This paper outlines a process implemented at Mott Community College (Michigan) for building technology-based systems that would encourage collaboration among the staff. The first goal was communication, which included using the following technology to allow people to communicate and to make information available: e-mail, calendaring,…

One obvious reason that teachers hesitate to create Web sites for their distance courses is the lack of computer/technology skills. Other teachers who know how to create a well-structured course site are put off by the fact that it takes a lot of time to maintain it. Thus there is a risk that the course site will be ill-structured and poorly…

As learners use World Wide Web-based distance learning systems over a period of years, large amounts of learning logs are generated. An instructor needs analysis tools to manage the logs and discover unusual patterns within them to improve instruction. However, logs of a Web server cannot serve as learners' portfolios to satisfy the requirements…

In higher education, online discussions are an integral part of collaborative based e-Learning systems. However, there can be problems associated with current online discussion models. For example, it can be easy to set open-ended discussions which attract little participation and assessing contributions can be difficult or time-consuming.…

In order to provide teachers and students with electronic learning environments that support mentoring and collaboration through electronic means, the authors developed software that supports same time/different place educational collaborative activities over the Internet. These activities focus on teaching students how to organize and systematize…

This guide focuses on moderating non-pedagogical online conferences that use World Wide Web-based conferencing software, whether synchronous or asynchronous. The first section provides information on getting ready and discusses features and advantages of synchronous and asynchronous systems. The second section focuses on getting started, including…

Presents the results of an analysis of sociotechnical issues and perceptions of electronic media to determine where electronic media fits the working habits of journal article producers. The outcome is a profile of a group of United Kingdom practitioners that is grounded in their perceptions of the publishing and research processes and their…

The realization of information and communication technology (ICT) literacy is a global and complex objective. It has been argued that it cannot be accomplished by single-focused, stand-alone curricula. Instead, it has been recommended that ICT education be integrated into the instruction of other disciplines to effectively promote technical…

The web has the potential to offer an environment that can support standardized medical education to students dispersed in time or place and, in the process, respond to reduced availability of patients for practice. This exploratory article describes how we evaluated critical thinking in an online collaborative Problem-based Learning (PBL)…

Researchers at the Institute for Information Processing and Computer Supported New Media (IICM) at Graz University of Technology, Austria, are currently developing GENTLE, an electronic lecturing system combined with a digital lecture library, for teachers and students. The system contains collections of lessons, synchronous and asynchronous…

This paper describes an ongoing experiment at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne regarding the use of World Wide Web-based document annotations for educational purposes. An annotation tool called Medium was built, merging database and Web technologies, to be used as a companion for classical university courses and collaborative…

This paper describes the design and features of LEA (Learning Environment with Agent), an educational system which has the features of both synchronous and asynchronous group learning environments. The first section discusses group learning environments, including differences between individual learning and group learning, and the classification…

This paper presents "Campus," an environment that allows University of Hagen (Germany) students to connect briefly to the Internet but remain represented by personalized, autonomous agents that can fulfill a variety of information, communication, planning, and cooperation tasks. A brief survey is presented of existing mobile agent system…

Modern technologies can provide language students with authentic content and contextualized, collaborative learning situations. This article illustrates how e-mail exchanges, Web exercises, and CD-ROM development between students in the United States and organizations in Ecuador can promote contextualized and authentic practice of Spanish language…

In this paper the authors describe a novel "Virtual Research Environment" (VRE) based on the Sakai Virtual Collaboration Environment and designed to support education research. This VRE has been used for the past two years by projects of the UK Economic and Social Research Council's Teaching and Learning Research Programme, 10 of which…