Charlotte N. (Lani) Gunawardena is Professor of Distance Education and Instructional Technology in the Organizational Learning and Instructional Technology (OLIT) Program in the College of Education at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Gunawardena received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Kansas in 1988. Her focus is on distance education and cross-cultural communication. She has published numerous articles and book chapters in the field of distance education and given over 100 national and international professional presentations. She has been Principal Investigator and Project Director for national research grants, the most recent was a Star Schools evaluation and research grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education and Oklahoma State University to examine web-based, online teacher professional development programs in science and math that use hypothesis-based learning and guided inquiry.

Dr. Gunawardena was a World Bank consultant in Sri Lanka, and has also consulted in Brazil, Mexico, Norway, Turkey, and China. She has won several awards, including the University of New Mexico's General Library Faculty Recognition Award for outstanding work as a College of Education faculty member, the University of New Mexico Regents' Lecturership, the Charles A. Wedemyer Award for Excellence in Book-length Manuscripts in the Field of Distance Education, and a Fulbright scholar regional research award to research sociocultural factors influencing the building of online communities in Morocco and Sri Lanka during the 2004-2005 academic year.

Research Interests

• Social construction of knowledge in online thought communities
• Sociocultural context of online learning and social presence theory
• Design, implementation, and evaluation of distance education and e-learning
• Adult learning
• Cross-cultural communication and training

Classes Dr. Gunawardena Teaches

• OLIT 535 Theory and Practice of Distance Learning
• OLIT 538 Distance Education Course Design
• OLIT 561 The Adult Learner
• OLIT 546 Cross-Cultural Issues in Adult Learning
• OLIT 593 Culture and Global eLearning
• OLIT 635 Research in Distance Education (doctoral level seminar)
• OLIT 601 Advanced Instructional Systems Design (doctoral level seminar)

Selected Publications

Gunawardena, C. N., VanBerschot, J. L., LaPointe, D., Barrett, K., Mummert, J., Cardiff, M. S., & Skinner, J. (2007). Learning Transformations through Cross-Cultural E-Mentoring: Perspectives from an Online Faculty Development Forum. Paper presented at the Seventh International Transformative Learning Conference, October 23-26, 2007, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Duphorne, P. L., & Gunawardena, C. N. (2005). The effect of three computer conferencing designs on critical thinking skills of nursing students. The American Journal of Distance Education, 19(1), 37-50.

Gunawardena, C. N., Jennings , B., Ortegano-Layne, L., Frechette, C., Carabajal, K., Lindemann, K., & Mummert, J. (2004). Building an online wisdom community: a transformational design model. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 15(2), 40-62.

Gunawardena, C.  (2004). Designing the social environment for online learning: the role of social presence. In D. Murphy, R. Carr, J. Taylor, & T. Wong (Eds.), Distance education and technology: Issues and practice (pp. 255-270).  Hong Kong: Open University of Hong Kong Press.

Ortegano-Layne, L. & Gunawardena, C. N.  (2004). Synthesizing social construction of knowledge in online conferences using concept maps. In A. J. Canas, J. D. Novak, & F. M. Gonzalez (Eds.). Concept maps: Theory, methodology, technology. Proceedings of the first international conference on concept mapping, (pp. 495-502). Pamplona, Spain 2004.

Gunawardena, C. N., & McIsaac, M.S. (2004). Distance education. In D. Jonassen (Ed.), The handbook of research on education communications and technology, 2nd Ed. (pp. 355-395). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Gunawardena, C. N. (2004). The Challenge of Designing Inquiry-based Online Learning Environments: Theory into Practice. In T. Duffy and J. Kirkley (Eds.), Learner centered theory and practice in distance education: Cases from higher education ( pp. 143-158). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Gunawardena, C. N., Wilson, P. L., & Nolla, A. C. (2003). Culture and online education. In M. Moore and B. Anderson (Eds.), Handbook of distance learning (pp. 753-775). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Walsh, S. L., Gregory, E. M., Lake , M. Y., & Gunawardena, C. N. (2003). Self-construal, facework, and conflict styles among cultures in online learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development (ETRD ), 51(4), 113-122.

Gunawardena, C. N., Nolla, A. C., Wilson, P.L., López-Islas, J. R., Ramírez-Angel, N., Megchun-Alpízar, R. M. (2001). A cross-cultural study of group process and development in online conferences. Distance Education, 22, (1), 85-121.

Gunawardena, C. N. (2001). Reflections on evaluating online learning and teaching. In E. J. Burge and M. Haughey (Eds.), Using learning technologies: International perspectives on practice (pp. 115-124). London: Routledge Falmer.

Gunawardena, C. N. (1998). Designing Collaborative Learning Environments Mediated by Computer Conferencing: Issues and Challenges in the Asian Socio-cultural Context. Indian Journal of Open Learning, 7(1), 105-124.

Gunawardena, C. N., & Zittle, F. (1997). Social presence as a predictor of satisfaction within a computer mediated conferencing environment. The American Journal of Distance Education, 11(3), 8-25.

Gunawardena, C. N., Lowe, C. A., & Anderson, T. (1997). Analysis of a global online debate and the development of an interaction analysis model for examining social construction of knowledge in computer conferencing. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 17(4), 395-429.

Selected Invited International Keynote Presentations

Social Presence and Implications for Designing Online Learning Communities. Fourth International Conference on Educational Technology, July - August, 2005, Nanchang, China. Invited by the ICET05 Organizing Committee & Jiang Xi Normal University, China.

Evaluating Knowledge Building in Online Learning Communities.  XII International Conference on Distance Education, December 2-5, 2003, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Invited by the University of Guadalajara, Mexico.

Researching Online Learning and Group Dynamics: Models and Methods. Didaktikk Og Teknologi Conference, February 13-14, 2003, Lillehammer, Norway. Invited by Lillehammer University College, Norway.

Social Presence and the Sociocultural Context of Online Education. Symposium on Open/Distance Education: New Horizons in Educational Communications and Technology, May 20-23, 2002, Eskisehir, Turkey. Invited by Anadolu University, Turkey.

Designing and Evaluating Web-based Distance Education Courses. Eighth Ibero-American Science and Technology Education Consortium (ISTEC)  General Assembly, Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), November  16-21, 1998, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Invited by ISTEC.

Selected Grants

Principal Investigator for the evaluation and research subcontract (2000 - 2005, $1,048,855) of the Star Schools Program grant submitted by Oklahoma State University and funded by the U.S. Dept. of Education. This grant focuses on evaluating web-based online teacher professional development programs that use hypothesis-based learning and guided inquiry to teach science and math to middle school teachers.

Principal Investigator for the research and evaluation subcontract of the Star Schools Program grant submitted by Oklahoma State University and Northern Arizona University and funded by the U.S. Dept. of Education for $468,589 from 1994-1997.

Principal Investigator for a study funded by The Waste Management Education and Research Consortium (WERC), (a U.S. Department of Energy contract,) to evaluate the instructional television distance learning programs offered by WERC throughout the State of New Mexico. Funded at $43,470.00, 1994-1996.