The "New South Wales Learning 2.0" training program is being made available to the entire NSW public library work force of over 2300 people in 2008-2009. This paper is a snapshot of the impact of the course as at September 2008, five months after it was launched. It explores how the training impacted on the staff skill levels, knowledge,…

E-learning is becoming increasingly prevalent in educational institutions throughout the world. There is a growing awareness of the need to assess the impact of this new type of learning on the educational system and on the students who participate in these programs. In May 2008, following 4 years of research, iClass held a conference to discuss…

Over recent decades the nomenclature of "innovative" pedagogic approaches in vocational education and training (VET) has undergone a number of changes. In almost all cases "traditional face-to-face" teaching is set as the comparative benchmark and painted in pejorative terms. Using aspects of Basil Bernstein's theoretical…

While there has been systematic and on-going research into e-learning in universities for over two decades, there has been comparatively less evidence-based research into how key aspects of e-learning are internally constituted from a student perspective and how these aspects might be related to university students' learning experiences. The…

In June 2009, the U.S. Department of Education released a meta-analysis of online learning studies that detailed strong support for online learning. The authors of this report, however, cautioned that online students' increased interaction--as well as differences in curriculum and pedagogy--did not allow a direct comparison between online and…

Professional qualifications for men and women are equivalent across disciplines, however, women tend to be underrepresented in technology-related fields. The purpose of this study is to analyze the content of seven journals published by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) to explore women's publications in…

In this paper we make the case that online learning continues to grow at a rapid rate and that understanding this innovative mode of education requires analysis that is both conceptually and empirically driven. This study inquires into the concept of "cognitive presence" a multivariate measure of significant learning derived from the Community of…

These are heady days for online learning in the academy. What was once the domain of innovative institutions, administrators, and faculty is quickly becoming mainstream. Higher education has seen rapid growth in online enrollments relative to the rest of the college population. More than one in five college students has taken a class online. A…

Northwest Missouri State University nearly became the first public university to deliver all of its textbooks electronically. Last year the institution's president, Dean L. Hubbard, bought a Kindle, Amazon's e-book reading device, and liked it so much that he wanted to give every incoming student one. The university already runs an unusual…

Internet evolution has affected all industrial, commercial, and especially learning activities in the new context of e-learning. Due to cost, time, or flexibility e-learning has been adopted by participators as an alternative training method. By development of computer-based devices and new methods of teaching, e-learning has emerged. The…

This article reports on a study conducted in Israel at an academic institution. The study investigates the correlation between students' attitudes toward open and distance learning (ODL) and their perceived self-esteem and loneliness at the last stage of their online learning experience. For this study, 120 students were asked to complete a…

Despite the wide use of music in various areas of society to influence listeners in different ways, one area often neglected is the use of music within online learning environments. This paper describes a study of the effects of music and animation upon learners in a computer mediated environment. A test was developed in which each learner was…

While the importance of viewing learning as knowledge creation is gradually recognized (Paavola et al. Computer-supported collaborative learning: foundations for a CSCL community 2002; Rev Educ Res 74:557-576 2004), an important question remains to be answered--what represents an effective instructional design to support collaborative creative…

This article reports on an unconventional collaborative event called Real-Time Research, a project that brought 25 participants together from radically divergent fields for a playful and somewhat improvisational investigation of what it means to do games and learning research. Real-Time Research took the form of a two-part workshop session at the…

Food companies and supporting industries need inexpensive, revisable training methods for large numbers of hourly employees due to continuing improvements in Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) programs, new processing equipment, and high employee turnover. HACCP-based food safety programs have demonstrated their value by reducing the…