This paper presents a content analytic approach on doctoral dissertations in the field of distance education in Turkish Higher Education context from the years of 1986 through 2014. A total of 61 dissertations were examined to explore keywords, academic discipline, research areas, theoretical/conceptual frameworks, research designs, research models, tests and analyses, data collection tools, participants, variables/research interests, and leading contributor institutions. It is believed that this study can be beneficial to the field of distance education in Turkish context to identify research trends and set a research agenda by exploring dissertations that were published between 1986 and 2014.
Distance education and e-learning practices are preferred by increasing number of people and institutions in the recent years all around the globe. It's clear that there are different interests, expectations, needs, characteristics, and backgrounds of participants in these learning environments. In this connection, it is important that courses are designed, taking cultural diversity into account, optimizing self-learning in such environments. The instructional designs that support multiculturalism in learning environments, lead to more efficient learning. Based on the awareness about cultural diversity, this chapter focuses on culturally sensitive instructional design principles for online learning environments. Firstly, “culture” as a concept and its components, based on various prominent definitions in literature are given. Then, the design principles are discussed with a critical look on online learning environments, with an eye to different theories and studies of leading researchers in the field.
Assessment is a critical component of educational practices and thus impacts educational reform efforts. This article reviews and considers assessment from 2 perspectives: a focus on accountability and a focus on continuous improvement. A class of preservice and practicing science teachers explored notions of assessment while experiencing peer assessment as part of the class. Their online conversations about the processes of establishing quality criteria for peer assessment and their reflections on the experiences compose the primary data source. Two purposes for assessment, accountability and continuous improvement, arose from the data and created conflicts within the individuals and the class. To resolve this conflict, we propose a framework for viewing assessment as part of an integral model (Wilber, 2004) that includes and transcends the dualities.Although student involvement in assessment is not a new concept in education, the implementation of such approaches has received much greater attention in recent years due to the demand for continuous improvement and lifelong learning EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT, 12(2), 113-135
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