Distance Education has become widespread in the United States. Many have questioned the appropriateness of distance education when the research clearly demonstrates that most learners prefer to learn in traditional educational settings. Because of the availability of sophisticated telecommunications systems there has been a redefinition of distance education, and an attempt to use technology to...

The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the evolution of social presence research in the field of distance education and identified problems in investigating this construct. The researchers took an integrative review on existing social presence studies to answer three questions: (a) How definitions of social presence evolved since its establishment (b) How research focus shifted...

This paper summarises some of the major trends in distance education in the first decade of the 21st Century, and explores the implications of these trends for international collaboration among institutions of veterinary medicine.

In recognition of the difficulties posed for New Zealand medical students by travel during rural general practice attachments, a system of distance teaching was devised for final year medical students at the Waikato Clinical School. In place of weekly small group teaching using reflection on practice at the central campus led by a tutor, students participated in reflective learning via an elect...

background & aim: caregivers’ education should be an active and dynamic process. updated training programs are essential. this research was conducted to assess the effectiveness of virtual education on health care practitioners' self-efficacy in the neonatal unit . methods & materials : in this quasi-experimental research, hospitals affiliated with tehran university of medical sciences that had...

With the fast-growing economy and changing society in China, there has been large-scale development of both regular higher education and distance education in recent years. But we also have to face the challenges of inferior schools, lack of teachers, and lack of understanding about instructional theory and methods. Following world trends, many universities and colleges in China have carried ou...

Many universities are now faced with the challenge of adding more technology to their teaching. Although distance education has been carried out for many years, the advent of the web, video conferencing, video-on-demand and improved telecommunications create more possibilities. In this paper we describe several modes of distance education, media used and possible platforms. We are carrying out ...

In this paper, we describe the introduction of a wiki for collaborative activities in a Requirements Engineering course offered at a distance to parttime learners. The paper describes the course and how wiki activities were incorporated. The paper then discusses the initial feedback from the students which shows that the wiki has been largely effective for developing students’ understanding of ...

This investigation examines school-family partnership relationships in rural and remote settings. The study highlights the teaching-learning relationships of classroom teachers, parents as instructors/supervisors, and students as they make sense of numeracy and literacy outcomes in distance education contexts. The case study data provide insights into how the distance education provider (the sc...

This paper presents a case of the implementation of international distance courses between two universities of Taiwan and Japan in Asia-Pacific area. It reports the design of activities engaged in learning with supports of various communication tools. It also examines the students’ interaction and context of learning in distance education. The paper begins by briefly introducing the initiatives...