In this research paper, the authors analyse the collected data output during a 36-week cMOOC. Six-week data streams from blogs, Twitter, a Facebook group, and video conferences were tracked from the daily newsletter and the MOOCs' hashtag (#Change 11). This data was analysed using content analysis and social network analysis within an…

Interaction has always been highly valued in education, especially in distance education (Moore, 1989; Anderson, 2003; Chen, 2004a; Woo & Reeves, 2007; Wang, 2013; Conrad, in press). It has been associated with motivation (Mahle, 2011; Wen-chi, et al., 2011), persistence (Tello, 2007; Joo, Lim, & Kim, 2011), deep learning (Offir, et al.,…

Read/write social technologies enable rich pedagogies that centre on sharing and constructing content but have two notable weaknesses. Firstly, beyond the safe, nurturing environment of closed groups, students participating in more or less public network- or set-oriented communities may be insecure in their knowledge and skills, leading to…

The publication of the results of research in distance education in peer-reviewed journals is an important means of communication, dissemination, discourse and reporting of practice in the field. This study is an attempt at analyzing the relationships and influences among these journals. It is based upon a sample of 1416 scholarly articles…

In this paper we present a case study of a self-paced university course that was originally designed to support independent, self-paced study at distance. We developed a social media intervention, in design-based research terms, that allows these independent students to contribute archived content to enhance the course, to engage in discussions…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how researchers from four large Canadian distance education or dual mode institutions conducted a survey aiming to describe the use of and interest in social software and Web 2.0 applications by distance education students and to measure their interest in collaborating with peers.…

Social networking and communications tools have become widely used in entertainment and social applications and there is growing interest in their use in formal education applications. Distance education and especially those types that are based on self-paced programming models may be the biggest beneficiaries of the use of these new tools to…

This paper updates earlier work in which we defined three generations of distance education pedagogy. We then describe emerging technologies that are most conducive to instructional designs that evolve with each generation. Finally we discuss matching the pedagogies with learning outcomes. (Contains 3 figures.)

Increased openness, two-way dialogue, and blurred distinctions between experts and amateurs have combined with numerous technology tools for dialogue, personal expression, networking, and community formation to "remake" conferences, influencing not only how attendees participate in but also how organizers host conferences today. (Contains 31…

In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in the use of social networking tools (e.g., Facebook) and social media in general, mainly for social purposes (Smith, Salaway & Caruso 2009). Many educators, including ourselves, believe that these tools offer new educational affordances and avenues for students to interact with each other and…

University distance and e-learning programs generally follow one of two models. Most dual mode institutions and some open universities follow a model of cohort learning. Students start and terminate each course at the same time, and proceed at the same pace. This model allows for occasional or regular group based activities. The second model,…