Distance education started being limited in comparison to traditional education. Distance teachers and educational organizations have overcome most of these limits, but some other limits still remain as challenges. One of these challenges is to collaboratively learn concepts in an immersive way, similarly to the education "in situ".…

In this study, two groups of 11th grade chemistry students (n = 210) performed a sequence of hands-on and virtual laboratories that were progressively more inquiry-based. One-half of the students did the laboratory sequence with the addition of a teacher-led discussion connecting student data to student-generated visual representations of…

The purpose of this case study was to examine challenges faced by virtual school leaders in the United States. Through semistructured interviews, the researchers explored challenges faced by eighteen leaders of fully online or blended online programs. Analysis revealed six main challenges: funding, staff, accountability, time, parents, and…

School libraries serve an important role; however, elementary students who attend schools online typically do not have a school library. This study followed an online school's inaugural year in instituting a library. A mixed methods approach examined data from focus groups, interviews, surveys, library-use records and oral reading fluency scores.…

The Speak Up National Research Project annually polls K-12 students, parents and educators about the role of technology for learning in and out of school. For the past twelve years, Project Tomorrow's® annual Speak Up Research Project has provided schools and districts nationwide and throughout the globe with new insights into how today's students…

Laboratory work is critical in undergraduate engineering courses. It is used to integrate theory and practice. This demands that laboratory activities are synchronized with lectures to maximize their derivable learning outcomes, which are measurable through assessment. The typical high costs of the traditional engineering laboratory, which often…

Due to the unique applications of virtual reality in many modern contexts, Second Life (SL) offers inimitable opportunities for research and exploration and experiential learning as part of a distance learning curriculum assignment. A review of current research regarding SL examined real world social influences in online interactions and what the…

Using effective assessment techniques can improve an instructor's understanding of student needs and support learner-centered classrooms. Evaluating student learning takes on a new meaning in online classroom environment where students and instructors do not share physical proximity. According to Garrison (2011), the assessment strategies used to…

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) appear to be one of the most widely used computer-based technologies for teaching and learning, and may emerge as a potential tool for e-assessment. However, little is known about how VLE tools are used in various forms of assessment and what kinds of teaching practice the use of such technologies brings about.…

In rural Kansas, five high school students take seats in their school's distance learning classroom for a Mandarin language class they share with students at four other schools around the state. In Atlanta, an entire class of kindergartners sits in front of a big screen, speaking to their teacher in China. The students laugh, raise their hands,…

This interpretative phenomenological study used semi-structured interviews of 10 participants to gain a deeper understanding of the experience for virtual team members using collaborative technology. The participants were knowledge workers from global software companies working on cross-functional project teams at a distance. There were no…

The purpose of the research was to compare student performance on Advanced Placement (AP) exams from 2009 to 2011 at Florida Virtual School and to explore student perceptions of their online course experience compared with the classroom-based AP experiences. The data indicated that students performed at levels comparable to the national sample but…

Teachers, educational managers and learners must realize that new opportunities are offered by modern on-line communication. A person with basic Internet and Web skills is open to a new world of knowledge, from free Web surfing and self-organized education--through on-line resources and familiarization with Internet culture, its places, sites,…

The wider context (political and economic) for developing sustainable distance learning in UK universities is encouraging and new learning technologies promise much improved products and services. But conventional campus-based universities struggle to build and/or expand sustainable distance learning provision. This article identifies the core…

This study aimed to create an online community of practice by creating a virtual classroom in the Edmodo application and ascertain the opinions of pre-service primary teachers about the effects of Edmodo on their learning to teach science and availability of Edmodo. The research used a case study, which is one method of descriptive research.…