Each alphabet letter heading is followed by "+" and "-" symbols, which expand all the terms beginning with that letter at once. To view just the definitions for a specific word, simply click on the "arrow" symbol next to it, or click on the word itself:

A

Accessibility: The practice of making web pages and other computer-based media accessible to all users, ensuring that those with disabilities have equivalent access as those without.
Active learning: A form of learning in which teaching strives to involve students in the learning process more directly than in other methods.
ADA: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Affective learning: The why in learning. Plays a part in the development of persistence and deep interest in a subject by incorporating affective elements in the learning goals.
AIM: A provision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) requires school districts to provide accessible versions of instructional materials to students who are blind or otherwise unable to use printed materials. Students with disabilities should receive materials in accessible formats at the same time as their peers receive their textbooks..
Alt text: Alternative text, displayed in place of an image.
Andragogy: The study of adult education (Malcolm Knowles). Adult learning characterized by self-regulated learning directed toward realistic, relevant, and self-paced personal approaches to acquisition of knowledge and skills.
API: Application programming interface. A small software program that enables one computer program or application to exchange data with another.
Applet: A specially developed software application or small program that enables additional features to be embedded such as Flash animation or videos. Usually designed to help learners to interact with a teaching tool as they gain knowledge.
Artificial intelligence: The use of computer systems, software and models to imitate human thought and reasoning when completing a task.
Assessment: Measurement of learners knowledge and skills mastery to appraise performance expectations defined by course or module learning objectives in an online or blended course.
Assistive technology: Assistive technology (or adaptive technology) is software or hardware that enables people with disabilities to perform tasks that would be difficult or impossible with the assistance of technology.
Asynchronous: Literally, asynchronous is the opposite of synchronous, and means at different times . In a learning context, this refers to communication that happens when people are not together at the same time as they are in a traditional classroom. Examples include self-directed learning modules, email, and discussion groups. Asynchronicity has the advantage of offering communication at the convenience at the learner, the opportunity to consider responses carefully before sending and the ability to track and revisit discussions.
Audio description: An additional narration track for the visually impaired, accompanying television and movies. A narrator describes the action in the scene during pauses in the audio
Augmented reality: A combination of a real environment experienced by the user with virtual elements added by computer input that augment the scene with additional information

B

Bandwidth

The data carrying capacity of a communication channel the greater the band width, the more data the channel can carry.

Blended learning

Also described in the context of hybrid learning or blended courses, this approach involves the integration of Web-based courseware, synchronous and asynchronous interaction, and online assignments. Its advantage over purely online learning is the enrichment of socially-mediated sharing of knowledge and experience to promote deeper learning through critical thinking and reflection.

Blog

An abbreviation of web log, a blog is an online journal/commentary with simple automated content creating facilities, links, and response mechanisms. Blogs often use RSS feeds (see RSS) so that readers can subscribe and receive new content as it is published.

Bloom's Taxonomy

A classification system containing six hierarchical taxonomies for learning outcomes. Anderson & Krathwohl (2001) revised Bloom’s taxonomy into these 6 hierarchical categories: (1) Remember (2) Understand (3) Apply (4) Analyze (5) Evaluate (6) Create.

Branching scenario

In online learning, branching scenarios present challenging, real-world-based interactive learning situations that require students to make decisions based upon choices presented by the scenario at various levels. Using branching logic, presented choices each carry consequences for the student, which in-turn provide further opportunities for choose correctly, starting over or successfully navigate the scenario. The student learns from the overall experience, rather than by learning from static content.

C

Caption: Caption: 1. on-screen description of all significant audio content in a video. 2. HTML attribute to describe a table, displayed with the table.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): Code used to define the presentation of a document written in HTML or XHTML.
Case studies: Online descriptions of real situations that are designed to facilitate effective problem solving and decision making in complex examples that warrant collaborative analysis, discussion, and interaction.
Chat: Text-based online interactive communication in real time sequencing of one-to-one or group messages in synchronous conferences.
Chunking: See information chunks. Manageable pieces of theme or topic-related data that are presented to students in effective online courses.
CMS: Content management system (CMS), used to more easily maintain pages on a website.
Communities of practice: Groups of people (within organizations or around the world) with similar interests and goals who get together (physically or electronically) to share information about their common interest.
Cookies: Pieces of data placed on a computer hard drive that allow a website to record user information such as shopping preferences, name, site login, and password.
Concept map: A graphic outline that shows the main concepts in the information and the relationship between the concepts.
Course delivery: Parts of an online course that teach students via instructor presence and student-instructor interaction; delivery can involve use of asynchronous or synchronous tools.
Course design: Parts of an online course that teach students via navigation, static content, interactive content, and opportunities for student-instructor interaction that promote, guide, or direct student learning behaviors.
Course monitoring: Instructor behaviors related to maximizing student participation and completion of the course. Monitoring also includes communicating about system outages and fixing courseware glitches such as broken links, typos, mistakes, ideally before they are discovered by students.
Course outline: A description of the main content, organization and expected outcomes of a course, normally including the number of credits awarded for successful completion, hours of class time required, evaluation procedures, assignments, texts, and readings. In this chapter, a course is assumed to be the official description of a course upon which articulation decisions are based. (See also: syllabus
Courseware: Educational software that delivers instruction and course materials to a computer or system.
Creative Commons: A licensing system developed by Lawrence Lessig and others at Stanford University. Creative Commons (CC) licenses allow a content creator to decide how published work may be copied, modified, and distributed.

D

Deductive learners

Students who prefer starting with more structure, deriving consequences and applications from the concepts and theories.

Deep learning

A thoughtful approach to learning that is characterized by critical thinking and relevant application

Digital library

Library support services, resources, and aggregated electronic data provided to students who are primarily studying online.

Digital natives

The generation of students who are effectively conversant with computer technology.

Discussion board

A site within an online course shell where students and instructors can post their thoughts and findings using the course intranet system. An electronically mediated conference or discussion forum.

Discussion thread

A series of posted messages or thoughts related to a theme, topic, or question on a discussion board.

Distance education

A process of formal education that is characterized by asynchronous and synchronous interaction between a student and instructor who are not in the same location.

Diversity

Online instructors need to incorporate the following into their courses to promote and respect diversity (Sonnenschein, 1999):

Respect for others, for differences, for ourselves.

Tolerance for ambiguities in language, style, behaviour.

Flexibility in situations that are new, difficult and challenging.

Self-awareness be sure you understand your reactions and know what you bring to the diverse workplace (learning environment).

Empathy to feel what someone different from you might be feeling in new and strange surroundings.

Patience for change that can be slow, and diversity situations that might be difficult.

Humor because when we lose our sense of humor, we lose our sense of humanity, as well as perspectives (p. 9).

Download

Transfer of a file or files from one computer to yours.

DRM

Digital rights management (DRM); the protection of copyrighted digital content to prevent unauthorized viewing, copying or distribution.

E

E-learning: Learning that takes place off-site using a variety of delivery technologies such as, Internet and mobile devices. Learners can access the material anywhere, and at anytime in synchronous, asynchronous, instructor-led, computer-based, or any combination of these approaches.
E-learning 2.0: The application of the principles of Web 2.0 to learning, specifically the collaboration and creation aspects leading to more student-centred learning.
Email: Electronic text-based mail sent between computers via the Internet or other types of intranet systems.
Emerging technologies: Technologies that are becoming ubiquitous, and use the power of the computer to design, deliver, and provide support to learners with different needs.
E-portfolio: An e-portfolio is a digitized collection of documents and resources that represent an individual’s achievements. The user can manage the contents and usually grant access to appropriate people. There are currently a variety of different types of e-portfolios with varied functionality. E-portfolios are increasingly being used for coursework and other assessment purposes.
External links: Information from URL addresses connected To sites on the intranet or Internet that are provided within an online course to extend student exposure to valid learning tools or information.

F

Facilitator

An online or blended course instructor who supports and assists students in self-actualized learning. An online course facilitator provides a student-centered learning environment, acting as a coach and partner rather than as a lecturer or information transmitter.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions (FAQ). These are typically placed in a file or on a common forum thread online to facilitate information transfer about common issues or instructional requirements.

Feedback

Any response related to input.

Flash

A very ubiquitous multimedia authoring program and its resultant software code, used primarily for interactive web content. Flash, owned by Adobe, will be discontinued in the year 2020. Many of Flash's capabilities are now embodied by HTML 5.0 mark-up language.

Formative assessment

Learner assessment conducted as part of the instructional content or approach: questions and assignments designed to help the student to learn but not to be used as outcome measures.

Formative evaluation

Systematic collection and appraisal of evidence that can be used to make improvements while the course or program are being developed or tested.

H

Homepage

The main document or opening page that is visible when the user accesses an online course or a Web site. It provides links to other web pages.

Hybrid course

Also called a blended course, this uses a combination of online and in-class face-to-face instruction.

I

Inductive learners

Students who prefer beginning with meaningful examples before extrapolating the main concepts or theories.

Intuitive learners

Students who prefer reflective activities and resources that require imagination.

Information object

Digital information stored in chunks in a digital repository and tagged for retrieval to meet users information needs.

Instant Messaging (IM)

Real-time communication with typed text messages sent between two or more people, sent via IM programs such as Yahoo or AOL to promote conversational-style communication rather than email exchange.

Instructional Design (ID)

A systematic approach to designing learning materials based on learning theories and research. A process of activities aimed at creating a solution for an instructional problem—resolving instructional problems through systematic analysis of learning conditions.

Instructional Designer

A specialist who develops the methodology and delivery systems for presenting course content.

Instructional goals

General skills that will be further defined into specific learning outcomes.

Instructor presence

Instructor behaviors characterized by being communicative, actively engaged, and present with students in the course. Instructor presence is enhanced by high levels of student- instructor interaction and instructor communication.

Interactive content

Content objects, such as applications, simulations, activities, games, media or scored quizzes that change or adapt while students experience them and can appeal to various learning styles. Students learn from interactive content by actively engaging with it. Content objects that are programmed to “teach” content via two-way communication; see also Student-Content Interaction.

Interface

The components of the computer program that allow the user to interact with the information.

J

Java: Java (not to be confused with JavaScript) is a set of specifications and software used for the development of cross-platform software applications
JavaScript: A Web scripting language that can be used to create interactive content on web pages
Just-in-time: The opportunity to access learning materials as required for immediate application.

L

LAN

A LAN (Local Area Network), is a network connecting a group of computers in relative proximity or within an educational or organization system to allow sharing of communication, resources, data storage, and file servers, printers, and modems.

Learner-centered

In contrast to teacher-centered (the teacher dispenses knowledge), this describes the view that learners collaborate to construct knowledge and achieve deeper learning.

Learning disability

A psychological or neurological condition that affects a person s ability to communicate and/or learn effectively. Includes conditions such as dyslexia (reading difficulty), dysgraphia (writing difficulty), dyscalculia (difficulty with mathematics), and aphasia (problems comprehending language).

Learning management system (LMS)

Learning management systems (LMSs) are synchronous and asynchronous learning environments that incorporate tools for teaching and learning management. They are electronic platforms that can be used to launch and track e-learning courses and enhance face-to-face instruction with online components. Some also manage classroom instruction. Primarily they automate the administration of learning by facilitating and then recording learner activity. They may or may not include tools for creating and managing course content. Computer software designed to manage the organization, delivery, and tracking of online courses and learner performance. They are sometimes called virtual learning environments (VLE) or course management systems (CMS). Corporate learning management systems are also designed to manage classroom instruction. An example of an LMS is Cal State Fullerton's TITANium LMS, which is based on the Moodle platform.

Learning object

Any digital resource that can be used and re-used to achieve a specific learning outcome. Also referred to as a learning activity. Learning objects are chunks of information (text, graphics, modules, video, audio, etc.) that can be used for learning. Usually discussed in the context of reusable learning objects and learning content management, which refers to the storing and cataloguing of learning objects so that learners and instructional designers can access, reuse, and adapt them.

Learning Objectives/Student Learning Objectives (LOs/SLOs)

Learned skills that are specific, measurable and course content-aligned. Often synonymous with the term learning outcomes. LOs/SLOs help teachers measure their impact on learning by specifying what students are expected to learn in a course, lesson, unit or activity.

Learning style

A person’s preferred way to learn and process information, interact with others, and complete learning tasks.

Link

Links are Uniform Resource Locators (also known as URLs) or hypertext that is underlined to provide access to other information or resources on the Internet.

Listserv

A subscribed automatic email service that allows users to receive topic-based information.

Longdesc

Longdesc (also known as long description) is a separate HTML document containing the description of an image or media when the description is too long to be contained in the alternative text (alt text).

M

M-learning: Mobile learning: learning delivered wirelessly through mobile devices such as laptops, smart phones, tablet PCs, etc.
Mashups: A mashup is a website or web application that seamlessly combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience (Wikipedia, 2006a, para. 1).
Massively multiplayer online games (MMOG): Also often referred to as MMOs, these online games can be played simultaneously by many people while interacting in the same game environment.
Metacognition: The process of thinking about how one thinks, learns, or applies cognitive abilities.
Metacognitive skills: Learners use their metacognitive skills to assess their level of achievement, determine alternate strategies, select the most appropriate strategy, and then re-assess the level of achievement.
Metadata: According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, metadata is data [information] that provides information about other data. Metadata is used within web pages and online media to categorize, search, display and interconnect digital materials.
Metatag: An HTML code used as an identifier by search engines for web page contents.
MMS: Multimedia messaging service (MMS) is a technical standard to provide for the addition of rich media (audio, video, etc.) to text messaging..
Multimedia: A combination of two or more media used to present information to users.