Students from many different subject areas are required to study statistics as part of their qualification. The Open University developed a statistics module which could simultaneously be studied by students from a variety of different disciplines, by engaging them with topics which are of interest to everyone, namely money, education and health,…

In the last decade, e-learning has been a standard part of the educational process at all types of schools--primary, secondary, and high schools. When used, e-learning can achieve significant savings not only in terms of time as well as operating costs. However, e-learning is also often criticized. This is mainly due to direct absence of teachers…

Ecosystem modeling is a critically important tool for environmental scientists, yet is rarely taught in undergraduate and graduate classrooms. To address this gap, we developed a teaching module that exposes students to a suite of modeling skills and tools (including computer programming, numerical simulation modeling, and distributed computing)…

The Open University (OU) makes a proportion of all its taught modules available to the public via OpenLearn each year. This process involves the modification, of module excerpts, showcasing subject matter and teaching approach. This activity serves both the University's social and business missions through the delivery of free courses to the…

This article studies the differences in student learning outcomes associated with changes in the format of online learning resources. We compare completion rates and degrees of student achievement across several economic education learning modules produced by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Initially designed as a long-form online learning…

Background: Knowledge construction and technology have been identified as critical for an understanding of the future of teacher education. Knowledge is discovered, applied and created collaboratively from authentic starting points. Today's new mobile and blended learning environments create increased opportunities for such processes, including…

The CCSS is a set of standards released by the National Governors Association in 2010 and was adopted by 43 states (Common Core, 2015). The standards describe what students should know and be able to do in each subject in each grade. They are designed to be academically rigorous, while attainable for students and practical for teachers to teach.…

The paper describes a module within the distance language learning environment of the Language Centre at the Genoa University which adapts, through an ontology, learning activities to the device in use. Adaptation means not simply resizing a page but also the ability to transform the nature of a task so that it fits the device with the smallest…

The authors look at student perceptions regarding the adoption and usage of Moodle. Self-efficacy theory and the Technology Acceptance Model were applied to understand student reactions to instructor implementation of classroom management software Moodle. They also looked at how the learning styles of students impacted their reactions to Moodle.…

This study (n = 52) examined mobile assisted in-class course using collaborative learning theories over an 18-week semester in a college level course. A self-evaluation survey containing 50 closed-ended items with two open-ended questions about participants' collaboration experience through the mobile techs was conducted during the last week of…

This paper assesses the experience of undergraduate students using mobile devices and a commercial application, iSurvey, to conduct a neighborhood survey. Mobile devices offer benefits for enhancing student learning and engagement. This field exercise created the opportunity for classroom discussions on the practicalities of urban research, the…

A combination of regular classroom teaching with the use of resources available on the Moodle platform has been designed to foster the development of skills for learning to learn for students in an undergraduate general chemistry course. The use of the Moodle platform essentially aimed at strengthening the students' prior knowledge of…

Motion planning is a core problem in robotics concerned with finding feasible paths for a given robot. Motion planning algorithms perform a search in the high-dimensional continuous space of robot configurations and exemplify many of the core algorithmic concepts of search algorithms and associated data structures. Motion planning algorithms can…

Modern robots, like today's smartphones, are complex devices with intricate software systems. Introductory robot programming courses must evolve to reflect this reality, by teaching students to make use of the sophisticated tools their robots provide rather than reimplementing basic algorithms. This paper focuses on teaching with Tekkotsu, an open…

This article shall discuss a number of factors to be considered in the process of integrating computer technology into the student language learning experience. It examines research on student attitudes and the factors that affect student engagement with the technology before looking at the experiences of a project undertaken at the University of…