In this volume, experienced distance educators provide insights into new trends in computer-based teaching and learning in postsecondary education. The book is divided into four parts: (1) Issues and Trends; (2) Instructional Design Principles for Distance Learning; (3) Alternative Delivery Systems for Distance Learning; and (4) Administrative…

In a teaching experiment, 16 face-to-face and 11 e-mail Finnish university students engaged in an argumentation course. The 19 students of the control group did not study argumentation. The course involved two lectures, exercises with argumentative texts, and face-to-face or e-mail seminar discussions based on these texts. The topics of the texts…

The instructional design that is imperative towards the design and development of a Web-based course environment is of primary consideration when a graduate-level course is the focus of attention. Further, a multimedia course that incorporates the theoretical as well as hands-on elements that must be consistently focused upon and updated is of…

This document contains the following papers on graduate, inservice, and faculty use of telecommunications from the SITE (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education) 2002 conference: (1) "Behind the Scenes: The Process of Implementing a High School Web-Based Course" (Merry Boggs, Holly Patterson-McNeill, Diehl Boggs); (2) "A Study of…

This paper describes the evaluation of high quality learning designs, which are being selected for possible redevelopment in a National Project funded by the Australian University Teaching Committee (AUTC). The project focuses on "Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Their Role in Flexible Learning" and is evaluating…

The purpose of the Web Retargetable Course Generation System, or "ReCourse," developed at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Massachusetts) is to facilitate both distance and on-campus learning via the World Wide Web. ReCourse's features include the ability to retarget a Web course for different levels of students, multi-user chat rooms, a…

Pre-service elementary education teachers who were enrolled in an educational technology course participated in a semester-long collaboration with technology. The course provided them with the opportunity to apply previously learned theory and to assess, design, develop, and implement solutions to educational problems. The course culminated in…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of learning strategy and summarization within a computer-based chemistry and physics program. High school students worked individually or in cooperative dyads to complete science instruction; half of them completed summaries over the instructional content when directed to do so. The study…

This paper presents the methods and results of a year-long evaluation study, conducted for the purpose of determining disability accessibility barriers and potential solutions for those barriers found in four World Wide Web-based learning environments. The primary questions used to frame the evaluation study were: (1) Are there any features of the…

This pilot study explores the perceptions of distance education students of their classroom environment using the College/University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI), a traditional classroom assessment tool. The CUCEI has seven scales that cover the areas of personalization, involvement, student cohesiveness, satisfaction, task orientation,…

The Community School District Six Laptop Project (New York, NY) was created in order to increase access to technology for families in a low-income area with a large immigrant population. As part of the project, the sixth-grade students in this study received IBM ThinkPads. Trends that appear in the literature on integrating technology into the…

Modular middle school technology programs, generically called Exploring Technology Education (ETE) courses, are described and analyzed to determine their strengths and weaknesses and their appropriate role in middle school curricula. Interviews were conducted with teachers, officers of the Exploring Technology Educators Association, vendors and…

This research project examined an innovative technology integration model that includes the design, development, implementation, and assessment of the use and integration of technology by inservice and preservice teachers. Personnel from a school district, an area education agency, and a college of education work collaboratively to provide the…

This paper describes novel approaches for adapting an introductory computing course for online distance learning, including discussions of the underlying pedagogy and objectives as well as the implementation and results of the online course. The first section describes the original course which was adapted to Internet delivery. The next section…

This article, the second in a two-part series on aspects of distance education, presents pedagogical considerations concerning Type I Technology, technology (such as e-mail, Listservs, newsgroups, and MOOs) used primarily to supplement other learning resources. Examines the design, development, delivery, and evaluation phases of courses using Type…