Formative feedback is well known as a key factor in influencing learning. Modern interactive learning environments provide a broad range of ways to provide feedback to students as well as new tools to understand feedback and its relation to various learning outcomes. This issue focuses on the role of formative feedback through a lens of how…

This paper describes Dragoon, a simple intelligent tutoring system which teaches the construction of models of dynamic systems. Modelling is one of seven practices dictated in two new sets of educational standards in the U.S.A., and Dragoon is one of the first systems for teaching model construction for dynamic systems. Dragoon can be classified…

Data-driven instruction is still a huge scope and has many shades. One promising way of adding learning analytics to traditional teaching is to offer teachers accessible, data-driven information, either in a dashboard style or with a UI with which they could perform their own analysis on student data (e.g., Ben-Naim, Bain, & Marcus, 2009;…

Many universities are currently using Course Management Systems (CMSes) to conduct online learning, for example, by distributing course materials or submitting homework assignments. However, most CMSes do not include comprehensive activity tracking and analysis capabilities. This paper describes a method to track students' online learning…

Through research and personal experience, we have found that the most crucial factors determining who succeeds with clicker-based teaching, who gives up, and who merely muddles along have far more to do with instructors' deeper attitudes, models, and professional thought habits than with which "best practices" they try or what support they…

This article describes the design and formative evaluation of a Web-based tool that supports curriculum developers in constructing competence maps. Competence maps describe final attainment levels of educational programs in terms of--interrelated--competencies. Key requirements for the competence-mapping tool were validity and practicality.…

Describes "Placemark," an online tool for creating and managing Web pages within a school or district Web site. Topics include interviews with teachers to determine their needs, which centered around creating instructional materials and activities; online newsletters for parents; feedback to test the interface; formative evaluation; and…