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Seven Strategies for Plagiarism-proofing Discussion Threads in Online Courses

Online discussions are an integral part of distance education courses. They provide a means for interaction among students and the instructor about course content as well as an opportunity for students to develop critical thinking skills. A growing number of faculty, however, have expressed concern about plagiarism occurring in online discussions. Rather than instructors policing discussion threads and then engaging in the time-consuming process of documenting occurrences of plagiarism, this paper considers whether it is possible to deter plagiarism of discussion threads through design and facilitation. Seven strategies for plagiarism-proofing online discussion threads are presented. Read more.

The Effectiveness and Development of Online Discussions

Both synchronous and asynchronous online discussions are an important component of effective distance education. They allow for the students to interact with each other without being in a classroom. In online discussion environments, students are able to build strong ties and relationships with each other. Online discussions can be presented in different ways and serve students for different purposes. In order for them to be effective, instructors must make their expectations clear, provide feedback, and lead the class down the correct path. This article deals with the importance of the effective design of online discussions and discusses ways that instructors can help students have effective discussions. Read more.

Creating Assignments That Work for Digital Learning Environments

Teachers who spend time actually thinking through assignments that align with the learning outcomes of a course are the most effective in assessing the learning that has taken place. It's debatable that evaluating learning in the purest sense might ever really be possible given the scope of variables in any context of learning, but when assignments are linked closely to outcomes, the results are more significant. Read article.

UCLA Professors Use Virtual Reality to Explore Ancient Egypt

To Willeke Wenderish, an associate professor of Egyptian archaeology at the University of California at Los Angeles, exploring the ruins of an ancient temple within an air-conditioned computer classroom can be even more useful than visiting the site in person. Read more.

WICHE & WCET Win Grant to Improve Transparency & Accountability in Adult Higher Education

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) and its e-learning arm, WCET, have been awarded a $629,000 grant by Lumina Foundation for Education to promote an ambitious initiative that will provide adult learners with greatly enhanced access to information about how online colleges and universities succeed in helping students meet specific professional goals and prepare for their careers. The initiative, called Transparency By Design, consists of a consortium of 14 adult-serving higher education institutions involved in online learning. Read article.

U of M moves from distance learning to digital campus

"From offering correspondence courses by mail in 1909 to courses on the radio in the 1930's and television in the 1960's, to the digital campus of today, the University of Minnesota has been using technology to improve access and advance learning for generations," said university President Robert Bruininks. "Today, we offer more than 1,000 classes online or in a hybrid online form. Tens of thousands of our students use online tools and resources to support their learning and earn their degrees." Read more.

More online courses cut students' commuter costs

With that in mind, college administrators nationwide are adding online courses and taking other steps to keep part-time commuter students enrolled. Read more.

Instructor’s Privacy in Distance (Online) Teaching: Where do you draw the line?

The exponential growth of distance learning provision in the past forty years poses pertinent and critical ethical issues. Students participating in distance education via an online course are required to recognize and resolve various ethical issues, some of which focus on the instructor's actions. Read article.

E-Learning Study

Powerful e-learning study of user experiences.

Help yourself to the elearning buffet

If Google is 'white bread for the mind' then elearning is the three course meal, isn't it? Julian Dable says it's time for elearning to become more bitesize if it's to appeal to today's information generation.