This book covers ethical behaviour in the online classroom. Written for distance education students in higher education worldwide, the book serves as a guide for students in the e-classroom in examining ethical theories and behaviour. A number of salient questions are addressed: What is ethical? What does ethical behaviour consists of in an e-classroom? What are violations of ethics in the e-classroom? Students will have the opportunity to review real-life ethical dilemmas in the online classroom, state their positions by engaging in discussion, and reflect on the repercussions of unethical behaviour. The way students define ethical behaviour can impact how they engage with other online learners: students who view and react differently to the world may learn and respond differently. The book also explores opportunities for applied ethics, definitions of a successful online learner, and critical thinking concepts.
Presents real-life scenarios to allow the reader to understand the reality of ethical issues onlineIncludes the critical thinking circle, an original design by the author highlighting external and internal factors that influence adult students ethical decision-making processWritten for the adult student to meet his or her degree goals in the online learning environment"

Teaching Information Literacy for Inquiry-Based Learning is highly beneficial to those who teach or train people and need to develop systematic ways of using information sources and tools to help them participate in inquiry based learning. Whether at school, college, university or work people need to use the wealth of information around them effectively. They need to find things out, assemble, process, evaluate, manage as well as communicate information. Increasingly a fundamental part of being information literate and an independent learner is being e-literate. This book helps the trainer understand the learner and use appropriate methods to help them explore and engage with being information and e-literate. It also helps the learner to be conscious of what it means to be information and e-literate and to use information effectively.
Written by two leading experts in information literacyDraws on extensive personal experience of training learners and trainers in information literacy and information retrievalUses examples of best practice from the educational context and the workplace

How race and racism shape middle-class families’ decisions to homeschool their children While families of color make up 41 percent of homeschoolers in America, little is known about the racial dimensions of this alternate form of education. In The Color of Homeschooling, Mahala Dyer Stewart explores why this percentage has grown exponentially in the past twenty years, and reveals how families’ schooling decisions are heavily shaped by race, class, and gender. Drawing from almost a hundred interviews with Black and white middle-class homeschooling and nonhomeschooling families, Stewart’s findings contradict many commonly held beliefs about the rationales for homeschooling. Rather than choosing to homeschool based on religious or political beliefs, many middle-class Black mothers explain their schooling choices as motivated by their concerns of racial discrimination in public schools and the school-to-prison pipeline. Indeed, these mothers often voiced concerns that their children would be mistreated by teachers, administrators, or students on account of their race, or that they would be excessively surveilled and policed. Conversely, middle-class white mothers had the privilege of not having to consider race in their decision-making process, opting for homeschooling because of concerns that traditional schools would not adequately cater to their child's behavioral or academic needs. While appearing nonracial, these same decisions often contributed to racial segregation. The Color of Homeschooling is a timely and much-needed study on how homeschooling serves as a canary in the coal mine, highlighting the perils of school choice policies for reproducing, rather than correcting, long-standing race, class, and gender inequalities in America.

In this volume, the author offers an exploratory analysis of the history of homeschooling in the United States, current curricular practices, religious and political rationales for homeschooling, a critique of the claims by homeschooling advocates that the practice leads to greater efficiency and effectiveness, and what homeschooling and individualistic-oriented approaches mean for society. Teaching the next generation at home is, with little doubt, the oldest form of educating children. Yet, this simplistic understanding of "homeschooling" does not adequately capture the growth of homeschooling as a practice in the 21st century nor is it a widely accessible form of "school choice" for most families. While many parents keep their children out of formal schooling - public and private - for myriad reasons, what is clear is that homeschooling is the epitome of a conceiving of education as an individualistic good - a commodity - that can, or should, be done outside of a conception of the common good, a reasonable understanding of teaching as a profession, and the elevation of ideological echo chambers of information which can have deleterious impacts on the students who are homeschooled and society, broadly.

On the Social Web, people share their enthusiasms and expertise as lay teachers. On almost any topic of interest, learners may find some peer-created resources, created by individuals with varying expertise (from amateurs and novices to experts). In DIY culture, with widely available video cameras and authoring tools, people have gone online to share knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) broadly. What has not been explored more clearly is just how effective such peer-to-peer teaching and learning are and how well such contents acculturate learners into professional roles. This work explores the efficacies of such online (often remote) teaching and learning, with materials by peers. This considers how deep an expertise bench exists in the broad public for various learning topics.The objectives of the book are to consider the intended and unintended outcomes of the sharing of open-shared learning online as well as explore some practical ethics in the sharing of teaching and learning online. Moreover, this reference provides insights about what is made available for teaching and learning by the public and considers design features related to peer-to-peer and crowd-sourced teaching and learning online. The intended audience includes teachers, instructional designers, instructional developers, software developers, user interface designers, academicians, researchers, and students.

In today's modern world, it is crucial to ensure diversity and inclusion are present in all forms of education. This can be particularly difficult to achieve in virtual learning environments as educators and students adjust to this new way of teaching and learning. Further study on how schools and institutions across the globe are promoting diversity in online environments is necessary to discover the best practices and ensure education as a whole remains inclusive. Comparative Research on Diversity in Virtual Learning: Eastern vs. Western Perspectives collects lived experiences of stakeholders from different countries regarding their experiences with teaching in diverse virtual learning environments. The book identifies characteristics of diversity in virtual online learning and explores the best practices of teaching and learning in said environments. Importantly, the reference covers experiences from both Eastern and Western countries and compares the challenges and opportunities afforded to both. Covering topics such as student engagement, computational thinking, and diverse environments, this reference work is ideal for teachers, administrators, policymakers, researchers, academicians, scholars, practitioners, instructors, and students.

This book focuses on teaching and learning in distance learning virtual universities. The emergence of distance learning virtual universities has provided increased opportunities for adult learners to obtain higher education degrees in a remote teaching-learning environment. During the pandemic, for-profit online learning institutions experienced increases in enrollment while face-to-face institutions experienced decreasing enrollments. Increasing learner enrollments, increasing numbers of courses delivered, and an increasingly competitive environment forces influence how higher education institutions will respond to the anticipated growth in distance learning. Higher education accreditation bodies have legitimized distance learning virtual universities as sites for adult learners, especially part-time adult learners, and made distance education an accepted way to receive a higher education degree. Virtual universities are challenging the supremacy of the land-based university as the only legitimate form of educational delivery. However, little has been published concerning how virtual universities have addressed access, availability, quality, retention, and better life opportunities. As the educational marketplace becomes predominately adult-dominated and higher education institutions compete for adult enrollment, understanding how virtual distance learning institutions are changing the higher education landscape will be an increasingly important issue. This book explores, describes, and questions the role of these institutions in the higher education landscape. Can for-profit education (education as a commodity) also be high quality and serve a societal function of providing adult learners access and opportunity? When critiquing the value and place of the for-profit university, one must ask, is the concern for the profit motive justified, or is it a move by traditional universities to reduce the influence of the virtual university? For-profit distance learning institutions were initially developed to provide access to higher education for adult learners who may experience barriers to attending a traditional university and, as such, tend to address better the needs of working adult learners. These institutions provided increased accessibility and availability for learners who may not otherwise pursue higher education. It is also important to note that distance education is not exclusive to for-profit universities. However, little is known about how learners learn and how teachers teach in these institutions. While sometimes neglected in publications and research, these institutions have been and continue to be disruptive while driving innovations in distance education.

Drawing from many disciplinary areas, this edited volume explores how the Coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately harmed vulnerable and marginalized people in the U.S. Chapters address harm to people of color that exacerbated structural racism and harm to low-wage workers that highlighted existing inequalities. In addition, the volume provides strategies that have been successful in mitigating these harms and recommendations for a postpandemic more peaceful and just future.

Are you looking for evidence-based hands-on approaches to quality assurance in online programs in higher education? Then this is the book you are looking for. Quality in Online Programs includes approaches and practices to creating and maintaining quality in online programs from across disciplines, institutions, and countries. In this book, leaders in the field of online higher education share their lessons learned using customized approaches to online program quality, student support, and faculty development. These cases will be useful to those seeking to adopt or adapt such practices in their own contexts. The authors also focus on quality assurance at the program level, which has not often been addressed before and which is crucial to ensure faculty satisfaction, program outcomes, and a successful student experience. Contributors are: Beverly Araujo Dawson, Patricia Arnold, Alexandra Bitton-Bailey, Bettyjo Bouchey, Elizabeth Counselman-Carpenter, Michelle Dennis, Henrik Dindas, Cathy DuBois, Jo Anne Durovich, Sarah Fornero, John C. Gillham, Michael Graham, Amy Grincewicz, Montse Guitert, James D. Halbert, Paul Huckett, Kevin Hulen, Swapna Kumar, Nikki Lyons, Olysha Magruder, Bernhard Minke, Steven T. Nagel, Marleigh L. Perez, Jennifer L. Plahovinsak, Amy Poland, Mary L. Raber Johnson, Teresa Romeu, Albert Sangra, Frank P. Schulte, Zaina Sheets, Bethany Simunich, Alfredo Soeiro, Nicole V. Williams and Veronica Wilson.

All over the world, educational institutions confronted emergency policy changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to this, academic activities were provided mostly by remote teaching and learning solutions. The transition to emergency remote teaching and learning raised some challenges regarding technical, pedagogical, and organizational issues. It is important for higher education institutions to prepare themselves to deal with future emergency scenarios, promoting an in-depth reflection about the future challenges in the post-pandemic era. Developing Curriculum for Emergency Remote Learning Environments supports creating and promoting an education-as-a-business strategy for higher education institutions by sharing possible business models. It provides a collection of different approaches to online education in the perspective of the future of education environments. Covering topics such as distance learning experiences, online practice improvement, and remote testing, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for educators and administrators of higher education, pre-service educators, IT professionals, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

In 2021, the United States Census Bureau reported that in 2020, during the rise of the global health pandemic COVID-19, homeschooling among Black families increased five-fold. However, Black families had begun choosing to homeschool even before COVID-19 led to school closures and disrupted traditional school spaces. Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice and Popular Culture offers an insightful look at the growing practice of homeschooling by Black families through this timely collection of articles by education practitioners, researchers, homeschooling parents and homeschooled children. Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice and Popular Culture honestly presents how systemic racism and other factors influence the decision of Black families to homeschool. In addition, the book chapters illustrate in different ways how self-determination manifests within the homeschooling practice. Researchers Khadijah Ali-Coleman and Cheryl Fields-Smith have edited a compilation of work that explores the varied experiences of parents homeschooling Black children before, during and after COVID-19. From veteran homeschooling parents sharing their practice to researchers reporting their data collected pre-COVID, this anthology of work presents an overview that gives substantive insight into what the practice of homeschooling looks like for many Black families in the United States.

Education has until recently promoted social mobility, broad economic growth, and democracy. However, modern universities direct policy and resources toward criteria that exacerbate income inequality and reduce social mobility. Online education can make education more socially, geographically, temporally, and financially accessible, impacting the higher education industry, governments, economies, communities, and society in general. Thus, education's shift away from scarcity affects the differential earnings and socio-political influence of all concerned, and online education impacts, and is impacted by, such shifting power structures. Socioeconomics, Diversity, and the Politics of Online Education is a cutting-edge research publication that explores online education's optimal design and management so that more students, especially those traditionally underserved, are successful and can contribute to their communities and society. Additionally, it looks at the political/regulatory, diversity, and socioeconomic impacts on online education, especially for online education demographic groups. Featuring a wide range of topics including globalization, accreditation, and socioeconomics, this book is essential for teachers, administrators, government policy writers, educational software developers, MOOC providers, LMS providers, policymakers, academicians, administrators, researchers, and students interested in student retention and diversity and income inequality as well as promoting social mobility and democracy through accessible public education.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated inequities and inequalities in accessing educational opportunities among different social groups. Consequently, the idea of inclusivity in education has become an abstract phenomenon that widens the digital divide and creates social injustice. This calls for an immediate coordinated response from all stakeholders of education and government to ensure that no one will be left behind as we navigate the so-called new normal. Without an appropriate intervention and sound policy guidance, negative repercussions may be so widespread that they will remain a problem in the education sector far into the future. Socioeconomic Inclusion During an Era of Online Education aims to bring together the school-wide pedagogies, practices, and policies that have been implemented or will be proposed to ensure inclusive education in online learning environments. Best practices and innovative approaches from various educational institutions serve as models to ensure everyone has access to a quality online education. Covering topics such as academic policies, educational technology, and curriculum development, this reference work is ideal for academicians, practitioners, researchers, scholars, instructors, and students seeking to adjust and adapt with teaching and learning online not only during a pandemic (i.e., emergency remote education) but also during "normal times.

Science is unique among the disciplines since it is inherently hands-on. However, the hands-on nature of science instruction also makes it uniquely challenging when teaching in virtual environments. How do we, as science teachers, deliver high-quality experiences in an online environment that leads to age/grade-level appropriate science content knowledge and literacy, but also collaborative experiences in the inquiry process and the nature of science? The expansion of online environments for education poses logistical and pedagogical challenges for early childhood and elementary science teachers and early learners. Despite digital media becoming more available and ubiquitous and increases in online spaces for teaching and learning (Killham et al., 2014; Wong et al., 2018), PreK-12 teachers consistently report feeling underprepared or overwhelmed by online learning environments (Molnar et al., 2021; Seaman et al., 2018). This is coupled with persistent challenges related to elementary teachers' lack of confidence and low science teaching self-efficacy (Brigido, Borrachero, Bermejo, & Mellado, 2013; Gunning & Mensah, 2011). Teaching and Learning Online: Science for Elementary Grade Levels comprises three distinct sections: Frameworks, Teacher's Journeys, and Lesson Plans. Each section explores the current trends and the unique challenges facing elementary teachers and students when teaching and learning science in online environments. All three sections include alignment with Next Generation Science Standards, tips and advice from the authors, online resources, and discussion questions to foster individual reflection as well as small group/classwide discussion. Teacher's Journeys and Lesson Plan sections use the 5E model (Bybee et al., 2006; Duran & Duran, 2004). Ideal for undergraduate teacher candidates, graduate students, teacher educators, classroom teachers, parents, and administrators, this book addresses why and how teachers use online environments to teach science content and work with elementary students through a research-based foundation.