In the rapidly-changing world of the Internet and the Web, theory and
research struggle to keep up with technological, social, and economic
developments. In education in particular, a proliferation of novel
practices, applications, and forms - from bulletin boards to Webcasts,
from online educational games to open educational resources - have come
to be addressed under the rubric of «e-learning». In response to these
phenomena, Re-thinking E-Learning Research introduces a number of
research frameworks and methodologies relevant to e-learning. The book
outlines methods for the analysis of content, narrative, genre,
discourse, hermeneutic-phenomenological investigation, and critical and
historical inquiry. It provides examples of pairings of method and
subject matter that include narrative research into the adaptation of
blogs in a classroom setting; the discursive-psychological analysis of
student conversations with artificially intelligent agents; a genre
analysis of an online discussion; and a phenomenological study of online
mathematics puzzles. Introducing practical applications and spanning a
wide range of the possibilities for e-learning, this book will be useful
for students, teachers, and researchers in e-learning.