Community service-learning (CSL) is implemented mainly in smallscale classes. To date, little is known about how large-scale CSL courses could best be designed. This study seeks to identify benefits and potential strategies for designing large-scale CSL courses. A qualitative multiple case study was performed of three large-scale university…

Traditional lecture continues to dominate undergraduate instruction in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) despite the decades-long call to alter teaching to include more student-centered, evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs). While researchers have done some exploration of barriers to change, a need exists for…

In 2014, the Ministry of Education initiated Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) pilot project at public universities in Malaysia. Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) was selected among three public universities to develop the university's own MOOC. This pilot project is one of the initiatives by the Malaysian government to support the ninth shift of…

Large undergraduate courses make it difficult for students to achieve learning outcomes, in part due to the lack of resources available to course instructors to support student learning in these intimidating and often impersonal settings. One way to support instructor teaching and student learning is the implementation of undergraduate peer…

We study the implementation of a MOOC initiative which involved two distinct teacher education institutions at HEIs, and where the implementation was led by a governmental body. Our aim was to see in what ways this initiative changed the teacher education involved, in terms of institutional organisation and pedagogics. Based on interviews with…

In this paper, the authors discuss the effectiveness of MOOCs as part of a pedagogical strategy aimed at supporting Physics' preliminary undergraduate students in large-size lectures. Our study is based on an experimental activity based on a blended course, which integrated a parallel MOOC delivered through the POK (PoliMi Open Knowledge,…

In their seminal 1995 article, Barr and Tagg encouraged higher education to think differently about undergraduate education and suggested that a new paradigm be adopted that focused less on what is taught and more on what is learned. Dubbed the learner-centered paradigm, this reframing of education challenges long standing practices and removes…

There is an urgent need to improve elementary and secondary school classroom practices across India and the scale of this challenge is argued to demand new approaches to teacher professional learning. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) represent one such approach and one that, in the context of this study, is considered to provide a means by…

This paper examines possibilities and challenges when implementing distance teaching of theoretical content in a regionalized medical program (RMP). It will be argued that Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and the concepts of dominant and non-dominant activities, including conflicts and transitional actions, can lead to an understanding…

In the past few years, there has been an increasing interest in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a new form of Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL), in higher education and beyond. Recognizing the limitations of standalone MOOCs, blended MOOCs (bMOOCs) that aim at bringing in-class (i.e. face-to-face) interactions and online learning…

Didactical advantages of audience response systems (ARS) have been discussed extensively ever since they have been used in classes. However, conventional ARS bear some drawbacks, such as requiring specific hardware, generating costs (text messaging based and web service fees) and creating a dependency on external hosts. In this paper we present a…

In 2006, Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) launched a major initiative, the Top 25 Project, to embed inquiry-guided learning (IGL) into its largest-enrollment courses across the university. These are generally entry-level classes and thus affect many students: 75 percent of incoming students on its main campus in 2010 were in at least one Top 25…

Understanding the relevance of basic science knowledge in the determination of patient assessment, diagnosis, and treatment is critical to good medical practice. One method often used to direct students in the fundamental process of integrating basic science and clinical information is problem-based learning (PBL). The faculty facilitated small…