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The term "online learning" refers to an Internet- or intranet-based teaching and learning system designed for World Wide Web-based delivery without face-to-face contact between teacher and learner. The Internet is the backbone of online learning. The following media are available to designers of online courses: text; graphics and images; audio and video; animation and 3D models; communication tools; electronic mail; mailing lists; discussion boards; and chat. Designing online learning requires grounding in pedagogy, understanding of the subject to be taught, and understanding of the workings of the Web. The following items are critical to building an online environment: (1) a needs analysis to identify the demand for online courses and course credits and equivalence; (2) a learner profile focusing on hardware/software, Internet access/bandwidth, and costs; (3) an organizational profile identifying expertise and infrastructure and the level of faculty development; (4) a blueprint containing pedagogical features, the media mix, provisions for interaction, assessment procedures, learner responsibilities, and the course's development strategy; (5) institutional preparation; (6) learning materials development; (7) evaluation; (8) promotion of the course; and (9) maintenance and updating. Developing effective online learning requires an understanding of the features of the Web and a carefully planned blueprint for implementation. (Contains 30 references and Web resources.) (MN)

This paper concerns with a stochastic model to control an online course delivery in an e-learning system. Online course delivery is a general issue in e-learning systems. Integrating the activities is difficult due to rapid information flow and electronic devices failures. On the other hand, stochastic behaviour of course delivery activities make the situation worse. Here, we propose a program evaluation and review technique (PERT) to control the course delivery process. Also, for overcoming underestimation of the course delivery process completion time due to alternate paths, we apply Monte Carlo simulation. A numerical illustration shows the applicability of the proposed model.

The main purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss the main characteristics of project-based online learning (PBOL) for a graduate enchased Web-based course, Designing and Developing Distance Education, to promote the critical learning skills of online learners to engage them in projects designed to be realistic, intriguing and relevant real life experiences, to promote PBOL to model how theory translate into practice in higher education, to integrate PBOL by proposing situate learning in an authentic context by helping them think deeply, to encourage them to take ownership and responsibility for their critical thinking process, to support them to act as cognitive coaches throughout PBOL, and to give them guidance as needed, but encouraging them independence in thinking critically.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the processes utilised to develop an online learning module within the Opening Real Science (ORS) project--"Modelling the present: Predicting the future." The module was realised through an interdisciplinary collaboration, among mathematicians, scientists and mathematics and science educators that drew on the enquiry-based approach underpinning ORS as well as structuring devices and working practices that emerged during the course of the module development. The paper is a precursor to further research that will investigate the effectiveness of the module in terms of students' learning and attitudes as well as the module development team members' perspectives on the interdisciplinary collaboration that took place.

Our paper provides some critical attributes of an online homegrown assessment test, which we labelled Major Field Learning Test (MFLT). These attributes are also valid for departmental tests, directly connected to coursework which makes up the MFLT. The paper provides helpful recommendations for online assessment of learning as well as retention of learning. Our motivation was to assist other schools endeavoring to develop online in-house tests and add to the forum of exchange of ideas of assessing learning as well as retention of learning.

Our paper provides some critical attributes of an online homegrown assessment test, which we labelled Major Field Learning Test (MFLT). These attributes are also valid for departmental tests, directly connected to coursework which makes up the MFLT. The paper provides helpful recommendations for online assessment of learning as well as retention of learning. Our motivation was to assist other schools endeavoring to develop online in-house tests and add to the forum of exchange of ideas of assessing learning as well as retention of learning.

With the growing advancements in technology and their highly influential role in teaching and learning, present day teachers find themselves grappling with a whole set of parameters against which they need to measure themselves constantly. One cannot be a proficient teacher in the true sense of the word if he or she is merely good at classroom management. There is more to it than meets the eye. The teacher has to cut across domains in order to scale heights in a bid for survival in today's highly competitive scenario. Earlier, materials design, curriculum design, research, teacher development, etc. were the domains of ivy-tower researchers and pedagogues. But now, the teacher has to know a bit of all in order to handle the present tech-savvy learners. This paper is an attempt to orient those teachers who are at the beginner's level or the intermediate level to use user-friendly online platforms to design tasks and activities. The purpose of doing so is to enable teachers to create a highly interactive learning set up for the purpose of blended learning or for any online learning that serves more of a supplementary role. The research focuses on the Belgium-based platform BookWidgets to strengthen its claim that the right materials at the right time for the right learners is sure to yield the right results. There are different types of softwares covered under three main apps in BookWidgets--Test and Review, Games, and Miscellaneous. The research concludes with an evaluation of the platform based on Chapelle's evaluation criteria. The conclusion attempts to strengthen the claim that BookWidgets is, in every sense, one of the best options for interactive learning.

The purpose of this study was to identify emergent themes regarding higher education instructors' perceptions concerning the provision of collaborative learning activities and opportunities in their online classroom. Through semi-structured interviews, instructors described their teaching experiences and reported specifically about the online collaborative opportunities offered in their online classrooms. A multi-phase coding process was used to analyze the information, including the constant comparative coding method for theme and category development. The three main themes that emerged from this study are: the importance of online communication approaches, challenges and supports for online collaborative learning, and online learner support as the core of online learning. In the online classroom, additional factors must be considered in order to develop successful online collaborative learning. Beyond group work, these considerations include additional time and nurturing, scaffolding, instructional design, and understanding students' comfort level with collaborative online work. The findings of this study are discussed, and recommendations are provided for the development and design of meaningful online collaborative learning.

Lack of student participation and intrinsic motivation in online learning environments is a challenge to instructional design. There are some online communities which overcome this challenge by attracting participants from diverse backgrounds to engage, learn, and share information within their context. Eksisozluk, an online collaborative dictionary, is one of these communities. In this study we inquire for the unique characteristics of Eksisozluk that can be applied to online learning environments to increase student motivation and participation. Study data were collected through online surveys and one-to-one interviews. Study findings show that the unique characteristics of Eksisozluk include a community history, individual identities evolved through participation, an effective search facility, and representation of multiple perspectives. In the implications for practice section, we discuss the identified characteristics and address some strategies to implement them in learning environments. (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.)

Online role plays, as they are designed for use in higher education in Australia and internationally, are active and authentic learning activities (Wills, Leigh & Ip, 2011). In online role plays, students take a character role in developing a story that serves as a metaphor for real-life experience in order to develop a potentially wide range of subject-related and generic learning outcomes. The characteristics of these stories are rarely considered as factors in the design--and success--of these activities. The unspoken cultural assumptions, norms and rules in the stories that impact on the meanings students make from their experiences are also rarely scrutinised in the online role play literature. This paper presents findings from a case study of an asynchronous text-based online role play involving politics and journalism students from three Australian universities. The findings highlight the centrality of students' collaborative story-building activity to their engagement and learning, including their development of critical perspectives. The study underlines the importance of certain aspects of the role play's design to support students' story-building activity. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

Online role plays, as they are designed for use in higher education in Australia and internationally, are active and authentic learning activities (Wills, Leigh & Ip, 2011). In online role plays, students take a character role in developing a story that serves as a metaphor for real-life experience in order to develop a potentially wide range of subject-related and generic learning outcomes. The characteristics of these stories are rarely considered as factors in the design--and success--of these activities. The unspoken cultural assumptions, norms and rules in the stories that impact on the meanings students make from their experiences are also rarely scrutinised in the online role play literature. This paper presents findings from a case study of an asynchronous text-based online role play involving politics and journalism students from three Australian universities. The findings highlight the centrality of students' collaborative story-building activity to their engagement and learning, including their development of critical perspectives. The study underlines the importance of certain aspects of the role play's design to support students' story-building activity. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

This chapter showcases the implementation of an E+VE (Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange) project in a 'broadening module' (elective content-specific modules offered across the university curricula) at the University of Limerick (UL), entitled 'Communication Across Cultures'. The pedagogical approach follows a blended learning model where face-to-face lectures are combined with the "Cultural Encounters" programme series of iOOCs (interactive Open Online Courses) offered by E+VE. This pedagogical practice has received positive feedback due to the practical appropriateness and effectiveness of the VE to the module, and has also been successful in terms of intercultural awareness and learning, in addition to the development of intercultural competence and communication skills. [For the complete volume, "Designing and Implementing Virtual Exchange -- A Collection of Case Studies," see ED609252.]

Designing and implementing successful online learning has been at the forefront of institutional agendas since digital learning increased in market demand over the last decade. However there is still ongoing debate as to the "how" of this arduous task. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) is one learning design method that has seen potential in the field, but practical implementation of designing for the important components of Social, Cognitive and Teaching Presence have yet to be fully realised. This paper researches an e-learning design strategy called E-tivities as a suggested possible method for designing for CoI components. The research explored recent online blog posts of experienced learning designers' and educators' experience in designing successful online learning using E-tivities. Results suggest the E-tivities do have the potential to cater for all Presences of CoI. Specifically when using E-tivities to design online learning Affective Expression was the highest reported Social Presence design factor. All four components of Cognitive Presence appeared to be present in E-tivities design. The most important component for adequate Teaching Presence factors was the initial Design and Organisation of the course. E-tivities and the 5-Stage Model provides a solid framework for this to occur.

Designing and implementing successful online learning has been at the forefront of institutional agendas since digital learning increased in market demand over the last decade. However there is still ongoing debate as to the "how" of this arduous task. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) is one learning design method that has seen potential in the field, but practical implementation of designing for the important components of Social, Cognitive and Teaching Presence have yet to be fully realised. This paper researches an e-learning design strategy called E-tivities as a suggested possible method for designing for CoI components. The research explored recent online blog posts of experienced learning designers' and educators' experience in designing successful online learning using E-tivities. Results suggest the E-tivities do have the potential to cater for all Presences of CoI. Specifically when using E-tivities to design online learning Affective Expression was the highest reported Social Presence design factor. All four components of Cognitive Presence appeared to be present in E-tivities design. The most important component for adequate Teaching Presence factors was the initial Design and Organisation of the course. E-tivities and the 5-Stage Model provides a solid framework for this to occur.

This study reviewed applied research literature testing the efficacy of using instructional strategies to develop college students' self-directed learning skills. Researchers conducted a systematic database review of recent empirical studies from 2011 through 2021 and synthesized findings from four recent literature reviews into for two types of self-directed learning processes--motivational and metacognitive. The review sought to identify instructional strategies that could be adapted to online courses and showed promising evidence of increasing college students' reported use or awareness of self-directed learning skills or improving academic success in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) courses, particularly those offered in the first year of higher education. The initial database search found 4,263 studies using terms related to "self-regulated learning," STEM domains, technology use, and both postsecondary and secondary students. Initial screening focused on studies using self-regulated learning as either an outcome or predictor variable in classroom interventions with a college or high school population reduced the sample to 209 studies. Subsequent screening identified 15 studies using treatment-comparison design with baseline equivalence and outcomes related to course grades, domain knowledge, and self-regulated learning skills. Our review found that several strategies showed significant positive impacts on academic outcomes or self-reported use of self-regulated learning skills and appeared adaptable to online learning application. We ultimately drew from literature beyond self-regulated learning, including motivational frameworks such as self-determination theory. Consultations with education partners favored aligning our framework with the adult-learning orientation of self-directed learning theory. We synthesized these findings with the findings from the four recent literature review that showed promising results for all students or historically marginalized populations. [This report was created by the Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative.]

This paper deploys notions of emergence, connections, and designs for learning to conceptualize high school students' interactions when using online social media as a learning environment. It makes links to chaos and complexity theories and to fractal patterns as it reports on a part of the first author's action research study, conducted while she was a teacher working in an Australian public high school and completing her PhD. The study investigates the use of a Ning online social network as a learning environment shared by seven classes, and it examines students' reactions and online activity while using a range of social media and Web 2.0 tools. The authors use Graham Nuthall's (2007) "lens on learning" to explore the social processes and culture of this shared online classroom. The paper uses his extensive body of research and analyses of classroom learning processes to conceptualize and analyze data throughout the action research cycle. It discusses the pedagogical implications that arise from the use of social media and, in so doing, challenges traditional models of teaching and learning. (Contains 10 figures.)

Online learning is increasingly being used in K-12 learning environments. A concomitant trend is found towards learning becoming "authentic" as students learn with tasks that are connected to real world occupations. In this study, 48 pre-service teachers use an online environment to engage in authentic practice as they developed online learning experiences for their future students. Using a design-based research methodology, the researchers were involved in planning, designing, implementing, and evaluating the higher education class across two macro cycles. An authentic learning framework was utilized in the development of the class. Findings explicate the design of the course and how it aligned to the authentic learning framework. It appears that web-based tools were beneficial as the pre-service teachers designed their own K-12 online classes. Findings show that the pre-service teachers' comfort increased when using the using online web building applications in the authentic environment. Furthermore, a high level of engagement in reflective and collaborative learning was uncovered during the activities. This research acts as a springboard for educators who are interested in designing online higher education courses incorporating authentic learning experiences.

Online learning is increasingly being used in K-12 learning environments. A concomitant trend is found towards learning becoming "authentic" as students learn with tasks that are connected to real world occupations. In this study, 48 pre-service teachers use an online environment to engage in authentic practice as they developed online learning experiences for their future students. Using a design-based research methodology, the researchers were involved in planning, designing, implementing, and evaluating the higher education class across two macro cycles. An authentic learning framework was utilized in the development of the class. Findings explicate the design of the course and how it aligned to the authentic learning framework. It appears that web-based tools were beneficial as the pre-service teachers designed their own K-12 online classes. Findings show that the pre-service teachers' comfort increased when using the using online web building applications in the authentic environment. Furthermore, a high level of engagement in reflective and collaborative learning was uncovered during the activities. This research acts as a springboard for educators who are interested in designing online higher education courses incorporating authentic learning experiences.

This paper presents a promising and powerful approach used to cultivate a doctoral community of inquiry and practice and harness the intelligence, commitment, and energy of all of its members in a blended learning environment. The discussion board online learning community approach was developed to transform a traditional face-to-face doctoral course into a blended learning environment centered in dialogue, inquiry, critical thinking, valuing diversity, collaboration, reflection, and deep and life-long learning. This work benefits instructors and education practitioners who are looking for an effective approach that produces deep learning and develops individual and collective student efficacy and capacity (content, process, and leadership) by creating powerful virtual networks that shift facilitation of discourse and ownership for learning from the instructor to students.

Seventeen scholarly papers and twelve abstracts comprise the content of the twentieth annual Brick & Click Libraries Conference, held annually at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. The twentieth Brick & Click Libraries Conference was held virtually. The proceedings, authored by academic librarians and presented at the conference, portray the contemporary and future face of librarianship. The 2020 paper and abstract titles include: (1) From the Wild West to Teamwork: Faculty Driven Acquisitions (Randyn Heisserer-Miller, Stephanie Hallam, and Brad Reel); (2) Student Engagement: Exploring Primary Sources in the Library of Congress in an Online Course (Peggy Ridlen); (3) Object Oriented vs Functional Programming - Library Instruction in a Bite-Sized Functional Model (Billy Moore); (4) When People Count: Leveraging Internal Resources to Develop a Program for Tracking Building Usage (Terra Feick); (5) Interactive Introductions for International Students: Reworking How We Teach Information Literacy Skills (Kelly Hovinga); (6) Fostering Success for New Faculty Librarians (Karen Bleier); (7) We Did It, You Can Do It, Too: In-House Digital Preservation (Samantha Henning); (8) Stacking it Up: A Textbooks on Reserve Program (Katharine Baldwin and Jenise Overmier); (9) Teaching into the Gray Areas: Designing Learning Activities That Encourage Higher Order Thinking and Research Skills (Virginia L. Cairns); (10) Building a Teaching Strategy Toolkit to Engage Learners (Courtney Mlinar); (11) Cracking the Code: Building an Assessment Plan with Student Discussion Boards (Anthony Rodgers and Courtney Strimel); (12) Making the Most of LibApps (Kayla Reed); (13) Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Gloom of Night: Maintaining Library Services During a Medical State of Emergency (Rob Withers); (14) Psychological Safety and Building Effective Teams (Kara Whatley, Deborah Caesar, Amanda Watson, and Molly Nystrom); (15) Summer in the Stacks: A Weeding Experience Between Faculty and Library (Kayla Reed and Hong Li); (16) Puppies and Kitties Oh My!: Partnering with a Local PETPALS Organization (Leila June Rod-Welch and Jordan A. Newburg); (17) Unlocking Online Escape Rooms for Library Instruction (Sean Cordes); (18) Spectral Tales: Lessons Learned from Being Ghosted by Faculty (Tammi M. Owens, Meghan Salsbury, and Heidi Blackburn); (19) The Librarian's Guide to Zines for Classroom and Community (Claire Du Laney, Monica Maher, and Amy C. Schindler); (20) Professionalizing Student Employment: The Library Associates Program at Hendrix College (Janice Weddle); (21) Making It Easy to Read Harder: Implementing a Reading Challenge at Community College (Amy Fortner, Anthony Rodgers, and Gwen Wolfe); (22) Beyond the Humanities: Archives Instruction for Science and Medicine (Laurinda Weisse); (23) Library Collaboration with the Smithsonian: World War I Lessons and Legacies Exhibit (Leila June Rod-Welch and Julie Ann Beddow); (24) The Genesis of a Conduct Policy in a Medium-Sized Academic Library (John Baken); (25) Universal Design and Accessibility: A Checklist for LibGuides and Online Tutorials (Courtney Mlinar); (26) Anti-vaxxers, Sasquatch DNA and Other "Scientific" Findings: Actively Engaging Distance Students in Media Literacy (Joanna Nemeth); (27) All Good Things Must Come to an End: When Library Staff Pass Away (Rob Withers); (28) If "They" Build it, "They" Will Come (Martha Allen); and (29) Save the Earth - Earth Day Game Drive: Small Steps, Big Impact (Leila June Rod-Welch). [For the 2019 proceedings, see ED600185.]