The general goal of this study was to investigate the feasibility of creating a constructivist learning environment in a university mathematics course as an alternative to the dominant transmissionist learning environments currently in place in most such courses. In order to accomplish this goal the researcher, a university professor, attempted to create this environment and document it in a case study.The study sought to ascertain which dimensions of a constructivist learning environment - autonomy, prior knowledge, negotiation, student-centeredness - university students preferred and how these preferences changed after being in such an environment. It also sought to find out how students' preferred environments matched the environment they perceived to be in place. In addition, the study sought to determine what changes the instructor had to make in his teaching practice to implement each of the dimensions.The results of the study suggest most students very strongly preferred the prior-knowledge and negotiation dimensions, strongly preferred the autonomy dimension, and weakly to moderately preferred the student-centeredness dimension. The data indicate that during the study student preferences for prior knowledge and negotiation increased slightly, preferences for student centeredness increased moderately, and preferences for autonomy increased significantly.In addition, the researcher found that the four dimensions were not implemented equally. While the first three dimensions were strongly implemented, the student-centeredness dimension was only moderately implemented. Interestingly, the learning environment the students perceived to be in place closely matched their preferences.

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Faced with the influx of emerging technologies, educators must continuously equip themselves with the necessary skills to effectively impact on today’s learners. Central to successful curriculum reform and student retention is the realisation that educators need to engage in continuous professional development, to meet the learners’ needs. The purpose of this research study is to explore and study how educators’ skills, knowledge and experience in e-learning can contribute to the successful achievement of the institution’s and students’ educational goals and to the design of a quality support system in an ODeL environment in a developing country. A mixed-method research approach was adopted. The target population was the University of South Africa (Unisa) academic staff members who enrolled for an elearning programme with the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) between the year 2012 and 2014. Convenience non-probability sampling was used and a total of 60 candidates were invited to participate in the study. Most of the participants pointed to the empathetic support they received from the relevant UMUC staff and also indicated that they are now ready to create an empathetic learning environment for their own students at Unisa. It is the premise of this paper that academics cannot impart and/or transfer what they do not have or know to learners and it gives recommendations on striving towards an effective empathetic students support in distance education and e-learning continuous professional development to effectively impact on today’s learners. The importance of pace, assignment due dates, use of rubrics, turnaround time for feedback, built-in support, and appropriate assessment strategies are also key findings in the report. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Open and Distance Learning (ODL)