Education Commons^™

Implications Of The University Of South Africa's (Unisa) Shift To Open Distance E-Learning On Teacher Education, Sindile A. Ngubane-Mokiwa

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This conceptual and exploratory article seeks to explore the implications of the University of South Africa’s (Unisa) shift from open distance learning (ODL) to open distance e-learning (ODeL) on Teacher Education. In addition, the article problematizes the shift as a policy imperative. Unisa’s mandate to provide teacher education opportunities to previously disadvantaged African students who were excluded from higher education opportunities by apartheid policies and legislation is considered. With this in mind, the blind spot is that the intended shift from ODL to ODeL presumes existence of a culture of use, and reliance on modern electronic technologies. Put simply, the …

Measuring Students Perceptions Of Blackboard Using The Technology Acceptance Model: A Pls Approach, Leila Halawi, Richard Mccarthy

Leila A. Halawi

In this study, partial least square approach (PLS) is applied to investigate the determinants of students’ perceived usage results in the framework of university online or hybrid courses. A total of 134 valid responses from students who have finished or are currently enrolled in at least one online or hybrid course at two universities were employed to inspect the structural model. Using a structure that is in theory grounded in the technology acceptance model (TAM) and tested through TAM, the analysis of results suggest that separate factors guide the students’ usage choice.

New Metaphors For Networked Learning, Caroline A. Haythornthwaite

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

As networked learning leaves designed spaces and becomes diffused and re-infused through open, online information sharing and knowledge construction, what metaphors will frame our next steps, our next inquiries? In keeping with the conference theme of ‘Looking Back – Moving Forward’, this presentation will engage with where we are in the sea of change, and how our current understanding of networks, learning and knowledge will take us forward into new areas of inquiry. Elsewhere I have been advocating for a reclamation of the term ‘e-learning’ that takes us beyond the design and use of the closed LMS and VLE systems …

Student-Generated E-Learning For Clinical Education, Sarah Nisly, Alex N. Isaacs, Alison M. Walton

Scholarship and Professional Work – COPHS

Background

Within clinical education, e-learning facilitates a standardised learning experience to augment the clinical experience while enabling learner and teacher flexibility. With the shift of students from consumers to creators, student-generated content is expanding within higher education; however, there is sparse literature evaluating the impact of student-developed e-learning within clinical education. The aim of this study was to implement and evaluate a student-developed e-learning clinical module series within ambulatory care clinical pharmacy experiences.

Methods

Three clinical e-learning modules were developed by students for use prior to clinical experiences. E-learning modules were created by fourth-year professional pharmacy students and reviewed by …

Perceptions Of Information And Communications Technology (Ict) For Instructional Delivery At A University: From Technophobic To Technologically Savvy, Desmond Wesley Govender Dr, Lockias Chitanana Mr

The African Journal of Information Systems

Changing academics’ perceptions of information and communications technology (ICT) in developing countries has always been a challenge. A university in Zimbawe has witnessed an about-turn in lecturers’ perceptions and beliefs about technology, from being negative (technophobic) to positive (technologically savvy) users of technology. This paper reports on the interplay of factors that resulted in lecturers’ buy-in to the use of e-learning as a mode of instructional delivery. The study employed actor network theory (ANT) as both a methodological and analytical framework to trace the trajectory of the e-learning programme at this university. The conspicuous actors were followed using questionnaires, participant …

Crowdsourcing The Curriculum: Redefining E-Learning Practices Through Peer-Generated Approaches, Drew Paulin, Caroline Haythornthwaite

School of Information Studies - Faculty Scholarship

Inclusion of open resources that employ a peer-generated approach is changing who learns what, from whom, and via what means. With these changes, there is a shift in responsibilities from the course designer to motivated and self-directed learner-participants. While much research on e-learning has addressed challenges of creating and sustaining participatory environments, the development of massive open online courses calls for new approaches that go beyond the existing research on participatory environments in institutionally defined classes. We decenter institutionally defined classes and broaden the discussion to the literature on the creation of open virtual communities and the operation of open …

Primary And Secondary Virtual Learning In New Zealand: Examining Barriers To Achieving Maturity, Michael K. Barbour, Niki Davis, Derek Wenmoth

Education Faculty Publications

This paper describes the organisational development of virtual learning in networked rural schools in New Zealand, specifically the obstacles that e-learning clusters of rural schools face in their journey to sustainability and maturity through the lens of the Ministry’s Learning Communities Online Handbook. Analysis of a nationwide purposeful sample identified three common barriers: a lack of a coherent vision; difficulty in sustaining necessary funding and resources; and of the need for more collaboration within and between clusters. Based on these findings, it is recommended that VLN e-learning clusters develop specific strategies to encourage greater collaboration between schools and work towards …

How To Design Culturally Inclusive Online Learning Experiences, Casey Frechette, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Ludmila Layne

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

In this paper, we argue that adapting online courses for specific cultural groups takes time-intensive guesswork. Instead, instructional designers should employ the principles of universal design and social constructivism to build a course culture inclusive of all learners. Culture affects learners’ experiences in important, interconnected ways. Yet, it is equally difficult to predict culture’s effects on learning (Guild & Garger, 2016). These difficulties stem from the inherent complexity in human behavior. First, individuals may not reflect their cohort, especially when they belong to groups with conflicting values. Second, beliefs can influence one another in unforeseeable ways, and cultural values can …

Experiences Gained From The Deployment Of An E-Learning "Java Arrays" Prototype For Novice Java Programmers In The Institute Of Technology Tallaght, 2002/2003, Eamonn Hyland, Dean Fennell

The ITB Journal

This paper describes recent experiences gained from the deployment of an E-learning "Java Arrays" prototype for novice first year students within the Computing department at the Institute of Technology, Tallaght. It attempts to determine what contributions, if any, the E-Learning prototype made to novice students learning to declare, create, initialise and manipulate one-dimensional and two-dimensional arrays within the Java Programming language. Tentative conclusions from this process are presented and a charter for progressing this research further is outlined.

Investigating And Understanding Student Learning Outcomes In An Online And Face-To-Face Graduate Level Legal Administration Course: An Embedded Mixed Methods Design, Hope E. Kentnor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Online education is a new teaching and learning medium with few current guidelines for faculty, administrators or students. Its rapid growth over the last decade has challenged academic institutions to keep up with the demand, while also providing a quality education. Our understanding of the factors that determine quality and effective online learning experiences that lead to student learning outcomes is still evolving. There is a lack of consensus on the effectiveness of online versus face-to-face education in the current research. The U.S. Department of Education conducted a meta-analysis in 2009 and concluded that student-learning outcomes in online courses were …

Developing A Library Widget For The Campus Lms, Eric A. Kowalik

Eric A. Kowalik

In the Summer of 2014 the Raynor Memorial Libraries was given the opportunity to add a library widget to all course homepages in Desire2Learn, Marquette's Learning Management System (LMS).

The widget, developed with HTML, CSS and jQuery, allows students to search the library catalog and link to various library services such as ILL and E-Reserves directly from within a course site.

Recently, Google Analytics has been added to the widget allowing the libraries to analyze usage and student searches by course. Come learn about the development and implementation of this widget.

Like what you see? The code is open source …

Software Agents In Large Scale Open E-Learning: A Critical Component For The Future Of Massive Online Courses (Moocs), Roxana Bassi, Thanasis Daradoumis, Fatos Xhafa, Santi Caballé, Ardiana Sula

Jandrisevits Faculty Publications

MOOCs or massive open online courses are a recent trend in online education. They combine online resources with social tools and have unique challenges due to the large number of simultaneous participants. This paper analyzes some of the challenges in the areas of MOOC design, delivery and assessment. Then the authors present an approach using software agents to overcome some of the challenges that have been identified, as well as optimize efficiency, reduce costs, and ensure the pedagogical effectiveness and educational quality of large scale online learning courses. This paper is a first step towards research in the usage of …

An Investigation Of The Variables That Predict Teacher E-Learning Acceptance, Juliette Attis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Because of advancements in information communication technologies (ICT), education has evolved in terms of how the students are taught and how students learn. Education can take place in a traditional setting and/or a virtual learning environment (VLE). Consequently, the purpose of this quantitative predictive study was to examine variables that best predict the e-learning acceptance of public school K-12 e-learning teachers. Using a hierarchical regression analysis to analyze 112 teacher survey responses, results demonstrated that the model consisting of the predictor variables (i.e., demographics and experience variables, computer anxiety, computer self-efficacy, technological complexity, perceived convenience, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease …

Natural Gas Safety For First Responders, Aimee Levy

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

Natural gas leaks and explosions are growing problems across the country. Recommended Practice (RP) 1162, a federal regulation, requires pipeline operators to implement public awareness programs. One key stakeholder audience includes first responders and fire departments.

This training was developed for a Utility Company, who is a regional pipeline operator, to teach first responders response protocols of different types of natural gas incidents. The module not only helps the Utility Company meet its RP 1162 outreach requirements but also fills educational gaps of firefighters.

To design this training, a team of subject matter experts was assembled to develop the content …

Design With Diversity In Mind: Online Information Literacy Instruction For Nontraditional Students, Holly Mabry, Natalie Bishop

Dover Library Faculty Professional Development Activities

Web-based, online learning options through Blackboard, Moodle, Desire2Learn, and other learning management systems are increasingly popular for students and library patrons who are unable to attend traditional face-to-face courses on a college campus due to geographical, financial, or family obligations. Librarians are also retooling their information literacy courses to adapt to the rapidly evolving online learning environment. Just like in a physical classroom or library that provides assistive technology and interpreters, online information must be accessible for a variety of backgrounds and abilities. Inaccessible online courses that aren't developed with plain language, good color contrast, captions or alternative text formats, …

Strategies For Effective Online Course Development, Carol L. Considine, Michael W. Seek, Jon Lester

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Old Dominion University's Civil Engineering Technology (CET) program has a successful history of distance education, with more than half of the student population comprised of distance learners. Distance learning delivery has traditionally been via satellite and videostreaming with students having the choice of asynchronous or synchronous options. The university is in the process of updating their distance learning technologies and has encouraged programs to migrate to an online modality of distance learning. Developing and delivering online courses requires different competencies and facilitation skills than video streamed synchronous delivery or face to face instruction. A course delivered online changes the teaching …

First Steps To College And Career Success: Predictors Of Recent High School Graduate Readiness For Online Learning, Laura Mae Pannell

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine a number of factors related to traditional student online course readiness at a large community college prior to state initiated K-12 curriculum design initiatives, NCLB possible exemptions, passage of Senate Bill 2792, and possible future virtual charter school laws. This study analyzed the traditional college freshmen students' perceptions in several areas related to online learning. This study included surveys completed by 143 traditional online students at a community college. The study examined the students' perceptions of self-management of online learning, comfort of online learning, reported differences between males and females in the …

Security Risks And Protection In Online Learning: A Survey, Yong Chen, Wu He

Distance Learning Faculty & Staff Publications

This paper describes a survey of online learning which attempts to determine online learning providers' awareness of potential security risks and the protection measures that will diminish them. The authors use a combination of two methods: blog mining and a traditional literature search. The findings indicate that, while scholars have identified diverse security risks and have proposed solutions to mitigate the security threats in online learning, bloggers have not discussed security in online learning with great frequency. The differences shown in the survey results generated by the two different methods confirm that online learning providers and practitioners have not considered …

Impact Of Learning Styles On E-Learning Environment: An Empirical Study, Shakeel Iqbal

Shakeel Iqbal

E-learning is a popular medium of imparting knowledge during this age of World Wide Web (www). A large number of educational institutions have adopted this medium to educate students globally. Some students find this medium very exciting and useful while others are not very comfortable with it. There is a need to identify the characteristics of students who are comfortable with this medium and those who are not. In this study, an attempt is made to match students learning style with their attitude towards e-learning. Learning style questionnaire (LSQ) developed by Honey and Mumford (1992) was used to determine the …

A Brief Examination Of Predictors Of E-Learning Success For Novice And Expert Learners, Emily Stark, Andrea L. Lassiter, Ashley Kuemper

Psychology Department Publications

As the prevalence of e-learning continues to grow in higher education settings, so too does the need for empirical research examining the antecedents of success in this environment. Previous research has suggested some characteristics that may determine success in an online course; however, little empirical evidence exists relating potential predictors of e-learning success with actual performance outcomes, particularly for different levels of learners. Students new to college may need different kinds of support to succeed in an online course compared to students with more experience in taking college-level courses, whether online or in-class, and navigating institutional resources. A primary goal …

Overcoming Barriers: How Community College Faculty Successfully Overcome Barriers To Participation In Distance Education, Matthew Meyer

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

To determine the primary barriers encountered by community college faculty in participating in distance education, community college faculty and administrators from community colleges in North Carolina and Virginia were surveyed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Two separate online surveys were provided to faculty and distance education administrators (including chief academic officers) that included demographic questions and barrier assessment questions for both groups. Follow-up interviews were conducted among faculty and administrators at colleges that self-reported having successful or poorly performing distance education programs. To further frame the attributes of faculty participators and non-participators in distance education, the diffusion of innovations …

How Web 2.0 Is Changing The Way Students Learn: The Darwikinism And Folksonomy Revolution, Helen Crompton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

In the 21st century, some argue that we have a new breed of students (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005; Prensky, 2001). Technologies such as Web 2.0 have been held responsible for these changes as students are now becoming active, critical consumers of information (Klamma, Cao, & Spaniol, 2007). Two components of this Web 2.0 revolution are the ideas behind Darwikinism and folksonomy. Darwikinism is a portmanteau of Darwinism and Wikis, which describes how a system similar to Darwin’s theory of evolution is ordering and processing wiki information. Folksonomy, again a portmanteau of folk and taxonomy, refers to the way in which …

Faculty Compensation For Developing And Delivering Online Courses, Jeffrey Allen Burleson

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The intent of this dissertation was to determine the most common compensation practices higher education institutions provided faculty for developing and delivering online courses. Many higher education institutions provided compensation as motivational tools to elicit faculty participation in new online learning initiatives; however, limited research was available on equitable compensation for these services. The population consisted of 263 small, medium, and large baccalaureate and masters level private and state-funded not-for-profit United States higher education institutions. This population was selected using the maximum number of institutions identified by the Carnegie Classification system that met these criteria.

Data for this study were …

Teaching Interactively Using Web-Conferencing: The Student Perspective, Pilar Pazos, Holly Handley, Shannon Bowling, Charles B. Daniels, Kim Sibson, Patrick Hester

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Department (EMSE) of Old Dominion University (ODU) Batten College of Engineering and Technology (BCET) has employed distance-learning technologies for well over three decades. Although the current technologies provide a valuable service for many geographically dispersed students, the faculty continues to explore additional distance learning tools, technologies and methods to promote more student participation and active learning. The goal of this paper is to describe and evaluate an innovative instructional approach using interactive web conferencing in hybrid courses. This paper will explore the use of web conferencing to teach graduate-level courses and explore the impact …

E- Learning: Development And Directions For Organizational Sustainability, Jamil Ahmed Dr., Ijaz A. Qureshi Dr., Shakeel Iqbal, Donna Schaeffer Dr.

Shakeel Iqbal

Developments in the field of IT and telecommunications paved the way for use of technology in education. Near the end of last millennium, the ability of e-learning to reach distant users who want to learn at their own pace attracted the attention of many engaged in education and training. An increasing number of colleges and universities started offering online degrees and courses. There was an increase in the number of organizations using this new medium to provide training to their employees. This paper discusses some of the perceived benefits of e-learning as well as major hurdles hampering the growth and …

Measuring Students Perceptions Of Blackboard Using The Technology Acceptance Model: A Pls Approach, Leila Halawi, Richard Mccarthy

Publications

In this study, partial least square approach (PLS) is applied to investigate the determinants of students’ perceived usage results in the framework of university online or hybrid courses. A total of 134 valid responses from students who have finished or are currently enrolled in at least one online or hybrid course at two universities were employed to inspect the structural model. Using a structure that is in theory grounded in the technology acceptance model (TAM) and tested through TAM, the analysis of results suggest that separate factors guide the students’ usage choice.

E-Learning Enhances Both Student Achievement And Career Change Options, Rochelle P. Ripple

Perspectives In Learning

It seems as if everyone is using e-learning (online learning) these days. There are many options available, including self-paced courses, skills-based courses, virtual classrooms (and their cousins, live web seminars), web-enhanced courses, and asynchronous courses. There is a plethora of technological methods that can be utilized for course delivery. Which of these technologies and methods of use will maximize e-learning’s effectiveness? In other words, for the university, the instructor and students, which seems to work the best? In a nutshell - all of them. The beauty of e-learning is that there are so many options that can be tailored to …

Lessons Learned And Best Practices For Using An Analytic Strategy Approach For The Creation Of Virtual Laboratories For Distance Learning In Engineering Technology, Anthony W. Dean, Carol L. Considine, Gary R. Crossman

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

This paper describes the use of an Analytic Strategy Approach used in the development of a Virtual Automation and Controls Lab in the Mechanical Engineering Technology Program of the Engineering Technology Department at Old Dominion University. This paper looks at the three phases, as applied to the development of a virtual lab using an analytic strategy design:

(1) Formulation of the quantitative and qualitative approach to assist in decision process,

(2) Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the decision alternatives - within the decision context,

(3) Interpretation of the analysis results and implications for decision.

All For One And One For All: Designing Web-Based Courses For Students Based Upon Individual Learning Styles, Michael K. Barbour, Morris Cooze

Education Faculty Publications

As e-learning begins to proliferate into secondary schools and is opened up to learners of all abilities, it is important that the effects different learning styles have upon how online instruction is provided are taken into consideration. In this study, students from a secondary-level business education class completed a learning styles inventory to determine their strengths in the traditional learning styles and in Gardner’s intelligences. A variety of web-based instructional methods were utilized throughout the school year and the students’ overall performance in the course was monitored.

Asynchronous Course Delivery: Instructor And Student Views, Polly Adams, J. Dugas, R. Fleck, T. Mcqueen

Perspectives In Learning

Accompanying the projected growth in computers, bandwidth improvements will make Internet use a more satisfying experience, leading to increased usage. It follows that faculty in higher education will explore strategies that increase student achievement and satisfaction in asynchronous teaching and learning. Use of the Internet for course and program delivery will increase. The potential of the Web as both a set of tools and a medium for course delivery offers limitless possibilities for creating innovative course design that can be more effective than some classroom experiences (Hafner & Oblinger, 1998). There is evidence that building an online community begins with …