This title was first published in 2000: Teaching, learning and assessment methods are constantly evolving, providing the educator with a range of issues and new challenges. This book addresses these challenges through the use of information and communications technologies and presents a vision of how these may be deployed in the educational environments of the future.

Targeted at educators and researchers wishing to use virtual environments in their teaching practice, this work provides practical advice specifically for educators in higher education. It focuses on the use of Second Life - a free, readily-accessible virtual world which is increasingly being used for both formal and informal learning.

The International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments was developed to explore Virtual Learning Environments (VLE’s), and their relationships with digital, in real life and virtual worlds. The book is divided into four sections: Foundations of Virtual Learning Environments; Schooling, Professional Learning and Knowledge Management; Out-of-School Learning Environments; and Challenges for Virtual Learning Environments. The coverage ranges across a broad spectrum of philosophical perspectives, historical, sociological, political and educational analyses, case studies from practical and research settings, as well as several provocative "classics" originally published in other settings.

This timely volume documents the immediate, global impacts of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) on teaching and learning in higher education. Focusing on student and faculty experiences of online and distance education, the text provides reflections on novel initiatives, unexpected challenges, and lessons learned. Responding to the urgent need to better understand online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, this book investigates how the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) impacted students, faculty, and staff experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown. Chapters initially look at the challenges faced by universities and educators in their attempts to overcome the practical difficulties involved in developing effective online programming and pedagogy. The text then builds on these insights to highlight student experiences and consider issues of social connection and inequality. Finally, the volume looks forward to asking what lessons COVID-19 can offer for the future development of online and distance learning in higher education. This engaging volume will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in online teaching and eLearning, curriculum design, and more, specifically those involved with the digitalization of higher education. The text will also support further discussion and reflection around pedagogical transformation, international teaching and learning, and educational policy more broadly.

This book, written by authors representing 12 countries and five continents, is a collection of international perspectives on distance learning and distance learning implementations in higher education. The perspectives are presented in the form of practical case studies of distance learning implementations, research studies on teaching and learning in distance learning environments, and conceptual and theoretical frameworks for designing and developing distance learning tools, courses and programs. The book will appeal to distance learning practitioners, researchers, and higher education administrators. To address the different needs and interests of audience members, the book is organized into five sections: Distance Education Management, Distance Education and Teacher Development, Distance Learning Pedagogy, Distance Learning Students, and Distance Learning Educational Tools.

The outbreak of the Coronavirus in early 2020 resulted in unprecedented changes to health professions education. The pervasive stay-at-home orders resulted in faculty, who were trained for preparing the next generation of health professionals in a traditional learning environment, throwing out their lesson plans and starting anew. New approaches to teaching and learning were created quickly, and without the typical extensive planning, which introduced several challenges. However, lessons learned from these approaches have also resulted in increased technology adoption, innovative assessment strategies, and increased creativity in the learning environment. The Handbook of Research on Updating and Innovating Health Professions Education: Post-Pandemic Perspectives explores the various teaching and learning strategies utilized during the pandemic and the innovative approaches implemented to evaluate student learning outcomes and best practices in non-traditional academic situations and environments. The chapters focus specifically on lessons learned and best practices in health professions education and the innovative and exciting changes that occurred particularly with the adoption and implementation of technology. It provides resources and strategies that can be implemented into the current educational environments and into the future. This book is ideal for inservice and preservice teachers, administrators, teacher educators, practitioners, medical trainers, medical professionals, researchers, academicians, and students interested in curriculum, course design, development of policies and procedures within academic programs, and the identification of best practices in health professions education.