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Across the nation, colleges and universities are adopting the Internet as the new medium for instruction at an increasing rate. As a result of this growing trend, more and more students are getting their education away from the traditional classroom setting. This shift in instruction has called into question whether students who take online courses and programs are getting the same caliber of education as their face-to-face counterparts, or if they are missing out on important variables that will help them succeed. This article begins with a definition of online education and traces its origins in distance education. Next, the institutions who offer online education and students who take these courses are identified. The paper concludes with a discussion of why administrators, educators, and students should be cautioned when using online technologies to replace traditional classroom instruction. Keywords: Online Education; Online Instruction; Online Technologies; Distance Education; Academic and Social Integration

Contemporary educational options have increased in recent years as families have sought alternatives to traditional choices. Three of these, home schooling, charter schools, and virtual schools, provide the foundation for a new institution called the virtual charter school. This new alternative provides curriculum to home learners through advanced technologies within the charter school setting, allowing for innovation, freedom from traditional structure, and tuition-free education for students. The California Virtual Academies, a network of virtual charter schools, provided the opportunity to explore the phenomenon from the families' perspectives. The following questions were posed: What are the characteristics of families that are currently involved in home schooling through this innovative model? Why do families pursue this means of education? What are their experiences? How does it look in daily practice? KEYWORDS. Charter education, charter schools, contemporary reform movements, educational alternatives, families, home schooling, parental choice, technology in education, virtual education

Grading programming assignments of courses on distributed programming can greatly benefit from extensive testing, especially if quality aspects such as portability, robustness, security, and performance have to be evaluated. This paper presents a framework that was developed at the Turin Polytechnic, Turin, Italy, to enable seamless and fast implementation of Web portals for automated management of student programming assignments. By using a computational grid facility to schedule testing jobs on different hosts, the framework offers high flexibility and scalability, thus enabling computationally intensive tests and some kinds of distributed tests, such as portability tests and field tests, which otherwise would be difficult to automate. The grid can be made of ordinary and even nondedicated or dismissed PCs, which, according to the authors' experience, is enough to offer students online extensive testing services. The framework was successfully used in two courses on distributed programming, located at different sites, partially overlapped in time, and attended by a total of 60 students. However, the framework should be scalable enough to work with increasing numbers of students and courses. Index Terms--Automated grading assistance, distributed programming, e-learning, grid portals.

Many creative and unique plans for serving the distance learning population are being designed to stay in compliance with the ACRL Guidelines for Distance Learning Library Services (2004). These guidelines promote providing services for the distance learning community that are equivalent to those provided for students and faculty located in a traditional campus setting. The guidelines also acknowledge that designing services for this population may result in a more personalized approach than the campus community might expect. This paper will examine the application of relationship marketing, defined as mutual interest between companies and customers that emphasizes customer retention and long term relationships, to the design of library services for distance learners. doi:10.1300/J111v45n01_15 KEYWORDS. Research relationships, libraries, online courses, relationship marketing

Relationships are key to the success of any library project, and relations with the vendor's staff are too often overlooked or viewed as adversarial. Focusing on automated system and online electronic resource vendors, different functional departments of the vendor's staff are examined with an eye toward the benefits that a good relationship can bring to support the project. The evolving database marketplace is reviewed, particularly in light of the multiple buying cooperatives many public libraries find available to them. KEYWORDS. Public libraries, library automation, vendor relations, consortia, electronic resources, databases, innovative interfaces, EBSCO, NOBLE

Abstract Including service-learning into the Web curricular offers teachers a powerful pedagogical strategy and promotes students to take an active role within their communities. This qualitative research study conducted in [...]

Abstract The first day of class is an important time for both students and instructors. Online student expectations are likely to affect course success as well as instructor evaluations. An [...]

Howatson-Jones L (2004) Designing web-based education courses for nurses. Nursing Standard. 19, 11, 41-44. Date of acceptance: April 14 2004. Summary Maintaining lifelong learning in health care with its diversity [...]

WebQuests is a model for integrating the use of web in classroom activities and combines research-supported theories with effective use of the Internet to promote dependable instructional practices. WebQuests inspire the students to see richer thematic relationships and to contribute to the real world of learning.

The effect of postmodern culture on some of today's students has been linked to the ways in which they use services offered by academic libraries. With attitudes characterised by consumerism, knowledge fragmentation and superficiality, these students, particularly those using the library's online services, could benefit from libraries evaluating and altering their services based on students' information-seeking behaviour., As universities offer more courses taught in online delivery mode, academic libraries must provide services to help support the students of these courses. Examined in a postmodern context, the needs [...]

Abstract As course management software becomes a more popular medium of education, the librarian's place is uncertain in the technology. During the Spring 2002 semester, the Robert Morris Library and [...]

Abstract Shortly after assuming the role of instructional technologist at Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts, a few members of the faculty inquired of me ways in which they might provide [...]