Reports on action research regarding hybrid courses, defined as Web-based courses where the students and instructor actually meet for half or less of the regular scheduled meeting time. Investigates instructional design strategies as well as students' opinions towards the courses and the impact of using different strategies on online communities.…

Reviews the incorporation of interactivity in Web-based instruction. Discusses computer mediated learning; interactivity and learning, including instructional transaction theory and cognitive flexibility theory; advantages of Web-based instruction; content and social interactivity; asynchronous and synchronous communication; individual and group…

Investigates the nature and value of asynchronous online discussion within small groups of learners. Draws on research into the experiences of adult learners within short courses; and discusses how forums afford communication, including the exchange of personal information and of sustained reflection on course readings and other learners'…

Online instructors (n=153) who completed a website questionnaire identified three low-bandwidth technologies they used for short seminars and workshops: website with asynchronous discussion, website only, and web-based training with asynchronous discussion. Graphics were recommended to be smaller than 50 kilobytes. Synchronous discussion received…

Explores how university students respond to and perform in a Web-based learning environment. Examines whether technology can serve as a catalyst for reforming post-secondary education, and specifically whether it can help educators address the problem of passive learning among university-level science students. (Author/LRW)

Examines three innovative methods tried at Nova Southeastern University for providing quality bibliographic instruction to distance students: one synchronous, one asynchronous, and one that combined features from both synchronous and asynchronous methods of delivering instruction. Topics include compressed video, collaborative groupware, streaming…

Develops a model of users' perceptions of Web technology as a training tool. Discusses users' attitudes toward Web-based environments that integrate the Technology Acceptance Model, Social Cognitive Theory, motivational perspective, self-efficacy perspective, and attitude in order to develop a new aspect of users' perceptions toward Web-based…

Describes research at the Naval Postgraduate School that investigated student attitudes toward various aspects of Web-based instruction. Results of a survey, which were analyzed using a variety of multivariate and univariate statistical techniques, showed significantly different attitudes toward different dimensions of Web-based education…

Discusses various adoption and diffusion frameworks and methodologies to enhance the use of Web technologies by teaching staff. Explains the use of adopter-based models for product development; discusses the innovation-decision process; and describes PlatformWeb, a Web information system that was developed to help integrate a universities'…

Studies have shown that when learning occurs in an environment that uses animated pedagogical agents and personalized instruction, the learner learns the material more deeply and can recall it easier when compared to learning without an agent. Thus, an effective learning system creates personalized contexts for each learner. The "one size fits…

Learning is a lifelong process. That's something career and technical educators are always telling their students, but through their professional development activities they are also practicing what they are preaching. Why is professional development so important? According to the U.S. Department of Education initiative "Building Bridges: The…

Action learning in a workplace context, focused on projects relating to real business needs, is the basis of the management seminars offered by the BOSNO (in Dutch, BedrijfsOpleiding voor Samenwerkende Nederlandse Ondernemingen Company training for Dutch companies working in cooperation with each other) consortium in The Netherlands. In the…

Lab reports are the dreaded assignments of the laboratory course. Students dislike them, because they can be tedious and time-consuming. Instructors dislike them, because they significantly increase the grading load. For this reason, lab reports are often omitted or replaced by alternatives such as responses to lab questions, fill-in-the-blank lab…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is often promoted in response to the current need of offering authentic and effective professional education. Traditionally, PBL is used in face-to-face learning environments, with a facilitator guiding collaborative teams of students in solving a problem. This article reports the use of PBL in Web-based instruction…

The main focus of this study was to analyze how the patterns of interaction contributed to the construction of shared knowledge in online learning environments by looking closely at a web-based course in a teacher education program. The researcher conducted a case study, examining the characteristics of students who choose a web-based course,…