An Australia-wide consensus was reached on seven core concepts of physiology, one of which was "structure and function" with the descriptor "Structure and function are intrinsically related to all levels of the organism. In all physiological systems, the structure from a microscopic level to an organ level dictates its…

A task force of physiology educators from 25 Australian universities generated an Australia-wide consensus on seven core concepts for physiology curricula. One adopted core concept was "cell membrane," defined as "Cell membranes determine what substances enter or leave the cell and its organelles. They are essential for cell…

In today's data-centric world, knowledge and skills in business analytics (BA) have become critical for business professionals to the extent that Foundation BA courses are increasingly being recognised globally as the core component of business programs. However, these courses are characterised by large cohorts of students from diverse backgrounds…

We explored primary pre-service teachers' beliefs about challenging mathematical tasks and the role they perceived their initial teacher education played in influencing those aspects. Fifty-seven pre-service teachers completed an online questionnaire, and four participants were individually interviewed. Results showed that most participants…

Random sampling and random allocation are essential processes in the practice of inferential statistics. These processes ensure that all members of a population are equally likely to be selected, and that all possible allocations in an experiment are equally likely. It is these characteristics that allow the validity of the subsequent calculations…

Australia-wide consensus was reached on seven core concepts of physiology, which included homeostasis, a fundamental concept for students to understand as they develop their basic knowledge of physiological regulatory mechanisms. The term homeostasis is most commonly used to describe how the internal environment of mammalian systems maintains…

Consensus was reached on seven core concepts of physiology using the Delphi method, including "integration," outlined by the descriptor "cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems interact to create and sustain life." This core concept was unpacked by a team of 3 Australian physiology educators into hierarchical levels,…

Learning objectives outline the knowledge and skills to be taught in a subject, thus signaling what is worth learning and what type of thinking is valued. The aim of this syllabus analysis is to determine the cognitive demand of learning objectives in the recently reformed Queensland physics, chemistry and biology syllabus and to analyse whether…

This paper describes a design-based implementation research (DBIR) approach to the development and trialling of a new generation massive open online course (ngMOOC) situated in an instructional setting of undergraduate mathematics at a regional Australian university. This process is underscored by two important innovations: (a) a basis in a…

What motivates high school students to persist with challenging mathematics? The current investigation examined this important question using the concept of mathematics self-schema, that is, students' cognitive generalizations of their selves in learning mathematics. Mathematics self-schemas are important sources of motivation. It was hypothesized…

An accurate self-assessment of student work can enhance student learning and subsequently improve academic performance. Instructors can facilitate this process by providing "standards" that students can utilize as feedback when self-evaluating their understanding. Traditional forms of feedback, such as marked assessment tasks, are…

This paper outlines the key issues of remotely invigilated online exams (RIOEs) and presents ways to avoid and resolve the issues for educators who are considering implementing them. The purpose of this paper is to share the lessons learned during the process of implementing and evaluating RIOEs and highlight the key considerations required to…

How can learners be supported to engage productively in the kinds of feedback practices they may encounter after they graduate? This article introduces a novel concept of authentic feedback to denote processes which resemble the feedback practices of the discipline, profession or workplace. Drawing on the notion of authentic assessment, a…

As e-learning maintains its popularity worldwide, and university enrolments continue to rise, online tertiary level coursework is increasingly being designed for groups of distributed learners, as opposed to individual students. Many institutions struggle with incorporating all facets of online learning and teaching capabilities with the range and…

Nursing students have typically found the study of chemistry to be one of their major challenges in a nursing course. This mixed method study was designed to explore how prior experiences in chemistry might impact chemistry achievement during a health science unit. Nursing students (N = 101) studying chemistry as part of a health science unit were…