Understanding the affect expressed by learners is essential for enriching the learning experience in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). However, online learning environments, especially MOOCs, pose several challenges in understanding the different types of affect experienced by a learner. In this paper, we define two categories of emotions,…

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) have been growing in popularity with educational researchers, instructors, and learners in online environments. Online discussions are as important in MOOCs as in other online courses. Online discussions that occur in MOOCs are influenced by additional factors resulting from their volatile and voluntary…

This study reports on a mixed methods study which explored 32 Iranian pre-service teachers' perceptions of attending online asynchronous discussion forums during two seven-week online introductory courses in corpus linguistics. Data were collected through a questionnaire, discussion forum entries and online text-based semi-structured interviews.…

Emotions and emotional states play an important role in learning to teach, encouraging teacher educators to consider the place of the affective domain in preservice teacher preparation. Preservice teacher reflection provides a means by which to constructively explore the affective domain in teacher preparation. This article draws from two…

Over the past eight years, the author has had the pleasure of facilitating discussion groups with gifted middle and high school students. These groups focus on affective concerns, giving students the opportunity to talk about issues they have in common and how life looks and feels through the lens of giftedness. The best school situation for…

This teacher research studied second graders' small-group, peer-led discussions about three genres of literature--realistic fiction, biography picture books, and science information books--across one school year (during three units in the fall, winter, and spring). It set out to explore how this peer talk, in general, mediated children's responses…

In this paper, we explore the idea of weak ties in networked learning. We go back to the original conception of the strength of weak ties and relate this to Bakhtin and a dialogic understanding of networked learning. These theoretical ideas are applied to the examination of two networked settings in which educational leaders exchange ideas and…

Values clarification, a relatively new form of humanistic education, was compared with a traditional lecture-discussion approach to teaching a survey course in health science to undergraduates. It was concluded that the objectives of a survey course in health science may be equally attained by either of the instructional procedures. (Author)

Studied the effects of computer-oriented undergraduate research on student's cognitive and affective development. Findings indicate students in research or conventional discussion groups didn't differ on cognitive development; mandatory activities have a negative impact on attitudes; voluntary participation had a positive effect only on…

E-learning has become a significant aspect of training and education in the worldwide information economy as an attempt to create and facilitate a competent global work force. "Cases on Successful E-Learning Practices in the Developed and Developing World: Methods for the Global Information Economy" provides eclectic accounts of case…