The American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) was founded in 1982 as the result of a merger between the National Association for Public and Continuing Adult Education (NAPCAE) and the Adult Education Association (AEA). This prestigious association is dedicated to the belief that lifelong learning contributes to human…

This study addressed the argument that online courses rarely use discussion strategies that are specifically designed and constructed for soliciting learners' cognitive presence and higher-order thinking. Prompted by this argument, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of the empirical studies that examined the effectiveness of discussion…

One of the most complicated academic endeavours in transmission pedagogies is to generate democratic participation of all students and public expression of silenced voices. While the potential of mobile phones, particularly mobile instant messaging (MIM), to trigger broadened academic participation is increasingly acknowledged in literature,…

The social-media news website "Reddit" boasts a huge readership with over 35 million unique visitors for December 2011 alone. Content is generated by users, who submit links from other websites to the various sub-forums. Users also have the ability to comment on links, providing the means for a community to be developed. Both content and…

Blended learning is a newly emerging trend in higher education and is defined as the purposeful integration of synchronous and asynchronous learning to provide educational activities that maximize the benefits of each. This paper describes the development of a graduate social work foundation-year practice class in a blended online environment in…

This article addresses educators' concerns about using asynchronous online discussions in lieu of face-to-face discussions. Drawing from research on asynchronous online education and Bloom's taxonomy, the authors introduce the system of "original examples" and "value-added comments" that they have developed to promote engaging and meaningful…

Teaching and instructing is one of the challenging manifestations of informing, within which distance learning is considered harder than face-to-face instruction. Student retention is one of the major challenges of distance learning. Current innovative technologies enable widespread use of video lectures that may ease the loneliness of the…

Around two decades have passed since higher education institutions began incorporating the internet as an alternative studying environment, together with frontal class teaching and learning. This kind of environment still poses meaningful challenges for students and teachers that take an active part in E-learning courses. Today it is quite clear…

In response to the need to cultivate pre-service Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers' information and communication technology (ICT) competency in online synchronous environments, this research adopted a three-stage cyclical model named "cooperation-based cognition, action, and reflection" (CoCAR). The model was implemented in an 18-week…

For the forty-first time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two volumes. Volume 1 contains twenty-seven…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine Socratic dialogue in asynchronous online discussions in relation to constructivism. The links between theory and practice in teaching are to be discussed whilst tracing the origins of Socratic dialogue and recent trends and use of seminar in research based institutions. Design/methodology/approach: Many online…

The aim of this experimental study was to find out the potential of using mobile phones in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL), specifically the use of Short Message Service (SMS) as a support tool in the EFL class. The research questions formulated for this project are the following: (1) Is using SMS messages via a mobile phone an…

The purpose of the study was to compare the influences of a training programme's instructional delivery method (synchronous and asynchronous) on Greek in-service physical educators' cognitive understanding on student assessment. Forty nine participants were randomly divided into synchronous, asynchronous, and control group. The experimental groups…

This study directly compares face-to-face writing center consultations with two closely related variations of Online Writing Instruction (OWI). Although the study takes place in a busy, dynamic writing center, the authors try to make their comparisons as systematic as possible so they can better foreground some of the benefits and disadvantages of…

In this knowledge-based economy, corporations invest millions of dollars in training and expect a return on that investment; similarly, employees have a vested interest in wanting to further their knowledge and their ability to contribute. The types of e-learning strategies and instructional methods being employed elude the use of asynchronous…