Project-based learning (PBL), which is increasingly supported by information technologies (IT), contributes to fostering student-directed scientific inquiry of problems in a real-world setting. This study investigated the integration of PBL in an IT environment into three undergraduate chemistry courses, each including both experimental and…

Online classes appear increasingly popular, making it critical in each discipline to study the advantages and disadvantages of learning online. Following up on anecdotal impressions that scientific/technical writing students appeared to do either better or worse in an online course than an offline equivalent (unpublished data), it was decided to…

Students entering Steve Speier's Spanish class pull their personal laptops from their packs and begin preparing for the lesson. Some review Speier's board notes containing a combination of typed phrases and dozens of handdrawn vocabulary words saved as PDF files from his interactive white board Notebook program. Others don headphones and listen to…

Motivated by a consideration of the machine-mediated nature of human interaction in web-based tutoring, we propose the construction of artificial expressions, displays which reflect users' felt bodily experience, to support the development of greater empathy in remote interaction. To demonstrate the concept of artificial expressions we have…

The experience of a two-year project to promote the use of Web-based teaching and learning at XXX University was presented. A total of 68 courses over two semesters were included in the study. Surveys of students and teachers suggested that the quality of learning and teaching were improved. Over 80% of the students had used Web-based teaching and…

Making geriatric education available to rural faculty/preceptors, students, and practitioners presents many challenges. Often the only options considered for educating those in the health professions about geriatrics are either traditional face-to-face courses or distance education programs. The purpose of this paper was to examine the use of…

Previous reports in this series (#32 and 36) have discussed online software features of value to disabled learners in distance education. The current report evaluates four specific assistive software products with useful features for visually and hearing impaired learners: "ATutor", "ACollab", "Natural Voice", and "Just Vanilla". The evaluative…

A model for an inclusive approach to the identification of challenges to blended learning as a means to identify educational accessibility issues is presented. By focusing on both the learner and teacher perspectives, the model encompasses a broad range of factors, including learner characteristics, learning and teaching environments, interactions…

This paper draws on experiences with teaching on online course in digital library issues. The course is offered as part of an MLIS programme. The paper explores student reactions to the online learning environment, which has been delivered using the commercial products WebCT and Blackboard. Student reactions to the use of synchronous and…

The following is a collection of papers presented at the 12th annual Instructional Technology Conference at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This conference is an opportunity for higher-education professionals from across the country to discuss opportunities and challenges presented by instructional technology. The…

Children and young people are increasingly performing a variety of writing tasks using computers, with word processing programs thus becoming their natural writing environment. The development of keystroke logging programs enables us to track the process of writing, without changing the writing environment for the writers. In the myMoment schools…

This study was designed to measure instructional design competencies as a result of participation in a 9-month Web-based training program called "Roadmap to Effective Distance Education Instructional Design." The researchers used a self-assessment pre- and posttest to determine participant initial and final competence in 12 areas: adult…

This paper investigates the correlation between the quality of instructional design and learning outcomes for early childhood students in the online synchronous cyber classroom. Today's generation of e-learners has access to highly engaging and well-designed multi-media synchronous classrooms. However little data exists on what constitutes…

Digital tools are increasingly being used to support teaching in higher education. These tools place new demands on the tasks and responsibilities of the teacher, and can influence teacher roles. In this study we investigate the long-term use and development of a tool for facilitating the negotiation of meaning in argumentative student texts,…

The American with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 was a landmark legislative initiative that outlined the protection of individuals with disabilities. The 1997 amendment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (U.S. Congress, 1999) stipulates that students with disabilities are to be educated in the general education curriculum.…