<p> The purpose of this quantitative descriptive survey research was to assess and describe the effect of technology training on career and technical education (CTE) teachers&rsquo; perceptions of computer self-efficacy and technology practices in a vocational school district in New Jersey. CTE schools prepare future citizens and workers for the challenges of a global technological society. Technology training is crucial to the success of CTE teachers who have the daunting task of better educating students and developing the highly technical skills and problem-solving abilities of workers to compete in the global marketplace. A purposive sample of 84 teachers who attended technology training in the district completed technology-based surveys and six teachers agreed to participate in an interview and classroom observation. Triangulation of the findings of the surveys, interviews, and classroom observations helped to validate the methods and lend important insights to CTE leaders on the effectiveness of technology training. Findings indicated that CTE teachers are using technology in the classroom, but not implementing at levels consistent with developing the higher order thinking and problem-solving skills of students. A practical suggestion for technology training designs included the use of adult learning theories and constructivism for improving the levels of technology implementation among CTE teachers. Recommendations of the study targeted annual technology assessments, post-secondary collaborative partnerships, and supportive leadership to address the needs and concerns of teachers.</p>

<p> An understanding of the impact of user avatar alteration in relation to social presence is needed to fully realize the potential of Second Life for higher education usages, which the research literature reveals as an environment that provides increased social presence. Prior studies focused primarily on the impact of system design attributes on social presence. </p><p> A social presence measurement instrument was developed that includes the ITC-SOPI Social Presence Inventory by Lessiter, Freeman, Keogh, &amp; Davidoff, J.D. (2001), the Witmer/Singer Social Presence Inventory (2005), and a portion of the Slater (1994) Social Presence Inventory accompanied by researcher developed study specific queries. The comprehensive instrument was used to collect data from a volunteer sample of 65 Dakota State University students from Summer/Fall 2012, 100, 200, and 300 level Sioux Falls, South Dakota University Center computer classes. The quantitative measures were supported by qualitative statements from a fully immersive Second Life class conducted by Glendale Community College, AZ. Computed means and standard deviations from the pre avatar change survey revealed that the respondents did not articulate perceptions of social presence at a significant level. </p><p> Computed means and standard deviations of the pre/post avatar surveys change scores documented that none of the avatar change criteria resulted in significant changes in terms of perceived social presence. A subsequent one way analysis of variance was conducted and avatar attire, construction (body structure), gender or type, and physical appearance (facial structure) did not result in a statistically significant difference in terms of predicting social presence at the .05 level on the comprehensive social presence instrument. </p>

<p> The impact of instant message interruptions via computer on immediate lecture retention for college students was examined. While watching a 24&ndash;minute video of a classroom lecture, students received various numbers of related&ndash;to&ndash;lecture (&ldquo;Is consistent use of the eye contact method necessary for success?&rdquo;) versus not&ndash;related&ndash;to lecture (&ldquo;Have you ever missed class because you couldn't find parking?&rdquo;) instant messages in addition to note taking vs. no note taking. Student self&ndash;rating for multitasking ability, typical and maximum instant messaging activity, and classroom computer use were also measured. Contrary to cognitive models of information processing that suggest instant messages will disrupt student retention of lecture information, no effects were found for number of interruptions, presence or absence of notes, or relatedness of interruption on lecture retention. Students&rsquo; multitasking self&ndash;rating was negatively related to lecture retention. The implications of these results for classroom practice and future research are explored.</p>

<p> Online education has grown into a part of the educational market answering the demand for learning at the learner's choice of time and place. Inquiry skills such as observing, questioning, collecting data, and devising fair experiments are an essential element of 21st-century online science coursework. Virtual immersive worlds such as Second Life are being used as new frontiers in science education. There have been few studies looking specifically at science education in virtual worlds that foster inquiry skills. This quantitative quasi-experimental nonrandomized control group pretest and posttest study explored what affect a virtual world experience had on inquiry skills as measured by the TIPS (Test of Integrated Process Skills) and TIPS II (Integrated Process Skills Test II) instruments. Participants between the ages of 18 and 65 were recruited from educator mailing lists and Second Life discussion boards and then sorted into the experimental group, which received instructions to utilize several displays in Mendelian genetics at the Genome Island location within Second Life, or the control group, which received text-based PDF documents of the same genetics course content. All participants, in the form of avatars, were experienced Second Life residents to reduce any novelty effect. This study found a greater increase in inquiry skills in the experimental group interacting using a virtual world to learn science content (0.90 points) than a control group that is presented only with online text-based content (0.87 points). Using a mixed between-within ANOVA (analysis of variance), with an alpha level of 0.05, there was no significant interaction between the control or experimental groups and inquiry skills, F (1, 58) = .783, p = .380, partial eta squared = .013, at the specified .05 alpha level suggesting no significant difference as a result of the virtual world exercise. However, there is not enough evidence to state that there was no effect because there was a greater increase in scores for the group that experienced a virtual world exercise. This study adds to the increasing body of knowledge about virtual worlds and inquiry skills, particularly with adult learners.</p>

<p> Universitas Terbuka (UT), the Indonesia Open University and the 45^th state university in the country, is the only one that uses distance learning as its sole mode of delivery and instruction. Although UT has operated for 28 years, unlike face-to-face classroom-based education, distance education has not been considered as a fully legitimate delivery system in Indonesia. In the mindset of the people of Indonesia, "education" necessarily implies a conventional classroom environment; and, as a consequence, the relatively new format of distance learning does not register as "real education." Yet under the pressure of increased demand for higher education, the participation in distance learning programs at UT has been rapidly growing. </p><p> However, that popularity also poses a problem. Indonesian students have difficulty with distance formats given lack of familiarity with the requirements of independent study and a low level of current aptitude for reading on their own. UT has therefore developed tutorial programs to assist distance learning students with overcoming the problem and reviewing their material. Most are offered face-to-face but are only accessible to the minority of students living near centers where such instruction can be delivered. With the spread of internet access in the country, online tutoring programs have been established but have been little evaluated. This study was devoted to assessing the quality of implementation and effectiveness of online course tutoring for Bachelor's degree distance learning students enrolled in UT. </p><p> Results indicate that despite difficulties of administration, the program is relatively well implemented and in the majority of classes, online tutorial participants score better than classmates who do not participate in the tutorial on final exams. Overall, therefore, the online tutorial program appears to be performing a real service but to be in need of better specification, some modification of methods and closer quality control. A number of recommendations for greater effectiveness and better service to UT students are offered in the last section of the text.</p>

<p> Despite the rapid growth of online learning and student enrollment at for-profit colleges, previous research has found that employers are wary of job applicants with credentials earned from these sources. This study compared the attitudes of health care recruiters toward four different RN-to-BSN degree options based on the method of instruction (classroom, online) and the type of college (traditional, for-profit). A sample of 116 health care recruiters from across the United States completed an online survey. The study revealed that there were significant differences in the perceived advantage in the hiring process, credibility, concerns about credentials and likelihood to recommend hiring. Applicants with RN-to-BSN degrees from traditional colleges and via classroom instruction were clearly most favored and those with degrees earned through online instruction at for-profit colleges were perceived the least favorably. An online degree from a traditional college was determined to be more acceptable than an online degree from a for-profit college but still less acceptable than a degree earned through classroom instruction at a traditional college. The implication of these findings is that the return on education for students earning college degrees online or from for-profit colleges may be inhibited by employer perceptions regarding the quality of credentials earned in these environments.</p>

Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is the knowledge required for effective technology integration in teaching. In this study, New Zealand high school science teachers’ TPACK was assessed through an online survey. The data and its analysis revealed that New Zealand’s high school science teachers in general had a high perception of their understanding of TPACK and its related constructs. Science teachers had high mean scores on all the constructs on a five- point Likert scale except technological knowledge. There is thus an indication that science teachers in New Zealand perceived themselves as being able to teach with technology effectively. Correlation analysis revealed that all six constructs correlated significantly with TPACK (also referred to as TPCK). Multiple and stepwise regression analyses revealed that Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) and Technological Content Knowledge (TCK) made statistically significant unique contributions to Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK). Pre-registered teachers indicated that their levels of TCK and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) were lower than more experienced teachers. This implied that recently graduated teachers found it difficult to appropriate the affordances of technology to affect the content they taught. Also, these recently graduated teachers lacked the experience to represent content in a format that made it comprehensible to their learners. The contextual factors that influenced teachers’ use of technology as well as teachers’ TPACK levels were investigated through multiple embedded case studies of six teachers who were regular users of technology in their teaching. The case studies revealed that science teachers used technology to support inquiry learning in a wide range of ways in lower levels of high school but mostly to clarify concepts and theories when it came to the senior level of high school. Teachers demonstrated different levels of expertise and engagement in the use of technology for transferring different types of knowledge from one teaching and learning context to another and for addressing differences amongst learners. This signalled that science teachers’ TPACK apparent developmental levels shifted depending on the context of the assessment requirements of the students. This is a major finding in this study because although previous researchers have assumed that context influences teachers’ TPACK characteristics and development, this study provides evidence of how specific aspects of context influences teachers’ TPACK. This evidence shows examples of how the development of an individual’s TPACK can be considered as dynamic where the interacting constructs and characteristics shift and change based on the context. The recommendations from this study propose that teacher education programmes should ensure that there is a focus on teaching preservice teachers how to appropriate the affordances of technology to teach specific content instead of teaching one technology skills based course. The evidence from this study indicates that teachers in New Zealand schools use collegial approaches in the use of technology. Therefore professional learning programmes should target groups of teachers in the same school or cluster of schools rather than targeting individual teachers. This will enable teachers to share ideas and provide leadership for their colleagues in terms of how to use technology. Again, technology related professional development programmes should move away from enriching teachers’ technological skills to emphasising how teachers can appropriate the affordances of technology in their classroom practices to meet their instructional goals as well as students’ learning outcomes. There is a consequent obligation for teacher educators, educationists and stakeholders to enable teachers to understand how best to harness the increased knowledge retrieval capacity that Information and Communication Technology affords, its information sharing abilities as well as the capacity to engage young people to act as experimenters, designers and creators of knowledge.

<p> Workplace training design has evolved from a task-based systems framework managed by the designer, to a collaborative process of problem-solving that includes stakeholders across the enterprise. Collaborative design models address persistent problems, such as cost efficiency, requirements that change late in development, and aggressive timetables, but perceptions of training effectiveness continue to be pessimistic. Given the substantial role of employees in making training effective, by transferring what they learn to their day-to-day responsibilities, this study proposed an emergent design model in which designers collaborate with employees as partners in solving training design problems. Previous efforts to include employees in training design have faltered, because of time and resource requirements which limit participation or greatly expand timelines. This study investigated the potential of broad employee participation, through the widely-used medium of organizational surveys, in which employees are invited to suggest ways to improve their work environment. The study applied a three-phase, mixed methods approach, to investigate whether survey text responses contain viable input into training design, and to explore the nature of that input in terms of major themes about workplace training, and detailed input reflecting employees' experience of online training. Nearly 90,000 text responses were accepted into the study, from industries that include pharmaceuticals, retail, manufacturing, telecommunications and financial services. Analysis exposed the inherent conflict between the designer's focus on training delivery, and the employees' focus on transferring what they learn to their jobs; and a widespread organizational conflict between leadership compensation tied to short-term financial metrics, and long-term strategies that drive infrastructure programs such as workplace training. Responses across all industry sectors in the study reported limited management support for training, which is nonetheless essential to employees' job performance. Responses described online training that makes only minimal use of the basic functions of computer technology. The study validates earlier research questioning workplace training effectiveness, with evidence suggesting that training programs are constrained by organizational challenges that cannot be solved by designers alone. The study suggests that organizations can involve their employees in addressing the conflicts that limit training effectiveness, through design partnership using survey responses.</p>

<p> This qualitative multi-case study examined the instructional design and development processes utilized by instructional designers and designers by assignment in higher education that created mobile learning for iTunes U delivery. Current research into the instructional design practices for mobile learning delivery leaves a gap in the literature. This study aimed to identify the instructional design and development processes specific to mobile learning delivery within iTunes U. Ten participants from higher education were purposively selected for participation in the study. Each of the 10 participants met the selection criteria; participants designed or served on a design team that created an iTunes U course for a higher education audience. Five of the participants were instructional designers and the other five were instructional designers by assignment. Data was collected from three sources including the participants' iTunes U courses, sample model designs or processes, and in-depth participant interviews. The study identifies instructional strategies, instructional design processes, advantages, and constraints of instructional design and development for mobile learning through iTunes U delivery. Included in the findings is a design and development model for instructional design of mobile learning through iTunes U.</p>

<p> The use of virtual laboratories has the potential to change physics education. These low-cost, interactive computer activities interest students, allow for easy setup, and give educators a way to teach laboratory based online classes. This study investigated whether virtual laboratories could replace traditional hands-on laboratories and whether students could retain the same long-term knowledge in virtual laboratories as compared to hands-on laboratories. This study is a quantitative quasi-experiment that used a multiple posttest design to determine if students using virtual laboratories would retain the same knowledge as students who performed hands-on laboratories after 9 weeks. The study was composed of 336 students from 14 school districts. Students had their performances on the laboratories and their retention of the laboratories compared to a series of factors that might have affected their retention using a pretest and two posttests, which were compared using a <i>t</i> test. The results showed no significant difference in short-term learning between the hands-on laboratory groups and virtual laboratory groups. There was, however, a significant difference (p = .005) between the groups in long-term retention; students in the hands-on laboratory groups retained more information than those in the virtual laboratory groups. These results suggest that long-term learning is enhanced when a laboratory contains a hands-on component. Finally, the results showed that both groups of students felt their particular laboratory style was superior to the alternative method. The findings of this study can be used to improve the integration of virtual laboratories into science curriculum.</p>