Part B contains articles from peer-reviewed online journals. The online journals included in this review are Educational Technology & Society, the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, the Journal of Instructional Science and Technology, the Interpersonal Computing and Technology Journal, and the Online Chronicle of Distance Education and Communication

Educational Technology & Society, established in 1998, is a quarterly online journal published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society Learning Technology Task Force. The journal focuses on the issues affecting the developers of educational systems and on educators who implement and manage such systems.

The Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN), a scholarly, reviewed online journal first published in 1997, is a part of the ALN Web and is published by Vanderbilt University. The ALN Web contains the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Network, the ALN e-zine, columns, news-posting areas, workshops, and other ALN-related features. The journal focuses on original research and practices in ALN.

The Journal of Instructional Science and Technology (e-JIST) is an international, peer-reviewed electronic journal produced by the Distance Education Center of The University of Southern Queensland. Its specific focus is the design of instructional materials, instructional delivery technologies, the evaluation of instructional design input, and future developments. It first appeared in October 1995.

The Interpersonal Computing and Technology Journal (IPCT-J) is a scholarly, peer-reviewed online journal published by the Association of Educational Communication and Technology that comes out two/four times a year. This journal focuses on computer-mediated communication and pedagogical issues regarding the use of computers and other technologies in education. Its first volume appeared on the Internet in 1993.

The Online Chronicle of Distance Education and Communication appears quarterly and publishes articles and other resources on distance education and online communication. Produced by Nova Southeastern University its publication began in 1997.

The articles in these five online journals show that the majority of the papers discuss ideas on the use of the Internet in education and report on developmental projects (see Table 2). Of the fifty-nine papers in this section, only four (7%) adopted quantitative or qualitative, true or quasi experiments for their research methodology; twenty articles (34%) were developmental studies in which the design and development strategies of Internet- or other network&endashbased education were reported; ten (17%) were evaluation studies in which specific Internet-based or similar types of online courses were evaluated in a rather structured way; and the final twenty-five papers (42%) discussed ideas and positions regarding Internet- or network-based instruction. When compared with the articles from the refereed international journals in part A, the online articles did not report as many rigorous research studies. Out of fifty-nine papers, thirty-eight articles (64%) discussed Internet-based education specifically, thirteen papers (22%) reported the use of computer conferencing in network-based learning environments, and the other eight papers (14%) discussed Internet-based education along with other technologies.

Table 2: Classification of Articles by Methodology and Focus