Learning from a distance continues to gain popularity. An influx of traditional, and even on-campus students attest to its flexibility, but are they equipped to succeed in a low-contact distance environment versus a face-to-face, on-campus environment? This research explored whether several variables including background, preparedness and self-perceptions assessed within the first week of class contributed differently to the success of students completing one-way distance teleclasses (n = 35) versus students completing the same classes in face-to-face, on-campus environments (n = 64). More...

Instructional immediacy is an established communication strategy that teachers can implement to create engaging learning environments. And yet, little is known about experiences distance education learners in graduate study programs have had with immediacy. This article presents findings from a qualitative research project designed to explore health care students' ideas about and activities related to instructional immediacy behaviors within a masters program offered exclusively through a WebCT online environment. More...

Table of Contents

Editorial

Research Articles

Research Notes

Book Notes

Technical Notes

CIDER Notes

Full Issue

IRRODL Volume 7, Number 1

PDF 1-103

This paper examines how online distance education acts to democratize access to, and suit the ontologies of, Mauritian women who seek to empower themselves for development. Data from semi-structured interviews of 30 middle class couples are presented in this paper. Interviews and analyses are premised on a feminist perspective and conducted within the social relations analysis framework. More...

This article reports on a phenomenological research study that was undertaken to provide cultural understanding about the nature of distance education experiences of Arab graduate students pursuing degree programs in the United States. More...

Conferencing – or dialogue – has always been a core activity in liberal adult education. More recently, attempts have been made to transfer such conversations online in the form of computer-mediated conferencing. This transfer has raised a range of pedagogical questions, most notably “Can established practices be continued? Or must new forms of participation and group management be established? This paper addresses these questions. More...

Remote access to experiments offers distance educators another tool to integrate a strong laboratory component within a science course. Since virtually all modern chemical instrumental analysis in industry now use devices operated by a computer interface, remote control of instrumentation is not only relatively facile, it enhances students’ opportunity to learn the subject matter and be exposed to “real world” contents. More...

Problem-based learning (PBL) is the use of a “real world” problem or situation as a context for learning. The present study explores the use of PBL in an online biotechnology course. In the PBL unit, student groups dealt with the ethical, legal, social, and human issues surrounding pre-symptomatic DNA testing for a genetic disease. Issues concerning implementation of PBL in the online environment are discussed, as are differences between online PBL and face-to-face PBL. More...

This paper describes systems dynamics, reviews the literature of uses of systems concepts in distance education (DE), presents a preliminary model, and ends in a call to researchers to contribute to the building of a standard model of DE. More...

Higher Ed Tech News and Research ~ Ray Schroeder, editor. Though the Americans with Disabilities Act has clear accessibility requirements, very rarely does anyone come knocking on college doors to find out whether they’re abiding by the law. More...