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This study was designed to evaluate the use of asynchronous discussion in distance education in terms of student perceptions of its value for learning and for affective support. At the end of the third and sixth years of a distance delivered teacher education programme, students completed a survey to determine the extent to which the nature and characteristics of the online aspects of the programme contributed to learning and afforded affective support. Students perceived considerable value in the online interaction for both learning and support. Small groups and the whole class were seen as the dominant spaces for interaction, but there was considerable differentiation between them in terms of their contribution to affective support. The small group discussions were seen as most important for all aspects of communication but students reported non-participation by some members as a significant problem.

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Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Baha'i, Jewish, and Christian organizations are all experimenting with distance education for various reasons and to different extents, due to religious, economic, and political factors. Religious institutions worldwide are not only turning to the World Wide Web (WWW) to place information concerning religious beliefs and provide virtual services for their constituents but are also getting more involved in formally educating their members at a distance. This paper will document some of these educational efforts and the reasons behind the expanding use of distance education by several of the major religious institutions for training, edifying, and educating their religious adherents.

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This article highlights the current dialogue about educational technology and ways of knowing in visual art education. The authors outline and evaluate the development and testing phases of a hypertextual online visual art course offered at the then Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (http://www.eciad.ca/www/) in the summer of 2001. Through this, we offer a framework for the evaluation of online visual art critical studies courses.

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The Internet is the world's largest knowledge common and the information source of first resort. Much of this information is open and freely available. However, there are organizations and companies today that are trying to close off the Internet commons and make it proprietary. These are the “copyright controllers.” The preservation of the commons and expanding access to digital content and applications are very important for distance educators. The educational exemptions for “fair use” in the United States and “fair dealing” in the Commonwealth countries are integral to any understanding of copyright, which was instituted for the dissemination of knowledge, and not, as is commonly believed, to protect the rights of the copyright owners. Copyright law was expressly introduced to limit their rights. Yet, these controllers are successfully turning a “copy” right into a property right. The traditional rights of learning institutions are being taken away. The balance for researchers should be restored. Research and learning must be allowed the broad interpretation that was intended in the original laws.

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Learning communities can emerge spontaneously when people find common learning goals and pursue projects and tasks together in pursuit of those goals. Bounded learning communities (BLCs) are groups that form within a structured teaching or training setting, typically a course. Unlike spontaneous communities, BLCs develop in direct response to guidance provided by an instructor, supported by a cumulative resource base. This article presents strategies that help learning communities develop within bounded frameworks, particularly online environments. Seven distinguishing features of learning communities are presented. When developing supports for BLCs, teachers should consider their developmental arc, from initial acquaintance and trust-building, through project work and skill development, and concluding with wind-down and dissolution of the community. Teachers contribute to BLCs by establishing a sense of teaching presence, including an atmosphere of trust and reciprocal concern. The article concludes with a discussion of assessment issues and the need for continuing research.

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The purpose of this paper is to study the process used for selecting research areas and methodological approaches in distance education in India. Experts from the field of distance education in India were interviewed at length, with the aim of collecting qualitative data on opinions on process-issues for selecting areas for research, research design, and appropriate methodological approaches in distance education. Data collected from these interviews were subjected to content analysis; triangulation and peer consultation techniques were used for cross-checking and data verification. While the findings and recommendations of this study have limited application in that they can only be used in the specific context outlined in this paper, respondents in this study nonetheless revealed the pressing need for more process-oriented research in examining media and technology, learners and learning, and distance learning evaluation processes. Our research, which yielded interesting empirical findings, also determined that a mixed approach – one that involves both quantitative and qualitative methods – is more appropriate for conducting research in distance education in India. Qualitative evidence from our research also indicates that respondents interviewed felt that emphasis should be placed on interdisciplinary and systemic research, over that of traditional disciplinary research. Research methods such as student self-reporting, extensive and highly targeted interviews, conversation and discourse analysis, were determined to as useful for data collection for this study.

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Report #32 in this series has considered the special attention required to make online collaborative tools fully accessible. The particular challenge for software developers is to optimize the accessibility of online education for persons with disabilities. In the process, the software's efficiency for all users is likely to be increased. The current paper expands on Report #32, by the same author, in reviewing specific software products that are rising to the online accessibility challenge: Allen eC, iCommunicator, and OpenCampus.

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Previous reports in this series (#32 and 36) have discussed online software features of value to disabled learners in distance education. The current report evaluates four specific assistive software products with useful features for visually and hearing impaired learners: ATutor, ACollab, Natural Voice, and Just Vanilla. The evaluative criteria discussed include the purpose, uses, costs, and features of each software product, all considered primarily from the accessibility perspective.

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The current paper builds on Reports #34 and 35 in this series, which discussed the use of collaborative software to develop online communities in distance education (DE). The paper illustrates the manner in which an educational community's needs should be carefully examined, in the process of designing techniques that fulfill these needs at a distance. Student perceptions of their theological education community at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri (http://www.csl.edu/Home.html) are investigated, via a survey instrument designed to define the students' communal needs.

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Marriage mentorship is one of the most effective methods through which a couple can enrich their marriage. A good mentorship relationship is based on feelings of warmth and affinity between mentors and mentees. When a relationship of trust is established, the mentees feel more freedom to express their deeper feelings and to explore new paths of mutual understanding. In what ways does the quality of interaction change when mentors and mentees interact via a technological medium such as online audio-conferencing? This paper compares three marriage mentoring experiences that employed online conferencing as the medium of interaction. Audio-conferencing methods provided a particularly warm, trusting interaction between participants, and an effective environment for learning and for practicing communication skills. The paper makes recommendations for efficient online mentoring practice, and builds on a previous discussion of online practice in the community advocacy context (Report #35 in this series).

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A wide range of projects and organizations is currently making digital learning resources (learning objects) available to instructors, students, and designers via systematic, standards-based infrastructures. One standard that is central to many of these efforts and infrastructures is known as Learning Object Metadata (IEEE 1484.12.1-2002, or LOM). This report builds on Report #11 in this series, and discusses the findings of the author's recent study of ways in which the LOM standard is being used internationally.

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The evaluation reports in this series usually feature several products at once. The current review, however, comes at a time when one of the most widely used (and expensive) online learning management systems is undergoing a major change in its marketing strategy and corporate focus. WebCT is currently evolving to a new version (WebCT Vista), with much attendant discussion by distance education (DE) users. The current review, as the others in this series, adds the DE student's perspective to this discussion. The review compares the existing WebCT Campus Edition with the new WebCT Vista, and examines some of the problems associated with the migration to Vista at the institutional level. A response to the report by the WebCT company is appended.