Stewardship in Distance Education: A Comparative Analysis of Technologies that Support Student Learning

Effectively facilitating the growth of learners demonstrates prudent stewardship (Galatians 6:10; Genesis 2:15). As wise stewards of what God has entrusted to them, Christian educators are challenged to identify factors critical for supporting students’ learning in whatever environment they are teaching. When teaching in the online environment, this includes adopting technological applications to support learning. This study compared the use of two technological applications and their affect on student learning. Findings provided evidence that online graduate learners who used the combination of a content management system and e-conferencing system reported significantly higher perceptions of learning than learners who used only the content management system. Additional findings were not significant

Synchronous and asynchronous distance learning: benefits and limitations

This paper provides the definition of the notion “distance education”, which is regarded as a planned and systematic activity which comprises the choice, didactic preparation and presentation of teaching materials as well as the supervision and support of student learning and which is achieved by bridging the physical distance between student and teacher by means of at least one appropriate technical medium. The research describes two basic types of distance learning, namely synchronous and asynchronous, in details. The benefits and limitations of both types are analysed. Distance education theory is provided

Benefits, Limitations and Best Practices of Online Coursework…Should Accounting Programs Jump on Board?

The evolution of online teaching has evolved as quickly and vivaciously as the adoption of the World Wide Web. While there were and are skeptics, research shows that not only is online learning more convenient and makes educational available anytime and anywhere, it has the potential, in some cases, to be an improved tool for educating. To ensure maximized learning outcomes, and to experience the blessing and not the curse of online coursework, it is critical that universities embrace it wholeheartedly and follow online pedagogical best practices in developing and executing online courses. In addition, there are some courses where special forethought should be made to ensure online learning is effective. Courses that are more computational necessitate this consideration. This document serves to provide strategies and best practices on how to obtain excellence and maximized outcomes from online education. It examines research to date and outlines: the benefits and challenges of online learning, strategies and best practices for online educating, and considerations for online accounting coursework

Technologies that Assist in Closing the Achievement Gap: A Comparison African American and Caucasian Students’ Learning and Community in the Online Classroom

Higher Education administrators and educators seek to understand how to design and to facilitate online courses to ensure quality, culturally responsive online education for minority students, specifically African American students, and to close the academic achievement gap that exists today. This study examines online students’ using both synchronous and asynchronous technologies to determine whether students’ social presence, cognitive presence, teacher presence, and perceived learning differ based upon ethnicity. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted. Results yielded no significant difference in dependent variables based on ethnicity

The Promise of E-Platform Technology in Medical Education

Increasing the number as well as improving the capacity and quality of medical professionals to achieve an equitable health care for all is a global priority and a global challenge. In developing countries, which are facing the largest burden of disease, to achieve the above stated objective, there is a big need for more well-trained, competent and dedicated health care providers. Currently, there is a well-documented shortage of trained health workers globally, with the poorest countries having the greatest shortfalls.The time tested, traditional approach of training health care force by importing professionals from overseas is not only prohibitively expensive but also not sufficient to achieve the scale and pace of the required human capacity building. Considering this fact, distance learning programs, which include m-Health as well as other information technology (IT) platforms and tools, can provide unique, timely, cost-effective, easily scalable and valuable opportunities to expand access to training health care manpower in developing countries where the shortage is critical.Keywords: E-Platform technology, Vedio conference, Distance learnin

Long distance literacies: Developing academic engagement and equality of provision for distance learners

The Distance Learning PGCE is a Level 7 course, with many students requiring additional support to develop academic skills at this level. Campus-based students with similar needs have access to academic skills guidance from academic librarians and [institution LD team] which includes self-learn material, drop-in workshops and one-to-one tutorials as well as embedded skills sessions. There are numerous online self-access tutorials for distance learners (see for example [link to institution LD online resources]), however this asynchronous provision inevitably lacks the social and interactive learning opportunities available via synchronous tuition (Hrastinkski, 2008). This can reduce ‘transactional distance’ (Moore, 1993) and result in an unequal learning experience for distance learners. This project seeks to redress the balance by providing a structured programme of synchronous online interactive academic skills workshops (webinars) for distance learners on this course. The project is a collaboration between the Online Learning Tutors, the Academic Librarian and a student partner from the previous year’s cohort. We intend to evaluate the programme by collecting a range of data including participant self-assessment (quantitative); webinar evaluation (quantitative and qualitative) and focus groups (qualitative). Analysis of these data will enable us to answer two key questions: Have students’ academic skills improved as a result of the synchronous learning opportunities? Have the synchronous learning opportunities helped to reduce transactional distance? Although we are still in the data collection phase of the project, preliminary findings indicate a positive response from participants with regard to both questions

Perancangan Antarmuka Online Course Pada Perangkat Mobile Menggunakan Teori USAbility

E-learning model can be developed into various forms according to the context of development. All of e-learning model aims to support learning process. The main objective of this study was to design online course interface that runs in mobile device using the theory of USAbility ISO 9241-11 in UAJY (Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta). Data was collected from 55 undergraduate students of UAJY. It is used as initial state in design process. Furthermore, online course interface design created with use case diagram that adapted to activities of HTA. Nevertheless, in the design process components of interface created by the user persona and mobile device pattern, as well as guided by MGQM, which is also adapted to the limitations of this study and the conditions in UAJY. In addition, using log data collection to handle part of MGQM, which related with time, steps, resources