Bolstering Teaching through Online Tools

This paper offers a compilation of technologies that provides either free or low-cost solutions to the challenges of teaching online courses. It presents various teaching methods the outlined tools and technologies can support, with emphasis on fit between these tools and the tasks they are meant to serve. In addition, it highlights various ethical, security and privacy considerations related to appropriate use of such tools. This integrated overview of various online teaching technologies can be easily leveraged to offer online as well as hybrid courses that are lively and more enriching to both the instructor and the students. Traditional in-person courses can also fruitfully use the tools and techniques mentioned in this paper to integrate recent innovations in online teaching technologies into the classroom

Continuance Intention of Food Blog Users in Pakistan

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between different factors affecting the interest of Pakistani blog users reading food blogs using components of the ECT model. Methodology: With the sample size of 392 food blog readers, the study analyzes the impact of expectation confirmation theory, blog user’s involvement, and habit on continuance intention of using the blog, and satisfaction level. Findings: User habit and user involvement both are positively related to factors which are users’ perceived enjoyment, satisfaction, and intention to revisit the blog. Users’ perceived enjoyment is positively related to user satisfaction and intention to revisit the food blog. Findings suggest that when bog users are satisfied, they intend to revisit the blog. Blogging time does not moderate the effect of habit on either perceived enjoyment, satisfaction, or continuance intention. Conclusion: It is concluded from the research that ECT can be applied to examine the satisfaction of blog users and their intention to continue blog use. However, further research is required to analyze the impact of ECT in another context apart from food blog readers and the blogging domain. This research extends the efforts of earlier research as previous research emphasized enjoyment and user involvement and rarely have, they covered the moderating effect caused by blogging time and the effect of blog users’ habits specifically in the food and beverage industry

A case study of blogging as a web-based learning tool: The experience of six graduate students in a traditional educational setting

This study explored the narratives of six graduate students who experienced blogging as a learning tool in a graduate seminar on adult education at an English language university in Montreal. The main research question was: What are the experiences of blogging as a learning tool by graduate students in a traditional education setting? All six participants volunteered to be interviewed a few months after the end of the course. They were all female, white between 25 and 59 years of age, four married and two single. Five of the interviews took place face to face in person and one interview was conducted on Skype. Six major themes were identified and summarized under the following headings: Challenges of the course blog experience, running the blog experience, the impact of blogging on learning, Moodle versus Blogger, the impact of blogging on the traditional educational system, and the participants’ evaluation of the experience. The results, summarized in a table at the end of Chapter 3, resonate well in relation to the existing body of the literature on the topic and point towards further research projects. This case study adds rich data about the experience of learners with educational blogging to the existing literature with regard to implementing blogs in traditional classrooms in higher education. This thesis may also be of use for educators interested in integrating technology in traditional classrooms in order to promote an active and useful learning experience for students