Past CIDER Sessions

Research pertaining to graduate students in distance education and their thesis research process is woefully constrained. Consequently, potentially important research and research areas remain unexplored. This presentation will explore specifically the issues graduate students experience conducting the research phase of the thesis, including the challenges students may encounter to recruit participants.

Streams of research identified in the presentation will be: online graduate work broadly, to create context around how graduate study emerged, the value of graduate work, and central issues; the particular case of thesis research students who work in an online environment; graduate student researchers in higher education, on campus or distance education and their access to research participants; and access to research participants in an online environment, whether it is different from campus based access and if so how.

The paucity of research into the issues graduate students face when actually doing research is cause for concern. Research universities that have a focus in distance education must be aware of these challenges if they are to unfetter the constraints faced by their graduate students.

Ontological debates on the nature of affordances muddy the waters for interpreting, comparing, and critiquing research on technological affordances. The widespread use of affordances has naturalized the term, often masking the import of its evolving social science definitions. Diversity in applications of affordances across disciplines has led to calls to abandon the term altogether.

Following an account of ontological debates about the nature of affordances, Dr. Parchoma will examine a selection of thematically linked and often-cited papers on technological affordances for varied applications of the term. Implications for research will be discussed.

Networked learning supporting professional skill development is becoming more commonplace as social media tools and practices become part of daily life.

Dr. Ostashewski's session will describe some of the unexpected benefits experienced by learners who participate in networked learning activities designed using the Networked Learning Framework. Challenges with the design, development, and delivery of networked learning that engages learners are also explored in this session based on research that began in 2009. A online dance teacher program, a SMOOC, and Teacher Professional Development modules designed using the Networked Learning Framework approaches described in this session will be discussed as examples.

Over the past two decades, there has been little government, foundation, or private funding for the development of or research into K-12 online learning in Canada. Moreover, there has been little activity in Canadian higher education towards the research of K-12 online learning. Both of which have limited the focus and scope of education research into K-12 online learning. As such, K-12 online learning has continued to develop across Canada quietly, and with little dissemination outside of the country and between individual provinces. Over the past five years, the "State of the Nation: K-12 Online Learning in Canada" study has attempted to address this gap by examining of the regulation and activity of K-12 distance education in Canada. In this ongoing series, Dr. Barbour returns to CIDER with this year's State of the Nation. Among his findings:

Regulation continues to vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, including no regulation separate from the traditional brick-and-mortar system to significant and extensive regulation specific to distance learning. British Columbia continues to have the most structured regulatory regime and the highest level of K-12 distance education activity. The use of K-12 distance education is present in every jurisdiction and growing, although growth is still uneven and only experienced in certain jurisdictions. There continues to be a reliance on traditional or print-based methods of distance education delivery in some jurisdictions. Blended learning is often not seen as a part of K-12 distance education or K-12 online learning, with most simply seeing it as effective classroom technology integration. Distance education is still viewed as a substitute to brick-and-mortar in many instances, that should be used when that face-to-face learning not feasible or economic. Finally, teachers unions continue to be cautiously supportive of K-12 distance education, although there are growing concerns over workload and other working conditions.

In this session, Dr. Irvine, professor of educational technology and co-director of the University of Victoria's Technology Integration and Evaluation (TIE) Research Lab, and Luke Richards, doctoral student at the University of Victoria, will present an overview of multi-access learning, which Dr. Irvine introduced in 2009.

In a recent study, a core teacher education course at UVic was offered in a multi-access format in the Fall of 2012. Seventeen remote students connected into a classroom via video where nine students and the instructor were face-to-face. The course is now completed and preliminary results will be discussed in this CIDER session. Student preferences for course access and their perceptions about the quality of learning experience will be reviewed as we examine implications for the brick-and-mortar university.

This session will examine instructor multicultural efficacy in global online learning communities. The main premise of this research was that, because instructors project their individual personalities in the online environment via their teaching and social presence, both of which are largely rooted in their dominant culture, their values, beliefs, and attitudes will significantly affect learners' social and cognitive presence.

To explore this phenomenon in the CoI framework, a two-phase study was conducted with ten instructors from two Alberta higher education institutions. Phase one comprised creating intercultural competency indicators to test how they developed and expanded existing teaching and social presence indicators. Qualitative data revealed that in the lack of any cross-cultural design, instructors utilize facilitation and open communication strategies to foster learning and prevent conflict. Phase two involved augmenting the 34-item CoI survey instrument. Additional roles that relate to instructor cross-cultural efficacy were incorporated into both teaching and social presence elements based on qualitative findings. Quantitative data revealed that the incorporated cultural indicators correlated highly with the teaching and social indicators, indicating their usefulness to measure multicultural efficacy in the CoI framework.

In this CIDER session, Inge de Waard will take a look at what MOOCs are and how ubiquity affects learner interactions. Starting from the history of MOOCs and their general design, the session will gradually focus on the different learner interactions. MOOCs are a contemporary course format that allows students from all parts of the world to connect and interact on specific topics. Traditionally MOOCs use a lot of social media to promote networking and collaboration between learners. These social media in combination with learner created content exchange leads to a specific learner dynamic.

Ms. de Waard looks into the learner interactions using the Community of Inquiry framework. This enables research to look at social or personal interactions vis-a-vis academic or intellectual interactions. The reason for looking into these categories of learner interactions is to look at ubiquity or mobile accessibility on open, online courses and whether this ubiquity has an impact on learner interactions of any kind. The research will bring mobile learning and MOOCs together, both of which are contemporary educational formats that have opened up new pedagogical and educational opportunities to increase the effectiveness of learning online.

In this talk, Dr. Jon Dron from the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute at Athabasca University will ask some fundamental questions about the nature of learning technologies and, in attempting to answer them, reveal some thoughts on how we should go about building and using them. This is a journey into the heart of something seemingly familiar to all distance and online educators but that turns out to be, on closer examination, complex, fuzzy, and unexpectedly strange. On this journey you will encounter some soft things, some hard things, a screwdriver, two cyborgs, three bears and a Big Mac. What binds them together is a way of seeing learning technologies not as something 'other' but as something integral to and inseparable from all education, whatever the distance.

The Supreme Court has recently re-affirmed the broad and liberal interpretation of fair dealing. In the fair dealing and other cases that have been concluded the Court also extended the interpretation of fair dealing to the reproduction classroom copies, whether required or not. Another decision affirmed that fair dealing is technologically neutral. This is important for online learning as there is no question that many different devices and applications can access content without fear of breaking copyright. These ruling are based on the old copyright law.

Bill C-11 opens fair dealing even further by including "education" as a legitimate purpose. And, the new statutory damages clauses limit institutional liability, so that there is little if any risk in making full use of fair dealing rights.

In this session by Dr. McGreal, UNESCO/COL Chair in OER from the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI) at Athabasca University, these issues will be introduced and opened up for discussion.

Blending diverse learning experiences have been in existence since humans started thinking about teaching. Recently, the term blended learning emerged to describe the infusion of new technologies into the traditional learning and teaching process. In particular, the Internet provides the opportunity to create, support and/or maintain a community of learners in a blend of place-based and Internet-based environments. Still under discussion are the fine distinctions and effects of activities in learning environments touched by the Internet, and its social, instructional, and cognitive impact.

In an autoethnographic account of leading and facilitating such a blended university course, descriptions of the instructor's intrapersonal and interpersonal experiences are referenced against proposed teaching strategies in a blended community of inquiry. Post-course student responses to the learning experience demonstrate that the highest value was placed on the learning environment created by the group and the instructor's support.

Over the past two decades, there has been little government, foundation, or private funding for the development of or research into K-12 online learning in Canada. Moreover, there has been little activity in Canadian higher education towards the research of K-12 online learning. Both of which have limited the focus and scope of education research into K-12 online learning. As such, K-12 online learning has continued to develop across Canada quietly, and with little dissemination outside of the country and between individual provinces.

Over the past four years, the State of the Nation: K-12 Online Learning in Canada study has attempted to address this gap by examining of the regulation and activity of K-12 distance education in Canada. In this ongoing series, Dr. Barbour returns to CIDER with this year's State of the Nation. Among his findings:

Regulation continues to vary from language in the Education or Schools Act, Ministerial Directives, policy documents, inter-provincial agreements, and collective bargaining agreements. British Columbia continues to have the most structured regulatory regime, while Quebec and Saskatchewan continue to have no regulation at all for K-12 distance education. One development over the past year has occurred in the province of Alberta, where the government has continued to shift its focus from a distance education to an educational environment where online and blended learning are pervasive - however, little movement has actually transpired on that front. The use of K-12 distance education is present in every jurisdiction and growing, although that growth is uneven and only experienced in certain jurisdictions. However, that growth was isolated to a few jurisdictions in 2010-11, with British Columbia still having the highest number and highest percentage of activity. There continues to be a heavy reliance on print-based methods of distance education delivery in some jurisdictions. Finally, distance education is largely viewed as a substitute to brick-and-mortar that should be used when that face-to-face learning not feasible or economic.

Human use of information is constant in daily activities. Pirolli extrapolated food foraging models to information: information foraging. The internet, social media, and emerging technologies have not only made information more abundant; they have made it more fragmented and complex. Conducting research on the online information interaction activities of individuals can be difficult as information environments co-evolve with the actions of individual agents. If the research project is too structured and intrusive, participants may begin to alter their activities in response to the researcher's activity. If the project is too open, researchers will have difficulty tracking participant activity in distributed settings.

Fortunately, with digital technologies, the trails and traces that individuals leave as they interact online can provide researchers with valuable insight. Open online courses (sometimes called MOOCs: massive open online courses) are situated between structured classrooms where the educator typically defines information structures and the open web where learners are self-directed without cohort goals and objectives. This presentation will provide an overview of how our relationship to information is changing, review a grounded theory analysis of sensemaking and wayfinding activity of learners in open online courses, and present the Sensemaking Wayfinding Information Model (SWIM) for how individuals deal with complex information.

Evidence suggests that motivation is an important consideration for online learners. Based on this, existing research has frequently focused on exploring ways to design online environments that are motivating to learners. Alternatively, motivation has been thought of as a collection of relatively stable personal characteristics of learners with a view to identifying those traits that predict learner success. However, more contemporary views acknowledge that it is the complex and dynamic interplay of both personal and environmental factors that influence motivation to learn. This presentation reports on research that investigated the nature of motivation in online learning environments from a contemporary 'person in context' perspective. It highlights that motivation is more multidimensional and situation-dependent than first thought and identifies a range of social and contextual factors that can combine in complex ways to foster or undermine motivation.

At a time when the conventions of online teaching and learning favor student interaction in a variety of synchronous and asynchronous design features, what could sound more out-of-step than the self-paced course organized around autonomy and the isolated student? But claims for the value of online "learning communities" can be overstated, and the preferences of adult students overlooked. The self-paced course in which students work on their own to complete a sequence of activities (like reading texts, viewing and listening to digital media, exploring websites, and completing writing assignments) may actually satisfy the needs of adult learners as much (or more) than online courses reflecting one version or another of social constructivism in design. This presentation explores historical, theoretical, and practical dimensions of the self-paced course and concludes with evidence for success in using the format in a fully online MA program.

Collaborative learning in a project-based small group activity is a complex process. Groups may struggle with problems and conflicts throughout the process. Instructor’s careful observation and evaluation to provide timely intervention is the key for successful collaborative learning. In this presentation, Dr. Namsook Jahng and Dr. Wendy Nielsen will discuss how to assess group collaboration in order to identify critical problems. Based on our research findings from a content analysis, we propose three quantitative indices (quantity, equality, sharedness) for identifying at-risk groups in collaboration. The research was framed in a Small Group Collaborative Learning Model that was developed by modifying the Community of Inquiry model.

*NOTE: A recording of this session is not yet available. We expect it to be ready in two or three days. Please visit us again.

Universities represent an organizational model on their own unique path toward project management maturity. Over the last decade, they have embraced project management practices in an attempt to apply a greater degree of planning and coordination to teaching and learning strategies. The management of e-Learning projects has been directly affected by such developments. This presentation will share findings and specifically identify project management processes and practices that will resonate with and enable participants to reconsider their own approach to managing e-Learning projects.

As currently conceived, the community of inquiry framework provides a way of describing teaching presence in online discussion forums but is less useful in enhancing our understanding of the considerable negotiation that instructors engage in while facilitating a course. Using sociocultural theory as a framework, this presentation will discuss evidence from a multiple case study research in international online teaching contexts. The discussion will include the variation in how different instructors perceive the same interaction spaces, the disconnect between what instructors did and what they intended to do, and the importance of adopting different theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding teaching presence.

Learning has always been both individual and social, within communities, networks and (particularly in the 20th Century) within institutions. But the balance between structure and agency is shifting, and informal learning is growing exponentially. The Web provides unprecedented opportunities for people to create content, and social software provides opportunities for anyone to create and participate in new types of communities and social networks. This raises two questions: what affordances does this provide for learning, and what frameworks can we use to understand and facilitate these affordances, and benefit from them? In this presentation we will outline a framework based on complexity theory, and test it against some case studies to see whether ‘emergent learning’ might help us to answer these questions about the new learning ecologies.

Iain Doherty will discuss the pedagogical principles underlying a taught postgraduate distance course, ClinED 711 Elearning and Clinical Education. The aim of ClinED 711 is to teach clinical educators the necessary knowledge and skills to convert their own courses for flexible and distance delivery. ClinED 711 was designed to offer a personalized and authentic learning experience and Iain’s presentation will focus on how these aims were progressively realized through refining and improving the course design for ClinED 711. Whilst ClinED 711 is a specialized postgraduate course, the principles for the design and delivery of the course should be of interest to a wide audience.

Information on ClinED 711 can be found by clicking on the link provided below.

In this presentation, Dr. Guadalupe Vadillo will describe a recent study looking into the characteristics of online learners at the secondary level. Students from three public online Mexican high schools were interviewed individually for the purpose of identifying differentiating characteristics among high, medium and low performing students. Analysis of the transcriptions was conducted. Twelve categories were found and differences in nine of these categories were identified. Details of this research study and the results will be discussed.

After speculation in the literature about the nature of possible Personal Learning Environments, research in the design and development of a PLE is now in progress. Rita Kop and Helene Fournier will report on the educational research involved in the National Research Council of Canada, Institute for Information Technology’s Personal Learning Environment project. This presentation will highlight important components, applications and tools in a PLE as identified through surveys of potential end users. The learner experience and the minimum set of components required to facilitate quality learning will be placed at the forefront.

Since 2003, the Chinese Ministry of Education has supported the creation of more than 12,000 open courses with the purpose of improving the quality of undergraduate teaching in the rapidly expanding Chinese university sector. This project, called the Top Level Courses Project, includes both traditional undergraduate courses, vocational courses, and online courses.

Based on interviews with Chinese professors, administrators and bureaucrats, this study situates the project within the history of higher education in China, and examines how the curriculum design process and course evaluations have developed very differently from what is common in North American universities. Drawing examples from the role of the online courses offered, the presentation will also discuss a number of current and future trends in Chinese distance education policy.

As learners interact in online networks of learning, how do they come to know one another? Building on the work of Goffman (1959) and Foucault (1988), the Web of Identity (WoI) model shows how online learners may use dramaturgical strategies to create and negotiate their personal identities in a continuous flux of presentation and interpretation. Philosophically, the model is highly social constructionist and places a great emphasis on relational dialogue. For practitioners, the implications include finding ways to aid learners to improve their use and translation of WoI strategies. Such skill, theoretically, should help them to enact their unique personalities, lessen their sense of fragmentation, increase their sense of belonging, and gauge authenticity of others. The researchers, Marguerite Koole and Dr. Gale Parchoma, will then discuss some preliminary research projects on identity in networked learning and future research in the field.

Lindsay Jordan will present the theoretical basis for and methodology of an intervention to enable distance learning students in International Construction Management to collaboratively develop and demonstrate skills such as conflict management and dispute resolution, and to apply their understanding of contract law to practice. The activity utilises Web 2.0 tools such as forums and wikis to facilitate asynchronous and synchronous communication and collaborative problem-solving, and exemplifies the alignment of assessment with the practical application that students are likely to experience in their professional lives. The results of the intervention and implications for future research will be presented.

While many studies explore the experiences of online learners, few focus on professors’ orientations to teaching online. This presentation is an exploration of an action research project focusing on Master of Education professors working in conjunction with an instructional designer. Conversation analysis explored how participants with varied face-to-face teaching experiences ―but limited or no online experience―transitioned to becoming effective teachers in virtual classrooms. Results indicate the need for professors to examine their own pedagogical constructs and concepts of learning communities and power relationships. This session will also include discussion on ways in which instructional designers can support professors’ transition to online learning.

This presentation will focus on the 2010 State of the Nation - the third annual survey of K-12 distance education in Canada. This year’s report documents similar trends in the regulation of K-12 distance education from previous years (e.g., British Columbia continues to have the most extensive regulatory regime). Additionally, Canadian teachers’ unions continue their cautious support of the use of distance education in the K-12 environment. All thirteen provinces and territories continue to use distance education within their K-12 systems, although in many instances the method of delivery is still using print-based materials. At present K-12 distance education enrolment is estimated to be between 150,000 and 175,000 students. This presentation will unpack some of these trends and expand upon each of the provincial and territorial profiles.

Using a unique online approach to data gathering, students were asked to isolate the characteristics they believe are essential to effective teaching at the university level. An open-ended online survey was made available to over 17,000 graduate and undergraduate students at Memorial University of Newfoundland during the winter semester of 2008. Derived from this rich data are student definitions of nine characteristics and sets of instructor behaviours that students perceive as essential to effective teaching. The survey takes into account the opinions of students studying both on-campus and at a distance via the web, with the intention of determining if the characteristics of effective teaching in an online environment are different from those in the traditional face-to-face setting.

In this session, Marguerite Koole (Athabasca University, Canada), Fatma Elsayed Meawad (German University, Cairo), and Inge de Waard (Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium) will describe two mobile learning projects:

1. A project piloting a Java-based system called “MobiGlam”. Through MobiGlam, students accessed Moodle course modules on their mobile devices. Evaluations from this 2008 project highlighted some interesting challenges in the Canadian context.

2. A mobile learning project of the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium and the Institute of Tropical Medicine Alexander von Humboldt, Lima, Peru. Twenty physicians, deployed in urban peripheral HIV/AIDS clinics in Peru, used Smartphones with portable solar chargers to access 3D simulations of interactive clinical cases, discussion forums, and quizzes.

Prior to the presentation, participants are invited to review the project videos. The link to the presentation will be posted just prior to the session start date.

Results are shared from a recent doctoral study that explored the leadership implications for delivering online learning in a mainstream Canadian higher education institution by examining the characteristics, attributes, motivations, and perceptions of 163 graduate students. The data revealed online program issues, the need for faculty presence and development for online environments, and supportive online student services. As well, the data showed leaders must consider working effectively with faculty and ensuring students had quality online experiences. Other leadership considerations were effectively planning, implementing, and delivering online learning as well as marketing online programs. In this presentation three particular learning issues are shared that were described by participants. These are contentious online learning activities and the offer of blended learning opportunities. As well, participants had difficulties defining specific pedagogical strategies that would aid them in learning online.

This presentation summarizes a series of three studies to explore the field of distance education research. The aim of the first study was to develop a validated classification of research areas to organize the body of knowledge in distance education. The Delphi method was used to develop a consensus among a group of distance education experts and a set of 15 research areas was derived from a literature review and the expert's responses. In order to identify gaps and priority areas, 695 articles published in five prominent distance education journals between 2000 and 2008 were reviewed in the second study. Based on the same sample, an analysis of gender, methods and collaboration patterns among researchers in distance education was carried out in the third study.

Much research concerning asynchronous online discussion reports quantitative data such as frequency of posting, time online, and number of characters or words. To effectively understand online discourse within education environments we need to go beyond such measures and study the interactions between messages and how these interactions contribute to the construction of collective knowledge. Complexity science suggests that the emergence of new group understandings requires both redundancy (agreement) and divergence (disagreement) in the interactions between contributed ideas. Studies, focussing on graduate course asynchronous discussions spaced almost 20 years apart, and employing a coding system developed from Fisher’s interact system model (ISM) have shown a lack of messages expressing explicit disagreement. Online discussions, with their limited channels for mutual social support, appear to encourage a student tendency towards being “too nice”. Course participants camouflage disagreements in ambiguous postings that, while avoiding potential offence, do not effectively contribute to the progress of debate.

Links to studies referenced in this presentation are provided below.

In this presentation Terry defines three pedagogical models that have defined distance education programming - behavioural/cognitive, constructivist and connectivist. He talks about the challenges and opportunity afforded by each model, with a focus on the emergent development of connectivism.

In this session, Stephen Rowe shares his experiences developing an entirely online offering of an Australian undergraduate course catering to 200 students enrolled across 3 campuses. The model that was developed serves as the centre-piece and "end-point" of his PhD. Practical integration of synchronous and asynchronous elements of the online model will be described. By recording synchronous sessions, staff time normally spent on repeat sessions was freed-up and used for additional support of student learning across each week. Asynchronous elements of the model allowed students flexibility with their assessment tasks and enabled them to progress through content at their own pace. As well as describing the online model, some of the key lessons learned, student activity, results and feedback will be presented for discussion.

Please note that the date for this CIDER session has been changed to Wednesday, February 10th.

Students at a French immersion high school in Ottawa and a school in Brazil exchange recipes, using a combination of French, English and Portuguese. The Brazilians discover they like poutine! Children in a rural Sierra Leonean village devastated during the civil war and a school in Mississauga collaborate to produce an online art gallery of pictures about what peace means to them. What do these examples and hundreds of thousands like them mean to the participants? What are the benefits and challenges of collaborating across countries and cultures in the design, implementation, and assessment of learning activities? Such activities by their collaborative nature support global education, whether it emphasizes peace, social justice, citizenship, ecology, or any topic or issue of shared interest. Bill Egnatoff will present a conceptual framework for bi-national collaboration of this sort. He will illustrate the framework from relevant literature, through his experience in teaching a course called Global Education Through International Collaboration, and through his peace education design research with colleagues in Canada and Sierra Leone. That work includes experimentation with, and evaluation of, a variety of tools and systems to support collaboration among twinned school communities, pre-service and in-service teachers, teacher educators, and researchers.

Given the crucial role played by universities in a knowledge-based society, understanding how and under what conditions online learning (OL) can improve access to graduate studies is of the highest importance to today’s growing global economy. Over the past decade, phenomenal advances have been made in the application of communication and information technologies to support student learning in higher education. Yet, in proportion to overall provision of higher education, the use of technology by faculty for graduate-level, online learning (OL) has been minimal, especially among regular faculty.

In this session, Norm Vaughan and Michael Power present an adapted form of OL, especially designed for traditional universities, with initial data from studies underway in two Canadian universities. Finally, an emerging network of researchers interested in the role of online learning within mainstream higher education is presented.

The world's current economic crisis is placing serious pressures on distance education. In October 2009, the situation was addressed at an International Summit on Distance Education, held in Beijing. The conference focused on the survival challenges and opportunities currently facing open and distance learning. Professor Baggaley attended the conference as an invited chair and speaker on this topic.

In this CIDER presentation, he will share the conclusions of his DE research and site visits in 21 Asia-Pacific countries since 2004, and will emphasize the opportunities offered by international DE collaboration at a time of economic crisis. In addition, Professor Baggaley will report on the conclusions of the summit.

In this presentation Barbara Frey and Lorna Kearns summarize a study of back channel communication that took place at the University of Pittsburgh among on-campus and online learners enrolled in the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) Program in summer 2008. They define “back channel communication” as the communication in which students engage outside of the structured course activities and discussions. It includes telephone conversations, social networking, email, RSS readers, calendaring, and instant/text messaging. In particular, they compare the use of social technologies and communication strategies between the on-campus and online students and discuss how usage varies according to age. Situating the presentation within the context of social learning, they will discuss how this communication enhances student learning and satisfaction with their program.

Assessment and the integration of advanced technologies are key themes for the 21st century educator. The electronic portfolio project was developed to explore the possibilities of using web-based technology to store artifacts as evidence of student achievements of course goals and objectives. Furthermore, the tool can be used to respond to the need for assessments and accountability and present a model that utilizes performance measures to demonstrate the meeting of standards set by state agencies. Because these systems require data collection, portfolios can be integrated to show progress over time and adherence to standards. Also, the use of technology supports the assessment work that can be collected in real-time feedback. This presentation will discuss how electronic portfolios development supports both the need for assessment and integration of advanced technology in a graduate level Computers in Education course during the Spring 2009 semester.

This presentation will discuss a number of recent case studies, contrast examples of private and public edublogs, and explore issues such as learner and instructor roles and responsibilities, learner choices, ethical considerations, learning goals, instructional strategies and activities, and assessment methods. A comparative analysis will be made between private, autonomous, anonymous, embedded, networked, and liminal edublogs. The following metaphors will be used to describe these edublogging environments: incubator, launch pad, sandbox, stage or persona, therapeutic or cathartic, sharing space, rhizome, learning feast, arena, guerrilla war zone, network of practice, slow edublogging and transformational edublogging.

One of the challenges in online learning is adaptation of material developed for one educational setting to be appropriate in another. Qualitative case-study research explored adaptation of online continuing education modules, developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada for public health practitioners. Two adaptations were studied: into the College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, and for practitioners in the English-speaking Caribbean. The first case involved adaptation for different learners, but in a similar culture. The second case involved similar learners, but in a different culture. Results show that adaptation of existing online courses can be practicable, and may take less time and fewer resources to implement than creation of a new course. Benefits extended beyond immediate educational objectives to address strategic goals of both originating and recipient organizations.

In education, novel practices, applications, and forms-- from bulletin boards to Webcasts, and from online educational games to open educational resources -- have been proliferating rapidly. However, research of these changing forms and practices has gravitated towards the methods and philosophical frameworks used to investigate and design earlier instructional technologies and practices: Technical progress is seen as single-handedly "impacting" education, human action is understood as fundamentally rational and rule-bound, and phenomena like education and communication are understood according to strictly functional models. In this talk, Dr. Friesen will describe how these understandings have been contradicted by unpredictable developments in technology and practice, and by changes in the theory underpinning research itself. Referring to his 2009 book, “Re-Thinking E-Learning Research: Foundations, Methods and Practices”, he will outline ways in which research in distance education and e-learning can be re-thought, to catch up to new theoretical, technical and empirical developments.

As the use of 3D immersive virtual worlds in higher education expands, it is important to examine which pedagogical approaches are most likely to bring about success. AET Zone, a 3D immersive virtual world in use for more than eight years, is one embodiment of pedagogical innovation that capitalizes on what virtual worlds have to offer to social aspects of teaching and learning. This presentation will focus on this approach, known as Presence Pedagogy (P2), a way of teaching and learning grounded in social constructivist theory. In it, the concepts of presence, building a true community of practice, and constructing an online environment which fosters collaboration for reflective learning are paramount. Unlike learning communities that might emerge from a particular course taught under more traditional circumstances, students engaged in a P2 learning environment become members of a broader community of practice in which everyone in the community is a potential instructor, peer, expert, and novice-all of whom learn with and from one another. Presenters include Amy Cheney, Rob Sanders, John Tashner, and Nita Matzen from Appalachian State University, and Steve Bronack of Clemson University.

For instructors in the 21st Century, Web 2.0 technologies have become the tool with which the classroom is no longer a physical-real space but has been transformed into a virtual world. An example of this virtual reality is Second Life, developed by Linden Labs and launched in 2003.

This presentation will discuss the challenges and possibilities of using Second Life as a platform to learn ‘hands–on’ skills in a polytechnic environment, and the opportunities that this social software brings to a completely new learning experience. Two major courses have now started to use Second Life not only to engage students’ attention, but also to provide students with equipment and learning situations that real life cannot supply. The research goals, opportunities and challenges will be presented and discussed together with the virtual work developed by instructors and students.

Following the presentation, participants will be invited to join Dr. Burkle on the SAIT island (SLAIT) in Second Life where she will continue the discussion. Anyone wishing to join this group must have an account in Second Life. To create a free account, use the link below. As this may take a few minutes, we recommend doing this in advance of the presentation on March 4th.

The changing context of health care delivery presents challenges for the teaching and learning of nursing students. There is a need to test the utility of new strategies and tools to supervise students' practice at the point of care, to support their professional development, and to ensure the delivery of safe and effective care to clients in acute care and community settings. In particular, the connectivity potential of mobile devices for practice and teaching/learning remains unexplored.

In this presentation, Richard Kenny and Caroline Park, Athabasca University and Jocelyne Van Neste-Kenny and Pam Burton, North Island College, BC, will discuss a project to trial the use of mobile learning in the Baccalaureate of Nursing curriculum in a Western Canadian college program. To date, we have completed two studies: a two –stage, formative evaluation study of in spring, 2007, and a follow up study in fall, 2007. We will report on the main findings of the two field trials and draw conclusions about the usefulness of mobile learning in this context.

In this session, Dr. Michael Barbour and Robin Stewart will discuss the state of K-12 online learning in Canada based upon an abbreviated study. The presenter will provide a province by province, territory by territory discussion of K-12 distance education and online learning policies and activity. A complete version of the abbreviated study can be viewed at the link provided below.

Elizabeth Murphy (Principal Investigator), Camilla Stoodley (Project Manager), Paula Thomas (Teacher), & Kate Scarth (Research Assistant).

This two-year study focused on strengthening students’ second language communication skills. The study aimed to identify teacher practices and student activities most effective for and best suited to promoting negotiation of meaning, as well as to determine the related benefits, challenges, and solutions of implementing the practices and activities. The study also examined the viability of the practices and activities in terms of sustainability and scalability. Methods included use of Elluminate Live to support online communication, which typically occurred between two groups of four students at one time. Teachers also participated in face-to-face meetings, discussion forums in WebCT and Desire 2 Learn, and individual reflection in a blog and pbwiki. A web site featured training modules for students. Semi-structured observation and analysis of E-Live sessions, as well as interviews with participants, and analysis of discussion forums and individual reflections were conducted. Preliminary findings for the first year were categorized as technical, logistical, or pedagogical; for year two, challenges and factors conducive to sustainability and scalability were identified.

This presentation focuses on the research perspective and methodology of two studies, conducted in the Netherlands, which were aimed at describing how experienced secondary school teachers learn at work in an informal learning context. Informal learning is conceptualized as taking place in a work context characterized by a lack of systematic support for learning. Learning is understood as: undertaking activities that lead to a change in cognition and/or behaviour.

The purpose of the first study was to explore how experienced teachers learn through the activities they undertake when teaching. Four teachers participated in this study that involved both observational and interview data over the period of a year. Our second study was aimed at studying the relation between teachers’ activities and learning outcomes, i.e. changes in cognition and/or teaching behavior, as they occurred over the course of a year. The presentation focuses on the research methods: specifically instruments and data analysis. An abstract and a link to the full text of the dissertation can be found at the link provided below.

Higher education systems around the world are challenged by increasing costs of provision. Consider for instance the USA, where increases in student fees have exceeded the national inflation index for the last decade thus raising questions about economic sustainability of higher education systems -- even in the industrialised world.

The Open Education Resource (OER) movement shows considerable potential to reduce cost, improve quality and widen access to educational opportunities. Facilitated by the power of social software in a connected world as evidenced by the phenomenal success of the Wikimedia Foundation projects and the WikiEducator initiative, educators can now take command of their own destiny by returning to the core value of education, namely to share knowledge freely.

This session will reflect and report on progress of the WikiEducator project by exploring (1) how the research and practice of Open Distance Learning can contribute to the success of emerging knowledge production models in the OER arena; (2) how social software is shifting the power of knowledge back to the academy where it belongs (3) and preliminary thoughts on the sustainability of peer-collaboration models of OER knowledge production.

This presentation is based on Dr. Parchoma’s recently published (May 2008) book, Adoption of Technology Enhanced Learning in Higher Education. The presentation reports the findings of a study of the influences of organizational structures, cultures, pedagogies, and reward systems in a traditional university for their influences on faculty adoption of technology enhanced learning into teaching practice. The study was undertaken in a research-oriented Canadian university. Eight case studies of faculty experiences in a five-year (2000-2005) initiative are reported. Participants' perspectives of the influences of university policies and practices on the success of TEL initiatives are examined. The roles of instructional designers and IT & media developers in supporting faculty in TEL development projects are explored. Enabling and restraining influences on successful project completion are discussed. Theoretical implications of the overall findings for organizational change in research-oriented universities to support faculty adoption of TEL are posited.

In spite of evidence that more and more students are engaging in online learning experiences (Alan & Seaman, 2006), clarity about the transition to a new learning environment is still at arm’s length (Cleveland-Innes, Garrison & Kinsel, 2006). In addition, the impact of the emotion created by dealing with this new environment on learning is virtually (pun intended) undiscovered. In this session, Dr. Marti Cleveland-Innes and Zehra Akyol will review theory and data regarding emotion in online environments, with opportunity for discussion of the effect of emotion on teaching, learning and instructional design. In addition, this presentation corresponds with the launch of a web-site to support continued discussion and research on emotion and online learning. The web-site will be introduced at the end of the session.

In this presentation, Janet Groen, Janet Tworek, and Maria Soos-Gonczol will discuss the implementation of effective synchronous voice communication sessions within a graduate level university program in education from the multiple perspecives of an instructor, graduate student, program administrator and instructional technology support person. They will explore the challenges and highlights in utilizing synchronous communication sessions within their program. Ultimately, they argue that a fundamental shift within the university culture must occur in order to sustain an effective student centered approach to sychronous classes: a shift from instructor autonomy to locating an instructor within an interdependent system. They will conclude this presentation by providing recommendations for the effective use of synchronous sessions that work toward enhancing the students' learning environment.

What factors create an effective online course from a “content” point of view? This session will highlight the assessment criteria and the review process that was used to review the content of K-12 online learning tools in BC in 2007. Content reviewed included: online courses and learning objects. To complete the reviews, the BC Provincial Content Review team researched and built a comprehensive assessment rubric for online content based on the BC K-12 DL Standards Document and on current research which highlights effective practice in online learning. This session will highlight the assessment rubric that was created and the criteria that contribute to effective content in an online environment.

The session is intended as a collegial discussion on the topic of assessing online content. For maximum benefit please review the assessment documents (link are provided below) prior to the session so that the discussion can focus on practical implications and applications for your educational community.

In this presentation, Torstein Rekkedal and Aleksander Dye will introduce the NKI (Norwegian Knowledge Institute) Distance Education basic philosophies of distance teaching and learning and discuss the consequences for development of a learning environment supporting mobile distance learners. For NKI it has been a major challenge to design solutions for users of mobile technology who wish to study when on the move. The solutions must be designed in ways that allow both users and non-users of mobile technology to participate in the same course. This means finding optimal solutions for distributing content and communication in courses, independent of whether the students and tutors apply mobile technology or standard PC for teaching or learning.

This presentation and the corresponding paper (link below) build on experiences from four European Union (EU) supported projects on mobile learning: From e-learning to m-learning (2000-2003), Mobile learning – the next generation of learning (2003-2005), Incorporating mobile learning into mainstream education (2005-2007) and the ongoing project, The role of mobile learning in European education (2006-2008).

During this presentation, we experienced significant audio difficulties. Consequently, there are no audio recordings available.

Over the years, we have seen many uses of wikis and blogs. However, we were unable to gain trust of research communities who wished to experiment with the social software like wikis and blogs as tools for data collection. In recent years we have seen an increase in the number of social software and their use. In one of our research studies we have used the power of wikis and blogs as tools for data gathering. In this presentation, I will discuss the development and use of appropriate tools for analyzing qualitative (subjective and contextual) data such as blogs and wikis.

In this presentation, Ismael Peña-López expands on his previous research into personal research portals to propose ways in which educators may use web 2.0 tools to build themselves a place on the net - a personal research portal where they may weave their own network of colleagues, share resources, and exchange experiences. The presentation will look at how these personal research portals may impact on the tasks in which educators engage in outside of the classroom, be it of bricks and mortar or virtual. In addition, the presentation will examine the possibilty of a virtual faculty based on personal portals built with web 2.0 tools.

All of the materials used in preparation of this presentation and references are available from the link below.

In this presentation, Tannis Morgan shares her doctoral research that looks at cases of teaching presence in international online distance courses. Cultural historical activity theory (Engestrom, 1999, 2001) is adopted as a framework for understanding how instructors negotiate the mediating components of the activity system--the students, technology, course design, co-instructors, and institutional contexts—and how these ultimately influence teaching presence. In particular, the role of instructor identity and positioning, language, and conceptualization of online interaction spaces will be discussed as important factors shaping teaching presence.

Online whiteboard technology has seen limited application in the practice of distance education. This technology is particularly suited to disciplines that are communicated and taught visually and symbolically, which includes most of the natural sciences. In the classroom, for example, chemistry is taught with the extensive use of structural drawings and equations, which requires a blackboard or some other similar classroom technology.

This talk will describe a 12 week pilot project of a synchronous, online tutorial that employed the whiteboard tool in Elluminate. For two hour sessions, three nights per week, student logged on to Elluminate and took turns interacting with the tutor, in many ways resembling a traditional classroom. The discussion will include participant feedback and the challenges of implementing this technology on an ongoing basis.

To complement the live session, we have opened a text forum on CIDER where we may continue the discussions generated in the session. This forum will also provide an area for people who weren’t able to attend the live session to interact with the presenters and other participants. The forum is available in our Special Interest Groups section. See link below.

Since its publication in The Internet and Higher Education, Garrison, Anderson, and Archer’s (2000) Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework has generated substantial interest among online learning researchers. This presentation examines the theoretical and empirical basis for the overall framework as well as its components: social, teaching, and cognitive presence. Based upon findings from both past and current research directions for further research are identified. Some of these research directions include the need for more quantitatively-oriented studies, the need for more cross-disciplinary studies, the impact of new technologies on the framework, possible limitations and opportunities for identifying factors that moderate and/or extend the relationship between the framework’s components and online course outcomes.

This session will be a group presentation by the following researchers:

Ben Arbaugh - University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

Marti Cleveland-Innes - Athabasca University

Sebastian Diaz - West Virginia University

Randy Garrison - University of Calgary

Phil Ice - University of North Carolina Charlotte

Jennifer Richardson - Purdue University

Peter Shea - University at Albany, State University of New York

Karen Swan - Kent State University

To complement the live session, we have opened a text forum on CIDER where we may continue the discussions generated in the session. This forum will also provide an area for people who weren’t able to attend the live session to interact with the presenters and other participants. The forum is available in our Special Interest Groups section. See link below.

Demonstrating how an avatar-based 3-D learning environment can more fully engage learners in their online educational experience Dr. David Annand, Gunnar Schwede and Mike Procter will showcase a prototype of a virtual Athabasca University campus developed in Second Life. This immersive experience promises to make services more readily accessible, facilitate formal collaboration within a self-paced learning environment, and provide an improved means to develop informal support networks among online students.

Using Problem Based Learning (PBL) as teaching model is a growing phenomenon, as is using PBL in Distance Education and in social work. This study used Problem Based Learning in social work courses that were offered through a distance education social work program in which the classrooms were audioconferenced. In particular, the study sought to explore the student’s experience of problem based learning and to compare it with courses taught using a lecture based teaching model.

This session will introduce you (briefly) to Problem Based Learning and its use in distance education. The research findings will be explored in some depth, with a particular focus on the student’s experience of this model of teaching.

In this group presentation Dragan Gašević, Jelena Jovanović, Colin Knight, and Griff Richards will focus on an ontology-based framework aimed at explicit representation of context-specific metadata derived from the actual usage of learning objects and learning designs. The core part of the proposed framework is a learning object context ontology, that leverages a range of other kinds of learning ontologies (e.g., user modeling ontology, domain ontology, and learning design ontology) to capture the information about the real usage of a learning object inside a learning design. We will also present some learner-centered and teacher-centered scenarios enabled by the proposed framework in order to illustrate the benefits the framework offers to these key participants of any learning process. Finally, we will demonstrate how two present educational tools (i.e. TANGRAM and LOCO-Analyst) correspond to the proposed architecture.

In this presentation, Dr. Jon Dron will discuss his recently published article, “Designing the undesignable: Social Software and Control”. In this article, Dr Dron states that social software, such as blogs, wikis, tagging systems and collaborative filters, treats the group as a first-class object within the system. Drawing from theories of transactional distance and control, he proposes a model of e-learning that extends traditional concepts of learner-teacher-content interactions to include these emergent properties of the group. Some of the dangers and issues that need to be addressed in order for this new model to fulfill its promise will be explored, and a framework of principles to be used by designers of educationally-oriented social software will be discussed.

While computer-mediated communications (CMC) is increasingly common in online teaching, research intended to show how CMC works, and what makes it effective, has been plagued by some persistent problems. These include getting the proposed research through institutional ethics review in the first place; achieving acceptable levels of validity and reliability; and using CMC effectively to help create and sustain an online learning community.

This presentation will discuss the above issues, along with thoughts on how they might be addressed. The underlying theme is that “little victories” observed in relation to these issues suggest they may not be insoluble, and that online interaction research, focusing on CMC, should continue. Discussion will be encouraged.

What factors help to create effective online learning environments in K-12? In this session, Dr. Elizabeth Childs and Lara Jongedijk will report on the final data from nine provincial Connected Learner’s Technology Grant Projects that ran across 18 months and involved 14 school districts in British Columbia. The technologies used in the projects included: webcasting, web-conferencing, synchronous courses using Elluminate Live, use of Smartboards, online tutoring and data archiving. Lessons learned will be discussed and recommendations for making informed decisions when planning and implementing similar technology projects will be shared.

With the support of a Queensland Government Smart State PhD Grant, Lindy McKeown has created an innovative online professional development space on the virtual island of Terra incognita in the MUVE Second Life. This island was developed to support Action Learning online. This strategy uses a cyclic process of explore, plan, act and reflect around a workplace project that embeds the doing in with the learning. By using Participatory Design Based Research, this learning space has been created with the input of experienced Action Learning facilitators, gamers, 3D world users, online learning specialists and the program participants. In this presentation, Lindy will share the experiences of conducting Action Learning programs in Second Life.

In this presentation Dr. Paul Gorsky will offer a unified theory of instructional design in the cognitive domain; this includes, of course, online instructional modeling. The theory differs from specific instructional design theories in that it describes how all instructional systems operate (regardless of their goals) in terms of resources and dialogues common to all instructional systems; it predicts certain instructional outcomes (related to groups of learners, not to individual learners) based on given initial conditions. The practical and theoretical advantages of this theory will be discussed.

If you are interested in learning more regarding Dr. Gorsky's theories and research on instructional design in the cognitive domain, or if you are interested in collaborating on research into this theory, please contact Dr. Gorsky at the email address below.

In this session, Dr. Michael Barbour will focus upon the lessons learned from researching the development and delivery of virtual school opportunities to secondary school students in Newfoundland and Labrador. Through qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method studies, he captures the experiences of students, teachers, course developers, and administrators in the formative years of a new virtual high school. Issues such as effective course design for this population of students, the benefits and challenges of online learning for secondary students, achievement differences based upon delivery model and geographic location, and what students are actually doing when engaged in virtual schooling are explored.

In this presentation, Athabasca University graduate students Phillip Potts and Denis Tanguay, P.Eng., will present and discuss the results of a research survey they conducted among their classmates in a course on Advanced Technology in Distance Education. Does technology reduce or enhance transactional presence in distance education? Is technology alone able to give students a sense of connection with a course and its instructor, or does it push students away? Both Phillip and Denis are focusing their graduate studies on the relationship and impact of transactional distance and transactional presence on the learning process of distance education in adults and high school students.

This presentation will take a critical look at the possibilities for achieving a truly personalised learning environment. By examining the tensions between institutional learning spaces and the disruptive nature of social software the presentation will suggest that the way forward is to acknowledge the contextual and negotiated nature of the learner setting and provide a rich set of knowledge, skills and competences that enable active participation in a changing educational landscape.

In this session Elizabeth Murphy and Maria Rodriguez Manzanares will illustrate how they relied on Third Generation Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and the concept of contradictions to make sense of data from a case study of e-teaching in virtual high-school classrooms in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. They will provide a brief overview of Third Generation Activity Theory, outline their approach and protocol, provide actual coded examples and discuss the limitations and value of this approach in particular and Activity Theory in general to distance education research. Elizabeth and Maria will be assisted in this presentation by doctoral students Brian Kerr and Charlene Dodd, who will discuss the coding of contradictions.

In this CIDER session, Sherri Melrose provides an encore of the presentation given earlier this month at the CADE conference in Winnipeg in which she presented the findings from her recently published qualitative research project. The project was designed to explore healthcare students’ ideas about and activities related to instructional immediacy behaviors within a masters program offered exclusively through a WebCT online environment. A constructivist theoretical perspective and an action research approach framed the study. Three overarching themes were identified and used to explain and describe significant features of instructional immediacy behaviors that healthcare learners who graduated from either a Master of Nursing of Master of Health Studies distance education program found valuable. The presentation will be followed by an open discussion of the study and the implications for future practice and research.

Whether students think about them or not, learners all enter the formal educational arena with certain expectations. For instance, they have expectations about their role as a student and expectations about the instructor's role in the class. They have expectations about teamwork and how effectively they can communicate online compared with their abilities in an in-person classroom. They have perceptions about what constitutes good teaching and a "good course." In short, students with any familiarity with formal education have ideas and expectations concerning just about every aspect of their current or future educational experience. Despite the fact that they often go unarticulated, how important are these perceptions and expectations to the student's learning?

Important: This presentation will be supplemented with handouts that may be accessed from the link below.

Unfortunately, this presentation has been cancelled.

The next CIDER session will be a presentation from Dr. Zane Berge, May 11. See "Upcoming CIDER Sessions" for more details.

In this presentation, Julie Dixon explores the concept of transactional distance (Moore, 1993), which relates to the psychologically perceived distance that exists in all learning relationships and can be more evident and potentially problematic in online learning environments. Julie shares her preliminary research into the potential of icebreaker activities to ameliorate the transactional distance experienced by undergraduate students and instructors in online learning environments. Early results from the research have been positive and have led to recommendations for practice.

Thanks to Julia Parra, a participant at the session, who provided "Games Trainers Play, Virtually". The manual includes ideas for several online games and icebreakers.

Enhancing innovation in teaching and learning is at the heart of the TEK (Technology-Enabled Learning) Initiative of the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). In 2005/2006 BCIT funded 50 “Grassroots Projects” with the purpose of promoting good teaching and learning practices using educational technology such as eportfolios and personal blogs among others. In this session, Karen Belfer shares her doctoral research which focuses on the evaluation of the first year of implementation of the Grassroots Projects. The evaluation identifies factors, organized into five categories, which influence the effective implementation of technology in both traditional and distance education courses. The presentation and discussion will look at the implications of this research to the effective implementation of new technologies in DE environments and the potential for further research.

In this session, Gale Parchoma will discuss her article "A Proposed e-Learning Policy Field for the Academy" published in the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (2006). The article utilizes Lewin's (1951) social field theory as a framework for analyzing the potential for implementing scalable and sustainable e-learning initiatives in the academy. Existing and emergent pressures, exerted by both external and internal socioeconomic forces, are analyzed for their potential to support or inhibit adoption of e-learning initiatives into research, teaching, and learning activities. An e-learning policy field is posited.

Research on emotional presence within an online community of inquiry demonstrates the salience of emotion in online learning. Those engaged in online learning deal with the effects of emotion on a daily basis, whether designing instruction, teaching, or learning online. The work of Damasio and LeDoux independently suggests that emotion is neither an objective nor outcome of learning yet is central to cognition. In this session Dr. Marti Cleveland-Innes will present theory and data regarding online emotional presence and provide opportunity for discussion of the effect on teaching, learning and instructional design to ensure appropriate emotional engagement.

In this CIDER session, Arlene O'Leary shares her recently completed research on the use of simulations in both face-to-face and online undergraduate courses. Her presentation will look at how the use of simulations can bridge the gap between students from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, as well as address issues of engagement and retention in online educational settings.

This session features a presentation and discussion with Anne Forster, immediate past president of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (ODLAA). Anne presents her reflections and research on the impact of professional identity on the development of research and practice in distance education.

This session features an in-depth discussion by Rick Kenny of Athabasca University and Mark Bullen of the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Rick and Mark will report on findings from their study on the fostering of problem-solving skills in online learning environments. Both presenters have extensive instructional design backgrounds and experience developing online courses. They report results of a research program to identify and measure problem solving in online contexts.

On this session Liam Rourke, the 2006 CADE Excellence in Graduate Research Award recipient, will overview his PhD dissertaion work. In this session, Liam will discuss one part of the study -- the manner in which students frame online activities and how this framing shapes their participation.

Liam Rourke is an Assistant Professor in Singapore's Learning Sciences Lab. He is currently studing the role of educational techniques in South East Asian, post-industrial economies.

CIDER Session 18 ~ An investigation into the use of an orientation course to address academic and social integration issues

Friday June 9, 2006 @11:00 a.m. Mountain (1:00 p.m. Eastern), live via Elluminate!

Heather Kanuka , Canada Research Chair in E-Learning

Distance education programs warrant the use of innovative intervention practices to enhance student learning experiences. Academic and social empathy by faculty has been shown to enhance student retention in programs along with their critical thinking abilities. Using Holmberg's (2001) theory of teaching-learning conversations as the guiding theoretical framework, the purpose of our study was to assess whether an intervention activity (a week-long orientation course) increases academic and social empathy for students entering a distance-delivered MBA programme. Empathy was measured through seven academic and social integration indicators. Using pre and post surveys (n=102), the results reveal that an orientation intervention can be effective for facilitating social and academic empathy.

The purpose of this study was to explore how social presence manifests itself in the web-based synchronous secondary classroom. Data were gathered using structured and semi-structured observation of classes and semi-structured interviews of teachers who work in the synchronous secondary classrooms of NL, Canada.

Findings revealed that social presence was manifested through several categories of a revised instrument for identifying social presence. Social presence manifested itself for students through the use of text-based Direct Messaging and for teachers through use of two-way audio. Students relied on the conventions of communication of informal synchronous chat to manifest social presence.

In this CIDER Session, Gene Rubin and Claudine SchWeber discuss John Daniel's 1996 book, Mega-Universities, the rapid rise of the for-profit universities in the U.S., and the new Asian oriented for-profit consortiums, as well as the evolving business orientation adopted by higher education institutions, have prompted some to predict a significant "sorting-out" in the higher education marketplace.

Join this CIDER Session to talk with Gene and Claudine about possible implications for the North American marketplace.

DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES, ALEX KUSKIS' CIDER SESSION ON "EXPERT FACILITATOR PRACTICES AND OPINIONS" WAS CANCELLED. IN HIS STEAD, TERRY ANDERSON DELIVERED A CIDER SESSION ON "SOCIAL SOFTWARE," WHICH IS RECORDED at http://klaatu-dev.pc.athabascau.ca/elluminate/cidersession-060421.jnlp HERE. ALEX KUSKIS' CIDER SESSION WILL BE RESCHEDULED. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY CONFUSION. PLEASE STAY TUNED FOR DEVELOPMENTS ON ALEX KUSKIS' RESCHEDULED CIDER SESSION.

Twenty expert practitioners from four countries, some of whom are leaders in the field of online distance learning, were interviewed to determine the social dynamic configurations (interaction, collaboration, cooperation, learning community) they use in their courses, as well as their pedagogical practices with respect to instructional design and course facilitation. This session reports on what was learned.

Katy Campbell and Rick Kenny discuss instructional design research.

Heather M. Ross describes her work with a DE module for rural physicians.

Christian Dalsgaard discusses new ways to think about and use learning objects.

Heather Kanuka presents her work on the influence of instructional methods on the quality of online discussion.

Natasha Boskic and Gabriella Minnes Brandes discuss eportfolios.

Jim Bizzocchi from Simon Fraser University leads this session on Games as Learning Environments: Research strategies and issues.

This informative session by National Research Centre senior researcher Stephen Downes overviews the technologies, trends and thinking that are revolutionizing teaching, learning, government and business.

This presentation features Athabasca University's Prisca Campbell and Dr. Marti Cleveland-Innes and deals with affect in online learning. Using the "Community of Learning" model, Prisca details her Master's degree thesis study of affect in asynchronous courses and leads a great text and voice discussion about 'real' affect in 'virtual' contexts.

In this session, Concordia University Ph.D. student Genevieve Gallant discusses her dissertation work focused on institutional cooperation in distance education. Genevieve overviews the literature, her conceptual model, and the grounded theory methodology she has proposed for this work.

This session features a presentation by Dr. France Henri from Télé-université du Quebec. It overviews the Learning Object Repository Network (LORNet) at www.lornet.org and specifically France's teams work on instructional design using learning object approaches.

This talk overviews the work of Dr. Elizabeth Murphy from Memorial University of Newfoundland. It focuses on methodology and results of content analysis of computer conferences.

The March 24, 2005 session by Dr. Richard Schwier and colleagues entitled Research on Formal Virtual Learning Communities in Higher Education. The session discusses the use of transcript analysis of computer conferences.

This session with Terry Anderson overviewed Distance Education research, design-based research and the 'CIDER solution'.