Online and Distance Education Commons^™

2012 Ijbe Front Matter, Tamra Connor

International Journal for Business Education

1. Editorial Board
2. President's Letter
3. SIEC-ISBE International

Tracing International Differences In Online Learning Development: An Examination Of Government Policies In New Zealand, Allison Powell, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

In this article, we briefly define and operationalise the term e-learning as online learning. Then we provide a lengthy discussion of a series of reports from New Zealand that set an ambitious goal for developing secondary online learning. The examples and the policies pursued by New Zealand provide interesting models of how to develop primary and secondary online learning.

Virtual Learning In New Zealand: Achieving Maturity, Michael K. Barbour, Derek Wenmoth, Niki Davis

Education Faculty Publications

This proposal describes a study into the development of virtual learning in New Zealand, specifically the obstacles that e-learning clusters face or have faced in their journey to sustainability and maturity through the lens of the Learning Communities Online Handbook. Using a variety of data collection methods, the researchers identified three common barriers, including a lack of a coherent vision, difficulty in securing the necessary funding and resources, and a lack of collaboration and cooperation within and between clusters. Based on these findings, it is recommended that individual e-learning clusters develop specific strategies to encourage greater collaboration between clusters and …

An Analysis Of Factors Expected To Impact Student End-Of-Course Grades In Introductory College Science Classes, Kimberly Shaw, Pinar Gurkas, Zodiac Webster

Perspectives In Learning

Research shows brain-based learning is achieved best when the students are in an active, low-stress state (Jensen, 2008), and people have unique learning styles that facilitate the assimilation of new knowledge (Gardner, 1983). However, current testing practices hinder the creation of an optimal learning environment, because teachers feel they have to build test-taking skills and spend valuable educational time teaching in ways they believe are not best practices. Changes in the brain can be seen with highly sophisticated imaging technology such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI, and positron emission tomography (PET) (Drevets & Raichle, 1998). This imaging technology …

Measles On The Rise: Academic Institutions Be Prepared, Sally Richter, Amanda Hawkins, Leslie Painter

Perspectives In Learning

Measles is a highly contagious, acute viral illness that can lead to serious complications and death. From January 1 through May 20, 2011, a total of 118 measles cases were reported from 23 states and New York City, the highest reported number for the same period since 1996. Patients ranged in age from 3 months to 68 years. Of the 118 cases, 105 unvaccinated persons were associated with importation from other countries. Transmission occurred in households, child care centers, shelters, schools, emergency departments, and at a large community event. It is important for those in academic institutions to understand measles …

The Impact Of The “Failure Is Not An Option Policy” On Student Grades, Tamara Brown

Perspectives In Learning

Benjamin Bloom, well known for his Bloom’s Taxonomy, coined the term “mastery learning”. Bloom’s process of mastery learning involved initial instruction, assessment, feedback, and corrective instruction. Various researchers demonstrated success with a mastery learning model at the elementary, middle school, high school, and community college levels. Based on the idea of mastery learning, a rural high school developed and implemented a “Failure is not an Option Policy”. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the “Failure is Not an Option Policy” at a rural high school on student grades. The program evaluation found the policy improved …

Reviewers For Volume 13

Perspectives In Learning

Reviewers for Volume 13

Editorial Board

Perspectives In Learning

Editorial Board

Cultivating An Environment For Continued Growth In Nurse Educators, Amanda Hawkins, Elizabeth Frander, Stephanie Lewis

Perspectives In Learning

Along with the significant shortage of registered nurses, the United States is also experiencing a serious shortage of nursing faculty. Despite the high demand for nurses, many nursing programs are unable to accept all qualified students due to this shortage. This essay identifies reasons why nurse educators are leaving the academic setting and why there are fewer qualified and willing candidates to fill the vacant positions. In addition to discussion of the problem, practical strategies for recruitment and retention are proposed. Through appropriate planning and leadership, there are many practical solutions that can be implemented in the workplace setting to …

The 4 Cs Of Teaching At-Risk Youth, Jeanine Fittipaldi-Wert, Claire Mowling

Perspectives In Learning

The purpose of this article is to assist educators in creating an environment that is safe and conducive to learning for at-risk students through implementation of the 4 Cs (caring, choices, commitment, and challenges). The 4 Cs can provide a framework for educators in providing suggestions on how to engage and meet the needs of all students, including those at-risk, while creating an emotionally safe environment that facilitates cooperation, responsibility, motivation, and respect for self and others.

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 …

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 …

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, …

Qr Codes 101, Helen Crompton, Jason Lafrance, Mark Van't Hooft

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

QR codes are a fast, easy, free, and fun way to spice up your lesson plans and school communication by linking the brick-and-mortar world to the digital domain. If you’re not using them in your classroom yet, here’s a primer and some inspiring ideas to get you started.

International Society For Technology In Education Sigml White Paper On Theory To Practice, Helen Crompton, Mark Van't Hooft

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Facebooking In Distance Education: Constructing Virtual Communities Of Practice, Virginia M. Tucker

English Faculty Publications

The growth of distance education warrants a closer look at how virtual communities of practice form in asynchronous online classrooms. Prior studies have sought to identify a process to virtual community formation, which may vary depending upon the media used for collaboration. This microstudy examines how one student group in a distance writing course used the popular social media site Facebook to construct community and whether the stages of virtual community development were observed in this setting. Findings suggest that revisions might be made to our current understanding of the process of building virtual community within small groups. “Othering” and …

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.