As a global cyberinfrastructure, the Internet makes authentic digital problem spaces like educational virtual environments (EVEs) available to a wide range of classrooms, schools and education systems operating under different circumstantial, practical, social and cultural conditions. And yet, if the makers and users of EVEs both have a hand in what can be initially achieved and subsequently repeated, then replication is not only a matter of precise repeatability but also specific variation. In this light, the study enlists one EVE in order to examine both classroom learning and educational research methodology. Two Singapore secondary school enactments of the Quest Atlantis Taiga curriculum are compared with one another and with previously published US enactments. Statistically significant learning gains precisely repeat Barab and colleagues' findings while classroom practices specifically vary from its design narratives. Descriptions of the progressive development of Singapore enactments illustrate a methodological tack for understanding continuity and change within Singapore classrooms and between Singapore and US classrooms as necessary functions of diversity. The juxtaposition of these analyses characterize tensions between replication and implementation fidelity and, in turn, frame EVEs as a tool for understanding and leveraging precise repeatability and specific variability of curricula.

The value of modelling in science education is evident, both from scientific practice and from theories of learning. However, students find modelling difficult and need support. This study investigates how self-made drawings could be used to support the modelling process. An experiment with undergraduate students (n = 37) at a predominantly technical university led to three conclusions. 1. Most learners created realistic rather than schematic drawings of real world systems. Furthermore, learners who represented situations realistically identified a greater number of important aspects of these situations than learners who represented them purely schematically. 2. Access to simulations during the construction of these drawings led to increased insight into the effects of variables that can be manipulated. However, participants with access to simulations thought of fewer important variables that were not explicitly available in the simulation than participants without this access. 3. Participants almost never drew multiple objects with a single stroke and generally drew objects sequentially. These patterns in the digital drawing process can simplify automatic sketch segmentation, which can be used to support learners in creating models from drawings.

Many studies report positive learning experience and improved performance in online collaborative learning. However, such learning can also incur unnecessary or excessive stress with a resultant adverse effect on the learning. This study aimed to determine the stress factors in online collaborative learning as perceived by 226 Japanese university students using English in their online interactions, and to investigate the relationship between the learners' perceptions and these stress factors. It identified four key factors affecting stress in online collaboration: Self-efficacy, Instructional Design, Technology Use and Collaborative Process. The implications of this finding for policy-making and practice are discussed and further research in this field is suggested.

This paper has focused on the productive use of information and communications technology (ICT) by university students and its influence on academic performance. The objective is to determine whether a comparison of successful and non-successful students (in relation to academic achievements) versus the variables studied (linked to the process of ICT incorporation) can help us to establish contextual and behavioral patterns associated with good academic performance. This differential analysis is carried out by making basic statistical comparisons (student's t-test). The data analysis is completed by applying receiver operating characteristic curves, a methodology of new application in the area of education. The sample was composed of 1194 students enrolled in 40 different subjects at various universities in two countries, Mexico and Spain. Students gave a very positive appraisal of the value of ICTs to support the teaching process, but they express an intermediate level of satisfaction with the teaching conditions in subjects, which are using the support of these technologies. Moreover, there is a clear relation between high scores in the variables associated with the processes of incorporation of ICT (satisfaction with teaching, higher levels of competence in ICT, less training needs in ICT, more favorable attitudes toward their integration in training processes) and achieving higher academic qualifications.

This research study assessed the effectiveness of a three-dimensional mathematics game, DimensionM, through a pretest–posttest control group quasi-experimental design. Participants consisted of 437 eighth graders. The classrooms were randomly assigned either to the treatment group that utilized DimensionM as a supplement to regular classroom instructions or to the control group that received regular class instructions without any computer activities. The results of the analysis on the pretest–posttest data revealed that the DimensionM game increased mathematical knowledge acquisition in algebra and maintained student motivation to learn. The findings suggest that the implementation of DimensionM in mathematics education can greatly benefit middle school students learning algebra.

Virtual worlds are an important tool in modern education practices as well as providing socialisation, entertainment and a laboratory for collaborative work. This paper focuses on the uses of virtual worlds for education and synthesises over 100 published academic papers, reports and educational websites from around the world. A taxonomy is then derived from these papers, delineating current theoretical and practical work on virtual world usage, specifically in the field of education. The taxonomy identifies rich veins of current research and practice in associated educational theory and in simulated worlds or environments, yet it also demonstrates the paucity of work in important areas such as evaluation, grading and accessibility.

Simulation-based computer-assisted learning (CAL) is emerging as new technologies are finding a place in mainstream education. Dynamically linked multiple representations (DLMRs) is at the core of simulation-based CAL. DLMRs includes multiple visual representations, and it enables students to manipulate one representation and to immediately receive feedback from others. An interesting and important research question is whether verbalisers, who prefer to process verbal material, have similar learning performance and learning features as visualisers, who prefer to process visual material. To answer this question, 28 undergraduate students were selected as participants from the 855 undergraduate students who were initially tested with the style of processing scale (SOP). They were representative of either visualisers or verbalisers (students who scored upper 10% and lower 10% on the SOP). A study was conducted using an experimental design that included pre- and posttest and thinking-aloud methods. Simulation-Assisted Learning Statistics (SALS) was adopted as the learning environment for both groups. The analysis results are based on the data of 25 participants because three participants had trouble thinking aloud while using SALS. The results indicated that the visualisers and verbalisers did not differ significantly in their learning performance, but they did exhibit significantly different learning features in their use of DLMRs, their methods of reading learning guides and their learning strategies. Additionally, the learning features of the verbalisers explained why their learning performance was similar to that of the visualisers. Finally, this study provides recommendations for future applications and studies of simulation-based CAL.

The learner's acceptance of e-learning systems has received extensive attention in prior studies, but how their experience of using e-learning systems impacts on their behavioural intention to reuse those systems has attracted limited research. As the applications of e-learning are still gaining momentum in developing countries, such as China, it is necessary to examine the relationships between e-learners' experience and perceptions and their behavioural intention to reuse, because it is argued that system reuse is an important indicator of the system's success. Therefore, a better understanding of the multiple factors affecting the e-learner's intention to reuse could help e-learning system researchers and providers to develop more effective and acceptable e-learning systems. Underpinned by the information system success model, technology acceptance model and self-efficacy theory, a theoretical framework was developed to investigate the learner's behavioural intention to reuse e-learning systems. A total of 280 e-learners were surveyed to validate the measurements and proposed research model. The results demonstrated that e-learning service quality, course quality, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and self-efficacy had direct effects on users' behavioural intention to reuse. System functionality and system response have an indirect effect, but system interactivity had no significant effect. Furthermore, self-efficacy affected perceived ease of use that positively influenced perceived usefulness.

This study aimed to gauge the efficacy of three modes of instruction of English idioms, ie, Short Message Service (SMS)-based learning, contextual learning and self-study learning. More precisely, this study capitalized on the push aspect of SMS affordance to deliver bite-sized English idiom lessons on spaced intervals to the learners irrespective of the traditionally inherent problems in most teaching classrooms of English as a Foreign Language learning contexts and thus promote regular study. Students' perceptions and attitudes toward mobile learning and the application of SMS in teaching and learning English (idioms) were also sought by conducting a poststudy survey. Overall, the results revealed that students receiving short mini-lessons on their mobile phones via SMS were more enthusiastic and learned more than their counterparts on paper or contextual groups.

This paper reports on a controlled experiment on the effects of three types of reflection triggers in an online course. Fifty-four volunteers, distributed in five groups, used these structured opportunities for reflection during learning. Results show that reflection triggers were extensively employed by the test persons and were perceived as quite useful to reflection and learning. Test persons in the experimental groups reported significantly more reflective prompting and more intensive reflection than those in the control group. In contrast, no positive effects on learner performance and retention could be established. This paradox elicits different possible explanations, which are discussed in the light of the common pedagogical claim that more thoughtful approaches to learning should be promoted.

The development of multi-touch tables, an emerging technology for classroom learning, offers valuable opportunities to explore how its features can be designed to support effective collaboration in schools. In this study, small groups of 10- to 11-year-old children undertook a history task where they had to connect various pieces of information about a mining accident to reach a consensus about who had been responsible. Their interaction using traditional resources was compared with their interaction when using a multi-touch table. Analysis suggests that the design and capabilities of the multi-touch technology offers some key features that supported the collaboration and interaction of the participants, particularly in the early stages of the task. Some of these features appear to provide new opportunities for collaboration and interaction, which were different from the interactions observed in the paper-based groups. These features of the multi-touch surface therefore appear to support effective interaction between the pupils.

The Chinese National Quality Course Plan is a large-scale project by the Ministry of Education, which has led to the production of more than 12 000 courses from some 700 universities since 2003. This paper describes in detail the purpose of the project and how it is organized at all levels, including how individual courses get selected at university level, provincial level and national level. The paper discusses the similarities and differences between the Chinese project and Open Educational Resources projects around the world, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) OpenCourseWare. The Chinese project is unique, not only because of its highly centralized organization and funding but also because its purpose is not just to produce open resources but to use the production of open resources to drive curriculum reform and quality improvement in Chinese higher education.

Today's teachers are expected to use modern digital technology (DT) to optimise pedagogical effects. Singaporean policy makers have introduced directives to explicitly require teachers to apply DT in teaching. Inherent in such directives is an assumption that by requiring teachers to apply DT, they will perceive its value and use it in their teaching. This paper tests this assumption. Students in initial teacher education programs in Singapore responded to a survey on four variables about their use of DT: (1) compliance with requirements, (2) sense of competence, (3) perceived value and (4) frequency of DT application. Compliance was found to be negatively correlated with competence and uncorrelated with frequency, indicating that teachers who were more competent in DT were less likely to be compliant and those who were compliant may not actually apply DT in teaching. In contrast, both competence and value were positively correlated with frequency of application. Compliance differs for students in different programs and is higher for females. The results indicate that mandating use of DT may not be useful. A more productive approach may be to enhance the competence of teachers in DT so that they value its effectiveness and are confident to apply it in classroom activities.

This paper investigates whether the selective use of technology can begin to overcome the challenge of large cohort teaching and deliver an enhanced student learning experience. It describes the initial development and evaluation of a campus-based management course taught to 270 third year engineering undergraduates at The University of Manchester. The course is structured around weekly keynote lectures, supplemented with extensive use of a virtual learning environment (VLE) and key Web 2.0 applications.

The preliminary findings are that technology is not a panacea: face-to-face contact with teaching staff remains the priority for most students. Nevertheless, the VLE was found to improve the student learning experience provided that

• • 
  Use of technology does not reduce face-to-face teaching time;
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  Teaching faculty acknowledges that students are, for the most part, highly strategic learners, engaging deeper with those technology tools that help them achieve their desired course outcomes;
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  Close attention is paid to learning design, aligning technology tools with the desired learning outcomes.

Further work is now required to explore more effectively the use of the VLE and Web 2.0 as a vehicle for promoting collaborative learning. In addition, the authors will be redesigning course activities, both assessed and unassessed, to start to address the more lofty ambition of moving students from an acquisitive to a participative model of learning.

Teacher practice is normally assessed by observers who watch classes or videos of classes. Here, we analyse an alternative strategy that uses text transcripts and a support vector machine classifier. For each one of the 710 videos of mathematics classes from the 2005 Chilean National Teacher Assessment Programme, a single 4-minute slice was selected randomly and manually transcribed. The texts were then rated by two mathematicians and two teachers on the basis of the presence/absence of eight categories of contents and 12 categories of teacher practices. Then for each rater and category a classifier was built using a support vector machine algorithm trained with his/her ratings on a subset of texts. The agreements between the classifiers and the corresponding raters computed for texts belonging to an independent subset were better than the agreements between the raters. Next, we trained classifiers by using ratings created by raters who watched the videos rather than analysing the transcripts. Again, the agreements between classifiers and the raters were satisfactory. Given that class assessment can be an extremely slow, error prone and tedious process, the proposed automatic classifier scheme could be a promising alternative for monitoring classes and building online performance support system of teacher practices.

Introducing new methods of teaching and learning requires an institutional approach to professional development in order to cater for the different levels and requirements of staff. The increase in e-learning use has prompted many institutions to adopt a whole organisation approach to professional development for lecturers.

This paper proposes to answer three related questions. How do institutions of vocational education within New Zealand structure their institutional provision of e-learning professional development? What training or other development opportunities are provided by institutions? What do e-learning managers feel are the types of e-learning professional development that work best in terms of lecturer development and support?

A literature review was completed and interviews were held with e-learning managers from 13 institutions. The data collected from the interviews were then analysed using a grounded analysis approach.

The analysis process yielded concepts that were related to different types of professional development training, information and support. The analysis provided a structure of professional development. Furthermore, the efficiency of the types of e-learning professional development was analysed based on e-learning managers' perception and evaluation models. Professional development with opportunities for skill acquisition and collaboration was deemed the most effective.

Recently, interest in using video to facilitate teacher reflection has increased. Despite this increase, the frameworks employed to help teachers use video to reflect on their teaching are not based on the results of prior video analysis research. There is a need to better understand how and in what ways video has been used to reflect on one's own teaching. The purpose of this paper is to review past studies in order to help educators make more informed decisions as they establish their own video analysis processes. This review includes 63 studies where participants recorded their own teaching, examined their performance on video and reflected on the performance. Several dimensions of video analysis that varied across past studies are discussed: type of tasks, manner of facilitation, extent to which teachers reflect individually or collaboratively, length of video used, number of reflections and measurement. This paper summarizes reported findings regarding each of these dimensions and raises several questions that need further investigation.

Although there is a growing interest in mobile learning, there are limited studies that focus on student knowledge acquisition. As applications and usages of mobile technology have become more and more accepted, it is important and meaningful that researchers and practitioners of mobile learning understand the potential factors that could influence learning outcomes. Accordingly, the primary purpose of this study was to investigate the roles of mobile technology playfulness, users' resistance to change and self-management of learning in mobile English learning outcomes (MELOs). A case study approach was utilized in this study mainly because the questions of interests were closely related to the usage of electronic dictionaries and their effects on mobile learning outcomes. The participants of this study were all undergraduate students from 10 undergraduate programs of the center for general education at one university in Southern Taiwan. A total of n = 167 undergraduate students with experience using an electronic dictionary to learn English participated in this study. The study results indicated that perceived playfulness and self-management of learning had positive influences on MELO and that users' resistance to change was negatively associated with MELO.

The introduction of new online technologies in Higher Education brings many challenges for staff, not only in learning new functionality, but in deciding how to use tools in pedagogically effective ways. This case study describes an initiative at the Open University (UK), which set out to provide professional development in the use of an online synchronous tool. It focuses on the teaching potential in a number of different disciplines. The account describes the development of this resource, together with the perspectives of those engaged in producing it. We have illustrated a systematic approach to activity design inspired by threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge. We found that the demonstrators appreciated both the approach and the peer support available. The approach helped with identification of appropriate areas for intervention as well as in the design of activities and authentic use of tools. We suggest that the protocol adopted here is of great relevance to those adopting a blended approach, when deciding what tutor-student interventions should take place, and when.

This case study describes an effective method to ameliorate the cognitive load caused by new terminology and concepts in lectures. Ten online pre-lecture resources whose design was underpinned by the principles of cognitive load theory were provided to a class of 49 first year university level chemistry students. Each resource introduced a number of key concepts to the forthcoming lecture and included a quiz for students to test understandings and identify misconceptions. The evaluation of the implementation of resources was measured by considering the difference in exam marks for in-semester test and end of module exam. These showed that the marks for students who had no prior knowledge of chemistry before coming to college significantly improved to the point that there was no difference between students with and without prior knowledge. A key outcome of this work is that providing students with resources to prepare for lectures can help in reducing their cognitive load.

This paper presents the outcome of an experimental design to investigate the impact of persuasive short messaging service (SMS) on students' self-regulated learning strategies while attending an introductory information systems course over a 12-week trimester. The participants were undergraduate students enrolled in INFO 101 at a tertiary institution in New Zealand. The instrument used in this study was the original motivated strategies for learning questionnaires (MSLQ) developed by Pintrich. MSLQ measures three general types of strategies: cognitive, meta-cognitive and resource management. The findings of the research identified that several aspects of students' learning strategies had been improved for the experiment group while the Time and Study Environment Management dimension of MSLQ had been significantly lowered for the control group who received no SMS intervention. The study demonstrates a positive impact of persuasive SMS on students' learning and suggests that the intervention is able to improve students' self-regulated learning effort compared to the control group. Moreover the study shows that students who received SMS intervention performed better than students who did not receive SMS intervention. Most importantly, the study shows that SMS intervention enables Māori and Pacific students, who historically have a lower performance than the main cohort, to perform better than the main cohort and to a significant level higher than those Māori and Pacific students who did not receive any SMS intervention. This study suggests that practitioners should consider the adoption of the persuasive SMS intervention by using the principles of persuasive technology for sending SMS messages especially for the high risk students.

Owing to the popularity of computers and computer networks, fostering the web-based problem-solving ability of students has become an important educational objective in recent years. This study attempted to compare the effects of using selected and open network resources on students' intentions with regard to their information system usage by means of technology acceptance model (TAM) questionnaires and learning effectiveness by analysis of covariance of tests in web-based problem-solving activities. An experiment was conducted by situating students from a senior high school computer course in web-based learning environments with open or selected resources to find the answers to several questions about ”structured programming design.” The experimental results showed that in either the open-resource network or the selected-resource network, low-achievement students made remarkable progress. Moreover, the high-achievement students who learned in the selected-resource network had significantly better performance than those who learned in the open-resource network. In addition, the learning task completion ratio and the difficulties the students encountered were recorded and analyzed, and the perceptions of the students regarding their engagement in the learning activity are compared and discussed based on the TAM.

This paper describes the use of robotics in an Early Years classroom as a tool to aid the development of technological skills in a creative environment rich with literacy and numeracy opportunities. The pilot project illustrates how a three-phase process can result in the development of: (1) emergent literacy and numeracy, (2) digital access for disadvantaged Early Years learners and (3) basic engineering concepts. The pilot study was conducted with a class of 16 students aged between 5 years and 6 months to 7 years, over a 6-week period. During this period, the students were introduced to and engaged in the creation of robots and simple machines via the use of a commercial robotics package. The pilot was designed around three distinct phases: modelling, exploring and evaluating. These phases provided scaffolding for the students to engage with the technology and for the class teacher to develop her own skills. The use of this particular robotics package is unique to Australia, unique to Early Years, and links hands-on, fine-motor development with 21st century learning. The researchers and authors of this paper are currently based at the Australian Catholic University and are involved with projects involving creative, digital technologies, children in the early years of formal schooling, emerging literacy and numeracy for diverse Early Years learners and the development of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.

As many Korean universities have recommended the implementation of mobile learning (m-learning) for various reasons, the number of such tertiary learning opportunities has steadily grown. However, little research has investigated the factors affecting university students' adoption and use of m-learning. A sample of 288 Konkuk university students participated in the research. The process by which students adopt m-learning was explained using structural equation modeling technique and the Linear Structural Relationship (LISREL) program. The general structural model based on the technology acceptance model included m-learning self-efficacy, relevance for students' major (MR), system accessibility, subjective norm (SN), perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude (AT), and behavioral intention to use m-learning. The study results confirmed the acceptability of the model to explain students' acceptance of m-learning. M-learning AT was the most important construct in explaining the causal process in the model, followed by students' MR and SN.

Analyses presented here are secondary data analyses of the Use, Support and Effect of Instructional Technology study aimed at identifying predictors of teacher-directed student use of technology (TDS) in elementary classrooms. Using data from a convenience sample of 1040 teachers nested within 81 schools in 21 Massachusetts' school districts, researchers developed a teacher-level structural equation modeling for TDS depicting relationships between and among factors associated with TDS. Researchers relied on diffusion and adoption theories as well as prior empirical evidence to specify the hypothetical model. Evidence presented here suggests that the strongest predictors of TDS are as follows: (1) teachers' experience with technology, (2) belief that technology is beneficial to meet instructional goals, (3) perceived importance of technology for teaching and that (4) experiencing obstacles with the integration of technology appears to be one deterrent to teachers using technology in the classroom. The most important finding reported here is that two of the most important factors in increasing TDS are teachers' beliefs about the benefits of technology and perceived importance of technology for teaching.

The purpose of this paper was to provide information about the virtual learning environment known as PGDnet (the Spanish acronym for Plataforma de Gestión Docente or Educational Management Platform in English), which was developed by the innovative education group at the Technical University of Madrid known as “Nuevas metodologías docentes en ingeniería mecánica y fabricación” (New Teaching Methodologies in Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing). This tool has been created on an ad hoc basis to cover specific teaching requirements for some engineering courses, which would be difficult to implement on general educational platforms such as Moodle or Blackboard. PGDnet was essentially created as an online engineering problem-solving tool. These exercises are checked and corrected automatically, providing students with their final and partial scores, and with the solutions to these various sections. A stochastic programming model selects different exercises each time that an activity is performed and attaches the tables, graphs, figures and annexes that are needed for their resolution in each case. As is common with these types of tools, PGDnet provides effective management of publication and delivery dates for the proposed work, and contains records and databases, which allow the stored information to be processed. Its main features include ease of use, reliability and great versatility as a specific tool in the area of technical university education.

This study examined how a well-established Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) could predict teachers' intentions to continue using e-learning for professional development based on perceived ease of use and usefulness. Although studies have shown social interactions are important to teachers, no study has analyzed the mediating influence of social presence and sociability within e-learning professional development. Therefore, the original TAM was expanded to encompass user perceptions of social presence and sociability. Structural equation modeling was used to measure the mediating affects on their intention to continue using e-learning for their professional development. The results indicate that the expanded hypothesized model was a good predictor of continuance intention. Perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and social presence were found to be significant determinants of teachers' intent to continue using e-learning to meet their future professional development needs. The results have implications for educational leaders, designers and facilitators who want to promote teacher online professional development and embed e-learning conditions that will be readily embraced by classroom teachers.

The demands of an increasingly knowledge-based society and the dramatic advances in mobile phone technology are combining to spur the growth of mobile learning (mLearning). However, for mLearning to attain its full potential, it is essential to develop pedagogy and instructional design tailored to the needs of this new learning environment. At present, there is a lack of research on message design for mLearning. Towards these ends, this paper explores the principles and processes of message design for mLearning, including the influence of learning and cognitive theories, human–computer interaction principles, devices and methodologies. And it presents a number of practical guidelines for designing instructional messages for mLearning.

The new technology (such as ScholarOne) used for submitting papers to academic journals (such as this one) increases the possibilities for gathering, analysing and presenting summary data on stages in the refereeing process. Such data can be used to clarify the roles played by editors and publishers as well as referees—roles less widely discussed in the previous literature. I conclude, after a review of related issues, that refereeing should be “open” in this information age—i.e. correspondence between editors, referees and authors should be open and available, and not private. Some of the issues involved in achieving this are outlined and discussed.

Affective feedback during a self-assessment test could help induce the learner to an optimal emotional state regarding the learning material. However, there is a lack of experimental evidence concerning the influence of affective feedback during a self-assessment test. This paper is a step towards this direction. The effect of achievement-based reward feedback on students' state and trait anxiety was examined. Ninety-two students participated in an experiment. Half of these students received an applause sound after a correct answer to a question. Results highlight gender differences concerning this emotional type of feedback.

Although many developments have been made in the design and development of learning object repositories (LORs), the efficient use of such systems is still questionable. Without realising the functional use of such systems or considering the involvement of their dynamic users, these systems would probably become obsolete. This study includes both qualitative and quantitative research methods for the investigation of prospective teachers' views on the operational aspects of such tools. The participants in this study were 75 prospective teachers that were participating in the graduate certification programme for secondary school subject teachers at Baskent University in Turkey. To realise the objectives of this study, prospective teachers were required to use the 17 of the existing LORs in their course. Analysis was also conducted on those LORs identified by the researchers. Afterwards, teachers were asked to answer an open-ended question in paper and pencil form. Through qualitative analysis, the responses of teachers were coded and presented in a table. The results of this analysis revealed many interesting points regarding teachers' thoughts on the main factors in repositories and are expected to guide the designers, developers and users of LORs to focus on the main issues related to the improvement of functionality and efficiency of such systems.

Synchronous e-voting systems (commonly known as ‘clickers’) have become increasingly popular as they can be used to enhance interactivity in lectures. Asynchronous electronic surveys (AESs), unlike these voting system, usually serve as a method of gathering feedback before or after teaching sessions. This paper describes and evaluates a project involving the use of AES with an integrated follow-up lecture in an undergraduate science module. The study shows that the AES enhanced the students' learning experience by (1) prompting them to review previously taught material and (2) providing an engaging context for teaching in the follow-up lecture. As AES can act as an effective link between module components, they can be used as a pedagogical device for improving the coherence of a curriculum. AES is, therefore, a valuable e-learning platform, especially given the growing emphasis on interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary modules in recent years.

The challenge of providing authentic experiences and interactions for fostering oral proficiency and motivation in foreign languages is an opportunity for innovation in educational technology and instructional design. Although several recent innovations have received the attention of scholars, empirical investigation and validation is often lacking, as is the case with voice over instant messaging (VoIM). The goal of this study was to empirically test the effectiveness of VoIM for enhancing students' oral English proficiency and learning motivation. Different types of online discussions were examined—unstructured, structured without the facilitation of English teaching assistants (ETAs) and structured with the facilitation of ETAs. A pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design was employed to achieve this goal. The participants, 90 students enrolled in three sections of a freshman English course at a large university in Asia, participated in eight VoIM discussions in addition to their regular coursework. The results provide empirical support for the importance of structured discussions and the facilitation of ETAs in improving both oral English proficiency and learning motivation. These findings highlight the role of facilitation in VoIM discussions, and recommend prompt feedback, modelling and encouragement for fostering oral proficiency and learning motivation in foreign language classes. Based on the results of this study, recommendations for future research are provided.

Two experiments aim at describing the impact of friendship during a synchronous collaborative information retrieval (SCIR) with young pupils (recruited in Grade 3). In the first study, 68 pupils were asked to look for 13 answers in one of the three following conditions: on an individual basis (condition “Single”), as part of a designed duo with social friendship (condition “Affinity +”), or as part of a designed duo without social friendship (condition “Affinity −”). In the second experiment, we investigated more precisely the impact of friendship on verbal interactions between partners. Main results obtained in these two experiments are the following: (1) pairs retrieved effectively more answers, more correct answers and were more efficient than singles; (2) pairs composed of pupils without social friendship retrieved more answers, more correct answers and were more efficient than pairs composed by friends; (3) pairs composed of friends produced significantly more irrelevant queries; and (4) pairs composed of friends produced more verbalisations related to conflicts, while pairs composed of pupils without social friendship are engaged in a great deal of consensus seeking. Finally, educational implications are discussed.

Animated pedagogical agents (APAs) have the potential to provide one-on-one, just-in-time instruction, guidance or mentoring in classrooms where such individualized human interactions may be infeasible. Much current APA research focuses on a wide range of design variables tested with small samples or in laboratory settings, while overlooking important practical issues relating to large-scale, school-based implementations. The present study provides an early step in addressing this gap by investigating the patterns, affordances and challenges of sustained classroom use of APAs. During a 15-class-period science curriculum, middle school students in the treatment groups (n_{Dr C-1} = 191; n_{Dr C-2} = 181) had uninterrupted classroom access to one of the two APAs, while control group students (n = 149) completed the same curriculum without APA access. Usage patterns indicate that students accessed the APAs on a fluctuating, “as needed,” basis corresponding to the introductory, information-gathering, and synthesis and reporting segments of the curriculum. Survey results revealed no statistically significant difference in student feelings toward the APAs between the two treatments. While treatment students reported that the APAs were unique, reliable, timely resources, interviews indicate little difference between their experiences with the curriculum and those of the control group. Results presented here provide guidance for researchers and practitioners.

This paper reports the effects of game technology on student learning in mathematics as investigated in two data sets collected from slightly different subjects. In the first, 41 second graders (7 or 8 years old) from two classes used either a technology-based game or a paper-based game for 5 weeks. For the next 13 weeks, both classes used a technology-based game either two times per week, or more than three times per week. A quasi-experimental control-group design with repeated measures analysis of variance and analysis of covariance was employed to explore performance differences between groups. The second study examined student learning in relation to characteristics such as their game performance, attitudes toward the game and toward mathematics, and gender and ethnicity. During a 4-month period, 50 second grade students from three classes played a technology-based game under conditions that varied depending on their teacher's direction. Multiple regression was used to determine the relationship between students' arithmetic scores and learner characteristics. Descriptive analyses by ability level, gender and ethnicity, and interview data about attitudes toward the technology game were also analyzed. Results from the two studies revealed that using a technology-based game in the classroom was beneficial to students of all ability levels in learning arithmetic skills.

Facebook is a popular social networking site. It, like many other new technologies, has potential for teaching and learning because of its unique built-in functions that offer pedagogical, social and technological affordances. In this study, the Facebook group was used as a learning management system (LMS) in two courses for putting up announcements, sharing resources, organizing weekly tutorials and conducting online discussions at a teacher education institute in Singapore. This study explores using the Facebook group as an LMS and the students' perceptions of using it in their courses. Results showed that students were basically satisfied with the affordances of Facebook as the fundamental functions of an LMS could be easily implemented in the Facebook group. However, using the Facebook group as an LMS has certain limitations. It did not support other format files to be uploaded directly, and the discussion was not organized in a threaded structure. Also, the students did not feel safe and comfortable as their privacy might be revealed. Constraints of using the Facebook group as an LMS, implications for practice and limitations of this study are discussed.

In order to understand (1) what kind of students can be facilitated through the help of three-dimensional virtual learning environment (3D VLE), and (2) the relationship between a conventional test (ie, paper and pencil test) and the 3D VLE used in this study, the study designs a 3D virtual supermarket (3DVS) to help students transform their role from passive learners to active participants. In the 3DVS, a virtual customer poses a total of 18 scenario-based questions to the participants during the shopping process; the participants have to play a virtual clerk, and answer the questions by integrating marketing mix theory with the real-world situation. The whole experiment includes a pretest, 3DVS training and a posttest. The instruments utilized in each of the pre- and posttest are four open-ended questions aimed at understanding the participants' application performance. The findings of a chi-square independence test show the following: (1) the 3D VLE is especially beneficial to those who have not adapted to traditional learning, and (2) there is no significant relationship between performance in 3DVS training and performance of the pretest. However, performance in 3DVS training is significantly correlated to that of the posttest.

Schools are more and more encouraged to write a school-based information and communication technology (ICT) policy plan. In such a plan, a school describes its expectations, goals, content and actions related to the future role of ICT in teaching and learning. Although this is encouraged by researchers and policy makers, the literature on ICT policy plans and ICT policy planning is rather general and underdeveloped. In this study, the content of school-based ICT policy plans and underlying policy processes is explored. Data were gathered in 31 primary schools in Flanders: the schools' ICT policy plan was submitted to a content analysis, and a semi-structured interview was administered to the school leader or the ICT coordinator. Using a framework of ICT leadership practices to guide the analysis (setting direction, developing people and making the organization work), we identified three types of ICT policy plans: (1) an ICT policy plan as a vision blueprint, (2) a technical inventory and (3) a comprehensive ICT policy plan. Although the last type takes into account all ICT leadership practices, we found a variety of different approaches in the processes used to create and execute such plans, such as the support of ICT training activities, data-driven decision-making processes and monitoring activities.

This paper tackles two issues which are closely related: transition from pre-entry learning to studying at university and the role blended learning strategies might have in supporting this transition. It draws on the pilot delivery of two credit-bearing modules which were delivered in two pre-entry institutions. The modules followed two different models in terms of their alignment to the pre-entry curriculum and in their mode of delivery. They were evaluated through questionnaires and focus groups with students. Both university tutors and coordinators at the schools were also interviewed in order to identify barriers in the process from their perspectives. This paper contributes to research in this field by identifying, from the key stakeholders of students' and deliverers' vantage points, factors that are specific to the blended learning process and contribute to a more structured and positive transition experience for the students. It looks at how blended methodologies can enhance the transition process, as well as what some of the barriers might be. As a consequence, the paper will provide some suggestions as to how institutions may overcome some of those issues identified in order to replicate the practice successfully.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different teaching strategies (text-based concept mapping vs. image-based concept mapping) on the learning outcomes and cognitive processes of mobile learners. Eighty-six college freshmen enrolled in the “Local Area Network Planning and Implementation” course taught by the first author participated in the research. This study randomly selected one class as the experimental group and the other as the control group. Students in the experimental group used image-based concept mapping to finish assigned tasks and those in the control group used text-based concept mapping to complete the same tasks. Quantitative analysis combined with qualitative analysis was used to examine the learning outcomes and cognitive levels of the students, as defined by the revised Bloom's taxonomy. The results showed that (1) there was no significant difference in students' learning achievements, (2) the group using image-based concept mapping showed higher level than the text-based group in the dimension of understanding and creating and (3) the image-based concept mapping strategy was more complete and diverse than the text-based concept mapping strategy.

The study examined how playing two roles as assessors and assessees in technology-assisted peer assessment contributes to students' performance. Data from a previous study was recoded and analysed to understand peer assessment processes from a different angle. Findings of our previous study supported the importance of the assessor's role, but not the assessee's role. In the present study, the assessee's role was re-examined based on the assessee's ability to critically judge and act upon peer feedback, instead of quality of peer feedback that they received. Regression analysis was conducted, and results suggested that how students responded to peer feedback, as indicated by the number of good versus misleading suggestions incorporated, significantly predicted their final project scores. The findings support the importance of both assessor and assessee's roles in peer assessment and provide valuable implications for effective implementation of peer assessment.

This paper argues that an emphasis on training-for-the-job approaches has distracted designers from thinking about the meaning of their profession and the grand purpose of practising instructional design. Drawing from literature in the fields of sociology and educational technology, this paper synthesises discourses on civic professionalism in instructional design and technology, and proposes a conceptual framework that highlights the roles and qualities of a civic-minded instructional designer. It is claimed that a critical discussion on civic professionalism in the field of educational technology can offer an alternative perspective on educating instructional designers, and have practical implications on instructional design and technology curricula in higher education.

In the last decade, we have seen the emergence of virtual learning environments. Initially, these environments were a little more than document repositories that tutor used unicast to the students. Informed in part by social constructivist theories of education, later environments included capabilities for tutor–student and student–student, synchronous and asynchronous communication. The initial research of this paper reports the typical low usage of these capabilities. The main research attempted to ameliorate this problem by the provision of tools to promote a sense of social awareness as self-presence and copresence, and evaluation techniques to analyse e-learners' interactions. Data was obtained from prepost questionnaires, log files and social network analysis which augmented the data provided by the tools embedded in Moodle. The results indicate the importance of social awareness in effective e-learning; the quality of active participation can be increased by the use of associated tools. The e-tutor's role is still pivotal to facilitate and to support such engagement towards collaborative learning. Implications for future research suggest that social awareness tools and evaluation techniques can create awareness cues in an interface with a potential impact on learning.

This study deals with the development of a web-based learning framework for troubleshooting in automotive braking system (TiABS) and this framework will support a teamwork-based project design and implementation at the Yung-Ta Institute of Technology (YTIT) for undergraduate engineering students. The objectives of this course are to develop the students’ knowledge and skills, such as in the use of inspecting/repairing tools, troubleshooting skills, teamwork and cooperation. The author focuses on the practical implications of the project-based teamwork approach in the learning of automotive braking system from a troubleshooting context perspective. The results of an evaluation show that the project-based teamwork approach to learning troubleshooting in automotive braking system performs to expectations. The author's experience and students’ evaluations reveal that students like the practical components of the course and are interested in the use of the learning-by-doing approach. The author believes that other technical schools with engineering practice curricular will benefit from this approach.

While technological improvements of the computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) have been substantial, its nontask social aspect has not received proportional attention. This study investigates the notion of nontask sociability of CSCL, and identifies its relationship with the students' learning outcomes using the case of an Australian postgraduate programme. Learning outcome is defined as a multiple variable consisting of pedagogical affect, student's interest and perceived learning. Five items were identified for operationalising the nontask sociability. These are ‘finding help’, ‘sense of appealing’, ‘sense of boringness’, ‘sense of interactivity’ and ‘sense of frustration’. In addition, a strong relationship was revealed between nontask sociability and learning outcomes which implies that further attention needs to be given to the nontask aspect of the CSCL interactions. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are then discussed.

A case study was used to analyse the relationships between participation in an online discussion forum and the cognitive quality of the contributions made. Participation was calculated using two dimensions: presence (who accesses the environment, how often and for how long) and connectivity (who interacts with whom and the degree of intensity of the interaction). The discussion forum considered forms part of a course on Educational Psychology included in the curriculum of initial teacher training at the University of Barcelona and was accessed by 17 students over a period of 25 days. The analysis was carried out using a multi-method approach, which combines quantitative indicators of presence and connectivity with a content analysis of the contributions made by each participant. The results suggest that a high level of participation (high level of presence/high level of connectivity) is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for maintaining high-quality contributions throughout the discussion.

University students are more responsible than school students for their own learning. The role of self-regulated learning increases in virtual e-learning course environments. Academic help-seeking is an important strategy of self-regulated learning, but many students fail to use this strategy appropriately. A lack of information and a perceived threat of help-seeking may cause this effect. Among others, giving prompts is an instructional means to support students to adequately apply academic help-seeking . A study is presented in which the effect of giving prompts on the quantity and quality of academic help-seeking was experimentally investigated in a blended university learning course of educational science. Compared with students who received no prompts, students with prompts about the relevance of active help-seeking had better learning outcomes, participated more actively in online learning activities, more explicitly referred to learning contents in the forums and took more initiative in starting discussions. The perceived threat of help-seeking could not be reduced, however.

Although competition is regarded as a powerful motivator in game-based learning, it might have a negative influence, such as damage to confidence, on students who lose the competition. In this paper, we propose an indirect approach, substitutive competition, to alleviate such negative influences. The approach is used to develop a My-Pet v3 system, in which pupils master subject materials to make their pets stronger, and compete against each other. Specifically, pupils learn Chinese idioms in a pet-training game scenario, and their mastery of the material is related to the pets' strength to win the competition. The result of the competition is influenced by whether pupils spend enough effort on the learning tasks. This intention is expected to alleviate the negative influence that results from direct competition. A within-subject experiment was conducted to examine the influence of substitutive competition. The results indicated that substitutive competition seems a promising scheme to maximise the power of competition. However, there were no apparent evidences in this study to demonstrate its effect to alleviate pupils' sense of failure, as compared with other two direct competition conditions.

In order to get a better understanding of subject design and delivery using a hybrid approach, we have studied a hybrid learning postgraduate programme offered by the University of the Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. The study analyses students' perceptions of subject design and delivery, with particular reference to learning activities and the roles of lecturers and students during moments of interaction. Elements of socio-cultural activity theory were taken as a reference for subject analysis. It is a qualitative research project containing some quantitative data. For the purposes of the study, the following instruments were designed and applied: a student survey, student interviews (by subject), lecturer interviews, and a subject design and planning observation guide. The study's conclusions present the characteristics of learning activities and of student–lecturer and student–student interaction that fostered the attainment of subject learning objectives. These characteristics can make a positive contribution to the process of subject design and delivery using a hybrid approach, meaning integration between face-to-face and e-learning actions in the delivery of learning activities.

The study challenged the current practices in cognitive load measurement involving complex problem solving by manipulating the presence of pictures in multiple rule-based problem-solving situations and examining the cognitive load resulting from both off-line and online measures associated with complex problem solving. Forty-eight participants were recruited from a subject pool in the Educational Psychology department in a large research university in western USA. Results showed that the presence of pictures had no effect on learners' complex problem solving as measured by the response time and accuracy. However, the online measure (eg, pupillometric measures) revealed a change in cognitive load associated with the presence of pictures in complex problem solving. The authors concluded that different measures of cognitive load may actually be measuring separate aspects of cognitive load. Discussions were made on how research on multimedia learning and cognitive load could be advanced by carefully considering multiple aspects of cognitive load and by including the use of convergent measurement techniques to capture the variations of cognitive load involved in learning.

Concept maps have been widely employed for helping students organise their knowledge as well as evaluating their knowledge structures in a wide range of subject matters. Although researchers have recognised concept maps as being an important educational tool, past experiences have also revealed the difficulty of evaluating the correctness of a concept map. It usually takes days or weeks for teachers to manually evaluate the concept maps developed by students; consequently, the students cannot receive timely feedback from the teachers, which not only affects their learning schedules, but also significantly influences the students' learning achievements. In this paper, a computer-based concept map-oriented learning strategy with real-time assessment and feedback is proposed in order to cope with the problems mentioned above. Our approach provides immediate evaluation of concept maps and gives also real-time feedback to the students. An experiment has been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of this new strategy in comparison with the conventional computer-based concept map approach. It is found that our innovative approach can be significantly beneficial to promote learning achievements as well as the learning attitudes of students.

This research explores the relationships between self-directed learning readiness and transformative learning theory (TLT) reflected by the Constructivist Internet-based Learning Environment Scale (CILES). A questionnaire survey about adult learner's perceptions of Internet-based learning was administered to adults enrolled in classes in community colleges in Taiwan. A total of 593 valid questionnaires were used for the structural equation modeling analysis. The findings confirmed a second-order hierarchical factor relationship of TLT (technical, dialectical and emancipatory learning interests) from CILES. Moreover, the three domains of learning interests of transformative learning were proved to have a developmental relationship, moderated by the readiness of self-directed learning for adult learners in Internet-based learning.

Twenty-first century students are expected to utilise emerging technologies such as lecture podcasts as learning tools. This research explored the uptake of podcasts by undergraduate students enrolled in two very different cognitively challenging subjects in the second year of the nursing programme and in the first year of a business programme. Regardless of the semester, the different content being studied and the statistically significant demographic differences between the nursing and business cohorts, striking behavioural similarities emerged. Students from both cohorts in each semester under investigation spent similar amounts of time studying regardless of gender, age, Internet access and time spent on paid work. The patterns of podcast usage by responding nursing and business students were not significantly different. Non-listeners in both cohorts did not differ significantly from podcast users (listeners) either demographically or with regard to personal access to computers, the Internet and MP3/4 players. Non-listeners utilised lecture notes, text resources and the learning management system in a similar way to listeners. The only significant difference was the longer hours spent in paid work by non-listeners.

These findings reinforce the emerging concept that podcasts are not embraced by everyone. Despite the flexibility and mobile learning opportunities afforded by podcasts, significant numbers of students prefer to learn in face-to-face environments and by reading and/or listening in set study environments.

This study investigates possible relationships among motivational and learning variables (interest, self-efficacy and self-regulation) and three types of student engagement (behavioural engagement, emotional engagement and cognitive engagement) in a distance education setting. Participants were 203 students enrolled in online classes in the fall semester of 2008 in the Schools of Gerontology and Engineering at a large research university in the south-western USA, who completed an online survey assessing their levels of situational interest, computer self-efficacy, self-regulation and engagement in distance education. Situational interest and self-regulation were found to be significantly correlated with three types of engagement (behavioural, emotional and cognitive), while computer self-efficacy did not appear to be associated with any of those engagement variables. Results suggested that online activities and tools such as multimedia and discussion boards may increase emotional engagement in online learning, although they do not necessarily increase behavioural or cognitive engagement, that educators should identify students who are taking online courses for the first time and provide necessary technical help to increase their emotional engagement, and that it is important for educators to offer students strategies for increasing their self-regulation in distance education environments.

This study investigated the longitudinal trends of e-learning research using text mining techniques. Six hundred and eighty-nine (689) refereed journal articles and proceedings were retrieved from the Science Citation Index/Social Science Citation Index database in the period from 2000 to 2008. All e-learning publications were grouped into two domains with four groups/15 clusters based on abstract analysis. Three additional variables: subject areas, prolific countries and prolific journals were applied to data analysis and data interpretation. Conclusions include that e-learning research is at the early majority stage and foci have shifted from issues of the effectiveness of e-learning to teaching and learning practices. Educational studies and projects and e-learning application in medical education and training are growing fields with the highest potential for future research. Approaches to e-learning differ between leading countries and early adopter countries, and government policies play an important role in shaping the results.

Attainment in higher education tends to be poorer in ethnic minority students than in white students. This study examined whether this attainment gap was affected by the introduction of online tuition. Data were obtained from students who had taken courses in either arts or management with the UK Open University and had opted for either face-to-face or online tuition. The arts courses had a higher proportion of white students and lower proportions of Asian and black students than the management courses. Nevertheless, white and ethnic minority students gave similar reasons for choosing face-to-face tuition or online tuition. In the management courses but not in the arts courses, the pass rate was lower in students who had received online tuition than in students who had received face-to-face tuition. Regardless of the discipline or mode of tuition, black students tended to obtain lower marks and lower pass rate than white students, but Asian students did not. It is concluded that online tuition is an appropriate form of student support in both campus-based and distance education but that the attainment gap in ethnic minority students probably does not arise from the nature and quality of their interactions with teachers and other students.

With the development of the Information and Communication Technologies, great masses of information are published in the Web. In order to reuse, to share and to organise them in distance formation and e-learning frameworks, several research projects have been achieved and various standards and modelling languages developed. In our previous article, the limits of theses languages were examined and a new method named the recursive entity modelling method (REMM) was established to overcome these limits. But, when it was revised, some limitations were discovered. So, in this paper, an improved version of the REMM will be proposed, and the diagram of classes for a scenario modelled by this version will be established. In addition, both the learning scenario package and the generic XML schema permitting to implement these scenarios will be conceived.

Software avatars are increasingly applied to support children's collaborative storytelling because avatars may serve as a transparent shield or as embodied agents to facilitate creativity in children. However, when using avatars, it is not easy for children to practise and refine their speaking skills by narrating their stories to an audience. The programming difficulties involved in that process tend to distract attention away from the collaborative storytelling activity itself. This study therefore proposes an interaction model featuring tangible story avatars (TSAs) that can serve as a platform to scaffold collaborative story creation, revision and narrative. A 9-week study with 16 children aged 8 years was conducted to evaluate the interaction model with the TSAs. The results suggest that the TSAs may play three primary roles in facilitating collaborative storytelling: as a tool for developing confidence, as a tool for reflective story development and as a group artefact. Researchers and educators may find it valuable to consider these three roles in designing the TSAs in support of collaborative storytelling in similar contexts.

Situational awareness and mashups are two key factors influencing the success of situational language teaching. However, traditional situational language teaching cannot smoothly conduct relevant learning activities in changing learning context. This study developed a situational mashups system for detecting users' context and proposed a research model for evaluating users' acceptance on the situational mashups in situational language teaching. The proposed model consisted of users' individual experiences, situational learning theory and technology acceptance theory. The experimental results showed that users' experiences of using computer, Internet, mashups system and mashups-based learning, as well as users' perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of situational mashups are all key factors affecting users' acceptance of situational mashups in situational language teaching.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of three different screen sizes (small, medium and large) and two types of multimedia instruction (text only and text with pictorial annotation) on vocabulary learning. One hundred thirty-five Korean middle school students learning English as a foreign language were randomly distributed into six groups and were given a pretest, a self-study multimedia instruction, a posttest and a retention test online. The pretest, posttest and retention test were identical and included 30 vocabulary questions. Results show that the large screen multimedia instruction helped the students to learn English vocabulary more effectively than the small screen instruction as demonstrated on both the posttest and retention test. However, there was little difference in vocabulary learning between the text-only and text-with-pictorial annotation instructions. Although visual perception can be influenced by each learner's expectations and knowledge, using a smaller screen for instruction causes more challenges for learners to perceive and comprehend vocabulary learning.

The increasing use of information and communication technology (ICT) in higher education has been explored largely in relation to student experience of coursework and university life. Students' lives and experience beyond the university have been largely unexplored. Research into student experience of ICT used a validated model—the technology acceptance model—to explore the influence of work and social/leisure contexts as well as course study, on attitudes towards and take up of technology. The results suggest that usefulness and ease of use are key dimensions of students' attitudes towards technology in all three contexts but that ICT is perceived most positively in the context of work and technology use at work is an important driver for technology use in other areas.

This paper examines the use of virtual interactions in a Communication class at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)-South Africa. It demonstrates how synthesising virtual and other computer-assisted exercises as well as traditional classroom-based activities can enhance the teaching and learning of communication concepts. The paper is based on the experiences of 1^st-year Information Technology students at CPUT, and the data was gleaned from observations, questionnaires and course reflections during one semester of an academic year. The findings of the investigation revealed that despite the burgeoning interest in computer-centered teaching and learning at CPUT, traditional methods of teaching are still valuable given the differences in the learning styles and technological experiences of students. In this light, this paper subscribes to “complementarity” as the most expedient teaching approach because it can cater for the student diversity in this learning space as well as promote quality peer interactions and collaborative learning. It can also transform the process of learning into an invigorating experience especially because these students are dispassionate about communication.

This paper presents a two-dimensional model for measuring individual teachers' progression in ICT integration and for guiding them toward higher integration levels. There are four levels in the pedagogy dimension: direct teaching, cognitively active learning, constructive learning, and social learning. These levels are defined based on four factors: teacher pedagogical beliefs, instructional strategies used, teacher-student interactions, and the types of tasks students are expected to carry out. The technology dimension contains eight levels, ranging from Level 0 (nonuse) to Level 7 (implementing sophisticated instructional applications). The eight levels are defined based on three factors: whether a teacher is a passive consumer or an active producer of the ICT-based resources, sophistication of the ICT tools that a teacher uses, and richness of functionality of an ICT-based product developed by a teacher. To validate the proposed model in terms of its applicability and practicability, three case studies were conducted. The results showed that this model was able to adapt to individual preferences of the three participating teachers as well as guide their progressions in ICT integration.

While there is little doubt that technology is, in many ways, central to the college student experience today, the expectations of students and colleges vis-à-vis technology may not always be the same. This research explores the role of technology in the lives of today's college students, particularly within the institutional context of the university, and asks the question: What role does technology play in a freshman college student's participation in the academic Discourse of her institution? This paper focuses on the Discourse analysis of one student, Nichole, a focal participant in a semester-long, qualitative study of 34 undergraduate students at a university in the northeastern United States. Nichole's general dislike of technology places her in opposition to assumptions about the ‘typical’ Net Gen student; results indicated that the ways in which Nichole used technology in her personal life conflicted with her participation in the pro-technology academic Discourse of her institution. For Nichole, the disconnect between the institutional expectations for technology use and her personal technology practices resulted in the need to negotiate another layer of complexity on the path to academic success.

Online video-sharing services, particularly YouTube, have gained an audience of billions of users including educators and scholars. While the academic literature provides some evidence that YouTube has been studied and written about, little is known about priorities for YouTube research. The study employed the Delphi method to obtain a consensus from experts about areas that are most in need of research in video-sharing technology (particularly YouTube). An expert panel, identified from a comprehensive review of the literature, participated in a three-round Delphi process involving two cycles of online questionnaires and feedback reports. Participants responded to the question, ‘What should be the research priorities in video-sharing technologies (particularly YouTube) over the next 5 years?’ Seven research priority categories were identified and ranked in order of priority: (1) users, groups and communities; (2) teaching/learning; (3) social/political impact; (4) video creation/production; (5) legal/ethical; (6) media management; and (7) commercial interests.

The application of podcasting for educational purposes is growing fast in universities. There are several benefits of this asynchronous, direct communication and interaction between teacher and student. Nonetheless, the benefits, the pedagogical value of podcasting the traditional lecture format, have come into question. Furthermore, issues have been raised regarding lengthy and costly download times, and the fact that students need to make time to listen to them. For these reasons, using short 3–5-minute podcasts that summarise the lecture have been suggested. This paper explores how students interact with different types of podcasts. The study compares download and course evaluation data of a series of short-summary podcasts with full-lecture podcasts produced for the same university course. The findings show that students value full-lecture podcasts as highly as the short-summary podcasts, despite the fact that full-lecture podcasts are downloaded to a markedly lesser degree. The cause of this anomaly appears to lie in the different purposes that dictate podcast use. The paper concludes by noting that both full-lecture and short-summary podcasts serve as useful tools for student learning in university contexts.

With the proliferation of weblogs (blogs) used in educational contexts, gaining a better understanding of why students are willing to blog has become an important topic for practitioners and academics. The main purpose of this study is to explore the individual difference antecedents of perceived enjoyment and examine how they influence blogging intention through the mediation of perceived enjoyment. Based on previous literature, the Big Five personality traits (ie, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience), as well as computer self-efficacy and personal innovation in information technology, are hypothesised as potential antecedents of perceived enjoyment in the acceptance of blogging. Data collected from a sample of 358 students at seven universities in Taiwan were tested against the research model using the structural equation modelling approach. The results indicate that extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and personal innovation in information technology have a significant influence on perceived enjoyment, which in turn significantly influences blogging intention. The findings of this study provide several theoretical and practical implications for educational uses of blogging.

This paper reports the findings of a science e-journal initiative to publish undergraduate research and assesses student evaluations of this experience. Students in this (post-1992, non-research-intensive) institution overwhelmingly reported that research was a key feature of their course at the point of the e-journal introduction and that they were involved in research in a variety of ways (especially honours projects, lab work and fieldwork). Research-informed teaching from the student perspective involved two specific categories of pedagogic activities: things that students did and things that tutors did. Students largely understood research-informed teaching as an activity where tutors impart knowledge about their own and others' research (a research-led approach). Yet, what students wanted was a more active involvement in the research process (research-oriented/research-based). The e-journal initiative enabled some students to acquire this additional experience and without great cost so could be adopted elsewhere. There is some debate about equality of access to research opportunities in higher education, and an e-journal has the potential to be more widely accessible than, for example, research apprenticeships (especially if students can be involved as reviewers and as active contributors via Web 2.0 technologies). However, there is still an element of elitism about selection for the publication process.

The growing popularity of a school-wide e-portfolio system in colleges and universities has raised concerns regarding whether students will use it or consider it important to have an e-portfolio system, especially when its use is not required by their curriculum. This study investigated college students' intentions to use and the students' attitudes towards using an e-portfolio system, and did so from the perspectives of career-commitment status and weblog-publication behaviours. The results indicate that career-commitment status substantially influences college students' intentions and attitudes relative to using an e-portfolio system. Also, overlap in the functions of weblogs and e-portfolios (which allow people to use them interchangeably) does not directly result in higher or lower levels of intention to use an e-portfolio system. A composite system providing career services, goal-oriented self-presentation and personality-driven self-expression is recommended.