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This study describes common online facilitator strategies of seven expert online facilitators and compares these facilitators' decision-making processes to general strategies and characteristics of experts in other domains. Specifically, this study focuses on how expert online facilitators decide to communicate with discussion participants for the purposes of increasing participant knowledge and skills in college-level online courses. Seven expert online facilitators -- identified by authoritative figures -- detailed their decision-making and composition process. Common facilitation strategies emerged from the interview data and contextual information. These common strategies were compared with characteristics and strategies of experts in other domains. Analysis of the data indicates that the participating facilitators: (a) share common decision-making strategies, and (b) demonstrate characteristics that align to characteristics of experts in other domains. / text

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Η διατριβή ασχολείται με το πρόβλημα της διαλειτουργικότητας και συνεργασίας εκπαιδευτικών εφαρμογών στο διαδίκτυο. Η έρευνα οδήγησε στη σχεδίαση και υλοποίηση ενός πρωτότυπου περιβάλλοντος που στηρίζεται στην αρχιτεκτονική πολλαπλών πρακτόρων και επιτρέπει τη συνεργασία μεταξύ των εκαπιδευτικών κόμβων να υποστηρίξουν μαθησιακές δυσκολίες του από απόσταση εκπαιδευομένου. / This thesis focuses on the problem of the interoperability an d cooperation between educational applications in the open enviroment of the World Wide Web. The research led to the design and development of a prototype enviroment (Multi Agent Tutoring System MATS) that implements the collaboration among educational nodes in order to support the needs of a distantr learner.

The study ofinformation seeking patterns ofdistance learners registered with the Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) was undertaken with a view to understand the paths taken by the distance learners to identifY, locate and make use ofinformation resources to solve their problems, answer questions or to accomplish given tasks. This study was carried out after the realisation by the Library and Information Service Management that the distance learners were making very little use ofthe library and information resources that were put in place to expressly serve their needs. It was critical for the study to establish the possible causes for this under-utilisation. The study investigated the socio-demographic and academic characteristics ofthe distance learners to verifY the assumption that these characteristics affected the use ofthe LIS. The socio-economic commitments ofthe distance learners were investigated to determine how they impacted on the use ofthe LIS. Factors that possibly prevented the distance learners from using the ZOU LIS were investigated. The CCAUSAL factors included the cost in terms ofboth time and money to get to the LIS due to distance, currency or recency ofthe information, accessibility in terms ofhow easy it was to get to the LIS, usability as it implies the ease ofconsulting the LIS and locatibility ofthe LIS. The study investigated the use ofother information sources and libraries and the CCAUSAL factors that possibly affected the use of them. The results ofthe study revealed that the distance learners registered with the ZOU did follow specific information seeking patterns as a result ofwhat the study's acronym CCAUSASL suggested as factors. For instance, it was shown that on one hand, the distance factor affected 32.4% of the respondents who lived more than 51 kilometres from the LIS and on the other hand it was not much ofa factor for the 34.1% and 32.4% who lived within the 0-10 and 11-20 kilometre ranges respectively. The study sought recommendations from the respondents as the main users ofthe LIS on what Management should do in order to put in place effective and efficient 'open' library systems that meets their requirements as distance learners. Their suggestions together with guidelines from the literature on library service provision in distance learning environments form the recommendations ofthe study. / Thesis (MIS.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

This research was undertaken to clarify the nature of barriers to persistence in natural resource sciences distance education at the tertiary level in order that participation through to completion may be improved. Its aim was to provide insights and theoretical concepts useful in clarifying distance education access as a whole, while also providing understandings helpful in improving education and communication initiatives concerning sustainable development and the environment. Ethnography was used to illuminate the declarative and tacit understandings of withdrawal and persisting students. Ethnographic interpretations of student understandings were complemented by demographic and other data collected through questionnaires and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a psychological survey instrument. Statistical analysis of quantitative data yielded predictive relationships that accounted for 24-39% of the variability in student withdrawal/persistence. However, many variables defy meaningful measurement and quantitative analysis. Overall results suggest that student withdrawal is related to a set of complex multivariables that act additively and interactively in numerous context-dependent ways to result in a dropout decision that is almost idiosyncratic in nature. Nonetheless, important common barriers to persistence are evident. Both withdrawal and persisting students experienced situational, institutional, dispositional and epistemological problems that acted as barriers. A number are relatively unique to second chance learners, who are effectively disadvantaged. Many of the problems students experienced reflect the social contradiction between their roles as students and their roles as mature adults. The newly elucidated cluster of potential barriers to student persistence termed epistemological problems are the result of incongruency between the student's cognitive and affective perceptions of knowledge, and the nature of the knowledge presented in the courses. Although the courses mainly present hard, applied knowledge with a generally positivistic, empirical viewpoint, they also demand high levels of integration and inference. as well as abstract and relativistic thinking. A number of students found the courses' diverse epistemological stances problematic: some thought the content too scientific and technical; a few found it too abstract and ambiguous. Some were challenged by demanding prerequisite knowledge requirements. Still others found it difficult, in the absence of face-to-face interaction with instructors and peers, to make the epistemological shift from learning by rote to higher level thinking. It was concluded that more facilitative instructional design and student support are needed. Distance education persistence could be enhanced by providing students with all the resources and support they need in order to exercise personal control over their learning. A dialogic construct reflecting empathetic response to the views, values, frames of reference and varying dependency states of individual adult learners is suggested. Elucidation of the epistemological problems also provides understandings useful in general improvement of natural resource management education and communication initiatives. Because the highly structured, technical and specific nature of the disciplinary content and the dense formal jargon of the disciplinary discourse in themselves impede effective communication, it appears that natural resource scientists could more effectively share their knowledge if they simplified it, assumed no prior understandings, and helped people learn by informally and subjectively putting it in a more holistic context for them, including making inferences to application and implication.

This study addressed the controversy among academics in conventional universities over the credibility of distance education for degree credit. Faculty scepticism has slowed the development and expansion of distance education despite increased demands for it. Distance education is an educational method in which the teacher and learners are separated in time and space for the majority, if not all, of the teaching-learning process; two-way communication occurs primarily via print, postal service, and telecommunications (Keegan, 1990). There is little empirical evidence about the reasons for the antagonism between the supporters and opponents of distance education. The purpose of this research was to explain why some faculty support distance education while others do not. Support was defined as how faculty would speak about and vote for proposals to offer distance education courses for degree credit. The conceptual framework drew on studies of faculty attitudes towards university expansion and distance education, and literature on academic culture and change. An interpretive perspective and qualitative methods dominated the two-phase study. First, a mailed survey (n=487) investigated the extent of faculty familiarity with and support for distance education. Then faculty (n=50) were interviewed from three categories of support for distance education identified by the survey: supportive, divided support, and opposed. The interviews explored how faculty understood the compatibility and feasibility of distance education. Compatibility was defined as the congruence of distance education with faculty beliefs and values about the accessibility and quality of university education. Feasibility was the perceived ability to successfully implement distance education. In general, faculty were not very familiar with or supportive of distance education, except for undergraduate courses. There was very little support for a graduate program by distance education. There were significant differences in faculty support by discipline and gender. The reasons for variations in faculty support for distance education are best explained by the concept of compatibility. Faculty supported distance education if it was congruent with their beliefs and values about university education in general. Faculty thought about distance education as promoting social justice, as an educational method, or as the distribution of information. Faculty who were supportive held the beliefs and values Trow (1973) associated with mass education while those who were opposed tended to believe in an elite approach to university education. There was a substantial divided group who were in a conflict about the priority that should be given to the major values involved, the accessibility and quality of university education. The study contributes to the development of theory about different conceptions of university and distance education and provides insight into the study of disciplinary cultures. It presents a revised conceptual framework for further research on the topic. The results have implications for educational planning and for the development of distance education.

A particular interest of distance education researchers is the community of inquiry framework, which was developed for the purpose of taking a closer look at computer mediated communication in educational contexts (Garrison, Anderson, Archer, 2000). However, it is somewhat surprising that although the community of inquiry framework has been developed based on distance education contexts, it does not consider the complexities of the community’s global and local contexts, the potential linguistic demands of the teaching and learning contexts, and how power, agency, and identities are negotiated in these contexts. Through six cases of online instructors teaching in international contexts at the tertiary level, I explored the negotiation of teaching presence as viewed through the lens of cultural historical activity theory (Engeström, 1999, 2001). In this view, instructors are engaged in a dynamic process in which teaching presence is shaped through the mediating components of the activity system. This multi-case study employed cross case analysis drawing on data from interviews with students, program coordinators, and instructors, in addition to analyses of discussion forum transcripts, course documents, formative evaluations, student and instructor reflections, and researcher-participant observations. The linguistic challenges faced by both instructor and students for whom the language of instruction was a second or third language and instructors’ sociocultural identities, positioning, and conceptualization of the online interaction spaces were found to be important mediators in the negotiation of teaching presence.

SUMMARY Nowadays everyone must learn and his (her) learning process goes on all life long. So teachers should give pupils good skills for learning and living qualitative way of life. The survey made in Aukštaitija district in 2003 and the survey made by KTU scientists in 2005 showed that teachers haven’t got skills how to organize learning process. ICT is not in use in lessons in common as often as it is possible to do. The object of this work is distance education at secondary schools. The aim of the work is to analyze the real situation at secondary schools, identify the real problems and give some solutions for solving these problems as well as give advices. The problems: • Few teachers are capable to create courses for distant education. Courses that teach this subject are almost unreachable for them; otherwise they are too short and it is hard to get the right skills; • There are many gifted children that are given too little attention. This is the reason for their less motivation to learn; • Schools have problems with missed lessons. Distant education as a method to solve such kind of problem is almost unknown. The goals: • Analyze theoretical aspects of distant education in secondary schools; • To make survey that will show pupils and teachers’ experience in using ICT in lessons; • To create a course for teachers that will show how organize learning process using virtual learning environment (VLE) ATutor. The subject is – the situation in applying ICT and distant... [to full text]