| Information and communication technologies are constantly being introduced into higher education. These technologies expand the options of how people teach and learn. The term, blended learning, has been formed to reflect the combination of face-to-face instruction and computer-mediated instruction. As technology continues to evolve, we envision a future that blended learning experience can be improved by integrating technologies into various learning environments, in which students' technology usage can be assessed. In realizing this vision, the insufficient integration problem and the insufficient assessment problem need to be addressed.;As an effort to address the insufficient integration problem, we focus on two learning scenarios. The first scenario is about delivering lecture presentations. Our solution, PreAuthor, facilitates authoring and playback of a multi-device presentation to take advantage of all available multimedia devices such as display screens. This type of presentation provides instructors with more flexibility to organize lecture materials. The second scenario is about remote teaching assistance. We first identify the challenges and desired requirements for such a system, and review technologies that can support remote teaching assistance. We then propose an architecture for a practical implementation. A case study using Instant Messaging to support remote teaching assistance is conducted.;To address the insufficient assessment problem, we focus on tracking students' activities in different learning environments. The first environment is in a classroom or a computer lab. We propose two approaches to perform the activity monitoring task: the application-level approach (CAM) and the network-level approach (CNAC). A comparison between these two approaches is analyzed. Outside classrooms, our goal is to track students' online learning activities on a Course Management System (CMS). We have implemented a prototype which we call Moodog over the Moodle CMS. Our Moodog system provides an easy-to-use interface, and offers a broad array of activity information to instructors, students and educational researchers.;This dissertation contributes to the increasing blended learning research and technology base. The infrastructure and tools developed in this research have the potential to benefit instructors, students and educational researchers. |
