Most high school and collegiate athletic teams attend some type of camp to prepare for their upcoming season. This article provides a 30-day challenge to help high school and college dance teams to improve their overall physical fitness while they prepare for summer camp. The ideas can also be modified to meet the needs of other athletic teams.

It is a common belief that engagement and motivation are crucial factors in learning and especially in language learning. In particular, increasing motivation can lead to the mobilization of students' personal, cognitive, emotional and behavioral resources and, consequently to better learning results. As digital technology has become more…

Engaging and motivating learners to successfully complete their studies are crucial elements for the success of distance educators around the world. The researchers' AIM newsletter, which is formatted in accordance with motivational learning theory, has been delivered to first-year learners in economics at Open Polytechnic of New Zealand from 2010…

This article proposes a gamification approach that aims to motivate students in online discussions. While some efforts have been made in gamification for teaching and learning, insufficient attention has been paid to gamification grounded in "both" theories and evidence from empirical studies. After identifying five motivational needs of…

Much research has shown that discussion boards (DBs) in online learning can be as useful as any physical discussion (Prenksy, 2003; Ransdell, 2013). Prenksy was one of the first researchers to emphasize that online learning had to be motivating, just like any other type of learning. Students will only do what they believe will help them learn.…

Learning Management Systems (LMS) reinforce the learning process through online classroom environments. A standard LMS supports an inclusive learning environment for academic progress with interceding structures that promote online collaborative-groupings, professional training, discussions, and communication among other LMS users. Instructors…

The rapid shift to online instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the importance of motivationally enhanced and emotionally supportive instruction during this stressful time. In this paper we demonstrate how five theoretically situated and empirically supported motivational design principles can be used to create effective…

Managers now emphasize the importance of soft interpersonal skills for success in business. The authors provide an active learning approach to collaboratively teach students basic soft skills that are needed in most careers. There are initial startup costs for the instructor, but this effort soon reaps extraordinary rewards for students. In the…

This article highlights efficient ways to combine tech tools, such as Remind and video conferencing, to increase student engagement and faculty/student communication. Using Remind is a great way to provide information to students outside of LoudCloud, and video conferencing is a tool for having synchronous meetings and conferences with students.…

Our paper positions telecollaboration in the business context, in which culturally, geographically, temporally, and functionally dispersed teams -- so-called Global Virtual Teams (GVTs) -- are increasingly being used to engage an organisation's creative and problem-solving capabilities. In this virtual workplace, team members must complete tasks…

With the advent of open source virtual environments, the associated cost reductions, and the more flexible options, avatar-based virtual reality environments are within reach of educators. By using and repurposing readily available virtual environments, instructors can bring engaging, community-building, and immersive learning opportunities to…

Providing library instruction in distance learning environments presents a unique set of challenges for instructional librarians. Innovations in computer-mediated communication and advances in cognitive science research provide the opportunity for designing library instruction that meets a variety of student information seeking needs. Using a…

In order to understand the culture of the physical, virtual, and blended spheres that adolescents inhabit, we build on Gee's concept of affinity spaces. Drawing on our ethnographic research of adolescent literacies related to The Hunger Games novels, the Neopets online game, and The Sims videogames, this article explores the nature of…

The increasing availability of recording technologies makes it easier to include usability testing projects in business communication courses. Usability testing is a method of discovering whether people can navigate, read, and understand a print or electronic communication well enough to achieve a particular purpose in a reasonable time frame.…

The HANDS (Helping Autism-diagnosed teenagers Navigate and Develop Socially) research project involves the creation of an e-learning toolset that can be used to develop individualized tools to support the social development of teenagers with an autism diagnosis. The e-learning toolset is based on ideas from persuasive technology. This paper…