Posts Tagged ‘Instructional Systems’

Increasing Interpersonal Interactions in an Online Course: Does Increased Instructor E-mail Activity and a Voluntary In-Person Meeting Time Facilitate Student Learning?

Distance learning is expanding rapidly in universities. While theoretical and qualitative literature stress the critical role of effective interpersonal interactions in motivating students and facilitating learning in online environments, quantitative evidence on the benefits of increased interpersonal interactions on student learning outcomes is limited. This study examines the effect of providing a voluntary meeting time […]

Increasing Undergraduate Success: A Randomized Controlled Trial of U-Pace Instruction

U-Pace instruction, comprised of concept mastery and amplified assistance, has shown promise in increasing undergraduate success. To evaluate the efficacy of U-Pace instruction for students at-risk for college non-completion and students not at-risk and to determine whether concept mastery, amplified assistance, or both U-Pace components are responsible for the greater learning associated with U-Pace instruction, an […]

Learning Across Cultures, With Help From Technology

Students at six U.S. and six Japanese institutions next fall will get to enroll in classes developed jointly by instructors from opposite ends of the globe, thanks to a new technology-enhanced collaboration funded by the two countries’ governments. The American Council on Education is facilitating the American end of the project, which will spur implementation […]

Unbundling and Rebundling Higher Education in an Age of Inequality

Unbundling and rebundling are happening in different parts of college and university education, through new forms of teaching and learning provision and in different parts of the degree path, in every dimension and aspect—creating a complicated environment in an educational sector that is already in a state of disequilibrium. EDUCAUSE Review

Unfitting, uncomfortable, unacademic: a sociological reading of an interactive mobile phone app in university lectures

Scholarly literature on education technology uptake has been dominated by technological determinist readings of students’ technology use. However, in recent years there has been a move by sociologists of education to highlight how the contexts in which educational technologies are introduced are not tabula rasa but socially and culturally complex. This study approaches technology as […]

The future of online testing and assessment: question quality in MOOCs

If MOOCs are to play a role in the future of higher education it is imperative that we critically examine how they are currently functioning. In particular, questions persist about the role MOOCs will play in the future of formal accredited learning. As the focus turns from informal and free to formal, accredited and paid, […]

Promoting Critical Reading using Google Tools – a Community of Inquiry Approach

Creating a community of learning can enhance critical reading in a classroom environment. Task design plays a critical role in the effectiveness of this process. This paper presents a case study of a face-to-face literature course that used a host of Google tools to create such a community. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) principles of […]

Scoring models in competency‐based educational assessment

Assessments can be broadly classified into two categories based on how they are scored: compensatory or conjunctive. Compensatory models allow for strong performance in one content area to compensate for poor performance in another content area as long as the overall score meets the performance standard. Conjunctive scoring models require examinees to meet performance standards […]

CBEN’s [Competency‐Based Education Network] quality framework: A case study in its application to CBE curriculum quality standards at Walden University

This report explored enriched notions and dimensions of quality massive open online courses (QMOOCs). The purpose of this paper is to visualize the quality measures adjacent to MOOCs and understanding distinctive outlooks to approaching them. It was also of interests to envisage how and in what routines those notions and dimensions interrelated. The Journal of […]

Teaching in Higher Ed Podcasts: Faculty Development for Professors

This is the space where we explore the art and science of being more effective at facilitating learning. We also share ways to increase our personal productivity, so we can have more peace in our lives and be even more present for our students. Teaching in Higher Ed