In the literature related to higher education, the concept of dropout has been approached from several perspectives and, over the years, its definition has been influenced by the use of diversified semantic interpretations. In a general higher education environment dropout can be broadly characterized as the act of a student engaged in a course…

Understanding the architecture of a processor can be uninteresting and deterring for computer science students, since low-level details of computer architecture are often perceived to lack real-world impact. These courses typically have a strong practical component where students learn the fundamentals of the computer architecture and the handling…

Information systems graduates increasingly need to understand the collaborative, technology-driven practices inspired by open source software development that are fundamentally changing today's workplace. To meet this challenge, instructors must bring open source principles and technologies to active learning experiences. In this paper, the…

This design case describes design decisions and their impacts during three redesigns of an educational game called the "Rocks and Minerals Challenge." This game was developed as a laboratory supplement for the rocks and minerals component of a university-based geology course. The game has evolved through three distinct design phases:…

The objective of this design case was to describe the development of an online graph-oriented tool to support the representation of collaborative argumentation for middle school students from a faculty expert's perspective and discuss the processes that were instrumental in developing the tool. Supported by the professional staff in the Digital…

This report summarizes the deliberations and recommendations of the California Advisory Task Force on Alternative Schools (Task Force). The Task Force is a public service project of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities at Stanford University and is convened in collaboration with the California Department of Education (CDE). A…

This design case covers a graduate course in educational software design that focuses on semester-long projects in response to client requests. The course was intended to address the need for professionals across disciplines, such as instructional design, computer science, and human-computer interaction design, to usefully collaborate on…

There is now a preponderance of evidence suggesting that the types of online course management software (OCMS) used in purely online undergraduate college courses, do not meet the needs of younger immature students. These students often lack the learning skills necessary to succeed in such courses, nor do the popular OCMS include the vigilance…

Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management are becoming important topics at the university level, and are increasingly receiving course-level attention in the curriculum. In fact, the Information Systems Body of Knowledge specifically identifies Enterprise Architecture as an Information Systems-specific knowledge area. The…

Next generation digital learning environments require delivering "just-in-time feedback" to learners and those who support them. Unlike traditional business intelligence environments, streaming data requires resilient infrastructure that can move data at scale from heterogeneous data sources, process the data quickly for use across…

The academic library, given its often privileged position on campus, is the information source that can include directional as well as general campus facts among the myriad of print and e-resources for reference. Also, an academic library's audiences can be quite varied and include prospective students or parents seeking more general knowledge of…

In this paper, we propose a novel approach in hardware and software architecture design for implementation of remote laboratories for automatic control. In our contribution, we show the solution with flexible connectivity at back-end, providing features of multipurpose usage with different types of experimental devices, and fully configurable…

CATO is a new user interface, developed by the author as a response to the significant difficulties faced by scientists, engineers, and students in their usage of computer algebra (CA) systems. Their tendency to use CA systems only occasionally means that they are unfamiliar with requisite grammar and syntax these systems require. The author…

Assessment and supporting data have become of increasing interest in librarianship. In this paper, we describe the development and implementation of the Northwestern University Library Acknowledgments Database tool, which gathers and documents qualitative data, as well as its component reporting function. This collaborative project and resulting…

Increasingly, university and college administrators are contracting out their institutions' operational information technology (IT) needs. Specifically, this means moving from an IT system with a server based at the institution with an in house IT support staff to a cloud based system outside the institution where most of the staff resources are…