The aim of this study was to explore how first-time problem-based learning (PBL) participants can improve their learning outcomes. Empirical results showed that students with higher academic performance and attendance rates significantly enhanced their critical thinking and problem-solving skills through PBL compared to traditional lecture-based…

Purpose: Online resources can be helpful for students and can augment the content presented in learning environments. A team consisting of four biologists, a graduate student, instructional designer and media developers collaborated on the design, development and evaluation of first-year biology online tutorials in a Canadian University. The…

Active-learning pedagogical practices are encouraged in the education literature to improve academic outcomes. The research reported in this paper explored the effect of real-time interactive polling--a type of active learning--on three measures of academic outcome: final marks, student engagement, and failure probability. To provide credible…

The ground-breaking image of a black hole's event horizon, which captured the public's attention and imagination in April 2019, was captured using the power of interferometry: many separate telescopes working together to observe the cosmos in incredible detail. Many recent astrophysical discoveries that have revolutionized the scientific…

Contribution: This article explores the impact of academic coaching on science and engineering students through a pilot study. The study proposes integrating academic coaching as a standard component of the student support framework. Background: Unlike mentoring or informing, coaching or inquiring practice encourages higher education students to…

Contribution: This study identifies the types of interaction that contribute to student learning with student-led tutorials (SLTs). The quality of these interactions include peer discussion, student tutor presentation, joint reasoning, and constructive feedback. Background: The introduction of SLTs in an advanced electromagnetics bachelor course…

It has been well documented that active learning (AL) improves student learning outcomes in education. This quasi-experimental study explores the effect of active learning on students' knowledge of calculus concepts, in the form of the Calculus Concept Inventory (CCI), regular assignment scores, and test scores, during an 8-week calculus tutorial…

We discuss an investigation of student difficulties with the corrections to the energy spectrum of the hydrogen atom for the intermediate field Zeeman effect using degenerate perturbation theory (DPT). The investigation was carried out in advanced quantum mechanics courses by administering free-response and multiple-choice questions and conducting…

Physiology is one of the major foundational sciences for the medical curriculum. This discipline has proven challenging for students to master due to ineffective content acquisition and retention. Preliminary data obtained from a survey completed by "low-performance" students (those maintaining a grade average below the passing mark of…

This article delivers an evaluation of a pedagogical intervention implemented within a first-year undergraduate university module. The intervention, termed the student-led tutorial (SLT), is based on the concept of the tutorless tutorial and presents a platform for student learning which was designed to increase active learning prior to their…

This article describes student perceptions and outcomes in relation to the use of a novel interteaching approach. The study sample (n = 260) was taken from a large human physiology class, which included both first- and second-year students. However, unlike the first-year students, the second-year students had significant prior knowledge, having…

This report presents the organisation of PBL (Project Based Learning) for a subject included in the IT engineering degree course. It is the result of 10 years of experience of the implantation and continuous improvement of the PBL class structure. The latest innovations include the experience of part-time monitoring with PBL groups using the Open…

Single photon experiments involving a Mach-Zehnder interferometer can illustrate the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics, e.g., the wave-particle duality of a single photon, single photon interference, and the probabilistic nature of quantum measurement involving single photons. These experiments explicitly make the connection between the…

The recent emphasis in higher education on both student engagement and online learning encouraged the authors to develop an active e-learning environment for an introductory geohazards course, which enrolls 70+ undergraduate students per semester. Instructors focused on replicating the achievements and addressing the challenges within an already…

Although traditional lectures are still the dominant form of undergraduate instruction, there have been relatively few studies comparing various learner-centered and active learning teaching strategies to one another in order to guide professors in making informed instructional decisions. To study the impact of different active learning…