Online and Distance Education Commons^™

Strategies For Success For English As A Second Language (Esl) Students In The Post-Secondary Setting, Tamara Condrey, Sherika Derico

Perspectives In Learning

English as a Second Language (ESL) students in the college setting have a higher rate of attrition than non-ESL students due, in part, to communication barriers. Retention and graduation rates of these students impact cultural diversity in practice settings for professionals who work with diverse populations. Colleges and universities must seek ways to assist ESL students with communication barriers in order to lower the attrition rate for this segment of the population and, ultimately, to improve the diversity needed in these professions. This article seeks to explore communication barriers for ESL students and offer strategies for overcoming these challenges in …

Table Of Contents

Perspectives In Learning

Table of Contents

About This Issue

Perspectives In Learning

About this Issue

Review Of Overcoming The Governance Challenge In K-12 Online Learning, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

Review by Michael K. Barbour.

Chubb, John E. Overcoming the Governance Challenge in K-12 Online Learning. Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Institute, 2012.

This fifth and final paper in the Fordham Institute’s series examining digital learning policy is Overcoming the Governance Challenge in K-12 Online Learning. The purpose of this report is to outline the steps required to move the governance of K-12 online learning from the local district level to the less restrictive state level and to create a free market for corporate innovation in K-12 online learning. Unfortunately, the report is based on an unsupported premise …

Social Networks In Higher Education: A Study Of The Relationship Of Social Structural And Proximity Factors To Teacher Credibility And Perceived Quality Of Academic Life, Gordon R. Haley

Publications

As Berge (1998) tells us, learning is a lifelong process that is important to effective participation in cultural and economic life in a democratic society. In their research on cultural issues in distance education, Enoch and Soker (2006) note one of the major concerns of modern societies today is to ensure increased access to higher education, and to include members of formerly under-represented social groups and categories, such as ethnic and racial minorities, women and people who live in distant rural or disadvantaged areas or who have to combine their studies with full-time or part-time jobs. Building on the work …

Interstate Distance Education Partnerships: Case Study Of Challenges And Accomplishment, Michael P. Munro, Janet L. Kamps

Faculty Publications

Abstract

This paper chronicles the challenges in development of a partnership to deliver specialized teacher training across state lines. The authors present a framework of needed steps and use information from their experiences in a case study format to support and explain the progression of a proposed partnership to train teachers of the visually impaired between the Training Program for Professional in Visual Impairment at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX, and the Arkansas School for the Blind in Little Rock, AR. The authors discuss the initial concept and need, the development commitment between the two parties, the …

Designing Wise Communities That Engage In Creative Problem Solving: An Analysis Of An Online Design Model, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Ludmila Layne, Casey Frechette

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Addressing the conference theme of “design thinking,” this paper discusses an instructional design model, WisCom (Wisdom Communities) that we developed to build a wise learning community online, to solve open-ended, ill-structured problems such as solving a health crisis or an environmental disaster, which requires the exchange of multiple perspectives, inter-disciplinary thinking, creative problem solving, and social construction of knowledge. Based on socio-constructivist, sociocultural theories of learning and mediated cognition (Vygotsky, 1978), distributed cognition (Hutchins, 1995; Pea, 1993), group cognition (Stahl, 2006), research on how people learn (Bransford, Vye, Bateman, Brophy, & Roselli, 2004), and distance education design principles (Moore & …

Easing Into The Academy: Using Technology To Foster Cross-Institutional Critical Friendships, Ryan Flessner, Julie Horwitz

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

This article addresses the ways in which early career teacher educators can support each other as they enter the academic community. By utilizing technology as an instrument to engage in a cross-country critical friendship, the authors were able to engage in a dialogue that grew out of mutual interests and concerns. Through critical reflection, they were able to address the question: How can we, two early-career teacher educators, push ourselves and one another to more critically examine our teaching practices? In doing so, each “new educator” grew more confident in claiming one's voice as a sustainable critical friendship emerged.

Google+ Hangouts, Pinterest And Twitter @ The Library, Robin Ashford

Faculty Publications - George Fox University Library

No abstract provided.

Toward A Sustainable Embedded Librarian Program, Robin Ashford

Faculty Publications - George Fox University Library

No abstract provided.

Academic Librarians In Second Life, Denise Cote, Beth Kraemer, Diane Nahl, Robin Ashford

Faculty Publications - George Fox University Library

The multi-user virtual world Second Life is an online software platform that allows users to jointly explore realistic three-dimensional environments via avatar characters, communicate via voice and text chat, and collaborate using shared creation tools. Librarians and educators have been developing academic content and services in Second Life for use with students and other constituency groups since 2005. This study surveyed academic librarians working in Second Life to discover their perceptions of virtual world environments for teaching and learning and to gauge the impact of this technology on their work with faculty and students. Sixty-two librarians provided details on various …

Online Learning, Michael K. Barbour, Richard E. Ferdig

Education Faculty Publications

K-12 Online Learning has exponentially grown in the last 15 years. An estimated 1.2 million K-12 students took online classes last year; 45 states currently have some form of online learning at the state-level; and some states mandate some sort of online experience prior to high school graduation. Given its dramatic growth and ubiquity in K-12 schooling, it is critical that administrators learn more about K-12 schooling and the role it may play in their district or building. Unfortunately, there is not one single model of K-12 online schooling. Therefore, there is not one suggested set of recommendations, learnings, or …

Are Virtual Schools More Cost-Effective Compared To Traditional, Brick-And-Mortar Schools?, Michael Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

Over the past two decades, the growth of virtual schooling has been extensive. Virtual schooling is often described in terms of being either a supplemental or full-time program. Supplemental programs, generally associated with virtual schools, are those where a student is enrolled in a brick-and-mortar or traditional school with a physical location and the school allows the student to enroll in one or more online courses as a way to supplement their curricular offerings. This is common in schools with smaller student populations or in schools where the student demand does not warrant a wide range of elective courses. In …

Narratives From The Online Frontier: A K-12 Student’S Experience In An Online Learning Environment, Michael K. Barbour, Jason Paul Siko, Jacinda Sumara, Kaye Simuel-Everage

Education Faculty Publications

Despite a large increase in the number of students enrolled in online courses, published research on student experiences in these environments is minimal. This article reports the narrative analysis of a series of interviews conducted with a female student at a brick-and-mortar school enrolled in a single virtual school course. Her narratives describe a student who often struggled with the content in her online course and was reluctant to interact with her online teacher. When she interacted with people online, it was using text, because she was shy and the hardware often did not work. Darlene’s experiences, likely typical of …

Odyssey Of The Mind: Social Networking In Cyberschool, Michael Barbour, Cory Plough

Education Faculty Publications

K-12 online learning and cyber charter schools have grown at a tremendous rate over the past decade. At the same time, these online programs have struggled to provide the social spaces where students can interact that K-12 schools are traditionally able to provide. Social networking presents a unique opportunity to provide these kinds of social interactions in an online environment. In this article, we trace the development and use of social networking at one cyber charter school to extend the space for online instruction and provide opportunities for social interaction that online schools are often unable to provide.

Student Perceptions And Preferences For Tertiary Online Courses: Does Prior High School Distance Learning Make A Difference?, Dale Kirby, Michael K. Barbour, Dennis B. Sharpe

Education Faculty Publications

University students who had completed at least one distance education course were surveyed during their first and fourth year of postsecondary studies. When controlled for those who had previous distance education experience in high school, it was found that self-regulatory learning behaviors, which are frequently linked to positive experiences and outcomes in online and distance education courses, were equally apparent in all of the participating students regardless of whether they had previously studied online. These findings suggest that high school students do not gain independent learning skills and attitudes in an online environment regardless of what stakeholders, administrators, teachers, parents, …

Listening For The Squeaky Wheel: Designing Distance Writing Program Assessment, Virginia M. Tucker

English Faculty Publications

Distance writing programs still struggle with assessment strategies that can evaluate student writing as well as their ability to communicate about that writing with peers at a distance. This article uses Kim, Smith and Maeng's 2008 distance education program assessment scheme to evaluate a single distance writing program at Old Dominion University. The program's specific assessment needs include the ability to determine how well students are developing expert insider prose and working together as a virtual community. Kim, Smith and Maeng's assessment scheme was applied to six courses within the writing program, revealing that programmatic assessment weaknesses included providing varied …

Exploring Graduate Students' Perceptual Differences Of Face-To-Face And Online Learning, Vicki Mcginley, Jeffery Osgood Jr., Jane Kenney

Special Education Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Learning Theory And Online Technologies, By Linda Harasim. Routledge: New York, 2012 (Book Review), Diane Carver

STEMPS Faculty Publications

[First Paragraph] Learning Theory and Online Technologies presents readers with an outline of the current position of online learning, beginning with an historical review of e-learning and learning theories, and proposes a model of e-learning solutions for today's learners. Written by Linda Harasim, professor of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, the book includes examples of how the online collaborative learning theory can be applied in an online course and provides case studies of how the theory is being implemented in educational institutions.

Cross-Cultural E-Mentor Roles In Facilitating Inquiry-Based Online Learning, Buddhini Gayathri Jayatilleke, Geetha Kulasekera, Malinda C.B. Kumarasinha, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper discusses how cross-cultural e-mentoring facilitated inquiry-based learning through community and knowledge building and the multiple roles e-mentors played in fostering transformative learning in protégées. A series of professional development programmes on “online tutoring and mentoring” were conducted by the Distance Education Modernization Project (DEMP) implemented by the Ministry of Higher Education in Sri Lanka. These programmes were conducted in the form of a blended online course using the MOODLE learning management system. The main aim of these programmes was to develop the capacity of faculty and other professionals who would be responsible for designing and delivering online programmes. …