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The article gives a basic explanation of a few useful technologies to be used within an academic setting. First, a case is built for how technology can increase engagement and learning within the classroom, whether on-ground or online. Then the use of the internet, cloud computing, and multimedia are described. The authors highlight audio (podcasts and live chats), video (simulations, films, streamed videos, and screencasts), and blogging as multimedia options to be added to the classroom. In addition to multimedia, classroom learning can occur in a more mobile fashion. Many of the previous methods mentioned are use on desktop, laptops, and tablets. More and more students are utilizing their smartphones to access academic information. BlackBoard and eCollege both offer smartphone applications, which allow students and professors to access their course management sites through their phones. iPads are mentioned, but academic uses for these devices are yet to be determined. Finally, some institutions are offering degrees through Facebook, the social networking site. The Global MBA and The University of Whales in England, both offer MBAs through courses taught using Facebook. The article nicely summarizes a few technologies to be used within the classroom to enhance the students' experience. While the list is limited, and already out of date a few months after publication, the notion of using technology in the classroom to create a more dynamic experience is conveyed. The conclusion is a call for more research and study into making technology more effective within the classroom. 

As online education continues to expand in the United States, Kenneth Heischmidt and Yves Damoiseau conducted a study to better understand the dimensions of quality in online business courses. The authors collected data and studied the dimensions of quality perceived by students in online classes. The results of the study aid online instructors develop courses to meet student expectations, increase satisfaction with the course, and ultimately increase student success. After surveying 260 business students at Southeast Missouri State University enrolled in an online class, 96 responded to the survey. The survey results led to three dimensions of quality in online courses: feedback, format, and content. Students expect timely feedback from an instructor, including prompt grading, access to the course and grades 24/7. The course format itself should be easy to navigate, without group work, and instruction facilitated by the instructor, according the students who participated in the study. Finally, the content of the course must offer clearly explained assignments, supplemental notes provided by the instructor, up-to-date content, and convey more information during class time than found within the textbook. In addition to the three dimensions of quality, the study also revealed, students expecting to receive an A or B in a course were also significantly more satisfied with their online course experience.  The number of participants in the study was small, limiting the results. A large participant pool is needed to test the results on a grander scale. The study focused on business students, but could be adjusted for other departments and programs in the future, increasing access to participants.

The authors feel textbooks are outdated by the time of print, offer a limited perspective, force the reader to take on a passive role while learning, and are limited to their physical form. The four limitations of textbooks are adding to higher education's lack of active learning. Students today expect to be engaged while they learn, not to read from an outdated textbook or listen to static lectures. There is a potential for change, however, believed by the authors. An example is given from Old Dominion University. A team of faculty all assigned to teach the course Social and Cultural Foundations of Education to potential education students, created an assignment where the students would write their own textbook. The final result  (called a wikibook) was determined by the students and faculty using a grading rubric for each student submission. The best-written and supported sections were submitted to the final wikibook. The assignment was a huge success. A few years later when educational laws changed in Virginia, the wikibook was quite to adapt. The authors argue wikibooks may not be factually perfect, but there are quite a few benefits: a student-centered learning experience, skills are developed in researching primary sources, and the instructional design is extremely adaptive and flexible. In order for a wikibook assignment to be successful, the faculty member(s) must take a guiding approach to student learning, instead of lecturing. The conclusion argues for a pedagogical shift, not necessarily involving wikibooks, but a more general transition to faculty to encourage creativity and joy in teaching and learning. 

The notion behind Professor Direct is to offer instructors the opportunity to teach courses online while determining the price or worth of the class, decreasing the cost of college courses drastically. Unlike other massive open online courses, Professor Direct calls their courses "ultra-affordable," averaging $99 a course. The instructor decides the cost of the course, in addition to office hours, communication (email) speed, tutorial options, and enrollment caps. Accessibility to the instructor, such as office hours and prompt email responses, allows professors to justify an increase in the cost of the course. Professors even receive commission for recruiting new students to their courses.  While there are a variety of benefits to enrolling at Professor Direct, few colleges and universities will accept transfer credits from the institution. Professor Direct also does not offer degrees, which prevents the organization from becoming accredited. The courses are, however, approved by the American Council on Education's College Credit Recommendation Service. Young alludes to an educational revolution if Professor Direct gained regional accreditation, a paradigm shift for higher education. For now, Professor Direct, and a similar organization called Udemy, are not accredited and are working to increase both their student populations and reputation within the higher education world. 

The authors collected data from first-year students at the University of Illinois in relation to their iPad 2 use in academic and non-academic settings. The intended audience is librarians and faculty members interested in incorporating tablet technology in the classroom or other learning environments. The study results found the iPad 2 to be helpful to students when searching the internet, viewing course management pages, and utilizing apps in connection with course materials. The students also used the iPad 2 to listen to music, watch videos, use social networks, and Skype. After using the iPad 2 for one week, the students made suggestions for new apps that would helpful to them. The student suggestions included a campus map app, a contact info for faculty app, an app to help in selecting future courses, and an app to help monitor grades.  The authors concluded that tablets, specifically the iPad 2, have a lot of potential to improve teaching and learning methods within higher education, however, there is much progress to be made. While the drawbacks to the tablet are somehow limited (no keyboard, need wireless connection, etc), the number and scope of apps need to be increased. Students expressed interest in using apps in connection to academic work, but most of those apps have yet to be created. 

This article addresses plagiarism detection process, and how to verify student work without resorting to a third party. One of the negative consequences of prolific Internet usage by students is the unfortunate problem of plagiarism, a problem that is even more common in distance learning and online classes. Most learning management systems (LMS) have a plagiarism detection service (PDS) designed to check submitted work. In most cases, The most common method of verifying suspicious student work is through a third party because the LMS does not have the capacity to carry out huge scope searches on student work that might have been copied from other documents in the world-wide web rather than from sources on one small campus. Carrying out such an investigation on campus requires the ownership of a web crawler. Colleges that do not own one rely on third parties, and as a result come under criticism and face charges for violating student intellectual property. In this paper the authors describe a PDS design that requires only limited but the most vital information of the original work, be submitted to a third party thereby circumventing the problem of intellectual property charges. The college system can then carry out a conventional search, while the third party runs the content against other sources from the web. Two important questions to consider when designing a PDS are whether the student submission will be archived, and if the information will be deleted after producing a report.

This article explains the need for e-portfolios, how they can be used as a tool, and several examples from colleges who have successfully implemented them with students. The author makes connections to the National Survey for Student Engagement (NSSE) survey, suggesting that e-portfolios may be associated with high-impact practices to improve engagement and retention. This new way of documenting evidence of learning and learning outcomes considers students as able to exercise their voice in presenting and representing their learning, with a focus on reflective learning. The author argues that since pedagogy and curriculums are changing, the way we assess students should also change to reflect this shift. This article would be most helpful for faculty and faculty development centers looking for concrete ways to implement and maximize the use of e-portfolios. The author is Vice President for Quality and Assessment at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC & U) and writes from an assessment perspective.

This focus paper describes in detail the Personal Learning Environment (PLE) that was launched at Graz University of Technology in 2010. The context of Web 2.0 and how current learners are using technology is explained. The author demonstrates how browser-based widgets were used to change the appearance of multiple personal desktops, creating a "ubiquitous" personal learning environment (UPLE) that can be used in the future, similar to the appearance of apps on a smartphone device. This article describes how spaces help learners to organize their learning resources via widgets, making connections to how they operate in their natural learning environments outside of the academic realm. Based on the article, using technologies which mimic those that students already use seems important for faculty and administrators to consider when deciding how to best approach implementing personal learning environments. The author is a Doctoral student in the Social Learning, Information Technology Services at Graz University of Technology in Austria.

This article summarizes the requirements for an authentic version of a personalized learning environment, making the case that no existing system currently meets the multidimensional needs of learners. As a solution, the author proposes a new model that will meet this need, defining culture, attitude, personality, and behavior as necessary dimensions to consider in a learner-based model. The new model suggests a method to select, discover, and adapt the content considering all of the factors assessed by a "learner's profile", which looks at the relationships between these factors. This new model would be important to consider in implementing new Learning Management Systems into curriculum and working with faculty as they are using new technologies with their students. The author is a Computer Science faculty member at the University of Applied Sciences in Worms, Germany.

This article covers the challenges faced by institutions who offer online courses and seek accreditation. The authors from American Public University System in West Virginia share a successful example of how their fully online institution addressed this issue by implementing an open source warehouse and semantic engine to analyze content and materials, while aligning learning activities to goals and objectives across all of the courses in their School of Business. The results shared by the authors indicate a detailed and accurate way of mapping the knowledge base to formed goals and objectives. The article demonstrates that using this technique allows for connections between goals and objectives and course content. For online colleges, this technique provides administrators the ability to quickly assess materials and effectively plan in advance for staffing and development needs. This article would be beneficial for administrators of online programs and faculty to assess learning outcomes as an automated process which might allow for more transparency within an institution.

This article offers a theoretical perspective from authors at the University of Queensland in Australia to explain the complex nature of why faculty in higher education struggle with incorporating new technology and innovative teaching strategies into their existing coursework. First, the authors review current literature about emerging Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) capabilities. They also introduce Latane's (1981) Dynamic Social Impact Theory, which they have updated to introduce the special case of Dynamic Impact of Social Connectivity (DISC) theory and how it applies to this phenomenon of higher education academics engaging with ICTs. The authors conclude that higher education curricula must change sufficiently and sustainably to embrace emerging ICT capabilities, in order to maximize faculty connectivity and collaboration. This article would be helpful for administrators who assist faculty in further developing their teaching and familiarity with technology in their courses.

This article describes the growth and implications of e-learning programs for adults. It covers the historical context and economic background needed in order to understand the sudden expansion in distance learning programs, focusing on access and convenience as the main incentives for students enrolling at rapid rates since 2007. Statistics and charts in the article help to demonstrate how this growth occurred. Characteristics of quality adult learner programs and determinants of success are also reviewed. Barriers to access and participation, such as time and space, financial aid support, and institutional policies and services are explained in detail for the reader. This article is helpful for faculty to understand how to place emerging technologies within the context of the adult learner population. The author is a professor of adult and community college at North Carolina State University and her research seems focused on the engagement and participation patterns of adult learners.

The authors of this study are two faculty members from New Zealand who sought to improve the standard of writing for their students in their first-year courses for undecided students. They describe at length how they used similar ways to improve the students' literacy skills. The faculty focused specifically on discipline-specific writing skills by engaging the students in their digital literacy skills through course assignments and group projects. This research would be helpful to use as a guideline for faculty teaching in undergraduate disciplines who are interested in learning how best engage students by tapping into their technology skills and familiarity with using online resources. The authors point to a need for supporting the unique journey students experience through their online social interactions as well as designing the online course assignments based on an initial assessment of student learning profiles.

Mobile learning (referred to as "m-learning" in the article) is considered as the next generation of e-learning using mobile technologies. Students' awareness of such technology is one of the key areas for it to be successful. This study aimed to investigate students' awareness and requirements of mobile learning services among Malaysian students in the higher education environment. The authors reviewed mobile learning services as a new vital platform for the higher education environment and the requirements for utilizing it. It provides information about the current state of students' awareness about mobile learning services. The article also covers possible mobile device limitations to consider, including: memory size, battery life, high line cost and small screen. These limitations can hinder using mobile technology widely in learning, but the authors point to Corlett et al. (2005) directions to extend the wireless network across the campus and to redesign software as well as hardware for mobile learning purposes. According to the authors, both the environment and the infrastructure in higher education is appropriate to incorporate mobile learning, as long as necessary adaptations are made. The results also demonstrate that students have adequate knowledge and awareness to use such technology in their education environment. The authors caution that the barriers and obstacles that could be faced during the actual use of mobile learning should be considered. This article would be most helpful for information technology professionals who are making decisions regarding mobile learning and technology implementation.

The author, Dale Niederhauser, provides important commentary on frameworks used to speculate the future of technology in schools. He explains, in brief, how Delphi studies are used by various entities to conduct inquiry and generate ideas from experts. This is important information to consider when assessing resources such as the annual Horizon Reports, published by the New Media Consortium and considered a seminal piece of the emerging technology conversation in both K-12 and higher education. The article appears in a publication of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), a world recognized leader in educational technology and aims to help educators understand the historical context in which emerging technology reports are created and delivered.