A neomillennial learning approach: Helping non-traditional learners studying at a distance

This paper reports on research investigating the perceptions of first year distance education students studying a foundation communications course using a multimodal learning environment. It demonstrates higher levels of engagement are possible when a neomillennial learning approach is adopted for designing course materials catering to a diverse student body, whilst maintaining a balanced environment for more traditional learners.

Defrosting the Digital Library: Bibliographic Tools for the Next Generation Web

Compelling and thought provoking data presented in this article illustrates the current process of using digital libraries with a typical workflow, and highlight problems with managing data and metadata using URIs. They then examined a range of new applications such as Zotero, Mendeley, Mekentosj Papers, MyNCBI, CiteULike, Connotea, and HubMed that exploit the Web to make these digital libraries more personal, sociable, integrated, and accessible places with conclusions in how these applications may begin to help achieve a digital defrost, and discuss some issues that will help or hinder in terms of making libraries on the Web warmer places in the future, becoming resources that are considerably more useful to both humans and machines.

E-Learning Needs Assessment Whitepaper

There are four basic objectives for conducting an e-learning needs assessment:
• Isolate specific business challenges, problems and opportunities for which e-learning is a potential solution.
• Identify risks associated with pursuing and not pursuing e-learning.
• Determine risk management strategies that can be implemented.

This vendor whitepaper considers possible e-learning configurations that represent potential solutions.

This needs assessment is centered on the various business issues that you will identify in question #1, and effectively flush out the remaining questions. It should assist your focus to e-learning initiatives on core business needs, develop a strong business case, and assist you in creating a requirements document (examples) that will aid in vendor evaluation and selection process.

Going Virtual! Unique Needs and Challenges of K-12 Online Teachers

This professional publication offers an insight to the unique needs and challenges K-12 online teachers face in the virtual world.

Beyond the Theoretical Impasse: Extending the applications of Transactional Distance Theory

Education is everybody’s business – the individual, the organisation, and the nation state.

Quality assurance, following the instructional design ADDIE model process, is at the heart of distance education policy development and becomes crucial in contributing towards making distance provision globally competitive, portable across borders, and finally in protecting consumers of education.

The premise of this article is that the Transactional Distance Theory (TDT) should be accepted as a global theory for the further development of distance education.

This Sunday, 26th October, have Coffe with Gavin Dudeney in Second Life

This is just a quick announcement about a free event in Second Life for 'EDUCATORS' on Sunday 26th October at GMT = 18.00 (GMT is 7 hours ahead of Second Life time, so that's 11.00 to 12.00 PDT) world.

You can watch the show and/or join in the discussion. Just go to Edunation III and click the sign-up terminals or email Gavin at dudeney@theconsultants-e.com.

This event is free, but limited to only 100 places.

As an educator in learning, this is a great opportunity to discover and learn Second Life.

It will be an informal event while providing plenty of opportunity to ask questions and find out more about the work of one of the main innovators of ELT and "teacher training" in Second Life. You'll also be able to find out a bit more about some of the free educational tools Gavin has been developing for use in Second Life for your classroom.

If you don't have a Second Life avatar but would like to know how to set one up, download instructions from here. Setting up a Second Life Avatar