The significant global challenges faced in the world today require innovative solutions and creative thinking. In traditional postsecondary education, technical programs such as engineering often focus on technical competencies as opposed to creative thinking. However, as industry demands for creative technical employees continue to increase,…

The Open University (OU) makes a proportion of all its taught modules available to the public via OpenLearn each year. This process involves the modification, of module excerpts, showcasing subject matter and teaching approach. This activity serves both the University's social and business missions through the delivery of free courses to the…

This paper outlines how an existing collaborative forecasting tool called a prediction market (PM) can be integrated into an educational context to enhance information literacy skills and cognitive disciplinary knowledge. The paper makes a number of original contributions. First, it describes how this tool can be packaged as a pedagogical…

This study explores the adoption of the team-based learning (TBL) method in knowledge-based and theory-oriented journalism and mass communication (J&MC) courses. It first reviews the origin and concept of TBL, the relevant theories, and then introduces the TBL method and implementation, including procedures and assessments, employed in an…

Failure rates in first year calculus courses are high in most post-secondary institutions across North America and other parts of the world. This Inukshuk-funded open education project involved the development of five stand-alone pre-calculus learning modules. The design and revision phases of this project occurred between the fall of 2007 and…

Education has long been regarded as the foundation stone of national growth and international competitiveness. In the last three decades national educational reforms to improve access to higher education qualifications, individual higher education institutions' aggressive national and international marketing initiatives and improved information…

A modular-type course in French was developed at the "Centre d'anglais et de francais" at McGill University (Montreal) to meet the needs of incoming students who were lacking skills in listening and oral expression. The course is composed of eight modules a semester, each module corresponding to 15 to 20 hours work on the student's part. The…

Describes Manpower ESL courses sponsored by Canada Employment and Immigration Commission and Ministry of Colleges and Universities to provide language instruction for newly arrived immigrants seeking jobs. Concentrates on interview, locating job prospects, application forms, getting ready for interview, cultural expectations on the job and…

Describes a workshop presentation that attempted to combine the theory and philosophy behind the production of modular units with the practical considerations faced by a teacher or material developer engaged in creating such a unit for himself. The workshop grew out of a project which developed materials for adult ESL. (Author/MES)

This third in a series of edited transcripts based on a conference at Utah State University describes Merrill's Component Design Theory (CDT) and compares it to his earlier Component Display Theory. Topics discussed include concept structures, knowledge acquisition, components of an instructional design system, and a new CDT matrix. (10…

The level of specificity of objectives and content in field education programs are described, the structure and function of monitoring and evaluation systems are analyzed, and a framework for modularizing field education content to achieve a high degree of precision in teaching and learning is proposed. (Author/MLW)

The experience of the second language team at the "Centre de Langue Francaise" (CLF) at McGill University (Montreal) is reported. The emphasis placed on designing courses and laboratory experiences in response to student needs is reviewed from the late 1960's until the present. Some of the factors that were operative in curriculum change were the…

The use of the Interpersonal Communication Inventory (ICI) with urban undergraduate social work students is described. ICI measures the patterns, characteristics, and styles of communication along the dimensions of: self-concept, listening, clarity of expression, coping with angry feelings, and self-disclosure. (Author/MLW)

This Learning Activity Packet (LAP) is designed to celebrate the life, events, and people of the past using a cemetery as a data source (includes a materials list, activity sheets, objectives, etc.). Journal availability: see RC 503 504. (SB)

Because working nurses found it impossible to take time off to become professionally qualified, Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology (Scotland) converted its conventionally taught course into a distance course with six self-contained modules, each covering two or three subject areas and lasting four or five weeks. Describes the conversion…