Continuing education classrooms and blended learning strategies

Researchers have conducted investigations that reveal that an increasing number of classrooms are using online course instruction and mixing learning techniques to create unique learning environments to teach a variety of lessons, as technology becomes an essential part of the learning environment. There is a need for evaluation and instructional frameworks that will help researchers, educators, and policymakers evaluate students' online collaboration despite such technologies being beneficial to education. One such study aims to contribute to the role of e-mentor facilitation of the online forums for an audience of students who are busy, as they are engaged in full-time jobs. The researchers are specifically interested in studying e-mentoring and assistance to analyze online e-mentors' interaction styles, such as social and cognitive acknowledgement, questioning, direct instruction, modeling, and encouragement and facilitation of discussion. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier.