Introduction: Part A--FROM INTERNATIONAL JOURNALS

Sixty-two articles written in English are reviewed in part A. They come from six refereed international journals in the fields of distance education and educational technology that were among the twenty most-cited journals in the ICDE citation index (Bunker 1998). The journals included in this review are Educational Technology Research and Development (USA), the British Journal of Educational Technology (UK), The American Journal of Distance Education (USA), Open Learning (UK), Distance Education (Australia), and the Journal of Distance Education (Canada).

The articles from these six journals used a variety of research methodologies and research foci (see Table 1). Sixteen of them (26%) adopted quantitative or qualitative, true or quasi experiments for their research methodology; nineteen articles (31%) were developmental studies in which the design and development strategies of Internet- or other network-based education were reported; fifteen (24%) were evaluation studies in which specific Internet-based or similar types of online courses were evaluated in a rather structured way; and the other twelve (19%) discussed the ideas and positions regarding Internet-based or network-based instruction. Out of sixty-two papers, thirty-two (52%) discussed Internet-based education specifically, thirteen (21%) reported on the use of computer conferencing in network-based learning environments, and the final seventeen (27%) discussed Internet-based education along with other technologies.

Table 1: Classification of Articles by Methodology and Focus

Unfortunately, not many studies investigated the pedagogical processes employed in Internet-based education in a rigorous manner, that is, what was really happening in the teaching and learning processes of Internet-based education and why it happened were seldom the focus of the studies. Rather, the effective design, the encouragement of interaction, and the effects on learner satisfaction of the Internet-based education as well as perceived learning outcomes, were most often examined.

Overall, research on Internet-based education has indicated that a "student-centered learning environment," "full of multimedia resources," "expanded interactivity," and "adaptability to different student characteristics" are distinctive features of Internet-based education, most of which reflect integration of technological features of the Web into instruction. Several studies reported students' active involvement in discussion and collaborative learning as being an emergent trend in Internet-based education and computer conferencing. Other studies argued that asynchronous and synchronous features of and the Internet-based education increased interaction between teachers and learners as well as among learners themselves. In addition, various types of online learning communities were observed in Web-based learning environments. Generally, Internet-based education was seen as a method of distance education that provided more and better forms of learning dialogue and learning communities. Several evaluation studies showed that the Internet-based education environment could be adapted to suit different student characteristics, such as prior knowledge level and preferred study modes. One experimental study dealt with the searching and integrating strategies used by different cognitive styles of learners. In addition to these interactive and adaptable features, resourcefulness and multimedia representation of the resources were indicated as being advantages of Internet-based education for the implement ration of project-based or constructivist learning.

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