Outlines a student-conducted literature course that uses several classic novels ("My Antonia,""The Pearl," etc.) as the basis for group discussion, writing, and oral performance activities--all directed toward extracting "meaning" from the books selected. (NKA)

One important aspect of adolescent education, regardless of the learning environment, is learning acceptable human interaction, socialization styles, and cooperation mechanisms. However, when adolescent students attend cyber schools, they no longer receive those traditional opportunities to gain the human interactions required for such…

This paper discusses the challenges facing institutions in the development of online programs and classes and their delivery, as well as the provision of support for students as they proceed through these programs. The authors suggest that the principal challenge to project development is a lack of resources--human, financial, and technical--for…

Unsuccessful college education often turns our students into book haters who will stop reading as soon as they graduate. The idea of literature circles embraces the concept of "reading for fun" and is intended to create more independent readers and book addicts who will continuously read for the rest of their lives. Pioneers in literacy…

A child development course was offered as a web-based, asynchronous distance learning course by the Department of Family and Child Development in the College of Human Resources and Education at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University during summer 1996. The course was initiated to respond to the demand for flexible distance learning…

This paper describes subjectivism, a new learning paradigm that incorporates successful pedagogic practices from the past into an affect-structured constructivism. Its two goals are student empowerment and subject enculturation. Student empowerment is achieved by designing learning for success so students can take credit for and feel confidence…

This paper asserts that successful teachers must be reflective and analytical about their own beliefs and practices and acquire deep understanding of cognitive and motivational principles of learning and teaching. It examines how teachers can model and promote self-regulated learning for students. Self-regulated learning is characterized by…

In one school of thought, self-directed learning (SDL) is based in the autonomous, independent individual who chooses to undertake learning for personal growth. However, another school of thought stresses the social construction of knowledge and the social context of learning. Some writers challenge the exclusive emphasis on the autonomous self…

The goal of emancipatory learning is to free learners from the forces that limit their options and control their lives and to move them to act for social and political change. Although emancipatory learning is commonly associated with adulthood, not all adult education fosters it, and not all adult educators align themselves with perspectives that…

Two graduate-level educational administration courses, one delivered by computer-mediated (distributed) means and one held face-to-face, were evaluated based upon the needs of adult learners and active learning precepts. The same course was delivered to both classes by the same group of professors, using identical course requirements. The…

Itwamba Community College is attempting to develop and implement a comprehensive honors program by the 2000-2001 academic year. The first students to graduate from the honors program will do so in May of 2001. In order to graduate with honors students must: (1) meet all of the requirements for a two-year degree with a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or…

This paper describes the use of commercial application and programming software to provide language students with self-access materials used in their own time. In all cases, it assumes such students will be unsupervised. The idea is that in place of buying expensive and restricted commercially produced authoring packages, a teacher with limited…

A validation study used 136 college students to test 37 specific hypotheses. Three general conclusions include: (1) validity was supported; (2) significant differences were found in faculty ratings according to racial composition and student scores; and (3) significant associations exist between the scores and variables such as age and educational…

Plans for a nationwide system of education at a distance in Colombia, South America, are now under way to meet growing demands for higher education and to decentralize the current university system. Prior to this decision, a feasibility project was undertaken by the University of Antioquia. The project and results are reported. (Author/JMD)