Student engagement with digital learning resources and online social networking are strong forces in education today. How can these resources best be... utilized by educators and course designers in higher education? This book aims to provide the reader with enough background information to appreciate the value of social networking, especially for distributed education. Through highlighting the most relevant, interesting, and challenging aspects of e-learning the book provides practical advice for using social networking tools in course design. This volume covers the following issues of course design using social networking: key issues of social networking as an educational technique designing for a distributed environment strengths and weaknesses of delivering content in various formats: text, audio and video specific media: blogging, wikis, podcasting, webcasting constraints on course design implementation, evaluation, induction and training Illustrated by short descriptive case studies, it also highlights contact addresses, websites, and further reading to help readers find resources and enhance their design. This practical guide will help all those involved in the design and delivery of online learning in higher education make the best choices when preparing courses for distributed learning. Robin Mason is Professor of Educational Technology at the Open University where she is a specialist in the design and practice of online teaching and learning. Frank Rennie is Professor of Sustainable Rural Development at the UHI Millennium Institute in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Please visit the authors’ wiki at: www.socialnetworking.wetpaint.com

Thoroughly revised and updated, this third edition of the best-selling book offers a comprehensive review of multimedia learning for both users and... designers. The book contains design principles that are written to increase learning while debunking many popular theories about good design. The book also contains the most current research and includes new topics (e-learning for educators, new delivery technologies, social media, and more) and offers helpful guidelines. The book’s many examples: create working multimedia that inform the research guidelines; have been update to include real-world screen captures; extend principles to illustrate their application to synchronous e-learning tools.

In this thoroughly revised edition of the bestselling e-Learning and the Science of Instruction authors Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer—... internationally-recognized experts in the field of e-learning—offer essential information and guidelines for selecting, designing, and developing asynchronous and synchronous e-learning courses that build knowledge and skills for workers learning in corporate, government, and academic settings. In addition to updating research in all chapters, two new chapters and a CD with multimedia examples are included.

E-Learning by Design provides a comprehensive, detailed look at the concepts and processes of developing, creating and implementing a successful... e-Learning program. Horton's practical, down-to-earth approach offers clear information and instruction without over simplifying. Readers will learn to build customized e-Learning programs from scratch, building on core principles of instructional design to:•      develop meaningful activities and lessons•      create and administer online tests and assessments•      design learning games and simulations, and•      effectively implement an individualized programThe second edition will feature chapter-by-chapter revisions and add new sections and updates that address: new delivery technologies, including social networking, mobile learning, and the use of other new mobile devices; learning from available content; repurposing content; setting and following quality Standards, a revised Catalyst Model and Examples, How We Will Learn Model and Examples, and designing for International and Multi-cultural Audiences, as well as all-new contemporary case studies, examples, and activities. New edition will also include two free online resources: a downloadable instructor's manual, and a premium content site featuring additional examples and case studies, tools and resources.

From William Horton -- a world renowned expert with more than thirty-five years of hands-on experience creating networked-based educational systems --... comes the next-step resource for e-learning training professionals. Like his best-selling book Designing Web-Based Training, this book is a comprehensive resource that provides practical guidance for making the thousand and one decisions needed to design effective e-learning.e-Learning by Design includes a systematic, flexible, and rapid design process covering every phase of designing e-learning. Free of academic jargon and confusing theory, this down-to-earth, hands-on book is filled with hundreds of real-world examples and case studies from dozens of fields."Like the book's predecessor (Designing Web-based Training), it deserves four stars and is a must read for anyone not selling an expensive solution. -- From Training Media Review, by Jon Aleckson, www.tmreview.com, 2007

This text serves as a resource and quick-reference guide for any course that demands technology skills. E-LEARNING COMPANION shows students how to adapt... previously mastered skills--such as time management, note-taking, and critical thinking--to the online environment. The text also serves as a bridge for students who may be familiar with technologies such as real-time chats, online discussion boards, and e-mail as recreational tools, but have not learned how to apply these in a learning environment. Students learn technical terminology and how to troubleshoot, which allows them to become more flexible and capable learners. The skills they gain will support them throughout college and their future careers. The Third Edition features thoroughly updated, expanded, and edited content to ensure that it remains relevant for today's college students.

The second edition of E-Learning in the 21st Century provides a coherent, comprehensive, and empirically-based framework for understanding e-learning in... higher education. Garrison draws on his decades of experience and extensive research in the field to explore the technological, pedagogical, and organizational implications of e-learning. Most importantly, he provides practical models that educators can use to realize the full potential of e-learning. This book is unique in that it focuses less on the long list of ever-evolving technologies and more on the search for an understanding of these technologies from an educational perspective. The second edition has been fully revised and updated throughout and includes discussions of social media and mobile learning applications as well as other emerging technologies in today’s classrooms. This book is an invaluable resource for courses on e-learning in higher education as well as for researchers, practitioners and senior administrators looking for guidance on how to successfully adopt e-learning in their institutions.

Internet and intranet technologies offer tremendous opportunities to bring learning into the mainstream of business. E-Learning outlines how to develop... an organization-wide learning strategy based on cutting-edge technologies and explains the dramatic strategic, organizational, and technology issues involved.Written for professionals responsible for leading the revolution in workplace learning, E-Learning takes a broad, strategic perspective on corporate learning. This wake-up call for executives everywhere discusses:• Requirements for building a viable e-learning strategy• How online learning will change the nature of training organizations • Knowledge management and other new forms of e-learning Marc J. Rosenberg, Ph.D. (Hillsborough, NJ) is an independent consultant specializing in knowledge management, e-learning strategy and the reinvention of training. Prior to this, he was a senior direction and kowledge management field leader for consulting firm DiamondCluster International.

With the landmark election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932, decades of Republican ascendancy gave way to a half century of Democratic dominance. It... was nothing less than a major political realignment, as the direction of federal policy shifted from conservative to liberal--and liberalism itself was redefined in the process. Electing FDR is the first book in seventy years to examine in its entirety the 1932 presidential election that ushered in the New Deal. Award-winning historian Donald Ritchie looks at how candidates responded to the nation's economic crisis and how voters evaluated their performance. More important, he explains how the Democratic Party rebuilt itself after three successive Republican landslides: where the major shifts in party affiliation took place, what contingencies contributed to FDR's victory, and why the new coalition persisted as long as it did. Ritchie challenges prevailing assumptions that the Depression made Roosevelt's election inevitable. He shows that FDR came close to losing the nomination to contenders who might have run to the right of Hoover, and discusses the role of newspapers and radio in presenting the candidates to voters. He also analyzes Roosevelt's campaign strategies, recounting his attempts to appeal to disaffected voters of all ideological stripes, often by altering his positions to broaden his popularity. With the advent of the New Deal, Americans came to enjoy a wide federal safety net that provided everything from old age pensions to rural electricity--government innovations so embraced by voters that even later conservative presidents recognized their importance. Ritchie traces this legacy through the Reagan and Bush years, but he relates how FDR in 1932 was often vague about the specifics of his program and questions whether voters really knew what they were in for with the New Deal. As pundits, politicians, and citizens eye the upcoming 2008 campaign, Electing FDR reminds incumbents not to take their party support for granted or to underestimate their opponents--and reminds students of history that understanding the New Deal begins with the 1932's transformative election. This book is part of the American Presidential Elections series.

In Electing Judges, leading judicial politics scholar James L. Gibson responds tothe growing chorus of critics who fear that the politics of running for... office undermine judicial independence and even the rule of law. While many people have opinions on the topic, few have supported them with actual empirical evidence. Gibson rectifies this situation, offering the most systematic and comprehensive study to date of the impact of campaigns on public perceptions of fairness, impartiality, and the legitimacy of elected state courts—and his findings are both counterintuitive and controversial. Gibson finds that ordinary Americans do not conclude from campaign promises that judges are incapable of making impartial decisions. Instead, he shows, they understand the process of deciding cases to be an exercise in policy making, rather than of simply applying laws to individual cases—and consequently think it’s important for candidates to reveal where they stand on important issues. Negative advertising also turns out to have a limited effect on perceptions of judicial legitimacy, though the same cannot be said for widely hated campaign contributions. Taking both the good and bad into consideration, Gibson argues persuasively that elections are ultimately beneficial in boosting the institutional legitimacy of courts, despite the slight negative effects of some campaign activities. Electing Judges will initiate a lively debate inside both the halls of justice and the academy.

Just weeks after the November 2008 election, the Annenberg Public Policy Center's Kathleen Hall Jamieson and FactCheck.org's Brooks Jackson gathered top... strategists and consultants for postelection analysis. Nicolle Wallace, Ambassador Mark Wallace, Jon Carson, Steve Schmidt, Bill McInturff, and Chris Mottola from the McCain-Palin camp met with David Plouffe, David Axelrod, Joel Benenson, Jim Margolis, and Anita Dunn, their counterparts from the Obama-Biden camp to share their insights into one of the most unusual presidential elections in American history. Representatives of the Democratic and Republican National Committees and the major independent expenditure groups did the same.In the resulting book, Electing the President, 2008, the consultants who managed the 2008 presidential campaign retrace the decisions that shaped the historic presidential election. Like Electing the President, 2000 and Electing the President, 2004, this work permits readers to eavesdrop on the first cross-campaign discussion that occurred in the nation after Election Day. These political experts assess the importance of new factors ranging from campaign spending to the performance of the press corps, from the effect of the Internet on news cycles to the influence of Tina Fey. Democratic and Republican insiders explain the strategies behind the debates and advertising, reveal what their internal polls showed, and share what they did well and poorly in their efforts to elect the forty-fourth president of the United States.In addition to insider commentary, Electing the President, 2008 presents political communications and strategy researchers with an election timeline and polling data from the National Annenberg Election Survey. This book offers a ringside seat to what may prove to be the most pivotal political contest for a long time to come. An included DVD features selected video of the proceedings.

Tracy Flick wants to be President of Winwood High. She's one of those ambitious girls who finds time to do it all: edit the yearbook, star in the... musical, sleep with her English teacher. But another teacher, staunch idealist Jim McAllister (aka "Mr. M."), thinks the students deserve better. So he persuades Paul Warren--a well-liked, good-hearted jock--to throw in his hat. But that puts Paul's sister, Tammy, in a snit. So she runs, too, on an apathy platform--before starting a real campaign...to get herself kicked out of school. Tammy's upset because her secret, forbidden love has been lured away...by her own brother. Tracy's upset because losing this election might screw up her college chances. Mr. M.'s upset because ever since he embarked on his own extramarital affair, his life's been falling apart. As for Paul, well, he's not sure what's going on. The whole idea was to educate the students at this suburban New Jersey school in the democratic process and the American way. But with all sex scandals, smear campaigns, and behind-the-scenes power brokers at Winwood High, it doesn't look as if they need any lessons...