Teaching and Learning at a Distance is written for introductory distance education courses for preservice or in- service teachers, and for training programs that discuss teaching distant learners or managing distance education systems. This text provides readers with the basic information needed to be knowledgeable distance educators and leaders of distance education programs. The teacher or trainer who uses this book will be able to distinguish between appropriate uses of distance education. In this text we take the following themes. The first theme is the definition of distance education. Before we started writing the first edition of Teaching and Learning at a Distance we carefully reviewed the literature to determine the definition that would be at the foundation of our writing. This definition is based on the work of Desmond Keegan, but is unique to this book. This definition of distance education has been adopted by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology and by the Encyclopedia Britannica. The second theme of the book was the importance of research to the development of the contents of the book. The best practices presented in Teaching and Learning at a Distance are validated by scientific evidence. Certainly there are "rules of thumb", but we have always attempted to only include recommendations that can be supported by research. The third theme of Teaching and Learning at a Distance is derived from Richard Clark's famous quote published in the Review of Educational Research that states that media are mere vehicles that do not directly influence achievement. Clark's controversial work is discussed in the book, but is also fundamental to the book's advocacy for distance education - in other words, we authors did not make the claim that education delivered at a distance was inherently better than other ways people learn. Distance delivered instruction is not a "magical" approach that makes learners achieve more. The fourth theme of the book is equivalency theory. Here we presented the concept that instruction should be provided to learners that is equivalent rather than identical to what might be delivered in a traditional environment. Equivalency theory helps the instructional designer approach the development of instruction for each learner without attempting to duplicate what happens in a face to face classroom. The final theme for Teaching and Learning at a Distance is the idea that the book should be comprehensive - that it should cover as much of the various ways instruction is made available to distant learners as is possible. It should be a single source of information about the field.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2019, held in Heraklion, Crete, Greece, in May 2019. The 30 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 202 submissions. The papers cover wide research fields including authoring tools and content development, AV-communication and multimedia, classroom management, e-Learning hardware and software, blended learning, critical success factors in distance learning.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2018, held in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, in March 2018. The 27 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 193 submissions. The papers deal with the following topics: new educational environments, best practices and case studies of innovative technology-based learning strategies, institutional policies on computer-supported education including open and distance education.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2016, held in Rome, Italy, in April 2016. The 29 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 164 submissions. The papers deal with the following topics: new educational environments, best practices and case studies of innovative technology-based learning strategies, institutional policies on computer-supported education including open and distance education.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2015, held in Lisbon, Portugal, in May 2015. The 34 revised full papers presented together with an invited talk were carefully reviewed and selected from 196 submissions. The papers address topics such as information technologies supporting learning; learning/teaching methodologies and assessment; social context and learning environments; domain applications and case studies; and ubiquitous learning.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2014, held in Barcelona, Spain, in April 2014. The 24 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 242 submissions. The papers address topics such as information technologies supporting learning; learning/teaching methodologies and assessment; social context and learning environments; domain applications and case studies; and ubiquitous learning.

This book constitutes selected, revised and extended papers from the 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2020, held as a virtual event in May 2020. The 25 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 190 submissions. The presented papers contribute to the understanding of relevant trends of current research on Computer Supported Education, including learning analytics, intelligent tutoring systems, virtual and augmented reality, MOOCs, and automated assessment systems.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2017, held in Porto, Portugal, in April 2017. The 22 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 179 submissions. The papers deal with the following topics: new educational environments, best practices and case studies of innovative technology-based learning strategies, institutional policies on computer-supported education including open and distance education.

Teaching and Learning at a Distance is written for introductory distance education courses for preservice or in- service teachers, and for training programs that discuss teaching distant learners or managing distance education systems. This text provides readers with the basic information needed to be knowledgeable distance educators and leaders of distance education programs. The teacher or trainer who uses this book will be able to distinguish between appropriate uses of distance education. In this text we take the following themes. The first theme is the definition of distance education. Before we started writing the first edition of Teaching and Learning at a Distance we carefully reviewed the literature to determine the definition that would be at the foundation of our writing. This definition is based on the work of Desmond Keegan, but is unique to this book. This definition of distance education has been adopted by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology and by the Encyclopedia Britannica. The second theme of the book was the importance of research to the development of the contents of the book. The best practices presented in Teaching and Learning at a Distance are validated by scientific evidence. Certainly there are "rules of thumb", but we have always attempted to only include recommendations that can be supported by research. The third theme of Teaching and Learning at a Distance is derived from Richard Clark's famous quote published in the Review of Educational Research that states that media are mere vehicles that do not directly influence achievement. Clark's controversial work is discussed in the book, but is also fundamental to the book's advocacy for distance education - in other words, we authors did not make the claim that education delivered at a distance was inherently better than other ways people learn. Distance delivered instruction is not a "magical" approach that makes learners achieve more. The fourth theme of the book is equivalency theory. Here we presented the concept that instruction should be provided to learners that is equivalent rather than identical to what might be delivered in a traditional environment. Equivalency theory helps the instructional designer approach the development of instruction for each learner without attempting to duplicate what happens in a face to face classroom. The final theme for Teaching and Learning at a Distance is the idea that the book should be comprehensive - that it should cover as much of the various ways instruction is made available to distant learners as is possible. It should be a single source of information about the field.