This study had three purposes: Firstly, to develop a categorization of research areas in distance education; secondly, to identify the most important research areas in distance education; and thirdly, to identify the most neglected research areas in distance education. Based on a literature review and a Delphi study, three broad levels or perspectives with 15 research areas were derived to organize the body of knowledge in distance education. Prospective researchers can use the results to identify gaps and priority areas and to explore potential research directions.

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Source: The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning

The literature related to online learning programs for K-12 students dates to the mid-1990s and builds upon a century of research and practice from K-12 distance education. While K-12 online learning programs have evolved and grown over the past decade, the amount of published research on virtual schooling practice and policy is limited.

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Source: International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning

Scholars, advertisers and political activists see massive online social networks as a representation of social interactions that can be used to study the propagation of ideas, social bond dynamics and viral marketing, among others. But the linked structures of social networks do not reveal actual interactions among people. Scarcity of attention and the daily rhythms of life and work makes people default to interacting with those few that matter and that reciprocate their attention. A study of social interactions within Twitter reveals that the driver of usage is a sparse and hidden network of connections underlying the “declared” set of friends and followers.

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In the past two years, over 300 colleges and universities have claimed virtual land in Second Life and in other virtual environments in an attempt to enhance content delivery, raise institutional profiles, and explore new frontiers in education. In this issue of Innovate, we explore the possibilities and pitfalls of teaching in virtual worlds. Our contributors offer insights into how educators exploring multiuser virtual environments (MUVEs) can use the lessons learned in earlier versions of the technology, describe worlds built to meet specific educational needs, and offer advice for using Second Life and other environments to support students who have learning disabilities.

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As institutions of higher education experience a dramatic rise in the demands for online classes, faculty members are at a loss for available tools effectively to evaluate their teaching practices. The authors of this article developed an instrument to give higher education faculty reliable feedback on their online classes. The authors developed an instrument that is unique to the online classroom and addresses issues that evaluation tools for traditional classes cannot address, such as course delivery, instructor's online input, and efficiency of the medium. In this article, the authors report on the reliability and validity of this instrument.

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The goal of this article was to study teachers' professional development related to web-based learning in the context of the teacher community. The object was to learn in what kind of networks teachers share the knowledge of web-based learning and what are the factors in the community that support or challenge teachers professional development of web-based learning.

Although the foreign-language profession routinely stresses the importance of technology for the curriculum, many teachers still harbor deep-seated doubts as to whether or not a hybrid course, much less a completely distance-learning class, could provide L2 learners with a way to reach linguistic proficiency, especially with respect to oral language skills. In this study, we examine the case of Spanish Without Walls (SWW), a first-year language course offered at the University of California - Davis in both hybrid and distance-learning formats.

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This study investigated the perception of students and instructors in online technology courses relative to the use of seven principles that demonstrate good practices in undergraduate education. The principles were originally developed for face-to-face instruction, but are applicable in a variety of instructional delivery methods.

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This study was conducted with data mining (DM) techniques to analyze various patterns of online learning behaviors, and to make predictions on learning outcomes . Statistical models and machine learning DM techniques were conducted to analyze 17,934 server logs to investigate 98 undergraduate students’ learning behaviors in an online business course in Taiwan.

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The study investigated whether two different versions of an online professional development course produced different impacts on the intended outcomes of the course. Variations of an online course for middle school algebra teachers were created for two experimental conditions. One was an actively facilitated course with asynchronous peer interactions among participants. The second was a self-paced condition, in which neither active facilitation or peer interactions were available. Both conditions showed significant impact on teachers’ mathematical understanding, pedagogical beliefs, and instructional practices. Surprisingly, the positive outcomes were comparable both conditions. Further research is needed to determine whether this finding is limited to self-selected teachers, the specifics of this online course, or other factors that limit generalizability.

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