Learning resource

This paper describes The Flexible Learning Toolboxes Project, a component of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework for the National Vocational Education and Training System 2000-2004 (AFL Framework). The AFL Framework is designed to support the accelerated take-up of flexible learning modes and position Australian VET as a world leader in applying new technologies to vocational education products and services. A Toolbox is a set of learning resources designed for web based delivwww. ascilite. orgs ...

Abstract: Higher Education is increasingly relying on e-learning as a means of providing students with teaching and learning resources. Almost inevitably, this means that students interact with these learning resources through the medium of the computer screen. Although there have been significant advances in the design and implementation of online resources, exactly how students interact with these resources is a relatively new field of research. In this feasibility study students were asked to interact with a virtual learning environment, i.e. Blackboard, as well as Internet based resources, i.e. Ingenta and Wikipedia. Specifically, the students were asked to find the answer to a question provided, e.g. “what is classical conditioning?”orto locate a body of research related to a given topic, e.g. “theories of forgetting”. As they searched for the information the eye movements of the students were recorded using a Tobii X50 eye tracking system. The data gathered was analyseddynamic...

Nowadays modeling user's preferences is one of the most challenging tasks in e-learning systems that deal with large volumes of information. The growth of on-line educational resources including encyclopaedias, repositories, etc., has made it crucial to "filter" or "sort" the information shown to the student, so that he/she can make a better use of it. To find out the student's preferences, a commonly used approach is to implement a decision model that matches some relevant characteristics of the learning resources with the student's learning style. The rules that compose the decision model are, in general, deterministic by nature and never change over time. In this paper, we propose to use adaptive machine learning algorithms to learn about the student's preferences over time. First we use all the background knowledge available about a particular student to build an initial decision model based on learning styles. This model can then be fine-tuned with the data generated by the student's interactions with the system in order to reflect more accurately his/her current preferences.

Web-based tagging systems for educational resources allow users to associate free keywords with resources. This paper first studies similarities and differences of tagging systems that are an integrated part of learning platforms, and then introduces a case study on teachers' use of social tagging tools. Analysing more than 20,000 teacher-created tags from five platforms, it was found that even if the tagging system designs differ, more than 30% of the posts were shared through tags between two or more platforms. Thus, tags can create interplay not only between the users and their tools, but also between diverse learning platforms.

Abstract: We describe an electronic guidebook, Sotto Voce, that enables visitors to share audio information by eavesdropping on each other's guidebook activity. We have conducted three studies of visitors using electronic guidebooks in a historic house: one study with open air audio played through speakers and two studies with eavesdropped audio. An analysis of visitor interaction in these studies suggests that eavesdropped audio provides more social and interactive learning resources than open air audio played through speakers.

A primary focus of dental education is to teach students the knowledge, skills, and values essential for practicing dentistry. However, the preparation of dentists to manage a business is frequently cited as inadequate. . A survey was prepared to assess teachers' opinions of business instructional topics: challenges; desired training; employee benefits; learning resources; importance of business topics; and appropriateness of time allocations. The purpose of this project is to compare opinions of teachers of dental practice management with key management aspects reported for service businesses by the Small Business Development Center (SBDC). Practice management teachers from forty-eight (89 percent) schools responded to the survey. They indicated that several challenges confronting dentists are similar to other service businesses. Dentists, however, rank customer relations appreciably higher. In order of importance of teaching topics, the practice management teachers rank ethics and personnel management as a high priority and planning as a low priority. Awareness of the similarities and differences in the perceptions of practice management teachers and businesspeople may result in instructional improvements.

It is now an incontrovertible fact that capabilities are the source of competitive advantage. However, the process through which firms build capabilities over a period of time is only partially understood. Concepts like learning, resource combination, and co-evolution can be categorized as enablers as they support capability formation. On the other hand, concepts like inertia and path dependence can be

The Web puts a huge number of learning resources within reach of anyone with Internet access. However, many valuable resources are difficult to find due to the lack of interoperability among learning repositories. In order to achieve interoperability, implementers require a common query framework. This paper discusses a set of methods referred to as Simple Query Interface (SQI) as a universal interoperability layer for educational networks. The methods proposed can be used by a source for configuring ...

The Listing of Inherited Disorders in Animals (LIDA) for cats has implemented research-led approaches to learning and teaching and used these to showcase student output of high quality. The Listing of Inherited Disorders in Animals (LIDA) is a leading example of how learning outcomes can be aligned with assessment and the students' deliverables then developed into a learning resource. Exemplifying the high standard of work students can produce when thoughtfully guided and advised, LIDA began as a library-based activity offered to Veterinary Science undergraduate students. The exercise was designed for students to develop an appreciation of the variety of congenital and inherited disorders in cats, and to reflect on the impact of these on cat welfare, describing their effects in clear, plain English. Much of the written work submitted by students for this assignment was incorporated, with their permission and acknowledgment, into the LIDA database. It now constitutes an online relational database, using non-technical descriptions, almost all credited to individual students.

Knowing how to select, organize, and use information in order to solve problems, handle new situations, and continue learning are key issues in the teaching and learning scenario in contemporary society. Teaching these skills is particularly critical for European universities and is currently recognized as vital in the context of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).

The advancement of wireless and mobile technologies has enabled students to learn in an environment that combines learning resources from both the real world and the digital world. Although such an approach has been recognized as being innovative and important, several problems have been revealed in practical learning activities. One major problem is owing to the lack of proper learning strategies or tools for assisting the students to acquire knowledge in such a complex learning scenario. Students might feel excited or engaged when using the mobile devices to learn in the real context; nevertheless, their learning achievements could be disappointing. To deal with this problem, this study presents a mobile learning system that employs Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to detect and examine real-world learning behaviors of students. This study also utilizes each student's responses from a twotier test (i.e., multiple-choice questions in a two-level format) to provide personalized learning guidance (called two-tier test guiding, T 3 G). The experimental results from a natural science course of an elementary school show that this innovative approach is able to improve the learning achievements of students as well as enhance their learning motivation.

This qualitative study explored health sciences students' perceptions of their experiences in online problem based learning (PBL) and focused on their views about learning and group process in the online environment. Participants were novices to online learning and highly experienced in PBL, therefore, they could reflect on past face-to-face PBL experiences. Three groups of learners were involved, including undergraduate nursing and midwifery students and graduate students in a neonatal nurse practitioner program. Findings are presented using the six steps of the PBL process . Results indicated that it is feasible to conduct PBL online. Students felt that it increased their flexibility for learning, enhanced their ability to deeply process content, and provided access to valuable learning resources. Students experienced a period of adaptation to the online environment, perceived a heavy workload, and had difficulties making group decisions online. In addition to using asynchronous communication, chats (synchronous communication) were valued to support group decision-making online. Students appreciated validation of their online contributions from their peers and wanted clear expectations of what constituted successful tutorial participation from their tutors. Although online PBL can work effectively, tutors and students need to develop online literacy skills to smooth their transition to an online PBL environment.

The emerging information landscape portrays a complex domain before the library fraternity with multiplicity of physical as well as digital formats in which they manifest in diverse publication types. Libraries today operate on a truly multimedia environment. In the present academic and special library setting the educational videos, instructional visual aids and audio learning resources form a significant part of the collection. Multimedia collection, especially the non-textual knowledge resources in the library at the same time pose a variety of problems not only in the provision of their services to users, but with their sole dependency on a host of gadgets also such as media players, viewers, etc. The current information environment unequivocally prompts libraries to leverage on the latest digital technologies towards building multimedia digital libraries and in setting up dynamic electronic information systems. These newer breeds of information services offer lots of power and visibility to libraries and the user community without compromising on their quality and performance. Yet, they also pose problems in the course of their preparations while submitting them in a digital library. Swift developments in media-related technologies, rapid obsolescence and their redundancy, need for timeto-time media and format migrations, resource intensive maintenance, etc. adds to the complexity and complications of these collections. Leading edge technical skills and technology backing for these facilities demand sophisticated human resource requirements and high end IT infrastructure. Multimedia digital libraries also indeed require the strong footings of Resource Description Framework (RDF) vision supplemented with descriptive metadata standards such as Dublin Core, Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) or Metadata Encoding and Transmission (METS). They also need the strength of Extensible Markup Language (XML) encoding schemas, related Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) transformations between the non-traditional datastreams and the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) front-end. This paper reports the experience of IIMK in setting up a multimedia digital library using the Open Source Greenstone digital library software.

Purpose
Digital libraries have the potential to offer unprecedented resources for supporting e‐learning. This paper addresses and discusses such aspects as what is meant by “e‐learning”, and how can it be supported by the library environment, the functionality of the digital library; and how e‐learning resources are included and organized in the digital library.
Design/methodology/approach

The paper explores the advantages of digital libraries for e‐learning and the types of learning that can be supported by digital libraries.
Findings

There is undoubtedly a keenness to use online information resources for research and teaching, but this seems to be matched by a lack of awareness of how best to integrate these resources into the e‐learning environment.

Originality/value
The paper provides a useful insight into the role and influence of digital libraries and online resources on e‐learning.

This paper presents the systematic development of a ‘Uses and Gratification Expectancy’ (UGE) conceptual framework which is able to predict students’ ‘Perceived e-Learning Experience. ’ It is argued that students’ UGE as regards e-learning resources cannot be implicitly or explicitly explored without first examining underlying communication theories and learning perspectives. As such, the theoretical framework is grounded in the confluence of theories from communication theories and learning perspectives. The integration of Expectancy-value Theory, and the Uses and Gratification Theory serves to accommodate the suggestion that elearning resources offer gratifications that are expected and valued by students. The key theoretical and practical assumptions of the UGE approach are highlighted and consistently implemented in the conceptual edifice.

Background Community-based education (CBE) is part of the training curriculum for most health workers in Uganda. Most programs have a stated purpose of strengthening clinical skills, medical knowledge, communication skills, community orientation of graduates, and encouragement of graduates to work in rural areas. This study was undertaken to assess the scope and nature of community-based education for various health worker cadres in Uganda. Methods Curricula and other materials on CBE programs in Uganda were reviewed to assess nature, purpose, intended outcomes and evaluation methods used by CBE programs. In-depth and key informant interviews were conducted with people involved in managing CBE in twenty-two selected training institutions, as well as stakeholders from the community, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, civil society organizations and local government. Visits were made to selected sites where CBE training was conducted to assess infrastructure and learning resou...

University of Bolton, Bolton, Lancashire, England E-learning approaches have received increasing attention in recent years. Accordingly, a number of tools have become available to assist the nonexpert computer user in constructing and managing virtual learning environments, and implementing computer-based and/or online procedures to support pedagogy. Both commercial and free packages are now available, with new developments emerging periodically. Commercial products have the advantage of being comprehensive and reliable, but tend to require substantial financial investment and are not always transparent to use. They may also restrict pedagogical choices due to their predetermined ranges of functionality. With these issues in mind, several authors have argued for the pedagogical benefits of developing freely available, open source e-learning resources, which can be shared and further developed within a community of educational practitioners. The present paper supports this objective by presenting a set of methods, along with supporting freely available, downloadable, open source programming code, to allow administration of online multiple choice question assessments to students.

With the emergence of Web/eLearning 3.0 we have been developing/adjusting AHKME in order to face this great challenge. One of our goals is to allow the instructional designer and teacher to access standardized resources and evaluate the possibility of integration and reuse in eLearning systems, not only content but also the learning strategy. We have also integrated some collaborative tools for the adaptation of resources, as well as the collection of feedback from users to provide feedback to the system. We also provide tools for the instructional designer to create/customize specifications/ontologies to give structure and meaning to resources, manual and automatic search with recommendation of resources and instructional design based on the context, as well as recommendation of adaptations in learning resources. We also consider the concept of mobility and mobile technology applied to eLearning, allowing access by teachers and students to learning resources, regardless of time and space.

The purpose of the study was to determine applicability of e-learning in problem based learning (PBL) by investigating its usage and acceptability among students and its effect on academic achievement. The study was carried out among first year medical students of Akdeniz University, Turkey. A web-based learning environment (WBLE) including various learning resources was prepared for students to use throughout self-study period of a PBL module carried out in 2006-2007 academic year. Data were collected to determine WBLE usage rates, its effect on academic achievement, and satisfaction with it. First, computer log files were examined to determine "users" and "nonusers" of the WBLE and its usage frequency per student. Second, a questionnaire was delivered at the end of the PBL module to determine acceptability of WBLE among students. Finally, PBL exam scores of the WBLE users and nonusers were compared to investigate the effect of WBLE on academic achievement. Of the 174 first year medical students, 137 used the WBLE in their self study period throughout the PBL module. Mean login number per student was 16.8. The questionnaire was completed by 94.8% of the students. Sixty six percent of the participants were satisfied with the WBLE. End-of-module PBL exam scores of WBLE users were found slightly but not significantly higher than those of nonusers. This the first study investigating applicability of e-learning in PBL modules. High usage rates and student satisfaction in our study may be encouraging and promising for wider application of e-learning in future PBL performances.

The relative positions of the sun, moon, and earth, their movements, and their relationships are abstract and difficult to understand astronomical concepts in elementary school science. This study proposes a three-dimensional (3-D) virtual reality (VR) model named the Sun and Moon System. This e-learning resource was designed by combining Microsoft Direct3D Library, C++ programming language, and Autodesk 3 Ds Max for constructing models. This learning environment provides a way for teachers to integrate information and technology into their science teaching. Furthermore, this study explored how teaching with the Sun and Moon System affected 128 Taiwanese fourthgrade students' science achievement. Four classes were randomly divided into comparison and treatment groups. The results show that: (a) students in the treatment group achieved significantly better grades than those in the comparison group under traditional class instruction and (b) the questionnaire results revealed that more than two thirds of the treatment group liked to use the 3-D VR model and would like to introduce it to their classmates. Based on these positive results, we are encouraged to develop more 3-D VR learning environments.

This qualitative study explored health sciences students' perceptions of their experiences in online problem based learning (PBL) and focused on their views about learning and group process in the online environment. Participants were novices to online learning and highly experienced in PBL, therefore, they could reflect on past face-to-face PBL experiences. Three groups of learners were involved, including undergraduate nursing and midwifery students and graduate students in a neonatal nurse practitioner program. Findings are presented using the six steps of the PBL process (Rideout & Carpio, 2001). Results indicated that it is feasible to conduct PBL online. Students felt that it increased their flexibility for learning, enhanced their ability to deeply process content, and provided access to valuable learning resources. Students experienced a period of adaptation to the online environment, perceived a heavy workload, and had difficulties making group decisions online. In addition to using asynchronous communication, chats (synchronous communication) were valued to support group decision-making online. Students appreciated validation of their online contributions from their peers and wanted clear expectations of what constituted successful tutorial participation from their tutors. Although online PBL can work effectively, tutors and students need to develop online literacy skills to smooth their transition to an online PBL environment.

The Web puts a huge number of learning resources within reach of anyone with Internet access. However, many valuable resources are difficult to find due to the lack of interoperability among learning repositories. In order to achieve interoperability, implementers require a common query framework. This paper discusses a set of methods referred to as Simple Query Interface (SQI) as a universal interoperability layer for educational networks. The methods proposed can be used by a source for configuring and submitting queries to a target system and retrieving results from it. The SQI interface can be implemented in a synchronous or an asynchronous manner and is independent of query languages and metadata schemas. In this paper SQI’s universal applicability has been evaluated by more than a dozen implementations demonstrated in three different case studies. SQI has been finalized as a standard in the CEN/ISSS Learning Technologies Workshop. Latest developments of SQI can be followed at ...

Background: There are approximately 52,000 teacher-coaches coaching 750,000 high school student-athletes in Canada. Despite this large population, Canadian high school teacher-coaches remain relatively unstudied. High school coaches in Canada are often asked to coach sports with which they are unfamiliar, and because they are not required to obtain formal training, they acquire knowledge from various situations in order to meet their learning needs. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand how high school teacher-coaches learn to coach, using Jarvis' theory of human learning. Participants and setting: Thirty-one high school teacher-coaches (15 females and 16 males) from 17 schools (12 urban and 5 rural) in Ontario, Canada, participated in this study. All the participants had a minimum of one season of experience as the head coach of a high school sport team. Any sport offered by the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations at any level (midget, junior, or senior) was an acceptable fulfilment of this requirement. Data collection: The participants were interviewed in person at mutually convenient time and location. Interviews ranged from 30 to 75 minutes. Two focus groups, with three participants each, were conducted in two separate schools. Focus groups were conducted during lunch or after school hours at the participants' school. Data analysis: Interviews and focus groups were transcribed verbatim amassing 464 single-spaced pages of data. A theoretically driven thematic analysis was conducted and the data were coded under three main headings: formal, non-formal, and informal learning situations, and further coded using concepts from Jarvis' theory of human learning. All of the coded data were re-read and sorted into potential themes and relationships between themes and codes were identified. Findings: Results indicated that a large number of teacher-coaches had formal coach training, despite it not being mandatory. However, their appreciation of this learning situation was tempered by their biographies. Coaching clinics were viewed as an occasion to develop sport-specific competencies, especially when coaching a sport in which coaches had limited knowledge. Informal learning situations, such as past coaching and/or playing experience, were two life experiences regarded as useful for learning to coach. Interaction with colleagues was utilised by all the participants as a means of developing coaching knowledge. Lack of time was a major factor influencing the type of situations from which teacher-coaches chose to learn. Conclusions: Tailoring coach learning resources to teacher-coaches' needs and schedules would help improve their coaching competencies and ultimately maximise the benefits of high school sport for all involved.

Web-based Educational Systems (WBES) is one of the fastest growing and challenging areas in educational technology research. To meet the high expectations and requirements of educational community, a present challenging goal is the development of advanced intelligent WBES that adapt their behavior to the learner's state of understanding. Concept-oriented (ontology-based) architectures come as a promising solution in the development of such systems. Conceptual (ontological) structures, such as concept maps, topic maps, and conceptual graphs have a great deal of potential for organizing, processing, and visualizing subject domain knowledge and for building learner models in WBES. Concept-based courseware employs conceptual domain presentation to link educational materials to a course structure. This allows for concept-based course sequencing that supports adaptive courseware generation, concept-based information retrieval, visualization, and navigation that help students to get oriented within a subject domain and build up their own understanding and conceptual association.

The learning technology standardization process is one of the key research activities in computer-based education. Institutions like the IEEE, the US Department of Defense and the European Commission have set up committees to deliver recommendations and proposals in this area. The objective is to allow the reuse of learning resources and to offer interoperability among heterogeneous e-learning systems. The first part of this paper is devoted to the presentation of an up-to-date survey on one of the most prolific fields of the learning technology standardization: educational metadata. The second part shows how these data models are applied by actual software systems to facilitate the location of learning resources. Educational brokerage is a promising field that lets learners find those computer-based training resources that best fit their needs. We identify the main actors involved, their roles, and open issues and trends. #

Digital libraries offer opportunities for elearning that are not possible in their physical counterparts. Digital libraries complement other learning environments, such as those provided in distance education and courses offered online, and like e-learning environments, they provide flexibility of time and place. Digital libraries have the potential to offer unprecedented resources for supporting e-learning. Access to current research and needed information within a well developed infrastructure can provide faculty members and students with a unique opportunity to do deep research and to teach and learn more thoroughly. The paper addresses and discusses such aspects as what is meant by "e-learning", and how can it be supported by library environment, what is the functionality of digital library; and how the e-learning resources are included and organized in digital library. This paper will also explore the advantages of digital libraries for e-learning and the types of learning that can be supported by digital libraries. There is undoubtedly a keenness to use online information resources for research and teaching, but this seems to be matched by a lack of awareness of how best to integrate these resources into e-learning environment. The paper concludes with a discussion of the role and influence of digital libraries and online resources on e-learning.

Abstract—A knowledge base of online experiments was built. It is a kind of catalogue describing online experiments used for educational purposes. Metadata for describing this special kind of learning resources and analysis of experiments available in the catalogue (both virtual and remote) are presented in this paper. Examples of online lab experiments and exercises are developed by different European universities are also described. Index Terms—metadata, knowledge base catalogue, simulation, virtual and remote experiments.

Preparing multi-media rich e-learning content is a labour-intensive process, requiring great time investment from content experts and multi-media designers. This high labour cost is particularly acute in fields in which knowledge changes rapidly. Keeping material current requires periodic review and updating of the material. Thus there is a need for tools to facilitate the updating of asynchronous e-learning material. While much software exists for content creation, content maintenance has received relatively little attention. We present an Learning Content Management System (LCMS) that addresses
two aspects of this problem: updating course structure and updating course content. Our approach organizes course material into modular units and externally specifies course structure. We introduce the notion of Updatable Content Unit (UCU). The content author can define such units at content creation time or any time there after. Our system provides functions to search for UCUs, edit them, and integrate them back into the surrounding material.

Until recent years network-based education and grid technologies were two distinct areas. But e-learning systems have been increasingly addressing learning resources sharing (text, images, video, on-line data, etc.) and reuse, interoperability and other more different modes of interactions. E-learning systems consist of complex activities and most of them have been designed based on client-server or peer to peer, and recently

This study examined students' use of learning resources in a technologically-mediated online learning environment. Undergraduate student groups were engaged in an online problem-based learning (PBL) environment, rich with pre-selected video and knowledge resources. Quantitative and qualitative analyses showed that students accessed resources fairly frequently and benefited from them. Resources helped students construct a rich understanding of the problem and provided ideas for problem solutions. Detailed analyses of resource exploration along with contrasting case analyses between high-achieving and low-achieving student groups suggested that for learning to be effective in resource-rich environments, students first need to develop an understanding of the resources and learn how to access them efficiently. Second, students need to learn to process the contents of resources in meaningful ways so that they can integrate diverse resources to form a coherent understanding and apply them to solve problems. Finally, students need to develop knowledge and skills to use resources collaboratively, such as sharing and relating to each other's resources. The results indicated that students, especially low-achieving students, need guidance to use resources effectively in resource-rich learning environments.

An ontological system integrated with an eLearning platform can support teachers in building courses and students in accessing courses content. To this end we propose an ontological approach to semantically enrich eLearning courses. In particular the association of semantics to the learning resources can greatly improve their organization and management, both for students and teachers. This paper proposes a method for creating eLearning courses based on repositories of semantically annotated learning objects. The proposed method supports teachers in flexibly building learning paths and students in customising and extending the courses according to their needs.

Repositories with educational resources can support the formation of online learning communities by providing a platform for collaboration. Users (e.g. teachers, tutors and learners) access repositories, search for interesting resources to access and use, and in many cases, also exchange experiences and opinions. A particular class of online services that take advantage of the collected knowledge and experience of users are collaborative filtering ones. The successful operation of such services in the context of real-life applications requires careful testing and parameterization before their actual deployment. In this paper, the case of developing a learning resources' collaborative filtering service for an online community of teachers in Europe was examined. More specifically, a data set of evaluations of learning resources was collected from the teachers that use the European Schoolnet's learning resource portal. These evaluations were then used to support the experimental investigation of design choices for an online collaborative filtering service for the portal's learning resources. A candidate multi-attribute utility collaborative filtering algorithm was appropriately parameterized and tested for this purpose. Results indicated that the development of such systems should be taking place considering the particularities of the actual communities that are to be served.

This article presents a theoretical model of lesson study, an approach to instructional improvement that originated in Japan. The theoretical model includes four lesson study features (investigation, planning, research lesson, and reflection) and three pathways through which lesson study improves instruction: changes in teachers' knowledge and beliefs; changes in professional community; and changes in teaching-learning resources. The model thus suggests that development of teachers' knowledge and professional community (not just improved lesson plans) are instructional improvement mechanisms within lesson study. The theoretical model is used to examine the ''auditable trail'' of data from a North American lesson study case, yielding evidence that the lesson study work affected each of the three pathways. We argue that the case provides an ''existence proof'' of the potential effectiveness of lesson study outside Japan. Limitations of the case are discussed, including (1) the nature of data available from the ''auditable trail'' and (2) generalizability to other lesson study efforts.

Learning objects-based architectures often allows the creation of coarse-granular learning resources by aggregating learning objects retrieved mainly from well-structured public repositories. Nonetheless, the learning resource building process is not exactly trivial, since proper selecting and sequencing strategies must be applied in order to make it useful for learning purposes, as well as to make it fit in pedagogical goals previously established. This paper shows LOENA (Learning Object Educational Narrative Approach), an architecture built over a theoretical basis that uses narrative-driven hypertext patterns to properly structure the sequencing of learning objects, providing a ready-to-use, pluggable way to implement learning paths in some teaching-learning context.

An investigation was carried out to determine the extent to which evidence of collaborative learning could be identified in students' textual interactions in an online learning environment. The literature on collaborative learning has identified a range of behaviors that characterize successful collaborative learning in face-to-face situations. Evidence of these behaviors was sought in the messages that were posted by students as they interacted in online work groups. Analysis of students' contributions reveals that there is substantial evidence of collaboration, but that there are differences between conventional face-to-face instances of collaborative learning and what occurs in an asynchronous, networked environment.

Objectives : This article describes a project which explored the potential for mobile technologies to give health students in the community access to learning resources. The purpose included the need to identify possible barriers students could face in using mobile technologies. Another focus was to assess the students perceptions of the importance of being able to access learning resources in the community.

Personal interaction with learning materials, (re-)arranging learning resources in a semantically meaningful way is important for comprehension and personal knowledge construction. Current learning systems only enable learners to add simple digital ink or text notes. How would users work with a system for collaboratively augmenting and semantically connecting learning materials with related knowledge resources? This paper presents user studies conducted with both students and educators to elicit users' acceptance, needs and preferences regarding such a learning system.

This paper reports findings of a study that examined student performance and attitudes towards the use of information technology in virtual and conventional settings. Students were preservice undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in an educational media and technology ...