Distance Learning

According to researches, motivation that initiates and sustains behaviour is one of the most significant components of learning in any environment. Accordingly, level of intrinsic motivation triggers and sustains the interest of the open and distance education students when it comes to learning on their own in e‐learning environments. Despite a comprehensive literature regarding the motivation of those learning in traditional learning environments, the number of studies addressing the motivation of open and distance education students in e‐learning environments is not sufficient. In this context, this study aims at determining the level of intrinsic motivation of open and distance education students. Thus, data were collected from 1,639 distance education students in 22 programmes, through Intrinsic Motivation in e‐Learning Questionnaire developed and validated to that end. Analyses carried out indicate that the level of intrinsic motivation of open and distance education students is high in e‐learning environments, but there is not a statistically significant difference by gender, programme structure (graduate/undergraduate), instruction type (distance–blended), and academic disciplines.

Ekonomik şartlar, coğrafi konum, evlilik ve çocuk sahibi olma kadınların yakın bir geleceğe kadar eğitimi ikinci plana atmalarına neden olmuştur. Ancak çağdaş ve refah düzeyi yüksek bir toplum seviyesine ulaşabilmek için kadının eğitimi kaçınılmaz derecede önemlidir. Kadının eğitiminin toplumsal açıdan bir diğer önemi ise artık toplumların gelişmişlik düzeyinin kadının eğitim düzeyine göre belirleniyor olmasıdır. Kadının toplumdaki yerinin daha iyi bir konuma gelmesi gelişen teknolojilerin yardımıyla da artık daha mümkün hale gelmektedir. Ayrıca kadınların hayatlarının her döneminde, istedikleri zaman ve istedikleri mekanda özgürce eğitim alabilmelerini sağlamak konusunda açık ve uzaktan öğrenme oldukça geniş bir kapı aralamıştır. Örgün eğitimin yetersiz ya da eksik kaldığı veya ulaşılmadığı durumlarda eğitimde açıklık, teknolojinin desteğiyle kadınlar için daha ulaşılabilir bir öğrenim ortamı sağlamıştır. Açık ve uzaktan öğrenme programlarından mezun olan kadınların işgücünde istihdam edilmesi ekonomik kalkınmada da pozitif etkiler gösterebilir. Açık ve uzaktan öğrenme programlarından mezun olan eğitimli ve bilinçli kadınlar tüm iş sahalarında yer alabilir ve ekonomik bağımsızlıklarını elde edebilirler.

This article reports the findings of a qualitative study exploring in-service EFL teachers' perceptions of the learner support provided to them while they were taking a teacher research distance course. Findings indicate that students valued videoconferencing technology because it facilitated interacting with adviser, peers and insstructor to get academic assistance, a different perspective on their work, enthusiasm, and feedback, as well as opportunities to confront ideas and to share feelings. The course management system was perceived as highly beneficial to their learning because of the amount and varieety of support resources, and the multidimensional learning it promoted. Results may help language teacher educatos interested in enhancing the quality of research courses, Wb-based course developers involved in providing learner support, and researchers engaged in teacher research and distance education.

Open learning is becoming a critical focus for K-12 technology-supported programs as the importance of digital literacy and digital freedoms for all learners grows. This article describes current open learning policy, open educational resources and potential implications for open practice and ends with suggestions for future research in open learning. The column situates this examination in the context of current opportunities and challenges that impact open learning in educational spaces.

The establishment of an online community is widely held as the most important prerequisite for successful course completion and depends on an interaction between a peer group and a facilitator. Beaudoin reasoned that online students sometimes engage and learn even when not taking part in online discussions. The context of this study was an online course on web-based education for a Masters degree in computer-integrated education at the University of Pretoria. We used a mixed methodology approach to investigate how online activity and discussion postings relate to learning and course completion. We also investigated how student collaborative behaviour and integration into the community related to success. Although the quantitative indices measured showed highly significant differences between the stratifications of student performance, there were notable exceptions unexplained by the trends. The class harboured a well-functioning online learning
community. We also uncovered the discontent students in the learning community felt for invisible students who were absent without reason from group assignments or who made shallow and insufficient contributions. Student online visibility and participation can take many forms, like read-only participants who skim over or
deliberately harvest others’ discussions. Other students can be highly visible without contributing. Students who anticipate limited access due to poor connectivity, high costs or other reasons can manage their log-in time effectively and gain maximum benefit. Absent and seldom contributing students risk forsaking the benefits of the virtual learning community. High quality contributions rather than quantity builds trust among mature students. We suggest how to avoid read-only-participation:
communicate the required number of online classroom postings; encourage submission of high quality, thoughtful postings; grade discussions and give formative feedback; award individual grades for group projects and rotate members of groups; augment facilitator communication with Internet-independent media to
convey important information. Read-only-participants disrupt the formation of a virtual community of learners and compromise learning.