Several studies have found that participants are willing to share personal information on Facebook, due mainly to trust in fellow group members; however, this trust is often influenced by the discussion environment, methods and participants. A learning facilitator is often employed in entrepreneurial courses but few previous studies have examined…

Podcasting may be an answer to some of the challenges to higher education to modernize, to open up, and to develop a competitive edge. However, over the years there have been many high claims for new technology, and not all of them have been redeemed. In terms of academic performance, it may therefore be asked if podcasting really is worth the…

Students learn new instructions well by building on relevant prior knowledge, as it affects how instructors and students interact with the learning materials. Moreover, studies have found that good prior knowledge can enable students to attain better learning motivation, comprehension, and performance. This suggests it is important to assist…

This study investigated the impact of different modes of scaffolding on students who are learning science through a web-based collaborative inquiry project in authentic classroom settings and explored the interaction effects with students' characteristics. The intervention study aimed to improve "domain-specific knowledge" and "metacognitive…

The field of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) includes designers who emphasize effectiveness, measured via experiments, as well as designers who emphasize context and conduct qualitative research on teaching and learning practices. We conjectured that these two different emphases could be fruitful combined in a research and…

Hypothesis development is a complex cognitive activity, but one that is critical as a means of reducing uncertainty during ill-structured problem solving. In this study, we examined the effect of metacognitive scaffolds in strengthening hypothesis development. We also examined the influence of hypothesis development on young adolescents'…

This study is to demonstrate the impact of different teaching strategies on the learning performance of environmental education using quantitative methods. Students learned about resource recycling and classification through an instructional website based on the teaching tool of WebQuest. There were 103 sixth-grade students participating in this…

This study developed a Mobile Plant Learning System (MPLS) that provides instructors with the ways and means to facilitate student learning in an elementary-school-level botany course. The MPLS represented in this study was implemented to address problems that arise with the use of a didactic approach to teaching and learning botany, as is…

This paper introduces a novel model of laboratory education, namely the TriLab. The model is based on recent advances in ICT and implements a three access modes to the laboratory experience (virtual, hands-on and remote) in one software package. A review of the three modes is provided with highlights of advantages and disadvantages of each mode.…

The present study attempted to investigate whether young learners who were new to knowledge building approaches could work towards advancing both individual and collective knowledge, and whether knowledge building could be beneficial to both high-achieving and low-achieving students. Findings reported in this paper are from one and a half-year…

Digital learner portfolios are of growing importance in higher education as the sector seeks new teaching-learning-assessment methods which promote students' autonomy as managers of their own virtual learning environment. The purpose of this study was to analyse descriptively the undergraduate students' perceptions, attitudes and behaviour when…

Formative computer assisted assessment has become increasingly attractive in Higher Education where providing useful feedback to large numbers of students can be difficult. However, the nature of such assessments has often been limited to objective questions such as multiple-choice. This paper reports on the development and initial trialling of a…

hapTEL, an interdisciplinary project funded by two UK research councils from 2007 to 2011, involves a large interdisciplinary team (with undergraduate and post-graduate student participants) which has been developing and evaluating a virtual learning system within an HE healthcare education setting, working on three overlapping strands. Strand 1…

This small scale action research study investigated the experiences of learners over two iterations as they completed a patchwork text assignment within the digital medium of a personal learning system (PLS). The aim was to investigate the extent to which using a PLS can facilitate formative and collaborative feedback to assist student learning. A…

This paper describes the results and implications of a study into the effectiveness of a blended e-learning cooperative approach (BeLCA) on Pre-Service Teacher's (PST) achievement, attitudes towards e-learning and cooperativeness. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used with participants of the study. Twenty-six science PSTs, enrolled…