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This article challenges the belief that strong sense of community is limited to the traditional classroom and proposes that the virtual classroom has the potential of building and sustaining sense of community at levels that are comparable to the traditional classroom. Drawing on research literature, the concept of learning community is applied to the virtual classroom by taking on the issue of how best to design and conduct an online course that fosters community among learners who are physically separated from each other. Course design principles are described that facilitate dialogue and decrease psychological distance, thereby increasing a sense of community among learners.

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Building Sense of Community at a Distance

The purpose of this study was to develop and field-test the Classroom Community Scale and to determine its validity and reliability for use with university students taking courses at a distance via the Internet. The 20-item Classroom Community Scale measures sense of community in a learning environment. Data were collected from 375 students enrolled in 28 different courses, offered for graduate credit via the Blackboard e-learning system by a private university. It was concluded that the Classroom Community Scale is a valid and reliable measure of classroom community and that this instrument yields two interpretable factors, connectedness and learning.

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Development of an Instrument To Measure Classroom Community

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between sense of community and cognitive learning in an online educational environment. Study participants consisted of 314 students enrolled in 26 graduate education and leadership courses taught at a distance using the Blackboard.comSM e-learning system. Study results provided evidence that a significant relationship exists between classroom community and perceived cognitive learning. Online learners who have stronger sense of community and perceive greater cognitive learning should feel less isolated and have greater satisfaction with their academic programs, possibly resulting in fewer dropouts.

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Sense of community, perceived cognitive learning, and persistence in asynchronous learning networks

With today’s large increase in digital images and automatically generated imagery, such as videos and stills generated from surveillance equipment, the need for efficient image retrieval and indexing has become fundamental. Since text-based information retrieval has been shown to perform very poorly when searching through images, research has been active in the field of content-based image retrieval (CBIR). CBIR systems make use of the properties of images in order to compare them and extract content by matching the query image. Comparing features – such as color, texture, and shape – allows for better retrieval accuracy; however, the algorithms used are still very limited. This paper will provide a survey of CBIR systems and explain the fundamental properties and techniques used in these systems. First, the history of CBIR systems will be discussed together with some typical CBIR systems. After this, the paper will touch on text-based information retrieval and explain why it does not work for searching through collections of images. The latter portion of this document will provides an overview of a typical CBIR system and the main techniques involved in querying such a system. Finally, image features and indexing schemes will be described.

Content-Based Image Retrieval

Descriptive text is ussually inadequate for finding the precise visual image for which one is searching. The author proposes a solution to this problem-emphasizing visual browsing tools on high resolution computer workstations. In this model, a user can perform initial online queries using descriptive text, then visually browse through high quality surrogate images of the query results. Several dozen images can be displayed simultaneously, and any single image can be enlarged for closer visual inspection. The University of California at Berkeley prototype implementation of this model is discussed in detail

Visual Access to Visual Images: The UC Berkeley Image Database Project

Online collections do not yet function like conventional libraries. Many digital collections are experimental and lack service components, and few have preservation components. The function of searching across collections is a dream frequently discussed but seldom realized at a robust level. This paper places a conceptual framework upon digital library development, and discusses how we might move from isolated digital collections to interoperable digital libraries. It first examines how early efforts to construct digital collections were conceived as experiments rather than operational libraries. It then discusses various conventional library components that are necessary to deployment of operational digital libraries. Finally, the author points to functions (such as infrastructure, robust metadata, and preservation components) that can be deployed to move us from isolated digital collections to interoperable digital libraries.

The Next Stage: Moving from Isolated Digital Collections to Interoperable Digital Libraries

Perspectives on ... Distance Independent Education: Introduction and Overview.

This text introduces the technology of digital imaging and illustrates the choices that must be made when images are digitized. The text explains the creation of digital image databases, how to integrate them with other imformation sources and how to interchange visual information among a variety of computerized systems. The book recommends strategies to ensure that future technology developments will not foreclose the options for upgrading databases. It is directed to curators, librarians, collection managers, administrators, scholars and students, and those whose professional work has been changed by this technology.

Introduction to Imaging: Issues in Constructing an Image Database

Distance independent learning has the potential for a fundamental and beneficial transformation of higher education. By combining the best aspects of our present university and college systems with the opportunities offered by recent developments in communications and information technology, distance independent learning could lead to high quality, highly individualized instruction and the creation of intellectual communities that transcend the limitations of time and space. This potential infuses the rhetoric of the proponents of distance independent learning. But much of the rhetoric around distance education is misleading and fails to articulate the potential negative effects of widespread adoption of these new instructional delivery vehicles. In this article, the authors examine the motivations behind proponents of distance education, as well as the potential impact of distance learning upon instructors and students. They also raise questions as to curricular subjects and pedagogical styles that may not be appropriate for this type of instructional delivery. The authors emphasize that the educational community must consider not just the benefits but the non-monetary costs of relying on distance independent educational delivery. Educators must not see distance education as a universal innovation applicable to all types of instructional situations, but must carefully analyze the appropriateness of distance independent learning to various types of instructional situations.

Howard Besser

Papers

Visual Access to Visual Images: The UC Berkeley Image Database Project

The Next Stage: Moving from Isolated Digital Collections to Interoperable Digital Libraries

Perspectives on ... Distance Independent Education: Introduction and Overview.

Introduction to Imaging: Issues in Constructing an Image Database

Impact of distance independent education