Science tends to be viewed as a completely separate subject area from reading and math. This is the case even in elementary school, where academic content may be more intertwined than in later years. But scientific thinking and processes are valuable across all areas of learning and for career success. Waiting until the middle grades to give…

Online learning has become a more common way to earn a college degree during the past ten years. Therefore, curriculum designers must evaluate the best ways in which to deliver information and assess student knowledge in an online forum. One way in which online courses can be designed is by using transition into the associate dean position (1996).…

The value of the duration of participation in a small spacecraft program has not previously been sufficiently characterized. This work seeks to determine whether most relevant benefits are received by participants quickly (suggesting that participant education would be best achieved by shorter duration exposure to multiple domains) or accrues over…

The purpose of this report is to support educational administrators and policymakers in becoming informed consumers of information about online learning and its potential impact on educational productivity. The report provides foundational knowledge needed to examine and understand the potential contributions of online learning to educational…

The Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) technique allows students to be engaged in course material outside of the classroom by answering web-based questions. The responses are summarized and presented to students in class with a follow-up active learning exercise. College students enrolled in an introductory-level general education geoscience course were…

This study investigated the role that computer technology plays in transforming the learning process in higher education. Specifically, we looked at the relationship between computer-technology use, active learning, and perceived course effectiveness. The sample consisted of 1966 students in 81 graduate and undergraduate classes at a large, urban…

Discusses principles to use in evaluating online university courses, including student-faculty contact; cooperation among students; active learning, including course projects; prompt feedback; time on task, including the need for deadlines; high expectations; and respecting diverse talents and ways of learning. (LRW)

Traditionally campus-based courses rely on student evaluations to provide instructors with feedback about their teaching effectiveness. However, current student evaluations of teaching instruments do not adequately assess many of the essential constructivist-based teaching practices recommended for quality online learning experiences. One of the…

Two graduate-level educational administration courses, one delivered by computer-mediated (distributed) means and one held face-to-face, were evaluated based upon the needs of adult learners and active learning precepts. The same course was delivered to both classes by the same group of professors, using identical course requirements. The…

The purpose of this article is two-fold: (a) to present young adolescents' perceptions of the pedagogical conditions necessary for academic engagement; and (2) to consider an alternative way to access these important perceptions--through drawing. The authors examine here the results of a study in which they analyze middle school students'…

In this article, the author describes the current state of research on web-based instruction and posits new directions to expand the current paradigm. Issues of faculty attitude and support toward distance education, instructional immediacy, and the Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (Chickering and Gamson, 1986) relative…