Understanding Online Instructional Modeling: Theories and Practices: Theories and Practices

Zheng, Robert Z. · Ferris, Sharmila Pixy

Oct 2007 · IGI Global

About this ebook

Higher education is currently undergoing significant changes, and conditions in higher education reflect changing financial, social, and political conditions, which affect both faculty and students. Both the rising costs of education and changes from brick-and-mortar to technologically-driven programs often lead to a change from the traditional space-and-time bound institution to ones that offer cost-effective technologically enhanced programs.

Online learning has become an integral and expansive factor in higher education?both in distance learning and as an adjunct to the traditional classroom. Understanding Online Instructional Modeling: Theories and Practices focuses on both theoretical and practical aspects of online learning by introducing a variety of online instructional models as well as best practices that help educators and professional trainers to better understand the dynamics of online learning.

About the author

Robert Zheng is an associate professor of Instructional Design and Educational Technology in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Utah. He also is the director of Center for the Advancement of Technology in Education (CATE) at the University of Utah. His research interests include online instructional design, cognition and multimedia learning, and human-computer interaction. He edited and co-edited several books including Cognitive Effects on Multimedia Learning, Online Instructional Modeling: Theories and Practices, and Adolescent Online Social Communication and Behavior: Relationship Formation on the Internet. He has published numerous book chapters and research papers in the areas of multimedia, online learning, and cognition.

Sharmila Pixy Ferris (PhD, the Pennsylvania State University, 1995) is an Associate Professor in the Interpersoanl Concentration of the Department of Communication at William Paterson University. With a Master's in English and a Bachelor's in Psychology, Dr. Ferris brings an interdisciplinary focus to her research in computer-mediated communication. This relatively new field builds on an investigation of the potentials and innovations introduced to the field of communication by new computer technologies. Within the broader area of computer-mediated communication, Dr. Ferris studies gender, small groups, orality and literacy, and adoption patterns. She is an experienced consultant, and has worked with regional, national and multi-national corporations to conduct diversity training as well as workshops in communication skills, leadership, and teamwork. She has been published in a variety of journals including Qualitative Research Reports, The New Jersey Journal of Communication, The Electronic Journal of Communication, Interpersonal Computing and Technology, The Journal of Electronic Publishing and Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine. [Editor]