How insights from the social sciences, including social psychology and economics, can improve the design of online communities.Online communities are among the most popular destinations on the Internet, but not all online communities are equally successful. For every flourishing Facebook, there is a moribund Friendster—not to mention the scores of smaller social networking sites that never attracted enough members to be viable. This book offers lessons from theory ...

This book seeks to establish an interdisciplinary, applied social scientific model for researchers and students that advocates a cooperative effort between machines and people. After showing that basic research on social processes offers much needed guidance for those creating technology and designing tools for group work, its papers demonstrate the mutual relevance of social science and information system design, and encourage better integration of these disciplines.This comprehen...

Every chapter in the widely distributed first edition has been updated, and four new chapters on current issues such as connectivism and social software innovations have been added. Essays by practitioners and scholars active in the complex, diverse, and rapidly evolving field of distance education blend scholarship and research; practical attention to the details of teaching and learning; and mindful attention to the economics of the business of education.

The book expounds the macro-level relationship between strategy, HRM, and performance, addressing important challenges that have constrained research and practice to date. Adopting a critical perspective, the first challenge is a narrow definition of 'performance' that has been largely driven by a managerialist, profit motive, with little regard for the human element. This book proposes adopting a more balanced approach towards measuring performance, encompassing both organizational financ...

A one-stop knowledge resource, Emerging Technologies in Distance Education showcases the international work of research scholars and innovative distance education practitioners who use emerging interactive technologies for teaching and learning at a distance. This widely anticipated book harnesses the dispersed knowledge of international experts who highlight pedagogical, organizational, cultural, social, and economic factors that influence the adoption and integration of emerging technolo...

This comprehensive resource highlights the most recent practices and trends in blended learning from a global perspective and provides targeted information for specific blended learning situations. You'll find examples of learning options that combine face-to-face instruction with online learning in the workplace, more formal academic settings, and the military. Across these environments, the book focuses on real-world practices and includes contributors from a broad range of fields includ...

Should I go to graduate school? How do I choose where to apply? Are my grades and accomplishments good enough to get in? Who should I ask to write recommendation letters for me, and how should I approach these people? How do I write my "personal statement?" When will I hear my fate, and how should I make my final decision? These are just a few of the many questions to which this well-researched, thorough, and extremely user-friendly book offers answers. Students who are contemplating gradu...

Higher Education Assessments: Leadership Matters reflects the work of a select group of researchers, scholars, and practitioners in higher education assessment with the goal of identifying strategies that assist senior campus leaders as they respond to the challenges of a changing economic landscape and political climate. The contributors, experts in the field, bring to the forefront key issues relevant to advancing assessments in higher education-principles that culminate in impr...

Here is a sustained investigation into the human contexts of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), covering both research and theory in this emerging field. Authors Kling, Rosenbaum, and Sawyer demonstrate that the design, adoption, and use of ICTs are deeply connected to peoples actions as well as to the environments in which they are used. In Chapters One and Two, they define Social Informatics and offer a pragmatic overview of the discipline. In Chapters Three and Four, the...

A practical and visionary look at creative educational leadership in today′s digital environmentTechnology Leadership for School Improvement provides prospective and current K–12 educational leaders with practical coverage of the skills and knowledge necessary to manage and administrate technology in school settings. Designed to help educational leaders develop an understanding of multimedia teaching tools that op...

Educational systems worldwide are facing an enormous shift as a result of sociocultural, political, economic, and technological changes. The technologies and practices that have developed over the last decade have been heralded as opportunities to transform both online and traditional education systems. While proponents of these new ideas often postulate that they have the potential to address the educational problems facing both students and institutions and that they could provide an opp...

Those who teach college students have extensive training in their disciplines, but unlike their counterparts at the high school or elementary school level, they often have surprisingly little instruction in the craft of teaching itself. The Chicago Handbook for Teachers, Second Edition, is an extraordinarily helpful guide for anyone facing the daunting challenge of putting together a course and delivering it successfully.Representing teachers at all stages of their careers...