Supporting Students for Success in Online and Distance Learning, Third Edition, provides a comprehensive overview of student support both on and off campus. While online and distance learning are the world's fastest growing areas of educational development, they have a fundamental weakness-their graduation rates, which can be lower than 20 percent. In this powerful new edition, Ormond Simpson builds on a rich history of research in distance and e-learning to show how retention rates can be improved through tested support methods, often at a net financial profit to the institutions involved. By comparing the evidence as well as the cost-effectiveness of various support tactics, this book describes how to promote student success and encourage skill-development from a number of different perspectives: definitions and purpose, theory and psychology, ethics, costs and benefits, activities, sources, media, proactive and reactive, assessment and feedback, staff development, writing support into course materials, research, quality assurance and institutional structures. This concise, practical guide is informal and jargon-free, yet its approach to evidence is rigorous, making it invaluable reading for all those interested in recruiting and teaching diverse students for successful online and distance learning.

Supporting Students for Success in Online and Distance Learning, Third Edition, provides a comprehensive overview of student support both on and off campus. While online and distance learning are the world's fastest growing areas of educational development, they have a fundamental weakness-their graduation rates, which can be lower than 20 percent. In this powerful new edition, Ormond Simpson builds on a rich history of research in distance and e-learning to show how retention rates can be improved through tested support methods, often at a net financial profit to the institutions involved. By comparing the evidence as well as the cost-effectiveness of various support tactics, this book describes how to promote student success and encourage skill-development from a number of different perspectives: definitions and purpose, theory and psychology, ethics, costs and benefits, activities, sources, media, proactive and reactive, assessment and feedback, staff development, writing support into course materials, research, quality assurance and institutional structures. This concise, practical guide is informal and jargon-free, yet its approach to evidence is rigorous, making it invaluable reading for all those interested in recruiting and teaching diverse students for successful online and distance learning.

Digital resources-from games to blogs to social networking-are strong forces in education today, but how can those tools be effectively utilized by educators and course designers in higher education? Filled with practical advice, the e-Learning and Social Networking Handbook, Second Edition provides a comprehensive overview of online learning tools and offers strategies for using these resources in course design, highlighting some of the most relevant and challenging topics in e-learning today, including: * using social networking for educational purposes * designing for a distributed environment * strengths and weaknesses of delivering content in various formats (text, audio, and video) * potential constraints on course design * implementation, evaluation, induction, and training Illustrated by short, descriptive case studies, the e-Learning and Social Networking Handbook, Second Edition also directs the reader to useful resources that will enhance their course design. This helpful guide will be invaluable to all those involved in the design and delivery of online learning in higher education.

The use of online learning environments is now widespread, and there is a wealth of literature providing practical advice on how to teach online, develop courses and ensure effective pedagogical practice. What has been frequently overlooked is the insight offered by cyberspace theory, which considers broader social, cultural and theoretical contexts within which new technologies and learning models are situated. This book provides a fresh perspective on current thinking in e-learning. It challenges orthodox assumptions about the role of technology in the teaching and learning of the future, and explores more varied and wider-reaching conceptual frameworks for learning in cyberspace. Featuring the contributions of respected and experienced experts with a wide range of perspectives, Education in Cyberspace will be valued by anyone closely involved in the theory of e-learning and education.

The rapid expansion of blogs, Twitter, wikis, and virtual worlds has dramatically transformed the landscape of education. Through highly accessible networks, these new media can integrate students into a learning community by enabling them to create, customize, and share content online. Using Social Media Effectively in the Classroom shows educators how to:

• utilize social media to best support learners
• resolve potential problems
• create a powerful sense of community within user-centered Web 2.0 technologies.

Moving beyond basic explanations of technologies and how to use them, this book provides research-based, jargon-free, practical examples of what works, what doesn t, and why when it comes to social media. Organized according to the systematic process of instructional design, contributors describe innovative strategies for incorporating social media into educational settings as well as significant issues to be taken into consideration at each phase of planning, designing, teaching, and evaluation.

The rapid expansion of blogs, Twitter, wikis, and virtual worlds has dramatically transformed the landscape of education. Through highly accessible networks, these new media can integrate students into a learning community by enabling them to create, customize, and share content online. Using Social Media Effectively in the Classroom shows educators how to:

• utilize social media to best support learners
• resolve potential problems
• create a powerful sense of community within user-centered Web 2.0 technologies.

Moving beyond basic explanations of technologies and how to use them, this book provides research-based, jargon-free, practical examples of what works, what doesn t, and why when it comes to social media. Organized according to the systematic process of instructional design, contributors describe innovative strategies for incorporating social media into educational settings as well as significant issues to be taken into consideration at each phase of planning, designing, teaching, and evaluation.

More and more, ESL/EFL teachers are required by their employers to obtain a Mastera (TM)s in TESOL. Thousands of ESL/EFL teachers are acquiring professional skills and knowledge through online and distance education instructional models. Filling a growing need and making an important contribution, this book is a forerunner in addressing some of the issues and problems for online distance learning and instructional delivery in TESOL and applied linguistics departments in universities around the world. Carefully addressing the complexity of the field, this volume includes primary research (quantitative and qualitative designs) and case studies of programs where a variety of online distance models are used. The book is structured in a logical sequence with readable and accessible content representing the collected expertise of leading language teacher educators. Each chapter brings the reader a better understanding and ability to apply knowledge about online distance TESOL education.

More and more, ESL/EFL teachers are required by their employers to obtain a Mastera (TM)s in TESOL. Thousands of ESL/EFL teachers are acquiring professional skills and knowledge through online and distance education instructional models. Filling a growing need and making an important contribution, this book is a forerunner in addressing some of the issues and problems for online distance learning and instructional delivery in TESOL and applied linguistics departments in universities around the world. Carefully addressing the complexity of the field, this volume includes primary research (quantitative and qualitative designs) and case studies of programs where a variety of online distance models are used. The book is structured in a logical sequence with readable and accessible content representing the collected expertise of leading language teacher educators. Each chapter brings the reader a better understanding and ability to apply knowledge about online distance TESOL education.

Artificial Intelligence and Learning Futures: Critical Narratives of Technology and Imagination in Higher Education explores the implications of artificial intelligence's adoption in higher education and the challenges to building sustainable instead of dystopic schooling. As AI becomes integral to both pedagogy and profitability in today's colleges and universities, a critical discourse on these systems and algorithms is urgently needed to push back against their potential to enable surveillance, control, and oppression. This book examines the development, risks, and opportunities inherent to AI in education and curriculum design, the problematic ideological assumptions of intelligence and technology, and the evidence base and ethical imagination required to responsibly implement these learning technologies in a way that ensures quality and sustainability. Leaders, administrators, and faculty as well as technologists and designers will find these provocative and accessible ideas profoundly applicable to their research, decision-making, and concerns.

First published in 2012. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Digital technologies have transformed cultural perceptions of learning and what it means to be literate, expanding the importance of experience alongside interpretation and reflection. Learning the Virtual Life offers ways to consider the local and global effects of digital media on educational environments, as well as the cultural transformations of how we now define learning and literacy.

While some have welcomed the educational challenges of digital culture and emphasized its possibilities for individual emancipation and social transformation in the new information age, others accuse digital culture of absorbing its recipients in an all-pervasive virtual world. Unlike most accounts of the educational and cultural consequences of digital culture, Learning the Virtual Life presents a neutral, advanced introduction to the key issues involved with the integration of digital culture and education. This edited collection presents international perspectives on a wide range of issues, and each chapter combines upper-level theory with "real-world" practice, making this essential reading for all those interested in digital media and education.

Distance education (DE) offers ways to reach the many people around the world who lack access to education and training by other means. International DE methods, however, are fragmented, and distance educators have often abandoned new technologies before giving them a chance to develop. As a result, many current DE tools and techniques are incompatible with the needs and cultures of different global regions. With the goal of designing efficient, relevant DE for worldwide audiences, Harmonizing Global Education invites scholars and practitioners to consider the historic development of technology-based education and communication studies, going back further in the literature than is often assumed necessary.

The book examines a wide range of historical ideas capable of shaping modern DE, including the Luddite Revolt among British textiles workers in 1811-12, the evolution of cubist art and musical aesthetics, and the visionary advances of early twentieth-century Soviet multimedia specialists. The author urges an awareness of previous generations of communications studies, and shows how audience research relating to traditional media can be relevant in the design of current internet-based and social media approaches. Today's open universities have grown from these earlier historical efforts, and the future success of open and distance education depends on learning from the successes and the failures of the past.

Digital technologies have transformed cultural perceptions of learning and what it means to be literate, expanding the importance of experience alongside interpretation and reflection. Learning the Virtual Life offers ways to consider the local and global effects of digital media on educational environments, as well as the cultural transformations of how we now define learning and literacy.

While some have welcomed the educational challenges of digital culture and emphasized its possibilities for individual emancipation and social transformation in the new information age, others accuse digital culture of absorbing its recipients in an all-pervasive virtual world. Unlike most accounts of the educational and cultural consequences of digital culture, Learning the Virtual Life presents a neutral, advanced introduction to the key issues involved with the integration of digital culture and education. This edited collection presents international perspectives on a wide range of issues, and each chapter combines upper-level theory with "real-world" practice, making this essential reading for all those interested in digital media and education.

As online learning continues to become more prominent in K-12 education, it will be important that teachers are knowledgeable about both the potential of online learning and the challenges associated with moving curricula online. This book, written by a former secondary online teacher who now teaches online instructional methods to practicing K-12 teachers, addresses those challenges and offers practical, research-based approaches to creating successful online learning experiences. Both novice and experienced K-12 teachers will benefit from the author's strategies for creating engaging, learner-centered instruction in an online format. This book is unique from other practitioner-oriented books on online learning in that it focuses exclusively on adolescents' experiences with online instruction.

-Includes positive perspectives on the potential and opportunities of digital learning and new assessments to promote learning and engage learners in ways not previously available; -Explores the broader social contexts and policy issues surrounding implementation, including as these relate to teacher and student roles and dispositions; -Extends to the nature of digital learning assessments as they pertain to International Large-Scale Assessments (e.g. PISA), national testing, and the emergence of online/app based formative assessments, and their subsequent utilization in schooling systems for policy, accountability and improved teaching and learning outcomes.

Quality assurance (QA) in open and distance learning (ODL) can be a contentious issue. Some argue that it should be judged by the same criteria and methods as face-to-face education, while others claim that it is so different in its organization, enrolments and operations that conventional QA mechanisms cannot apply. Some advocate the use of specific guidelines and standards for e-learning; others believe that, regardless of the technology, the basic principles of quality teaching and learning should apply. Providers who have enjoyed freedom from external scrutiny may resist attempts at external regulation and auditing and look upon QA as yet another imposition of corporatization and bureaucracy on education. Others see it as a means of establishing a culture of quality, self-reflection and self-improvement.

There is little research-based literature to guide policy-makers, managers and practitioners in applying QA in education and training to ensure the right balance is found between accountability and autonomy, as well as assuring quality for the time and costs involved. In this respect, Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Distance Education and e-Learning is a book that is long overdue. It explains what is involved in QA and accreditation in education. It describes and analyzes applications of these practices in open, distance, dual-mode and conventional universities throughout Europe, North America, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific, looking at open schooling, e-learning in conventional schools, non-formal adult and community education, and corporate and small-to-medium enterprises.

Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Distance Education and e-Learning is edited and authored by experts with extensive international experience in ODL, e-learning and QA who give careful consideration to the possibilities and challenges involved. The book will be an invaluable guide for all policy-makers, managers, practitioners and researchers in the field.

What are the realities and possibilities of utilizing on-line virtual worlds as teaching tools for specific literary works? Through engaging and surprising stories from classrooms where virtual worlds are in use, this book invites readers to understand and participate in this emerging and valuable pedagogy. It examines the experience of high school and college literature teachers involved in a pioneering project to develop virtual worlds for literary study, detailing how they created, utilized, and researched different immersive and interactive virtual reality environments to support the teaching of a wide range of literary works. Readers see how students role-play as literary characters, extending and altering character conduct in purposeful ways ,and how they explore on-line, interactive literature maps, museums, archives, and game worlds to analyze the impact of historical and cultural setting, language, and dialogue on literary characters and events. This book breaks exciting ground, offering insights, pedagogical suggestions, and ways for readers to consider the future of this innovative approach to teaching literary texts.

What are the realities and possibilities of utilizing on-line virtual worlds as teaching tools for specific literary works? Through engaging and surprising stories from classrooms where virtual worlds are in use, this book invites readers to understand and participate in this emerging and valuable pedagogy. It examines the experience of high school and college literature teachers involved in a pioneering project to develop virtual worlds for literary study, detailing how they created, utilized, and researched different immersive and interactive virtual reality environments to support the teaching of a wide range of literary works. Readers see how students role-play as literary characters, extending and altering character conduct in purposeful ways, and how they explore on-line, interactive literature maps, museums, archives, and game worlds to analyze the impact of historical and cultural setting, language, and dialogue on literary characters and events. This book breaks exciting ground, offering insights, pedagogical suggestions, and ways for readers to consider the future of this innovative approach to teaching literary texts.

Introduction to Problem-based Learning teaches students how to work with the problem-based learning method, which requires mainly self-directed learning. Particular attention is given to the necessary skills to apply this method effectively. Why Introduction to Problem-based Llearning? * comprehensible introduction in the problem-based learning method * enables students to experience the full potential of this concept * discusses the use of digital devices Introduction to Problem-based learning provides students with the necessary skills to operate within as well as outside problem-based groups. It discusses issues like: How do you take on a problem? How do you collaborate with others? How do you deal with cultural diversity? How do you lead a tutorial group? How can you organize your studies best? Special attention is given to the use of computers, tablets and internet in a problem-based environment.

Artificial Intelligence, Mixed Reality, and the Redefinition of the Classroom highlights new interpretations, understandings, and emerging technologies that radically remake traditional educational models, structures, and systems, and upend how faculty teach, and students learn. It explore new educational economic models that no longer depend on buildings to educate, and describes the growing applications of artificial intelligence, machine-learning algorithms in teaching and learning. This book also defines new approaches to personalize learning, including the use of artificial cognitive learning maps that mimic a learners' biological learning map, that can also be applied to create a learner's secure silhouette useful for truly personalized academic intervention recommendations. The emerging and maturing technological advances that allow these transformational opportunities may also upend the traditional educational institution: the familiar spaces, walls, and buildings, but also the delivery methods of knowledge, and the learner's method of knowledge acquisition. Artificial Intelligence, Mixed Reality, and the Redefinition of the Classroom promises to inform the teacher, administrator, and board member to hopefully not just passively read about new and exciting innovations and tools available to improve the practice of education, but also to excite and inspire each to apply these innovations to better prepare our learners to succeed within this 4th Industrial Revolution.

"How can faculty create a strong E presence for their online classes? This volume highlights the need for creating a presence in the online environment. The authors explore the emotional, psychological, and social aspects from both the instructor and student perspective. It provides an instructional design framework and shows how a strong presence contributes to effective teaching and learning. Filled with illustrative examples and based on research and experience, the book contains methods, case scenarios, and activities for creating, maintaining, and evaluating presence throughout the cycle of an online course."--

Professor Gilly Salmon has achieved continuity and illumination of the seminal five stage model, together with new research-based developments, in her much-awaited third edition of E-Moderating - the most quoted and successful guide for e-learning practitioners.

Never content to offer superficial revisions or simple "solutions" against the pace of technological advances, the expanding interest and requirements for online learning, and the changes they have wrought, E-Moderating, Third Edition offers a richness of applied topics that will directly impact learners and teachers of all kinds. The book is carefully crafted and supported with evidence, examples, and resources for practical guidelines, making it potentially transformational for all practitioners.

E-Moderating, Third Edition includes:

• updates of literature, key terms, case studies and projects
• fresh examples of the use of the five stage model around the world, at different levels of education and across disciplines
• guidelines for moderating for podcasting and virtual worlds
• illustrations from the latest All Things in Moderation development programmes (www.atimod.com)
• new resources for practitioners

• a companion website: www.e-moderating.com.

As online learning continues to become more prominent in K-12 education, it will be important that teachers are knowledgeable about both the potential of online learning and the challenges associated with moving curricula online. This book, written by a former secondary online teacher who now teaches online instructional methods to practicing K-12 teachers, addresses those challenges and offers practical, research-based approaches to creating successful online learning experiences. Both novice and experienced K-12 teachers will benefit from the author s strategies for creating engaging, learner-centered instruction in an online format. This book is unique from other practitioner-oriented books on online learning in that it focuses exclusively on adolescents experiences with online instruction.

This book brings together a collection of articles that were presented at the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (ODLAA) conference in February 2017. The authors share the common agenda of creating meaningful research in the field of distance education. Distinct themes in educational research including open, distance, and flexible education emerged from the conference and this collection addresses each of these themes. The themes explored include: teaching and learning playing an integral role in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) research; ways in which technology is used in the teaching of science subjects; how technology is applied in everyday lives, specifically in the areas of transport, accommodation, and in ordering food; the important and often neglected area of research related to staff development and competencies; research regarding Open Educational Practices (OEP); and the importance of distance education in developing countries, where online interaction is often a challenge - largely because of the lack of stable internet connectivity. This book was originally published as a special issue of Distance Education.