This research addressed a potential strategy to help boost retention rates for Computer Science undergraduates. A study was conducted at a small New England liberal arts college to determine students' perceptions of e-mail peer-mentoring (EPM). EPM was offered to 40% of students taking the first CS major course (CS1) and was available for the entire semester. EPM participants were assigned peer mentors, selected from an upper-level CS class, to support participants solely via e-mail. Half of the EPM participants knew the name of their mentor while the other half had to communicate anonymously. All participants had additional resources available to them including the textbook, CS department lab tutors, course instructor, and CS1 course tutor. Results indicate that EPM was not well utilized by EPM participants, and that EPM had no significant effect on students' CS interest, CS ability, computer comfort, computer programming, or course completion confidence. Further, knowing or not knowing mentors' names had no significant effect. However, EPM participants recommended that EPM be continued; while they had not needed it, they felt it would be valuable for other students who might need it. Mentors also felt that EPM was worthwhile but that it may be better suited for the more challenging CS2 course. Both participants' and mentors' suggestions notably included an option to hold mentor-mentee meetings. Overall, it seemed that students regarded e-mail as a lower priority among adequate resources for learning assistance.

As distance learning continues to grow throughout American higher education, faculty and administrators must collaborate to implement online programs. Higher education literature suggests that administrators and faculty hold different values, beliefs and practices, differences that may constrain communication when they launch an online program. Grounded in the literature of organizational/academic culture, strategic change, and cultural discourse analysis, this study examines factors that influence what faculty and administrators say and do about online education. Identifying these factors helps scholars and practitioners to better understand and improve on collaborative communication. Special attention was given to contextual differences, including institutional type, size and control; academic discipline; and faculty rank, status and career stage. The qualitative multi-case research design captured the “thick description” necessary to study this phenomenon in a variety of institutional contexts with online programs. The case studies included data from semi-structured interviews, observations, and analysis of documents, artifacts and archival records. The findings suggest that (1) the extent to which individuals perceive alignment between their personal and professional narrative and the goals of an online program shapes subsequent implementation; (2) online education is more attractive to adjunct and tenured faculty members than to junior faculty members; (3) membership in a faculty vs. administrative cultural group contributes to observable differences between what members of each group say and do about online programs; (4) whether an online program is a faculty-led or an administrator-led initiative, the amount of collaboration between the groups impacts the pace, pitfalls and successes that participants experience; (5) characteristics of soft-applied disciplines are conducive to the online delivery format; (6) faculty members perceive administrative support for online programs as a motivational force and as an expression of institutional priority; and (7) leaders of the associate college and the university institutional types encourage online program growth more than their counterparts at the baccalaureate college included this study. This study concludes with implications for scholars and practitioners of online education; advice for administrative and faculty leaders, instructional designers and faculty members; and an initial framework for understanding factors that influence what faculty and administrators say and do about online programs.

This research is a qualitative study describing the interaction in a two-way video environment. It compares this environment with face-to-face (F2F) and provides descriptive information about instructional activities fostering instructor-student interaction and student-student interaction. The subjects studied were an experienced distance education instructor and his students at host and remote sites. The technical environment included two fully equipped video classrooms on the UMass Video Network, a five interactive system that provides two-way audio and video communication between students and instructor. Data were gathered from analysis of on-site observations, videotaped lessons, student surveys, and instructor interviews. Observation, survey, and interview data are analyzed and reported. The study concludes that this two-way video classroom environment can support interactive learning but not without the instructor's thorough planning, good classroom management skills, and use of a variety of learner-centered activities. It found that effectiveness in the two-way video environment to be very much instructor dependent and describes a thoroughly competent instructor successfully implementing several interactive strategies. It also identifies barriers that would impact interaction in this environment. Host and remote site student perceptions of the quantity and quality of interaction are reported as well as their suggestions for changes. Several other ancillary findings are discussed. Recommendations for possible future studies are offered.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how faculty make use of Internet resources and how students respond to use of these resources in a variety of undergraduate science and mathematics courses. Much more has been published on the use of Internet resources in traditional undergraduate curricula from the perspective of faculty as teachers and researchers than from the perspective of students as learners. This qualitative case study is a balanced approach that surveys mathematics and science professors and students at the same university. Both teacher and learner perspectives about on-line resource usage are scrutinized for the extent to which such resources augment content and delivery of traditional university undergraduate mathematics and science courses. Faculty and students were interviewed and asked about their perceptions of Internet as a tool for teaching and learning. Responses focused on the Internet as it affords information, communication, and collaboration. Students expressed distrust for Web publications, citing the information glut and sense of security with “approved” library resources. Personal and course Web pages were much more important to faculty than to students, who did not see themselves as producers but rather as consumers of information prepared by faculty and other experts in their fields. All students expressed the importance of the university's role in advising incoming students to take computing-related courses in their first year to prepare them for courses that have on-line components. When asked if they would consider delivering their courses asynchronously on-line, all of the faculty members interviewed declined. Consensus was that Internet/Web resources found their place in augmenting rather than replacing traditional courses. Most students interviewed responded that they would try an on-line course for the experience but that they would be inclined to take a general education course rather than a course in their major, not wanting to risk a low grade. Students and faculty alike continue to work with new applications for Internet groupware messaging such as asynchronous discussion groups and electronic bulletin boards that will be incorporated into traditional university courses.