Special Issue on Technology Enhanced Information Retrieval for Online Learning

International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning

Online learning has been developed for over decades and has become an important tool for education. Many tutors design web-based teaching materials and share them in the learning management systems. Learners develop knowledge from those materials, tutor supports, and the collaborations with other learners in distance in the online learning environment and platforms. While information technology changes rapidly and the variety of online learning activities increase, especially with the aid of social network and Web 2.0 tools that are available to instruction designers, we may need to consider how to provide learners personalized pedagogical service which can help them learn more efficiently. In order to have such personalized service, both course contents and learner's characteristics need to be well analyzed. How to retrieve useful information from learning materials, data stored in the learning management systems, and discussions and interactions among learners and how to design and use information retrieval technologies to improve learner's online learning performance become interesting and important topics. The purpose of this special issue is to explore how models, theories, and solutions of information retrieval and content analysis can be used in online learning and what benefits users can receive from such systems and agents.

April 30, 2012: Submission deadline
July 15, 2012: Review result notification
August 31, 2012: Revised manuscript submission deadline
September 30, 2012: Acceptance notification
October 31, 2012: Final camera-ready manuscript submission deadline

Please submit your article to the IRRODL site at http://www.irrodl,org, after registering as an author and hopefully also offering to be a reviewer by clicking the reviewer category in the enrollment form and noting your area of research expertise.

Digital Inclusion and Learning - Call for Papers

Digital Inclusion and Learning - Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Research in Learning Technology

This is the November 2011 call for papers for a Special Issue of Research in Learning Technology, the Journal of the Association for Learning Technology (Volume 20, Number 4).

From January 2012 Research in Learning Technology will be published by Co-Action Publishing as an Open Access journal. Read the media release regarding the journal's transition to Open Access.

Guest Editors

Jane Seale, Professor of Education, Plymouth University, UK

William Dutton, Professor of Internet Studies, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, UK

Deadlines

Abstracts can be submitted to Jane Seale for informal feedback until 1 March 2012.

Papers should be submitted via the online submission system by 1 May 2012. The new online submission system will open in January 2012 and further information is available here.

The Special Issue will be published in autumn 2012.

Call Summary

Digital inequities relating to socioeconomic status, income, level of education, ethnicity, gender, age, connectivity and geography are still affecting levels of access to technology for all kinds of people. Digital inclusion research therefore has a role to play in providing explanations and solutions to these inequities. This call for papers on digital inclusion and learning aims to sharpen our focus on what is known and unknown about digital inclusion in the context of learning, learners and education. Our conceptualisation of digital inclusion encompasses a wide range of technologies, learners and learning contexts.

We are seeking articles that can inform digital inclusion practice, policy or research. A variety of papers will be considered, including empirical, review and discussion papers. Of particular interest are papers that offer conceptual, methodological and analytical rigour. We welcome papers that are multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary in nature. No particular method or theory will be privileged in this special issue, but we do expect all accepted papers to critically engage with the complexity of the concept of digital inclusion. In particular, we welcome papers that seek to challenge common assumptions or widely accepted positions in the field of digital inclusion.

The submission of abstracts for informal feedback is encouraged. They can be sent directly to Jane Seale until 1 March 2012.

Full papers must be submitted according to the journal's Instructions for Authors.

Papers should be submitted via the online submission system by 1 May 2012.

USDLA 2012 Annual Conference ~ St. Louis ~ April 29-May 2, 2012

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Submission Deadline: December 16, 2011

We welcome proposals from all corporate, education (higher and K-12), healthcare, government and military organizations on distance education topics related to:

Excellence, Leadership and Best Practices

Emerging Strategies, Technologies, Techniques and Research

Global Delivery and Mobile Learning

Meeting the Needs of Today’s Learners and Faculty

Course and Program Development

Distance Learning Ethics and Copyright

Administrative Issues and Concerns

There is also a continued opportunity this year to present your session in our virtual classroom setting, which means your session will be viewed by face-to-face attendees as well as those attendees joining us virtually.

There are several ways to participate:

• Concurrent information sessions provide an opportunity for you to give an interactive presentation in one or more of the conference topic areas. Conference attendees expect sessions to provide practical advice and the sharing of experiences. The committee seeks high quality, thought-provoking and interactive sessions, not lecture format. Co-presenters are encouraged. (45 minutes)

• Poster sessions allow presenters to prepare a standing table-top poster that describes a project, process, research or other activity. This will be an opportunity to meet and network with a majority of conference attendees and USDLA Award Winners as these sessions are held during the Award Dinner Reception. The poster presenters will be grouped by topic to provide an even more in-depth discussion and comparison of the various issues. (60 minutes)

• *NEW. Panels of “like topics” are a new option and allow attendees to hear about a topic from several points of view. The program committee may select your proposal to be featured in a panel along with other presenters. (90 minutes)

• *NEW. Collaborative Sessions will be highlighted throughout the conference and feature an expert leader on a particular topic. If you would like to lead a collaborative session, please select the collaborative session option in your proposal. You will be directed to a form to: (1) identify a hot or controversial topic for discussion; (2) note your credentials as an expert in this subject; (3) state how you would engage the participants in the discussion, and (4) note your willingness to turn the discussion into a short white paper for publication by USDLA.

(90 minutes)