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Investigating 121 learners' experiences with videoconferencing, this study used path analysis to examine the postulates of Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance. A major focus was estimating the effects of the dimensions of dialog, structure, learner autonomy, and transactional distance--the constituent concepts of Moore's theory--on learning outcomes. (AEF)

Open and distance education in Taiwan has evolved into cyberlearning. Over half (56 percent) of the conventional universities and colleges have been upgraded to dual-mode institutions offering real-time multicast instructional systems using videoconferencing, cable television, virtual classrooms, and curriculum-on-demand systems. The Ministry of Education has initiated a policy on credit-based degrees for cyberlearning courses/programs. (SK)

This paper proposes a scaffolded concept mapping strategy, which considers a student's (high or low) prior knowledge, and provides flexible learning aids (scaffolding and fading) for reading and drawing a concept map. The goal is that the whole class should progress in synchronized fashion through this strategy, with each student achieving meaningful learning. The scaffolding is tailored to the student's needs, with various levels of support. The increasing demand for scaffolding, and its constant evolution, means that software aids are needed. The authors adopted a systematic instructional design, with associated software, to create a learning environment that supports the execution of the strategy. The paper also investigates whether this strategy improved student learning for 54 undergraduates in a database management system course. The results indicate that the students who used the strategy had better learning achievements than those who only experienced traditional lectures. Moreover, the implementation of the strategy received positive student feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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