses a framework for designing online tasks that capitalizes on the possibilities that the Internet and the Web offer for language learning. To present such a framework, we draw from constructivist theories (Brooks and Brooks, 1993) and their application to educational technology (Newby, Stepich, Lehman and Russell, 1996; Jonassen,…