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Full-Text Articles in Education
Building Collaborative Reference And Instructional Services For Distance Education Students, Angela P. Whitehurst, Carolyn N. Willis
Building Collaborative Reference And Instructional Services For Distance Education Students, Angela P. Whitehurst, Carolyn N. Willis
The Southeastern Librarian
To meet the needs of rigorous educational programs, academic libraries must make a commitment to serve growing distance education (DE) populations. Students who participate in distance education are typically older, nontraditional students with unique characteristics who need special services provided by their university library in order to obtain an education equal to their on-campus counterparts. Creating a successful reference and instructional service for distance education students not only takes planning, collaboration, and assessment, but also requires knowing your audience, constantly experimenting with new technologies, expecting the unexpected, and being ready to problem-solve at a moment’s notice. In this article, the …
Online But Off-Topic: Establishing Common Ground In Small Learning Groups, Trena M. Paulus
Online But Off-Topic: Establishing Common Ground In Small Learning Groups, Trena M. Paulus
Educational Psychology & Counseling Publications and Other Works
There is not yet a great deal of research in formal online learning environments focusing on the seemingly “off-topic” conversations that small groups engage in as they complete learning tasks together. This study uses the theory of common ground as a framework to explore what participants are talking about when not discussing the concepts to be learned and how participants negotiate common ground in distance learning environments, including their use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools. The email, discussion forum, and chat transcripts of ten small groups comprised of experienced distance learners were investigated using computer-mediated discourse analysis, particularly attending to …