Open learning, distance education Books

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Book SynopsisThe present text has been designed as a manual which looks into what entails distance education in India. The present text has been designed as a manual which looks into what entails distance education in India.

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Book SynopsisThis open access handbook offers a one-stop-shop for both new and established researchers, educators, policy makers and administrators in the field of open, distance and digital education (ODDE) to gain a comprehensive overview of the history, theory and practice at all levels of ODDE, and at the same time stimulates in-depth discussions on various themes and issues of ODDE for today and future. Researchers, scholars and students in the field of ODDE can use this handbook as a major reference to conduct their own research and learning agendas.To cover the field comprehensively, the handbook is structured following the 3M framework developed by one of the chief editors Zawacki-Richter. The 3M framework categorizes the major research areas and issues in ODDE on three levels. Accordingly, the handbook is divided into six sections in total, two section at each of the three levels: 1) Macro Level – ODDE Systems and Theories, 2) Meso Level - Institutional Perspectives, Management and Organization, and 3) Micro Level – Learning and Teaching in ODDE.This is an open access book.Table of ContentsSection 1: History, Theory and Research in ODDE.- Section 2: Global Perspectives and Internationalization.- Section 3: Organization, Leadership and Change.- Section 4: Infrastructure, Quality Assurance and Support Systems.- Section 5: Learners, Teachers, Media and Technology.- Section 6: Design, Delivery and Assessment.

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Book SynopsisThis book explores open educational resources and open education through research conducted on this topic globally. This book engages with intersections between open educational resources, social justice and equality, as well as policy in terms of open educational resources. Numerous examples of open praxis are also included, ranging from open educational resources courses to the affordances of artificial intelligence, data-driven learning, and open textbooks in this context. Furthermore, chapters range from providing a broad overview of open educational resources international and regional initiatives in Africa, to cases of work done in the United States, New Zealand, Israel, and Hong Kong. The role of Wikipedia and Wikidata is also prominent. Finally, this book includes unique contributions, focusing on open educational resources and feminist pedagogy, as well as disabled learners’ motivations for participating in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Academics and researchers working in the field of open education and higher education in general will understand the importance of this work.Table of ContentsChapter 1. OER: A catalyst for social justice and equality.- Chapter 2. OER: The promise, practice and problems.- Chapter 3. Developing supportive policies and strategies for their implementation: Student experience with real-world cases.- Chapter 4. Artificial intelligence-based techniques to assess and compare the quality of OER.- Chapter 5. Repositories of Open Textbooks for higher education: A worldwide overview.- Chapter 6. Reflections on remixing open access content into OER: A new paradigm for sustainable data-driven language learning systems design in higher education.- Chapter 7. OER: Guidelines in resource development for EAP.- Chapter 8. The collaborative picture book format as an OER for socialization, learning and assessment in higher education.- Chapter 9. Investigating disabled learners’ motivations of participating in MOOCs: A mixed methods research.- Chapter 10. The Wikipedia Education Program as OEP: Global stories.- Chapter 11. Who builds it, who benefits? Deepening student and faculty knowledge about Wikipedia’s scholarly value.- Chapter 12. OERs for data literacy and knowledge equity: Integrating Wikidata into higher education.- Chapter 13. Legacy building through a “Teaching with Technology” open textbook project.- Chapter 14. Integrating OER praxis and feminist pedagogy in Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies.

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Book SynopsisEffective online teaching is a well-documented topic, however, this book is different because it specifically addresses the effective and affective pedagogy and learning. It provides methods for building a strong and meaningful online environment that builds community, relationships, and establishes the social presence of each individual learner. This book provides a different perspective as it is written by experienced faculty members in higher education, all of whom have been teaching online for a decade or more. It also addresses the how and why establishing social presence as a necessity for effective online learning.This book addresses the "Why?" in the need for understanding contemporary approaches for exemplar online teaching with the establishment of social presence. With an increase in online learning, there is a shift in how current teaching practices are impacted and what is important to student learning in this change. This book describes the importance of strong andragogical practices in online teaching: rigor, teacher and learner mindset, and the importance of constructing social presence.

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Book SynopsisEffective online teaching is a well-documented topic, however, this book is different because it specifically addresses the effective and affective pedagogy and learning. It provides methods for building a strong and meaningful online environment that builds community, relationships, and establishes the social presence of each individual learner. This book provides a different perspective as it is written by experienced faculty members in higher education, all of whom have been teaching online for a decade or more. It also addresses the how and why establishing social presence as a necessity for effective online learning.This book addresses the "Why?" in the need for understanding contemporary approaches for exemplar online teaching with the establishment of social presence. With an increase in online learning, there is a shift in how current teaching practices are impacted and what is important to student learning in this change. This book describes the importance of strong andragogical practices in online teaching: rigor, teacher and learner mindset, and the importance of constructing social presence.

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Book SynopsisThis volume informs our understanding of how educational settings can respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Teaching has always been a challenging profession but the pandemic has added unprecedented levels of demands. Much of what we know about stress and trauma in education predates the COVID-19 pandemic.As the pandemic recedes, it seems likely that recruiting and retaining teachers, always a challenge, will become even more difficult. This could not be worse for students, who face steep losses in their academic and socio-emotional progress after more than two years of pandemic-impacted schooling. The silver lining is that scholars who study the occupational health have spent the past several years studying the effect of the pandemic on teachers, which led us to edit this volume to collected what is known and have these experts explain how we can better support teachers in the future.This book documents the many impacts of the pandemic on the teaching profession, but also leverages research to chart a path forward. Part I examines the contours of stress, with a particular emphasis on COVID-19 impacts. These contributions range from parents' achievement worries to compassion fatigue, and, more optimistically, how teachers cope. Part II examines pandemic impacts on pre-school teachers, in both the U.S. and in Australia. Given the social distancing in place during the pandemic, pre-school students and their teachers were under unique demands, as there is no substitute for the personal connection critical at that age. It is likely that students entering elementary school in the next few years will have work to do in their social skills. Part III focuses on mentoring and stress during the pandemic. Mentoring is an important part of teacher's professional development, but the pandemic scrambled traditional forms of mentoring as all teachers were thrown into unfamiliar online technology. The final section of this book, Part IV, includes links between teacher stress and trauma during the pandemic. Clearly, with the ongoing nature of the pandemic, it is easy to see how trauma is likely to manifest in years to come.Readers of this book will better understand teacher demands, as well as the resources teachers will need going forward. Teachers made heroic efforts during the pandemic to help their students both academically and personally. We owe to them to learn from research during the pandemic that points to the way to a healthier occupational future.

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Book SynopsisThis volume informs our understanding of how educational settings can respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Teaching has always been a challenging profession but the pandemic has added unprecedented levels of demands. Much of what we know about stress and trauma in education predates the COVID-19 pandemic.As the pandemic recedes, it seems likely that recruiting and retaining teachers, always a challenge, will become even more difficult. This could not be worse for students, who face steep losses in their academic and socio-emotional progress after more than two years of pandemic-impacted schooling. The silver lining is that scholars who study the occupational health have spent the past several years studying the effect of the pandemic on teachers, which led us to edit this volume to collected what is known and have these experts explain how we can better support teachers in the future.This book documents the many impacts of the pandemic on the teaching profession, but also leverages research to chart a path forward. Part I examines the contours of stress, with a particular emphasis on COVID-19 impacts. These contributions range from parents' achievement worries to compassion fatigue, and, more optimistically, how teachers cope. Part II examines pandemic impacts on pre-school teachers, in both the U.S. and in Australia. Given the social distancing in place during the pandemic, pre-school students and their teachers were under unique demands, as there is no substitute for the personal connection critical at that age. It is likely that students entering elementary school in the next few years will have work to do in their social skills. Part III focuses on mentoring and stress during the pandemic. Mentoring is an important part of teacher's professional development, but the pandemic scrambled traditional forms of mentoring as all teachers were thrown into unfamiliar online technology. The final section of this book, Part IV, includes links between teacher stress and trauma during the pandemic. Clearly, with the ongoing nature of the pandemic, it is easy to see how trauma is likely to manifest in years to come.Readers of this book will better understand teacher demands, as well as the resources teachers will need going forward. Teachers made heroic efforts during the pandemic to help their students both academically and personally. We owe to them to learn from research during the pandemic that points to the way to a healthier occupational future.

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Book SynopsisThe chapters in this book provide an excellent story of the growth of e-learning and e-service-learning over the past many years. Strait takes us from the first chapter examining current issues and considerations for eService-Learning, to a second chapter that documents the growth and maturation of a program at Missouri State University, to chapters that introduce "critical" e-service learning with a social justice orientation (Gordon and Jackson-Brown), and chapters that address international experiences (Ong, Tan, et al., and Dietrich and Ekici) that involve e-service-learning in Singapore and long-distance relationships between the US and Afghanistan, to illustrate the multiplicity and diversity of current models of service and learning that occur through electronic means.The importance of the book and its chapters is that change happens. What was occurring in the early 21st century was altered by situations, such as the global pandemic of Covid 19, to increase the reliance on e-educational systems and promote the increased use of electronic educational programs that covered almost all areas of educational systems. While early mobile phones existed in the 1970s (Teixeira, T. 2010), they evolved, and more sophisticated versions were produced throughout the 20th century. By the end of the century, phones that could easily transmit emails were developed, and then came camera phones and then smart phones by 2003. And phone communication has continued to change, existing today as a total communication device used by people all over the world.Similarly, video, and visual systems have evolved and continue to change. Zoom was developed in 2011 and has continued to evolve and expand services all over the world. People are now able to visually and orally communicate with others on every continent 24 hours a day, and the complexity and utility of communication has similarly expanded. Now phones can instantaneously translate between languages and people in all parts of the world can share experiences and visual products without barriers of language, country, or time. Indeed, the electronic world is an amazing entity and continues to evolve each year.So, what are the implications of all these changes for education and service? Simply put, they are and will continue to evolve to more complex and more useful forms for all communication and interaction. And this current volume gives us much insight into the important areas of change in both e-learning and e-service-learning. All the chapters add great insight and information about important issues in the field and highlight some of the critical concepts embedded in its development.

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Book SynopsisThe chapters in this book provide an excellent story of the growth of e-learning and e-service-learning over the past many years. Strait takes us from the first chapter examining current issues and considerations for eService-Learning, to a second chapter that documents the growth and maturation of a program at Missouri State University, to chapters that introduce "critical" e-service learning with a social justice orientation (Gordon and Jackson-Brown), and chapters that address international experiences (Ong, Tan, et al., and Dietrich and Ekici) that involve e-service-learning in Singapore and long-distance relationships between the US and Afghanistan, to illustrate the multiplicity and diversity of current models of service and learning that occur through electronic means.The importance of the book and its chapters is that change happens. What was occurring in the early 21st century was altered by situations, such as the global pandemic of Covid 19, to increase the reliance on e-educational systems and promote the increased use of electronic educational programs that covered almost all areas of educational systems. While early mobile phones existed in the 1970s (Teixeira, T. 2010), they evolved, and more sophisticated versions were produced throughout the 20th century. By the end of the century, phones that could easily transmit emails were developed, and then came camera phones and then smart phones by 2003. And phone communication has continued to change, existing today as a total communication device used by people all over the world.Similarly, video, and visual systems have evolved and continue to change. Zoom was developed in 2011 and has continued to evolve and expand services all over the world. People are now able to visually and orally communicate with others on every continent 24 hours a day, and the complexity and utility of communication has similarly expanded. Now phones can instantaneously translate between languages and people in all parts of the world can share experiences and visual products without barriers of language, country, or time. Indeed, the electronic world is an amazing entity and continues to evolve each year.So, what are the implications of all these changes for education and service? Simply put, they are and will continue to evolve to more complex and more useful forms for all communication and interaction. And this current volume gives us much insight into the important areas of change in both e-learning and e-service-learning. All the chapters add great insight and information about important issues in the field and highlight some of the critical concepts embedded in its development.

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Book SynopsisThis edited volume focuses on visual and image-based methodologies that can be used to expand how educators approach, design, and innovate research for the purpose of informing and improving teaching and learning. Exploring how data can be utilized, collected, and rendered useful in the education arena is of utmost importance to those oriented towards utilizing research with the aim of improving educational practice. Innovative methodologies are important for preparing future researchers/scholars and teachers in developing and sustaining professional knowledge. To date, while visual methodologies are explored in various volumes related to general areas of social science, few texts exist where visual methodologies are explained or well-understood in the field of education, specifically.This work centers on the functions, cultures, and outcomes of teaching and learning using visual data (i.e., participant-generated drawings, photo-elicitation, film, etc.) and the methods that frame this approach. It is intended for teachers, researchers, and teacher-researchers - in higher education as well as at PK-12 levels – who are ready to engage with innovative, and often compelling, research methods that make data collection across data sources both accessible and equitable. This volume illustrates how various scholars have conceptualized, generated, and executed research utilizing visual data in their own schools, classrooms, and/or districts, and what they learned from these investigations.This edited volume is organized according to four main strands: Conducting research as visual endeavor: Assessing the nature of visual methodology, Conducting research as visual endeavor: Pedagogical innovation, What can visual data in educational research reveal: Student engagement, motivation, selfdetermination, metacognition, and mindfulness, and Conducting research as visual endeavor: Critical perspectives-critical exploration of issues in education and visual data's engagement with, and impact on, marginalized and/or disenfranchised participants.The chapters within each section, authored by established scholars in their fields of study, focus on some of today's key educational practices and the ways in which visual methodologies can provide innovation in the design of educational research. Each chapter within the volume reflects the importance of using credible, confirmable, reliable, and triangulated interpretations as a foundation for any claims, findings, or assertions related to pedagogical innovation, student mindfulness, and critical pedagogy. In summary, this edited volume is critically engaged, innovative, and contributes to advances in qualitative inquiry, visual research methodologies, and alternative ways of 'seeing' and 'knowing'.

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Book SynopsisThis edited volume focuses on visual and image-based methodologies that can be used to expand how educators approach, design, and innovate research for the purpose of informing and improving teaching and learning. Exploring how data can be utilized, collected, and rendered useful in the education arena is of utmost importance to those oriented towards utilizing research with the aim of improving educational practice. Innovative methodologies are important for preparing future researchers/scholars and teachers in developing and sustaining professional knowledge. To date, while visual methodologies are explored in various volumes related to general areas of social science, few texts exist where visual methodologies are explained or well-understood in the field of education, specifically.This work centers on the functions, cultures, and outcomes of teaching and learning using visual data (i.e., participant-generated drawings, photo-elicitation, film, etc.) and the methods that frame this approach. It is intended for teachers, researchers, and teacher-researchers - in higher education as well as at PK-12 levels – who are ready to engage with innovative, and often compelling, research methods that make data collection across data sources both accessible and equitable. This volume illustrates how various scholars have conceptualized, generated, and executed research utilizing visual data in their own schools, classrooms, and/or districts, and what they learned from these investigations.This edited volume is organized according to four main strands: Conducting research as visual endeavor: Assessing the nature of visual methodology, Conducting research as visual endeavor: Pedagogical innovation, What can visual data in educational research reveal: Student engagement, motivation, selfdetermination, metacognition, and mindfulness, and Conducting research as visual endeavor: Critical perspectives-critical exploration of issues in education and visual data's engagement with, and impact on, marginalized and/or disenfranchised participants.The chapters within each section, authored by established scholars in their fields of study, focus on some of today's key educational practices and the ways in which visual methodologies can provide innovation in the design of educational research. Each chapter within the volume reflects the importance of using credible, confirmable, reliable, and triangulated interpretations as a foundation for any claims, findings, or assertions related to pedagogical innovation, student mindfulness, and critical pedagogy. In summary, this edited volume is critically engaged, innovative, and contributes to advances in qualitative inquiry, visual research methodologies, and alternative ways of 'seeing' and 'knowing'.

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Book SynopsisTeaching and Learning at a Distance is written for introductory distance education courses for preservice or in-service teachers, and for training programs that discuss teaching distant learners or managing distance education systems. This text provides readers with the basic information needed to be knowledgeable distance educators and leaders of distance education programs. The teacher or trainerwho uses this book will be able to distinguish between appropriate uses of distance education.In this text we take the following themes:The first theme is the definition of distance education. Before we started writing the first edition of Teaching and Learning at a Distance we carefully reviewed the literature to determine the definition that would be at the foundation of our writing. This definition is based on the work of Desmond Keegan, but is unique to this book. This definition of distance education has been adopted by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology and by the Encyclopedia Britannica.The second theme of the book is the importance of research to the development of the contents of the book. The best practices presented in Teaching and Learning at a Distance are validated by scientific evidence. Certainly there are "rules of thumb," but we have always attempted to only include recommendations that can be supported by research.The third theme of Teaching and Learning at a Distance is derived from Richard Clark's famous quote published in the Review of Educational Research that states that media are mere vehicles that do not directly influence achievement. Clark's controversial work is discussed in the book, but is also fundamental to the book's advocacy for distance education—in other words, we authors do not make the claim that education delivered at a distance is inherently better than other ways people learn. Distance delivered instruction is not a "magical" approach that makes learners achieve more.The fourth theme of the book is equivalency theory. Here we present the concept that instruction should be provided to learners that is equivalent rather than identical to what might be delivered in a traditional environment. Equivalency theory helps the instructional designer approach the development of instruction for each learner without attempting to duplicate what happens in a face-to-face classroom.The final theme for Teaching and Learning at a Distance is the idea that the book should be comprehensive—that it should cover as much of the various ways instruction is made available to distant learners as is possible. It should be a single source of information about the field.

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Book SynopsisTeaching and Learning at a Distance is written for introductory distance education courses for preservice or in-service teachers, and for training programs that discuss teaching distant learners or managing distance education systems. This text provides readers with the basic information needed to be knowledgeable distance educators and leaders of distance education programs. The teacher or trainerwho uses this book will be able to distinguish between appropriate uses of distance education.In this text we take the following themes:The first theme is the definition of distance education. Before we started writing the first edition of Teaching and Learning at a Distance we carefully reviewed the literature to determine the definition that would be at the foundation of our writing. This definition is based on the work of Desmond Keegan, but is unique to this book. This definition of distance education has been adopted by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology and by the Encyclopedia Britannica.The second theme of the book is the importance of research to the development of the contents of the book. The best practices presented in Teaching and Learning at a Distance are validated by scientific evidence. Certainly there are "rules of thumb," but we have always attempted to only include recommendations that can be supported by research.The third theme of Teaching and Learning at a Distance is derived from Richard Clark's famous quote published in the Review of Educational Research that states that media are mere vehicles that do not directly influence achievement. Clark's controversial work is discussed in the book, but is also fundamental to the book's advocacy for distance education—in other words, we authors do not make the claim that education delivered at a distance is inherently better than other ways people learn. Distance delivered instruction is not a "magical" approach that makes learners achieve more.The fourth theme of the book is equivalency theory. Here we present the concept that instruction should be provided to learners that is equivalent rather than identical to what might be delivered in a traditional environment. Equivalency theory helps the instructional designer approach the development of instruction for each learner without attempting to duplicate what happens in a face-to-face classroom.The final theme for Teaching and Learning at a Distance is the idea that the book should be comprehensive—that it should cover as much of the various ways instruction is made available to distant learners as is possible. It should be a single source of information about the field.

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