During the past three decades, the student populations of Australian universities have become more heterogeneous as the higher education sector expanded and new alternative entry pathways were established. Broadening access to university study and, therefore, to professional and semi-professional occupations, provides avenues for social mobility.…

As part of a nationwide effort to increase the postsecondary educational attainment levels of citizens, community colleges have expanded offerings of courses and programs to more effectively meet the needs of students. Online courses offer convenience and flexibility that traditional face-to-face classes do not. These features appeal to students…

During the past decades, little research has investigated the effects of immersion scheduling on the psychology classroom. Therefore, we sought to compare academic performance of students in 2-week immersion psychology courses to that of students in traditional 16-week courses. In Study 1, students who received instruction in a 2-week immersion…

This semi-experimental study was conducted with twenty-seven midwifery students who were randomly allocated to either case-based instruction or lecture-based instruction groups. The selected subjects -- foetal intrapartum assessment, foetal antepartum assessment, ABO and Rh blood group system mismatch -- were presented in four ninety-minute…

The worked-example effect, an application of cognitive load theory, is a well-supported method of instruction for well-structured problems (Chandler and Sweller, 1991; Cooper and Sweller, 1987; Sweller and Cooper, 1985; Tuovinen & Sweller, 1999; Ward and Sweller, 1990). One limitation is expertise-reversal effect, where advanced students…

Learning to program is a complex task, and the impact of different pedagogical approaches to teach this skill has been hard to measure. This study examined the performance data of seven cohorts of students (N = 1168) learning programming under three different pedagogical approaches. These pedagogical approaches varied either in the length of the…

A comparison of the performance on the final exam for subpopulations of students in College Algebra was used to assess the effectiveness of online homework. Data was collected for two small groups of students, one with traditional paper homework and the other with online homework. The groups of students were further classified by incoming skill…

The student cohort on the University Science Extended Degree (SED) course is diverse in terms of educational experience. One of the key facets of teaching at this level is to engage and prepare students for higher levels of education in the sciences. The purpose of this evaluation is to relate a specific virtual framework, designed for students…

A quick polling initiative was tested in finance classes using multiple choice questions to determine whether it can improve student interaction and engagement in a large class. Students (n = 446) responded using either a smartphone app (53%) or by using pen and paper (47%). Immediate feedback was provided to students using charts that were…

Microcomputer based laboratory activities have been suggested to have a number of benefits in science education. However, their implementation produces mixed results, and student perception data have in the past yielded responses that are negative regarding the technology. This work presents a case study of three first year undergraduate chemistry…

This study furthers the understanding of the connections between learning approaches and learning. The research population embraced 44 males from the Jewish ultraorthodox community, who abide by distinct methods of study. One group follows the very didactic, linear and structured approach of a methodical and gradual order, while the second group…

This case study discusses factors impacting the attrition and persistence rates of 60 Indonesian educators in an online programme in 2010. Course designers developed three variations of a web-based programme--a fully online, hybrid and web-facilitated model--and placed 20 learners, all with similar technology skills, in the three different models.…

In this article, we report the findings from a study exploring the effects of a problem-based learning (PBL) approach to teaching and learning on learning outcomes for master's of social work (MSW) students. Students who participated in a PBL pilot project were compared with students who did not participate in 5 outcome areas: social work…

Changing your Learning Management System (LMS) presents challenges not only to instructional faculty, but also to the students who depend on these systems to completely deliver or support their courses. In assessing the transition for students experiencing an upgrade in the campus LMS, a number of findings have real implications for developing a…