In the mid nineties, electronic lecture recording has emerged as a new area of research. The aim behind most early research activities in this field has been the cost-efficient production of e-learning content as a by-product of traditional lectures. These efforts have led to the development of systems that can produce recordings of a lecture in a fraction of the time and also for a fraction of the cost that other methods require for the production of similar e-learning content.While the production of lecture recordings has been investigated thoroughly, the conditions under which the content produced can be used efficiently shifted into focus of research only recently. Employing lecture recordings in the right way is, however, crucial for the effectiveness with which they can be used. Therefore this thesis gives a detailed overview of archetypical application scenarios. A closer examination of these scenarios reveals the importance of navigation in recorded lectures as a critical factor for teaching and learning success. In order to improve navigation, a hypermedia navigation concept for recorded lectures is developed. Hypermedia navigation has proven a successful navigation paradigm in classic text- and picture-based media. In order to be adapted for time based media such as recorded lectures, a number of conceptual changes have to be applied. In this thesis, a hypermedia navigation concept is developed that tackles this problem by combining time- and structure-based navigation paradigms and by modifying existing hypermedia navigation facilities.Even a highly developed navigation concept for recorded lectures can, however, not be put into practice efficiently when production costs of suitable recordings are too high. Therefore this thesis also shows that suitable lecture recordings can be produced with minimal production cost. This endeavour is realized by the implementation of a fully automatic production chain for recording and indexing lectures.

U.S. student enrollment in online classes in the higher education sector has grown rapidly since 2001. Researchers have found that student satisfaction often leads to higher student retention, yet more research was needed to understand reasons for student satisfaction with online education. The purpose of this nonexperimental study was to examine the relationship between students' early exposure to technology (i.e., before college) and their satisfaction with online education in college. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology were the theoretical framework. A convenience sample of 103 participants from the population of online students at colleges and universities in the United States took a survey on their past exposure to information and communication technology (ICT); their expectations for, and willingness to continue using ICT; and their satisfaction with online education. Several statistical tests, such as ANOVA, Spearman Rho correlation, and t-tests were conducted to analyze collected responses. Results indicated there was an indirect relationship between the early exposure to technology and student satisfaction based on the statistically significant correlation found between the early exposure to technology and effort expectancy, then between effort expectancy and use behavior and finally between use behavior and student satisfaction. By implementing study findings, educators and managers may be better able to bring positive social changes necessary to prepare all students and workers for the technology-driven education and the workplace regardless of their socioeconomic status.

This study examined the perceptions of satisfaction, engagement, comfort, and confidence level with Web 2.0 technologies as learning strategies in online courses, as well as differences based on gender, age, race, income, and a correlation among these factors and digital skills. The researcher survey design was used for this study, and was sent to all adult learners enrolled in an undergraduate degree-completion or graduate program. The population of 2,100 adult learners was asked to participate in the study, and 134 adult learners completed it. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted in order to address the research questions. The analysis consisted of one sample t tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) in order to determine the level and differences in perception of Web 2.0 use and correlation. One sample t test indicated that respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they were satisfied, engaged, comfortable, and confident with Web 2.0 technologies. There were no significant differences among participants based on gender, age, income, or race in their overall satisfaction. When looking at individual survey items, results indicated that a female's comfort level in virtual meetings in online courses was significantly lower than males. The findings also showed that the Hispanics and other ethnic race groups' comfort level using social networking sites was significantly higher than that of the Caucasian and African American participants. However, the Caucasian groups' comfort level was significantly higher in social networking sites and instant messaging than that of African American groups. Moreover, both Caucasian and African American participants' confidence levels were significantly higher using Web 2.0 technologies at work than Hispanics'. Additionally, the study checked for correlations among digital literacy, satisfaction, engagement, comfort, and confidence, and positive correlations were found. An increase in confidence and satisfaction was associated with an increase in engagement, and increases in satisfaction were associated with increases in comfort. To summarize, most adult learners can learn and acquire digital literacy skills based on their satisfaction, engagement, comfort, and confidence in using Web 2.0 technologies in online learning. Digital literacy skills are needed for adult learners to participate in a digital and global society.

The goal of this thesis is to support the automated identification of accessibility in user reviews or bug reports, to help technology professionals prioritize their handling, and, thus, to create more inclusive apps. Particularly, we propose a model that takes as input accessibility user reviews or bug reports and learns their keyword-based features to make a classification decision, for a given review, on whether it is about accessibility or not. Our empirically driven study follows a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods. We introduced models that can accurately identify accessibility reviews and bug reports and automate detecting them. Our models can automatically classify app reviews and bug reports as accessibility-related or not so developers can easily detect accessibility issues with their products and improve them to more accessible and inclusive apps utilizing the users' input. Our goal is to create a sustainable change by including a model in the developer's software maintenance pipeline and raising awareness of existing errors that hinder the accessibility of mobile apps, which is a pressing need. In light of our findings from the Blackboard case study, Blackboard and the course material are not easily accessible to deaf students and hard of hearing. Thus, deaf students find that learning is extremely stressful during the pandemic.

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The Higher Education Institution and the Construction Industry are yet to define the most appropriate and effective design parameters for E-learning spaces. Those which exist, focus mainly on cost, budget and timely delivery i.e. the process only not the product. An effective approach to E-learning space design is needed to address the problems of space efficiency, effectiveness, quality, innovativeness, performance and client satisfaction. This study aimed to develop a novel methodology for e-learning space design, by investigating: the impact of e-learning on facilities and design; the impact of e-learning on the design of future spaces; the impact of blended learning on space design; designing for the learn anytime, anywhere paradigm; security issues of e-learning and e-learning space design, the levels of design risk in an e-learning infrastructure and inclusive design issues. A Grounded theory approach was used during initial desk studies, synchronized with a three part forum and pilot survey of 33participants. From this process, two hypotheses emerged; firstly, e-learning space design could affect users‘ learning outcomes and secondly that; user‘s learning requirements were different and varied. To investigate further, site based analyses of 11 HEI‘s, 10 interviews and subsequently a questionnaire survey was administered. Users‘ and stakeholders requirements and good examples of e-learning space design were identified. Data were analysed using a mixed-method research design approach. Three main constructs, Space design, Technology and the E-learning Space Design research focus (ELSD focus), emerged as significant components in the development of a novel framework for the design of e-learning spaces. The relationship between the components is such that the design of spaces with consideration of the ELSD research focus would ensure the effective identification, interpretation and delivery of users‘ requirement while maximising the benefits of the adoption of appropriate technology within HEI facilities. This was therefore proposed as the realistic framework/model for future design of E- learning Spaces in HEI campuses. The framework was adapted into a conceptual design guide to provide guidance for future space design. It is expected the study will support the HEI sector globally as it moves towards achieving best practice solutions to future E-learning space design in HEI campuses.

Aus dem Vorwort: "Wir freuen uns, mit dem Band GeNeMe99 die Beiträge des zweiten Workshops zu GeNeMe - Gemeinschaften in neuen Medien - präsentieren zu können. Damit erfüllt sich zumindest im Ansatz die mit der GeNeMe98 verbundene Absicht, eine Arbeits und Veranstaltungslinie zu begründen. Treffend aktuell reflektiert folgende dpa-Meldung zum diesjährigen "European IT Forum" in Paris vom 13. September des Jahres die Herausforderungen an Forschung und Praxis zur Verwirklichung des GeNeMe-Trends. Europa wird nach Einschätzung von Analysten in den nächsten Jahren im elektronischen Handel über das Internet kräftig aufholen. Damit könne Europa zum größten zusammenhängenden Markt im E-Commerce werden. Um im Wettbewerb bestehen zu können, müßten die Unternehmen aber ihre gesamte Firmenstruktur auf die elektronische Zukunft ausrichten. Das gelte auch für Unternehmen außerhalb der Technologie-Branche."

Aus dem Vorwort: "Der vorliegende Band faßt die Beiträge des mittlerweile dritten Workshops unserer Arbeits- und Veranstaltungslinie Gemeinschaften in Neuen Medien zusammen. Wir freuen uns, daß auch in diesem Jahr eine große Zahl interessanter und richtungsweisender Studien und Projekte die GeNeMe2000 zu einem Forum für die Präsentation von Ideen und für den Erfahrungsaustausch werden läßt. Das thematische Spektrum der Einreichungen zeugt davon, wie sehr neue Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien unsere Art, im Alltag zu interagieren sowie Wissen zu organisieren und zu verbreiten, nachhaltig verändert haben und immer noch verändern."