Including Nomadic People in Collaborative E-Learning

The focus of this chapter is the design of a solution for Computer-Supported Cooperative Learning (CSCL) that is able to connect both stationary and mobile users in live shared-learning sessions. The authors started from experiences that were mainly technology-driven to arrive at the development of two subsystems, OpenWebTalk and MobileWebTalk, that build, flexibly and simply, mixed reality environments in which users cooperate to perform the same learning task. From these experiences, the authors argue that heterogeneous learning environments (stationary and mobile) can only be really effective if they are designed from a unique abstract model. Therefore the challenge is to derive a conceptual model to describe a collaborative learning session that can be deployed in different devices.

Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds for adults (e.g. Second Life), youth (e.g. Habbo) and children (e.g. Whyville) have a great potential for learning and teaching practices for enriching wider public and engendering collective experience and collaboration. Informal learning environments such as educational virtual worlds offer children and adults various intellectual and sensory activities or »crystallized« experiences with reinforcing multiple intelligences, according to Gardner. Virtual worlds promote social interaction and offer visitors an opportunity for various interactive activities which can sometimes not be realized in real life education. Children and adults can explore and learn in a different way and from a different perspective, e.g. with educational games and simulations. Virtual worlds represent a new medium that allows people to connect in new virtual ways and offer new challenges in the educational field.

Patterns of Interaction in Online Learning

This chapter describes a case study which examines detailed data related to student and tutor usage of an asynchronous discussion board as an interactive communication forum during a first semester associate degree course in applied psychology, and identifies ‘what works’ in relation to discussion board use. The case demonstrates how students gradually create an online community, but only if they are prompted in a timely and appropriate way by the course and assessment structure. Three distinct phases in online interaction are identified, and the case suggests these might be largely mediated by assessment tasks.

Evaluating and Implementing Teaching Standards

As of the end of 2006, 38 states in the United States have established state-led online learning programs, policies regulating online learning, or both. Also, 25 states have state-led online learning programs, and 18 states are home to a total of 147 virtual charter schools serving over 65,000 students (http://www.nacol.org). This chapter will survey current online teacher training standards and trends, in terms of what is required of new online instructors. It will also focus on the use of the online learning environment as a vehicle to help instructors to prepare for online teaching in terms of current teaching strategies used – both from the live (on-ground) and online learning environments. This chapter will focus on several universities in terms of their approaches to online teacher training for experienced instructors, as well as new teaching recruits as they prepare to transition from traditional classrooms over to virtual classes.

Development of a Web-Based Educational Platform to Interact with Remote Mobile Robots

In this chapter the authors approach the problem that hand-on experiments may present in engineering studies and how Internet has become a powerful tool to improve the students’ motivation, interaction and degree of learning. Also, the authors address some challenges that must be taken into account in order to improve the effectiveness of the remote laboratories. They have implemented an interactive tool so that students can monitor and control the evolution of a team of mobile robots through Internet. This platform is designed for a subject whose contents are computer vision and robotics, and it allows students to learn and practice the basic concepts on those fields and their relationship. In this chapter they present the architecture and basic features of the platform and the experiences collected during the use of it.

Usability of Interoperable Educational Tools in Language Teacher Education

This chapter presents a survey aimed at identifying the level of usability and applicability of interoperable educational tools in Nigeria language teacher education. The background summarizes the benefits of e-technologies in learning process. It then explores the different types of interoperable tools and e-competencies required by pre-service teachers in a second language context. Utilising one Nigerian University as a case study, the survey sampled one hundred teacher trainees selected from 300 level English Education students’ of the Department of Arts and Social Science Education, University of Lagos, Nigeria. Two research questions were posited while two instruments- the Internet Application Competence Assignment (IACA) and the Internet Literacy Competency Questionnaire (ILCQ) were used in data sourcing. Analysis of data involved descriptive and inferential statistics. On the whole, findings show that 39% of the pre-service teachers operated within low level Internet skills, 49% were able to operate within higher competency level while the consolidated level skills posed the most difficult area of competency in usability of interoperable educational tools in language teacher education. The chapter ends with proposed solutions and recommendations for futuristic research directions within the context of global e-learning support.

E-Learning Methodologies in Higher Education

The Spanish educational system will require certain changes in order to achieve the Bologna objectives for the European Higher Education Area, including with new activities and roles for both students and teachers, who must assume new skills that will affect concepts and attitudes related to the teaching and learning processes. This chapter describes the authors’ experience in designing E-learning methodologies for the teaching of accountancy in the Business Administration Degree Course at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. The chapter’s methodology designed for teaching accounting, is based on PBL (Problem Based Learning), compiled with Internet based technologies. The authors analyze its use and evolution in two accounting subjects in the first and the fourth year of the degree. The conclusions obtained from the statistical treatment of the results show that there is a direct correlation between the use of an active E-learning model and obtaining satisfactory exam results in the subject.

Online Learning Management and Learners’ Behavior

Online learning has been playing a major role in university teaching across the world. For three consecutive years, the authors have surveyed bachelors and masters students who were enrolled in online courses at a Japanese university, in order to study learners‘ behavior while they are engaged in online courses. It was also their goal in this study to identify learning strategies and instructional design techniques that can contribute to the development of e-learning standards and can be applied to online course design and management. This book chapter will discuss how these issues were addressed using the survey data collected over three years, and based on the results of data analyses, provide a discussion of some guiding principles for the design and implementation of online learning.

Pedagogical Sustainability of Interoperable Formal and Informal Learning Environments

Nowadays interaction and networks appear to be crucial. The impact that new technologies have had in every field has flowed into a rethinking of knowledge, knowledge management, teaching and learning, networks and the individual. Formal, non-formal and informal learning have become key words of this age. New technologies and the revolution of Web 2.0 social tools have deeply influenced learning approaches. However, the effectiveness of Web 2.0 educational tools depends on the pedagogical sustainability beneath and on internationally shared standards to facilitate interoperability. This chapter aims to discuss the pedagogical sustainability of interoperable formal and informal learning environments. Advantages and drawbacks will be highlighted, in terms of technological and pedagogical effectiveness and appropriateness, through two case studies illustrating respectively the combined use of Moodle (LMS) and Elgg (PLE) at the University of Florence to facilitate lifelong learning, and a recent experience of integration of Moodle, Mediawiki and De.li.cious that we have carried out as PhD students in elearning at the Università Politecnica delle Marche.

E-Learning

Electronic learning (E-learning) strategies require a realization of the changes in both the demand and supply of e-learning resources. The conceptualization of e-learning, a precedent stage in any e-learning strategy development, affects the deployment and use of e-leaning. Since the development of e-learning strategies corresponds to different models available, this chapter aims at highlighting on and proposing an e-learning fourfold strategy in the management of universities. The strategies to this effect are: Ideological, Methodological, Output, and Ecological. The chapter heretofore rationalises that the Ecological strategies have an impact on the other three. Universities are therefore called to develop a clear e-learning strategy framework that is commensurate with the existential needs; hence, a strategy that reflects and actuates the mission and vision of a university within a specific context. The chapter therefore analyses the impact of the fourfold strategy with particular reference to Africa-based universities.