The University of Nicosia, Cyprus

One of the main aims of this third edition on Learning Activity Management System (LAMS)

and Learning Design is to draw attention to what a growing number of researchers are now doing,

and to provide an important point of reference for those interested in building on what has

already been done.

In a world of increasing turmoil and growing uncertainty, new and abrupt changes now

threaten to skew educational priorities and it seems that in many countries immense upheavals in

education may be approaching. Part of the great challenge that those in education will be facing

will be finding effective ways of addressing issues such as how education can be delivered in an

energy efficient way, how the cost of education can be reduced, how more people of all ages can

develop themselves further by participating in educational study, and how the effectiveness of

online learning can be improved. Thus this publication also emphasises how a closely-knit

community of dedicated researchers working within their fields of interest may be helping to

provide greater understanding of the ever more strategically important issue of online learning in

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address the overriding, overarching and multifaceted issue of improving our understanding of

how humans really learn online.

This third edition on LAMS and Learning Design[1] comprises thirteen papers. The first

paper, which is by Eva Dobozy of Edith Cowan University (Australia), explores the utility of

interactive lecture podcasting in LAMS and the impact of structured dialogue design. It reports

how curriculum renewal and innovation were greeted with scepticism by teacher education

students enrolled in a compulsory curriculum unit at an Australian university. Paper two, written

by James Dalziel of Macquarie University (Australia), describes the assumptions behind the

LAMS visual authoring environment at the levels of both educational theory and software design.

The paper also presents a review of implementation experiences among educators, including