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Online education has gained significant popularity in recent years, and this trend is set to continue. One of the reasons for the explosion of online education is the fact that Colleges and Universities need to seek out new delivery methods and to reach out to people who cannot attend College or University. Funding and diversity of courses is also another reason for the increasing popularity of online education. Learning in an online environment should be considered as the process whereby participants have to discuss, reflect, collect and analyze information and be active participants in the learning community. This paper details the design, implementation and evaluation of an Android Application Development online course, an e-tivity. This paper also highlights the issues which are of major concern in the design of an online programming course, and in particular the issue of engaging the target audience and assessment issues. A comprehensive evaluation is also provided which will be used to determine the future direction of this online course. (Contains 3 figures.)

This paper explores how students adjust to life at universities outside their home countries. Much of the current body of research was conducted prior to the 9/11 tragedy and focuses primarily on studies within a single U.S. institution. This project expands the boundaries by including multiple institutions from around the globe post-9/11. The authors describe international undergraduates' educational experiences. Further analyses examine whether differences exist among the following: (1) students attending U.S. or non-U.S. institutions, (2) those who hail from different regions of the world, (3) native or non-native speakers, (4) the sexes, (5) students who lived in the host country prior to enrolling or those who did not, and (6) those living on- or off-campus. An appendix contains: Number of Respondents by Country/Region of the World. (Contains 14 tables.)

Questions of "quality" of pre- and out of school-provisions for children and their families have been raised increasingly in all modern societies since the early nineties. The appropriateness of pedagogical frameworks and approaches have not been the only issues in the debate. Other strands, for instance, have been focussing on adequate investments or the quality of management and leadership in the system. Constantly, from any of these (and other) possible perspectives on "quality", high expectations and demands for the profession have been expressed. In Germany, the "National Quality Initiative" (1999-2003) has undertaken a first attempt to develop quality criteria and evaluation procedures for pre- and out of school settings from a strictly professional perspective for the whole system in a federal country. Meanwhile--following PISA--general questions of "quality" are more and more linked to the introduction of formal pre-school curricula. Considering international experiences, I will argue that we should be cautious and critical whether the increase of formal regulation can lead to the desirable outcome: the development of an autonomous profession for the early years sector. [A version of this paper was presented as the Keynote Address to the CECDE International Conference on "Questions of Quality," Dublin, Ireland, Sep 2004.]

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) have become an integral part of the technological furniture of higher education over the past two decades. While some VLE adopters have argued that the enhancement of teaching and learning is a key driver underpinning their use, an increasing number have described typical VLE usage as a "notes-bank approach". However, while it is widely accepted that they are used primarily as content repositories, the actual value that they add to the teaching and learning process, and ultimately to the student experience, has not been widely questioned. So, in an age of increasing budgetary constraints, combined with the prioritisation of investment in appropriate technologies for higher education, it seems appropriate to scrutinise how the VLE is used and what value it has added. In 2013, at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), a study was initiated to find out how academic staff were using the VLE as part of their teaching practice. Additionally, given the proliferation of emerging eLearning tools outside of the VLE, the study sought to find out if academics were aware of such technologies and if, or how, they were using them. Finally in order to inform future practice and strategic planning, the study sought an insight into factors inhibiting or preventing staff from engaging with eLearning technologies. The results are not altogether surprising, indicating high levels of VLE usage among academics, albeit with limited pedagogical innovation underpinning this usage. Findings also demonstrated high levels of interest in, and awareness of, other technologies for teaching and learning: however only a small minority had actually used many of these as part of their academic practice, with high levels of reservation about time and effort involved in utilising such technologies to the full. This paper presents and discusses the key findings of this research and indicates possible ways forward for higher education in the digital age.

Generic skills are considered as key essential skills which are required by all individuals in the engineering profession and are considered vital for success. Integrating generic skills into engineering education is a key concern for universities and colleges involved in delivering such courses. The accreditation criteria for engineering programmes in Ireland is quite strict on the importance of generic skills and require that important generic skills such as team work, communication skills, problem solving and critical thinking skills are adequately addressed in engineering programmes that are accredited by Engineers Ireland (EI). Employers are also continually seeking out employees who are proficient in the area of transferable skills. This paper presents quantitative findings from students regarding their perceptions of generic skills at a third level institution in Ireland.

What are the main influences on the day-to-day motivation of classroom teachers? The particular focus in this research is the micro-events that teachers experience and which enhance or undermine their motivation. We conceptualise such events in terms of their proximity/distance. We suggest that experiences with a proximal origin (classroom and school) may be more relevant to motivation than events that a more remote origin (national and global events) partly because of the frequency with which they impinge on proximal events happen. To measure the importance of these micro-events for teachers' motivation, we propose that events are a function of their affective intensity and frequency of occurrence. We also propose that events that have a positive affective tone are more significant for motivation than events that have a negative emotional tone. Our initial efforts to map the construct of teachers' motivation are based on a multi-faceted approach. Rather on the basis of current research and thinking, as well as on judgements of what people usually consider motivation to be, we propose four indices that may gauge the underlying construct. These are: commitment to teaching (wanting to continue in the profession and in this particular school), teacher-efficacy (the most widely studied concept in this area), organizational citizenship (readiness to go beyond what is strictly required in contracts), and willingness to engage in new learning and professional development. (Contains 5 tables.)

The aims of this paper are to determine: 1. if Polish secondary school learners are studying English so that they can obtain jobs in the UK and Ireland and 2. whether they prefer to learn how to speak English from a native speaker teacher than from a non-native instructor. Eighteen students, who study at ZESPOL SZKOL MECHANICZNYCH NR 2 in Cracow, Poland were surveyed, and the authors found that most learners (56%) are not studying English in order to secure employment in the UK and Ireland and that 82% of the students prefer to be taught English by a native speaker. The theoretical framework for this article is provided by the general idea of the school as an organization and social institution. (Contains 1 note.)