Internet Learning Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2014 | Page 4
Internet Learning Volume 3 Number 2 - Fall 2014
multimedia team of J. Sean Geary and Jaime Goodman from American Public University
System who created the four complex interactives in our featured article, and Ty Crawford
for his design of the journal’s new logo.
Lastly, the works written by the authors in this issue embody a more holistic approach to
online teaching and learning topics. No longer should we isolate education and industry.
No longer should we limit the inclusion of conceptual works and opinion pieces from academic
journals. No longer can we afford to ignore the potential that partnerships between
market-driven, student-centric companies and reputable, higher education institutions
can provide to both entities. Therefore, the articles included in this issue cover topics such
as MOOCs, new online learning business models, gamification, interactive and blended
teaching environments, data visualization and online collaborative efforts on a global
scale.
The first article, Enter the Anti-MOOCs: Reinvention of Online Learning as Social Commentary,
by New Media Consortium’s Larry Johnson and Samantha Adams-Becker, discusses
in depth these “high-level experiments in online learning” (a.k.a, the Anti-MOOC) as
virtual spaces created to promote social interaction and commentary. In the second article,
Positioning for Success in the Higher Education Online Learning Environment, Jeff Mc-
Cafferty presents an analysis of current online learning and higher education markets in
terms of identifying factors that impact the development and expansion of online learning.
Britt Carr’s case study, Gamifying Course Content with Smashfact describes Smashfact—a
recently-released study-game app for faculty that increases student engagement levels by
“gamifying” basic course content, thereby reducing barriers to success. Students are able
to use the app on any of their devices: phones, tablets or desktop computers. Our fourth
article, Problems And Possibilities of Gamifying Learning: A Conceptual Review by Hannah
Gerber continues the exciting discussion on gamification by providing a brief overview of
the concept of gamification and examines and compares gamification with edutainment
and game-based learning. Gerber asserts that in its current industry-driven conceptualization,
gamification will not work when implemented in educational arenas, and that to
be examined and used within educational frames, gamification must be re-examined and
re-conceptualized. Our fifth article, Using Early Warning Signs to Predict Academic Risk in
Interactive, Blended Teaching Environments, by Julie Schell, Brian Lukoff and Cassandre
Alvarado offers an evidence-based process for identifying characteristics correlated with
student academic underachievement at the course level in blended, interactive teaching
environments. Visualizing Knowledge Networks in Online Learning by Marni Baker-Stein,
Sean York and Brian Dashew introduces the development of a framework and methodology
aimed to yield a better understanding of social interactions and knowledge construction
in online courses that employ both formal and informal social and cooperative learning
activities. In our final article, Integrating Online Global Collaboration authors Zhenlin
Gao and Tom Green share their account of an online, collaborative project based upon
the premise that students today are instinctively collaborative, innately cooperative, and
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