UCEA MEMBERS PUBLISH RESEARCH ON ASYNCHRONOUS LEARNING - An in-depth history and analysis of the University of California's "Extension Online" program by UCEA professional member Mary Beth Almeda, heads the current issue of the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (JALN), available online at http://www.aln.org/alnweb/jaln_vol2issue2.htm. Almeda identifies four ongoing challenges: helping students get started and stay motivated; finding and keeping instructors; effective marketing and developing models of cost-effectiveness.

Also in JALN are research findings from two significant projects conducted at UCEA member institutions. "The SCALE Efficiency Projects" reports on studies conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which determined that asynchronous learning can increase student/faculty ratios without sacrificing instructional quality. "The Impact of Student Verbal/Visual Learning Style Preference on Implementing Groupware in the Classroom" documents a study conducted at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire on the impacts of adding groupware technology to project groups in accounting classes. Students with visual learning styles reported that groupware enhanced their experience, while those with verbal learning styles reported significantly less benefit. (UCEA Electronic Newsletter, January)

THE VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY JOURNAL is issuing a Call for innovative articles on technology-aided learning. Contact the editor at cr@hrm.brookes.ac.uk (All articles are submitted to a review process). Sample free articles are available in the archives: Editorial: Corporate Universities by Clive Robertson; Taking the Distance out of Distance Education by Margrit Misangyi Watts; New Vistas - A Vision of the Role of the Virtual University by Peter Watson; Towards Interactive Business Learning: A University for Industry by Clive Robertson. For more information see: http://www.openhouse.org.uk/virtual-university-press/

U.S. ONLINE AUDIENCE STARTING TO LOOK MORE LIKE AMERICA - A study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press indicates that the online audience is rapidly changing from an elite computer savvy group comprised of young, well-educated and affluent males to a more mainstream American group, with middle-aged and middle-income people of both sexes coming to the Internet in increased numbers, as are people with less formal education. Although the 74 million Internet users in the U.S. are still younger, better-educated and more affluent than the population at large, 40% of Internet newcomers never attended college and 23% have household incomes below $30,000 a year. (AP 14 Jan 99)

NEW JOURNAL - The Business, Education and Technology Journal (BETJ) invites manuscripts for publication the first April/May, 1999 issue. Deadline is February 15, 1999. This new journal is a peer-reviewed publication of the School of Technology and Industry at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California. It will be published in hard copy and online. Golden Gate University (http://www.ggu.edu) provides practical education from undergraduate through doctoral levels to working professionals and traditional students in areas of information systems, business, public administration, and law, in face-to-face and online settings at Cyber-campus http://cybercampus.ggu.edu). The Journal is devoted to the study of the relationships among the disciplines of Business, Education and Technology. It will publish a range of papers that investigate commonalties, convergence, best practices, conceptual thinking and research findings in these areas.