A colleague of the author once observed that papers from first-year history students often feature blinding flashes of the obvious: (1) sweeping declarations that war is bad; (2) social inequality is unfair; or (3) that China is a big place. These sorts of papers sometimes begin with mind-boggling generalizations like "Throughout history, all…

Staff development efforts are being designed to have a greater impact on the systems in which professionals work to increase the likelihood that individual positive behavior support (PBS) plans will be effective. Statewide efforts aimed at embedding PBS into developmental disability organizations and other agencies must include longitudinal…

Web-based courses have increased in number as one of the primary modes of distance education in undergraduate nursing programs across the United States. An online survey of 171 nursing faculty in the United States with experience teaching Web-based courses served as the primary data source. Interviews and a review of course Web sites provided…

The purpose of this study is to describe forum participation of international graduate students who speak English as a foreign language in two Web-based graduate courses. Research questions focused around how linguistic and cultural differences impact nonnative speaking international students' perception of classroom participation, what effect…

Much of traditional schooling in America is built around systems of compliance and control, characteristics which stifle the creative and entrepreneurial instincts of the children who are subjected to these tactics. This article explores a different approach to education, one that involves capturing the interest of the student through the use of…

This year sees the 40th anniversary of the first policy paper regarding the use of computers in higher education in the United Kingdom. The publication of this paper represented the beginning of the field of learning technology research and practice in higher education. In the past 40 years, policy has at various points drawn from different…

Online education has become a highly debated topic. While some educators see it as a commercialized and prepackaged form of education, one that limits the verbal skills of students, others see it as breaking down the geographical and financial barriers that many students face. Online delivery has changed education in a number of ways, increasing…

The S-Star Trial Bioinformatics on-line course (www.s-star.org) is a global experiment in bioinformatics distance education. Six universities from five continents have participated in this project. One hundred and fifty students participated in the first trial course of which 96 followed through the entire course and 70 fulfilled the overall…

User-centered design (UCD) is gaining popularity in both the educational and business sectors. This is due to the fact that UCD sheds light on the entire process of analyzing, planning, designing, developing, using, evaluating, and maintaining computer-based learning. "User-Centered Design of Online Learning Communities" explains how…

Secondary science teachers who integrate food safety (FS) into curricula can provide FS knowledge and skills to youth while reinforcing science skills and concepts. National science education standards and the Biological Science Curriculum Study 5E Inquiry-based Learning Model were used to design an online training, Food Safety FIRST. The training…

The teaching and learning of a complex section in "Theoretical Computer Science 1" in a distance-education context at the University of South Africa (UNISA) has been enhanced by a supplementary e-learning application called "Relations," which interactively teaches mathematical skills in a cognitive domain. It has tutorial and…

This study compares the efficacy of interactive video (ITV) delivered instruction to traditional course instruction in three distinct learning environments: traditional face-to-face format, ITV host (instructor present), and ITV distant (instructor not physically present) sites. Data were obtained from a half-day professional development course…

An educational ePortfolio usually contains work that a student has collected, reflected, designed, and published to demonstrate personal learning and growth over time. However, previous studies have shown that traditional ePortfolio systems lack flexibility, peer review, and group collaboration. Without these features, ePortfolios do not have the…

This paper discusses our experiences in moving to student centred learning. It describes the action research approach and the context for the module at Masters level in systems analysis and design. It discusses the learning materials provided as an alternative to lectures, including a book, a set of videos, courseware and a web site. The initial…

Students in a graduate class and an undergraduate class in Information Systems completed a Web-based programmed instruction tutor that taught a simple Java applet as the first technical training exercise in a computer programming course. The tutor is a competency-based instructional system for individualized distance learning. When a student…