Information and communications technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for innovation in educational practice. Among all the educational technological tools, online discussion forums represent one of the most extensively adopted educational media in higher education. Yet a review of the literature indicates a lack of empirical studies…

This article examines the complexity of the affordances that mobile technologies offer in the K-12 educational context. It builds on an ecological perspective (Mercer, 2012; van Lier, 2008) informed by theories of dynamic systems and complexity (Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008) to explore the concept of affordance as a complex and dynamic…

Many people want to learn a foreign language, but issues of time, convenience and cost mean that classes are often insufficient for learners, and increasingly learners are supplementing or replacing their classroom learning with online learning. The majority of existing online language learning systems use the traditional grammar-translation…

This study focused on investigating the background, experiences, challenges and training of current online language teachers. An online survey was sent and completed by a total of 264 current online language teachers consisting of a total of 40 questions. Findings show online language teachers are highly experienced in face-to-face classrooms as…

The growth and wide use of the mobile app not only brought significant changes in our social and economic life but also provided promising opportunities in the field of education. The importance of the educational app has been recognized, as is seen by the efforts of educators and app developers in exploring its potential in the field of teaching…

This article focusses on the online independent language learning resource for the Year Abroad (YA) in Italy at the University of Leeds. The YA is an important component of most undergraduate degree programmes in Modern Languages. It increases linguistic proficiency and cultural awareness. During the last twenty years, there has been a growing…

Jaya Carrier's decision to focus on developing a more independent approach to learning in history at Key Stage 3 was prompted by concerns about her A-level students. In seeking to establish secure foundations for students' own historical research, Carrier first examined the assumptions of her colleagues and her students. She quickly recognised…

This article describes the development and psychometric evaluation of the Self-Directed Learning Inventory (SDLI) tailored to Korean college students, based on study evidences of differences in learning behavior across culture and educational level. With a sample of 605 female college students in Korea, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) results…

This paper is an attempt to reconstruct how C.V. Raman, a peripheral scientist in the early 20th century colonial India, managed to develop a research programme in physical optics from his remote colonial location. His attempts at self-training and self-education eventually led him to the discovery of the Raman Effect and to the Nobel Prize in…

This study, commissioned by the HEA and the QAA focuses on directed independent learning practices in UK higher education. It investigates what stakeholders (including academic staff and students) have found to be the most effective practices in the inception, design, quality assurance and enhancement of directed independent learning and explores…

This paper describes high quality teaching practices in two schools that produce exceptional growth for all kinds of students. These practices focus on making the most of instructional time and exposing students to high quality content in a variety of contexts. They prove teachers don't need to choose between differentiating to meet students'…

Continuous improvement are important for every company and hence also for employees. Depending on the field, being state of the art is an important issue (f.e. due to security reasons and regulations). In such cases, it is necessary that employees are proactive in training their competences and therefore ideally act independently. Not only…

This study examined whether training English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in a self-regulated learning (SRL) model could help them develop the ability to self-regulate their reading in English and whether their proficiency level could moderate the efficacy of self-regulation training. Two experimental groups received instruction in…

INTUITEL is a research project aiming to offer a personalized learning environment. The INTUITEL approach includes an Intelligent Tutoring System that gives students recommendations and feedback about what the best learning path is for them according to their profile, learning progress, context and environmental influences. INTUITEL combines…

We present a strategy for the acquisition and assessment of autonomous learning conducted as part of the Graphic Expression in Engineering (GE) degree course during the first quarter at the Escola Universitària d'Enginyeria Tècnica Industrial de Barcelona (EUETIB). The strategy employed is the puzzle technique in the classroom and multiple-choice…