This paper analyses laughter in spoken academic discourse, with the aim of discovering why lecturers provoke laughter in their lectures. A further purpose of the paper is to identify episodes in British data which may differ from those in other cultural contexts where other lecturing practices prevail, and thus to inform the design of study skills…

This article describes the evaluation of an online study skills course unit designed, using evidence-based principles, to support undergraduate students. A mixed-methods approach was employed to establish the extent to which the unit was (a) fit for purpose and (b) effective. Data were obtained from an online survey (n = 63) conducted on entry to…