Editor''s choice 2006: Selected online learning resources

This article is an annual compilation of useful resources that pertain to the field of online learning and uses of the Internet for instructional delivery. Over 250 resources are organized into several categories, including texts, journals, and websites.     

Editor''s choice 2003: Selected online learning resources

The Editor-In-Chief of The Internet and Higher Education (INTHIG) compiles for the last issue of each year's volume resources that may be useful for researchers, teachers, administrators, or students who wish to locate information about the field of online learning and the uses of the Internet for instructional delivery. Resources are organized into several categories.     

Editor''s choice 2005: Selected online learning resources

The Editor-In-Chief of The Internet and Higher Education compiles for the last issue of each year's volume resources that may be useful for researchers, teachers, administrators, or students who wish to locate information about the field of online learning and the uses of the Internet for instructional delivery. Over 200 resources are organized into several categories.     

Editor's choice 2008: Selected online learning resources

This article is an annual compilation of useful resources that pertain to the field of online learning and uses of the Internet for instructional delivery. Updates were made to this list since last year's publishing. Resources are organized into several categories, including texts, journals, and Web sites.     

Editor's Choice 2002 selected online learning resources

The Editor-in-Chief of The Internet and Higher Education compiles for the last issue of each year's volume resources that may be useful for researchers, teachers, administrators, or students who wish to locate information about the field of online learning and the uses of the Internet for instructional delivery. Resources are organized into several categories.     

基于Internet学习资源的分析与评价

本文针对远程学习者基于Internet学习资源自主学习与探究的要求，讨论了Internet学习资源的类型和特点，分析了对Internet学习资源进行评价的必要性，提出了评价的基本方式及评价的一般标准，并根据基于Internet资源学习的实际，为学习者评价Internet学习资源的质量，提供了常用的评价量规。     

International students using online information resources to learn: complex experience and learning needs

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study that investigated 25 international students’ use of online information resources for study purposes at two Australian universities. Using an expanded critical incident approach, the study viewed international students through an information literacy lens, as information-using learners. The findings are presented in two complementary parts: as a word picture that describes their whole experience of using online information resources to learn; and as a tabulated set of critical findings that summarises their associated information literacy learning needs. The word picture shows international students’ resource use as a complex interplay of eight interrelated elements: students; information-learning environment; interactions (with online resources); strengths-challenges; learning-help; affective responses; reflective responses; and cultural-linguistic dimensions. In using online resources, the international students experience an array of strengths and challenges, and an apparent information literacy imbalance between their more developed information skills and less-developed critical information use. The critical findings about information literacy needs provide a framework for developing an inclusive informed learning approach that responds to international students’ complex information using experiences and needs. While the study is situated in Australia, the findings are of potential interest to educators, information professionals and researchers worldwide who seek to support learning in culturally diverse higher education contexts.     

An investigation of SOAR study strategies for learning from multiple online resources

This mixed-methods study investigated the effects of the SOAR study strategy for learning from multiple online resources. SOAR includes the components of selection, organization, association, and regulation. Past research confirmed that college students who study provided or partially provided SOAR materials achieved more than those using their preferred study methods when learning from a single printed (Jairam & Kiewra, 2009) or computer-based (Jairam & Kiewra, 2010) text. The present study was the first to investigate SOAR when college students create their own study materials and must learn from multiple online resources. In the present study, one hundred and thirty-four college students were assigned randomly to the preferred strategy control group or the SOAR strategy experimental group. Following a pre-survey and online training in their respective study strategy, both groups were directed to use their trained strategy to study scientific material available on multiple websites. Following the study period, participants were tested on the online material and then completed a post-survey. Qualitative analyses of pre-survey responses (before training) indicated that participants from both groups commonly use note taking, summarization, and memorization strategies to study online resources. Qualitative analyses of post-survey responses (after training) indicated that the preferred strategies control group used these same strategies to study the experimental material, whereas the SOAR-trained group used SOAR strategies. These qualitative data fit with quantitative data showing that (a) both groups created study materials reflective of their strategy training (preferred or SOAR); (b) SOAR strategy studiers achieved more than preferred strategy studiers on fact, relationship, and concept achievement items; and (c) SOAR-trained studiers had more positive attitudes about their trained methods than preferred-trained studiers.     

Cross-boundary collaboration and knowledge creation in an online higher education course

This study investigated an international, inter-university and multidisciplinary online course with the aim of helping higher education students develop competencies for solving complex problems in collaboration with their peers and stakeholders. The course design was informed by the knowledge creation framework and ideas about cross-boundary collaboration. We attempted to enrich perspectives on knowledge creation by investigating how higher education students (N = 42) from different fields of study and from 17 different nationalities perceived, built and regulated cross-boundary collaboration in the pursuit of real-life problems presented by companies or non-governmental organisations. Drawing on data from 11 in-depth group interviews and team reports of students who had completed this course, we showed the kinds of activities the students considered relevant for cross-boundary collaboration and knowledge creation online. Given this extended context for knowledge creation, the study contributes to the pedagogical development of online learning in higher education.     

Implementation of best practices for online teaching and learning in an online institution

The article documents the creation of and rationale behind best practices to maintain high performance for teaching and learning at an online university. The grassroots involvement of faculty, building on best practice efforts that guided faculty in the past, the effort to engage the full faculty in the review of documents describing best practices that were generated by a team of faculty, and the support for implementation of best practices to maintain high performance for Capella University faculty are described.     

Co-construction of knowledge in tertiary online settings: an ecology of resources perspective

Tertiary education has seen a shift toward pedagogies that make use of social interaction. As part of the shift, teachers have considered re-framing their role in the teaching process, and giving more attention to ways in which knowledge construction amongst students can be supported. While many online technologies are well positioned to support interactivity between students, the use of these tools does not necessarily ensure that the social interaction is of a type that guarantees learning will take place. This paper employs an “ecology of resources” perspective (Luckin 10.1016/j.compedu.2007.09.018, 2008) to explore the experiences of teachers and selected students from three tertiary-level contexts as they engaged with interactive learning tasks mediated by asynchronous online technologies. The data presented in the study were generated primarily from accounts and semi-structured interviews, and presented teachers’ beliefs about how the learners could operate as knowledge resources for each other, while they themselves were somewhat ‘epistemically distant’. In contrast, the data suggest that the experiences of students and tutors were vastly different. The students represented themselves and others as inadequate resources, perceiving that the expertise to construct knowledge was not present in the student group. These observations highlight the importance of building resource-rich learning environments, enabling access to expert performances through blended settings, and nurturing a perception of capability between students.     

Orchestrating interdependence in an international online learning community

This paper focuses on research into the student experience as participants in the development of an international online community. The background context for this is an international master’s programme and the specific context for the research is a module on Digital Media Applications (DMA), which are outlined. The programme design emphasises peer and formative assessment practices and the pedagogical approach aims to foster group collaboration in international teams. Following an overview of the research methods adopted, a number of emergent themes from the data analysis of student diaries are discussed, including issues of language, culture and identity. In conclusion, we offer some reflections on these issues and discuss the underpinning assumptions (in relation to assessment practices in particular) that have given direction to our subsequent ongoing research and development.     

JointZone: users' views of an adaptive online learning resource for rheumatology

This paper describes an online learning resource for rheumatology that was designed for a wide constituency of users including primarily undergraduate medical students and health professionals. Although the online resources afford an informal learning environment, the site was pedagogically designed to comply with the general recommendations of the Standing Committee on Training and Education of EULAR (European League Against Rheumatism) for a rheumatology core curriculum. Any Internet user may freely browse the site content with optional registration providing access to adaptive features that personalize the user's view, for example, providing a reading history and targeted support based on scores from completed case studies. The site has now been available since early 2003, and an online survey of site registrants indicates that well structured pedagogical materials that reflect a learners' dominant ‘community of practice’ appear to be a successful aid to informal learning.     

Analysing feedback processes in an online teaching and learning environment: an exploratory study

Within the constructivist framework of online distance education the feedback process is considered a key element in teachers’ roles because it can promote the regulation of learning. Therefore, faced with the need to guide and train teachers in the kind of feedback to provide and how to provide it, we establish three aims for this research: identify the presence of feedback according to the regulation of learning required; characterise this feedback according to content (i.e. the meaning of feedback); and, finally, to explore possible relationships between feedback and the results of the teaching and learning process (i.e. students’ satisfaction and final grades). The results for a sample of 186 students, taking nine courses at the Open University of Catalonia, are discussed in the light of feedback, which is considered a central element in university teaching practice in online environments. We conclude that, in general, the presence of feedback is associated with improved levels of performance and higher levels of satisfaction with the general running of the course.     

Collaborative learning online

The decision to offer a course by online delivery involves a range of issues relating to teaching/learning methodology, instructional design, and delivery software. This article describes the development of a Masters course that uses collaborative learning as the teaching/ learning method. The theoretical basis for collaborative learning is explained and related to instructional design for online delivery. Evaluation data from the first three subjects are included. These are based on questionnaires and content analysis of computer conferences. Evaluation data reveal issues that are important to successful outcomes using this way of teaching.     

Interactive learning in an urban environmental education online course

Online courses play an increasing role in professional development of environmental educators, yet little information is available on the interactive processes involved in online learning. We examined the relationship of three types of interactions in an urban environmental education online course – participant–participant, participant–instructor, and participant–content – to four course outcomes: participants’ motivation to learn, intent to adapt ideas and information learned through the course in their practice, actual adaptation of ideas in their practice, and development of professional networks. Content analysis was used to characterize participants’ and instructors’ weekly online posts and comments, and generalized estimation equation modeling was used to explore the relationships between interactions and outcomes. The results showed that participant–content interaction had significant positive relationships with participants’ motivation to learn, intent to adapt ideas, and adaptation of ideas. Participant–participant interaction had significant positive relationships with participants’ motivation to learn, and development of professional networks with each other. Finally, participant–instructor interaction had a significant positive relationship with participants’ development of professional networks. The results of this study can be used to improve professional development online courses for environmental educators.