Online and Distance Education Commons^™

Working Together: The Public Records Webinar Series, Robert L. Moore

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Key Takeways:

* Faculty and instructional designers working together can create more effective online courses that leverage technology efficiently to reach the target audience.

* The instructional support team was part of the initial conversations planning the webinar series at the UNC School of Government, which led to the formulation of a webinar theme that reflected the content as opposed to imposing a design theme afterwards.

* Advanced planning and coordination among faculty and staff, and the thematic marketing plan provided at the outset, enabled the production of a uniform package of information in a high-quality format.

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 …

Enhancing E-Learning Effectiveness, Karen Swan

IACE Hall of Fame Repository

While there is considerable evidence that effective leadership makes a significant difference in student achievement in the K-12 environment (Waters, Marzano, & McNulty, 2003), similar research linking leadership in e-learning to student success does not exist. Indeed, similar research has not been undertaken at post-secondary levels at all, most likely because student learning at institutions of higher education has not been subject to the same scrutiny as it has K-12 schools. This state of affairs is changing rapidly, however, driven to no small extent by the rise of online education, and student achievement at post-secondary institutions is increasingly being questioned. …

The Use Of A Virtual Guest Speaker As A Catalyst For Deep Learning, Alcione N. Ostorga, Peter Farruggio

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Teaching undergraduate students as they prepare to become bilingual teachers is often a challenge due to their maturational development and the logistical limitations of college courses. Nevertheless, teacher educators must foster preservice teachers’ understanding of factors that impact learning and academic success. This article analyses the use of a virtual guest speaker in an asynchronous discussion as a way to promote critical analysis of policy issues which superseded the memorization of concepts taught in the course. Analysis reveals that the virtual guest speaker served as a catalyst for critical thought about the course content.