First Look: Watch for a new issue coming this month
STUDENT ROLE ADJUSTMENT IN ONLINE COMMUNITIES OF INQUIRY: MODEL AND INSTRUMENT VALIDATION
D. Randy Garrison, Martha Cleveland-Innes, and Tak Fung, provide a study validating an instrument for use in future research for measuring and understanding student role adjustment in online learning.

PREDICTING LEARNING FROM ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE DISCUSSIONS
Dezhi Wu and Starr Roxanne Hiltz, provide a study that shows that online discussions improve students’ perceptions of learning; and that variations among instructors or courses are associated with differences in perceptions of student motivation, enjoyment, and learning from online discussion. The concluding section of this paper presents some implications for improving online discussions and for future research plans.

TAKING E-MODERATING SKILLS TO THE NEXT LEVEL: REFLECTING ON THE DESIGN OF CONFERENCING ENVIRONMENTS
Shelagh M. Ross, Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, Helen Chappel, and Brian Joyce provide an analysis of computer conference structures in a distance education course in which major components of the teaching and learning involve group discussions and collaboration via asynchronous text-based conferencing.

A CONSTRUCTIVIST METHOD FOR THE ANALYSIS OF NETWORKED COGNITIVE COMMUNICATION, AND THE ASSESSMENT OF COLLABORATIVE LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE-BUILDING
Milton Campos presents a discourse analysis method designed to study networked cognitive communication processes in knowledge communities, such as conceptual change, higher order learning and knowledge building.

BEST ONLINE INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES: REPORT OF PHASE I OF AN ONGOING STUDY
Morris Keeton and colleagues of the University of Maryland examine

how best practices in online instruction are the same as, or different from, best practices in face-to-face (F2F) instruction.

THE IMPACT OF INCREASING ENROLLMENT ON FACULTY WORKLOAD AND STUDENT SATISFACTION OVER TIME
David DiBiase compares instructor time and student satisfaction. In response to a three-fold increase in enrollment over the period, instructors realized a twelve percent gain in efficiency. Contrary to expectations, a modest economy of scale was achieved with no discernible decrease in student satisfaction.

UNIVERSITY INSTRUCTORS’ REFLECTIONS ON THEIR FIRST ONLINE TEACHING EXPERIENCES
Dianne Conrad interviews new online instructors. Their reflections centered largely on their roles as deliverers of content rather than on collaborative learning, learners’ social presence, or the role of community in online learning environments.

New Open Source
E-Learning Book
Theory and Practice of Online Learning, edited by Terry Anderson and Fathi Elloumi of Athabasca University.

The book is licensed for educational and non commercial use, download and printing under a Creative Commons license, released as open source so that it can be more easily accessed by professionals, and hopefully used in coursework by learners throughout the world. During the two weeks after its release in mid-February, over 4300 individual downloads were made of the whole book, in addition to many for individual chapters. The URL for the full text as well as a link to purchase a print copy is http://cde.athabascau.ca/
online_book. The book has chapters by practitioner/scholars involved in the major systems components of large scale online program development, delivery and support, as well as a few theory based chapters.

Call for Papers
We invite you to join our 10th year anniversary celebration by submitting a proposal for the 10th Sloan-C International Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN): The Power of Online Learning: From Innovation to the Mainstream. The conference strongly encourages proposals that reflect the implications for the field of specific e-learning experience and practices. Last year's conference attracted over 600 participants to more than 120 presentations. Proposals must be submitted by April 30, 2004.

For a complete list of program tracks and details on online submission of proposals, please visit: http://www.sloan-c.org/
conference/info/apvcon04.asp

Thinking about just attending the conference this year? The lessons learned at the 9th Sloan-C ALN Conference are probably still setting in. However, we are putting together an even more informative, more cutting edge conference for our 10th year anniversary to be held in the same location, the Rosen Centre in Orlando, Florida on November 12-14. The 2003 conference was a great success and we have many of you to thank for that! We have also listened to your feedback and plan to continue to increase the usefulness of the conference to you and your colleagues. Stay tuned for more announcements about registration and pricing. In the meantime, refer to the following URL for updates and information: http://www.sloan-c.org/conference/info/apvcon04.asp.