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Online collaborative documents can be used effectively for conducting collaborative research and for learning collaboratively via the Internet. Collaborative documents are dedicated online workspaces that allow individuals or groups to use the Internet to share their work with others, edit it, and finalize it. This paper identifies Basic Support for Cooperative Work and FirstClass as Internet tools that have enabled collaboration across distance for both research and coursework, and it provides real-life applications of those tools in higher education. Discussion includes an American-Taiwanese cooperative online tutorial; small-group discussions; project-based work; collaborative problem-solving activities; brainstorming; and case-based learning. (Contains 28 references.) (Author/AEF)

Project-based learning in Web courses presents challenges and opportunities that groups in conventional settings may not encounter. This study is based on five project-based learning activities that 17 graduate students in a Web-based educational telecommunications course developed and conducted over a semester. The activities were: discussions of learning in telecommunications environments; role plays about teaching via telecommunications; case studies about management via telecommunications; evaluations of designated Web sites; and panel discussions of critical telecommunications issues. The study investigated two issues related to project-based learning activities in a Web-based course: characteristics of activities that enable students to meet learning objectives; and strategies that student facilitators and student participants use to prepare and conduct the activities. Characteristics of project-based learning activities were identified as environments that students perceived as authentic or meaningful, collaborative work and communication via telecommunications, and activities that provided students with opportunities for both knowledge enhancement and skill building. The strategies of the students-as-facilitators were related to planning and conducting the activity for the participants. The strategies of the students-as-participants were related to carrying out the activities specified by the facilitators. (Contains 29 references.) (Author)

This paper is a qualitative study of graduate students' experiences as e-learners as reflected in papers based on their journals. The study examined what students experience as they take an online course, and how students express their buy-in or lack of buy-in to an online course. Students' initial concerns about their transition to this new environment were related to learning strategies and inexperience with technology. They described their personal growth in adjusting to the online learning environment, and they personalized their journal papers with their unique writing styles, including metaphors and analogies. In general, buy-in or lack of buy-in to the online course was not necessarily dependent on students' entering levels of technological experience but seemed to reflect the students' initial mindset or a mindset change that occurred during the course. Guidelines for e-learning are offered. (Contains 19 references.) (Author/MES)

This case study reports on collaborative activities among four fourth grade teachers and their students over a year and explores the effectiveness of distance learning for international team teaching. Two classes in Mexico City conducted school activities with two classes in College Station (Texas). Researchers examined: school activities that successfully bring children of Mexican and Texan cultures together to learn with, about, and from each other; similarities and differences in language skills and pastimes between the children of both cultures; and prevailing impressions Mexican and Texan children had of each other prior to their distance learning activities. Activities were designed to help the students understand each other's cultures by walking in each other's footsteps. The investigation relied on arts-based case study methods. Content analyses were conducted of lesson plans and observations, students' poems about the other nation, students' stories about a day in the life of a child in the other culture, student questionnaires, students' collages, and student self-profiles. Mexican children had enough experience of U.S. culture to accurately describe it in poetry. Most Texan children had little knowledge of Mexico and had to write about their own culture, create an imaginary place, or refer to stereotypes in order to create a poem. (Author/ MES)

This study examined interaction and communication patterns among students (n=9) and with the instructor in a graduate course offered at a distance using the FirstClass computer conferencing (CC) software. Specifically, the following questions were addressed: (1) What are similarities and differences in interaction and collaboration between CC and face-to-face learning environments? (2) How does the medium of exchange in CC encourage or discourage online discussion? (3) What collaborative learning strategies are used in CC? and (4) What is the instructor's role in the CC environment? Data sources consisted of transcripts of all computer conferences, real-time (synchronous) chats, and students' electronic journals about CC; results of pre- and post-course CC attitude surveys; and notes from semi-structured interviews with participants. Data analysis was done using the constant comparative method. Figures include: the FirstClass desktop; the code words found in each type of conference; a flow chart of the types of asynchronous conferences; and summaries of the types of messages in student-moderated, instructional, auxiliary, and metacognitive conferences. Qualitative results are discussed related to each of the four research questions. The instructor's role in computer conferencing is analyzed. (Contains 26 references.) (DLS)

Describes a graduate course in distance learning incorporating multiple technologies within a constructivist paradigm. Discusses advance planning; the course overview, materials and resources; logistics; technological issues; pedagogical issues; and difficulties and limitations. Lists suggestions for teachers using multiple technologies in distance education. (PEN)

Discusses the results of a study of a graduate course that was delivered to adult students at three locations by interactive video conference. The course was supplemented with the computer-mediated communication of two Internet discussion groups that provided a framework for collaborative learning in which personal experiences enriched knowledge construction. (AEF)

Describes a study that was conducted to identify the roles and competencies of distance education professionals within the United States and Canada based on a survey of approximately 100 distance educators. A competency model based on the results is presented and recommendations for future research are included. (Contains 68 references.) (LRW)

Explores the levels of collaboration required for successful distance education applications. Discussion includes a description of a continuum outlining the local (micro) to international (macro) levels of collaboration, a graphical depiction of components along the continuum, and implications for change in higher education institutions using distance learning activities. (50 references) (Author/AEF)

Beginning with OSTA-1 in November 1981, and ending with Neurolab in March 1998, thirty-six shuttle missions are considered Spacelab missions because they carried various Spacelab components such as the Spacelab module, the pallet, the Instrument Pointing System (IPS), or the MPESS. The experiments carried out during these flights included astrophysics, solar physics, plasma physics, atmospheric science, Earth observations, and a wide range of microgravity experiments in life sciences, biotechnology, materials science, and fluid physics which includes combustion and critical point phenomena. In all, some 764 experiments were conducted by investigators from the United States, Europe, and Japan. These experiments resulted in several thousand papers published in refereed journals, and thousands more in conference proceedings, chapters in books, and other publications. The purpose of this Spacelab Science Results Study is to document the contributions made in each of the major research areas by giving a brief synopsis of the more significant experiments and an extensive list of the publications that were produced. We have also endeavored to show how these results impacted the existing body of knowledge, where they have spawned new fields, and, if appropriate, where the knowledge they produced has been applied.

Teleconferencing is a discussion by telephone among individuals and groups of people in two or more locations for the purposes of instruction and conducting meetings. Audio conferencing connects people by voice alone, audiographic conferencing allows people to speak and to exchange text and graphics over the telephone line, and video conferencing allows people to speak and to see each other live on a television screen. The advantage of teleconferencing is that it brings together people who are far apart, quickly and in a cost-effective manner. The disadvantages are that communication from face-to-face contact is lost and sound quality must be very high. An effective teleconference includes good audio equipment, trained personnel, and well-prepared support materials. There are a number of examples of the use of teleconferencing in distance education including the German Post Office, Roche Laboratories, the Conference Call in Turkey, and the British Open University. Future uses of teleconferencing will be developed through the Integrated Services Digital network (ISDN), a newly-developed communication system based on the telephone, computer and modem, and television. This presentation concluded with a brief description of teleconferencing in Turkey and a live example of an audio teleconference connecting the conference room with three other locations, one in the United States and two in Turkey. (17 references) (DB)