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:

N

Needs assessment: A method of gathering information for determining the actual problem.
Network diagram: A diagram that shows the relationship between concepts. The concepts are shown as nodes with interconnecting lines.
Non-interactive (i.e., static) content: Course content or objects, such as instructor communications, text articles, photographs, or videos that do not contain interactive capability (e.i., experiencing certain content as a passive process lacking interaction with it).

O

OER: Online Educational Resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly-licensed (usually through Creative Commons licensing) text, media, and other digital assets, content objects, and instructional materials that are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes. Two major advantages of OER is that they are free to use without charge, and that these materials can usually be reused, remixed, reedited and redistributed without infringing their creators' copyright.
OET: Online Education and Training (OET) is a Cal State Fullerton (CSUF) department within the purview of Faculty Support Services, dedicated to assisting CSUF faculty members with the creation and improvement of Online, Hybrid and Web-enhanced classes through professional development-oriented training--such as TOP, OER and AIM certificate programs, along with various services such as consultations with instructional designers and closed captioning services.
Online learning: Use of the Internet to deliver instruction to learners using a variety of instructional strategies.
Online learning contract: A formal agreed-upon requirement for an online student to learn specific content, how they will learn the content, and what evaluation criteria will be used to assess their learning outcomes.
Online program: The portion of a formal academic curriculum that is offered through the Internet.

P

PDF: Portable Document Format (PDF): a platform independent file format developed by Adobe Systems.
Pedagogical practices: Instructional approaches that involve learning based on the unit of content and the constructivist model of active learning, teaching to diverse learning styles, student-to-student interaction, and use of multiple learning outcome assessments.
Peer coaching: Students are paired with classmates or form small groups for interaction, support, and advice.
Podcast: Podcasts are digital media/audio files that can be Easily distributed via the Web and downloaded to computers and personal audio players. Podcasts are often syndicated (via RSS) so that users can subscribe (usually for free) to a particular service and download new content automatically. The software required is available for free or at little cost, making this form of broadcasting extremely accessible.
Predictive typing: Software that offers the user a choice of words at each point in a sentence, according to what words are statistically most likely to appear in a given context.
Presence: The sense that what is perceived exists. Teaching presence refers to the ways in which the course instructor interacts with students, facilitates student-to-student interaction through course design, and provides input into online activities to direct learning in ways that are perceived by the students and course reviewers.

Q

Quality assessment: A diagnostic review and evaluation of teaching, learning, and outcomes based on a detailed examination of curricula, structure, and effectiveness of the institution or program. It is designed to determine if the institution or program meets generally accepted standards of excellence and suggestions for further quality improvements. (See Quality Matters Rubric).
Quality assurance (QA): A planned and systematic review process of an institution or program to determine that acceptable standards for learner-centered education, scholarship, pedagogic culture, and expertise, infrastructure, organizational strategy, and vision are being maintained and enhanced. Usually includes expectations that mechanisms of quality control for benchmarking are in place and effective. Seven constructs that need to be measured to evaluate the quality of online courses are: flexibility responsiveness, student support, student learning, student participation in learning, ease of technology use and technology support, student satisfaction.
Quality improvement: The expectation that an institution will have a plan to monitor and improve the quality of its programs.
Quality Matters Rubric: A proprietary, research-based set of standards and guidelines developed by the Quality Matters organization, which are intended to provide educators with clear guidance for the development or improvement of online or hybrid courses and programs.
Quality Online Learning and Teaching (QLT): QLT was developed by the California State University's Center for Distributed Learning as a as a set of evaluation instruments and related standards designed to help support and identify exemplary practices for the design and delivery of hybrid and online courses.

R

RFID: Radio frequency identification (RFID): a generic term that refers to wireless technologies that are used to provide information about a person or object. The term has been popularized with the emergence of RFID tags: inexpensive, miniature wireless chips with antennae that can be embedded into objects. It is used mainly in the distribution and inventory business for tracking the location of shipments and parts.
RSS: Really simple syndication (RSS): a set of XML-based specifications for syndicating news and other website content and making it machine-readable. Users who subscribe to RSS-enabled websites can have new content automatically pushed to them. This content is usually collected by RSS-aware applications called aggregators or newsreaders.
Rubric: A structured course or assignment evaluation tool that guides students in their preparation of assignments or in their quality of participation, and that serves as the standard for consistent and efficient feedback provided by the online instructor or course reviewer for quality assurance.

S

Sandbox: A sandbox is a reserved, private course space made available to LMS users (e.g., TITANium users) for the purposes of course design and development experimentation and users' works-in-progress. Sandboxes are useful when learning the capabilities of an LMS, or when developing content that will later be migrated to an actual course.
Scaffolding: An instructional approach that involves a progressive process of building on sequenced ideas to achieve an original learning outcome
Screen reader: Text-to-speech software that reads aloud what is being displayed on the screen.
Screen magnifier: Software that displays an enlarged view of the current screen on a standard monitor.
Search engine: A software program that collects and organizes content on the Web that relates to a specific theme, term, or topic.
Search statement: A combination of literature search terms and Boolean operators that is used to search an online library or Internet database.
Section 508: An amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which states that electronic and information technology developed or maintained by any agency or department of the United States Federal Government must be accessible to people with disabilities.
Self-directed learners: Students who follow a process for learning that is largely self-taught and involves motivation, self-responsibility, the ability to self-assess, comfort with autonomy, and the ability to transfer and synthesize knowledge and skills in relevant applications.
Sensory learners: Students who prefer fact-based activities and resources.
Shell/course shell: A course shell is a designated course space within an LMS. Shells begin as empty spaces allocated to courses and instructors, to which students are eventually enrolled. Instructional content is added by the course instructor or others. Though shells start out with the same initial structural elements and capabilities, they eventually differ greatly from each other based on the content that is added to them.
Simulations: Simulations in e-learning are attempts to create a level of reality in a computer environment so that learners can practice skills, solve problems, operate expensive machinery, or conduct interactions in a safe situation.
SMS: Short messaging service (SMS) is a technical standard that provides the capability for text messaging via cell phones.
Social media: Social networking platforms or software are a category of Internet applications to help connect friends, business partners, or other individuals together .
Spam: Unsolicited email. Often termed "junk mail".
Streaming video: Application of the technique of downloading a video to a user s computer in a continuous stream to permit immediate and continuous viewing.
Student-centered learning: Also referred to as learner-centered environment in which the course instructor incorporates active learning strategies that include a large focus on student experience.
Student-content interaction: Mutually coherent exchanges between a student and interactive content object. Interaction consists of “loops” that begin from the student’s perspective; interaction occurs when communication sent by a student receives a response from the content. Interaction can involve use of asynchronous or synchronous tools.
Student-instructor interaction: Mutually coherent exchanges between a student and instructor. Interaction consists of “loops” that begin from the student’s perspective, i.e., interaction occurs when communication sent by a student receives a response from the instructor. Interaction can involve use of asynchronous or synchronous tools. Exchanges between people should not be supplanted by responses from interactive content.
Subject Matter Expert (SME): Subject Matter Expert (SME): an individual, usually an instructor or course designer, who demonstrates mastery and competency in a specific subject.
Subtitles: On-screen translation of dialogue and onscreen Text.
Summative assessment: Questions and assignments intended to serve as measures of course or program achievement or mastery of knowledge and skills.
Summative evaluation: The methodical collection and appraisal of information that informs decisions about whether a course or program should be maintained, improved, or terminated.
Syllabus: An individual instructor’s version of the official course outline (See: Course outline), normally distributed to students at the first class.
Synchronous: Literally, synchronous means at the same time. In a learning context this refers to events that occur with all participants present, such as classrooms, chat sessions, and web conferencing. It is the opposite of asynchronous.

T

Tablet: A mobile computing/display device with which a user interacts using a stylus (like pen on paper) or finger-hand gestures directly on the display surface.
Threaded discussion: See discussion thread. Electronic discussion that groups common topics, answers, or resources on a single forum or site to facilitate review and rapid location. In an LMS, threaded discussions are sometimes called Forums or Discussions.
Traditional course: A course taught by pedagogical methods that typically require a face-to-face classroom environment. Also referred to as an in-class or face-to-face course.
Training: The process by which individuals acquire knowledge, attitudes, and skills to perform specific tasks.
Transcript: A textual version of audio- or video-based material, including speeches, conversations, television and movies.

U

UDL: Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
Usability: A measure of quality of user’s experience when interacting with a system, in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction.
User-centered design (UCD): An iterative process whose goal is the development of a usable system achieved through involvement of potential users of a system in system design. It is focused on making e-learners effective users in order to free them from cognitive and physical constraints, making the system easy to use.
User Experience (UX): User Experience (UX) refers to a person's emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service. It includes the practical, affective and meaningful aspects of human-computer interactions and ownership experience. UX is often also referred to as the professional field of practice devoted to studying and crafting these experiences.

V

Virtual: Not physical but technically mediated presence or data communication.
Virtual classrooms: The use of web conferencing or online meeting applications to conduct classes over the Internet.
Virtual Reality (VR): Virtual Reality (VR): computer-generated environments (e.g., games, experiences, media) portrayed with three-dimensional effects, which provide a sense of physical presence to the viewer. With current technology, VR environments are displayed through headsets that sense users' head orientations (e.g., x-y-z axes translation and rotation) and orient the users' viewpoints accordingly.
Vlog: A blog based on video content.
VoIP: Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) is a technology that breaks voice communications into packets that can be sent over IP networks such as local area networks (LANs) or the Internet. This has advantages in terms of cost savings and increased functionality and manageability.

W

WAI: Web Accessibility Initiative.
WCAG: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) developed by the W3C.
Web 2.0: Web 2.0 refers to an emerging network-centric platform to support distributed, collaborative and cumulative creation by its users (Hagel, 2005, para. 6). It is about using the World Wide Web to create, as well as access content through social computing tools.
Webcam: A webcam is a live video camera that is either integrated into the hardware of a computer, is a separate piece of hardware that attaches to a computer, or stands to the side of a computer. Webcams are used for synchronous online meetings and videoconferencing. Other uses involve displaying real-time weather and traffic.
Web conferencing: Software applications that enable meetings over the Internet. They add presentation, visual, audio, and group interaction tools to chat functions.
Web page: An HTML file or document that is part of a web site. Often written as "webpage".
Web site: A group of related web pages that is associated with a home page. Often written as "website".
Whiteboard: A shared electronic workspace on a computer screen that allows multiple users to add text, drawings, or diagrams for collaborative learning or discussion.
Wiki: Collaborative Web pages that can be viewed and modified by anyone with a Web browser and Internet access.
W3C: Web Consortium (W3C) is a group that establishes specifications, guidelines, software and tools for various aspects of the Web, including file formats and scripting languages.

X

XHTML: XHTML: eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML). A web coding language; it differs from XML.
XML: eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a set of document guidelines for internet documents; not as stringent as XHTML.

Z

Zip file: A compressed file that saves data storage space and allows faster transmission between computers.