Underrepresented minority (URM) and economically disadvantaged (ED) high school students are less likely to graduate from high school or enroll in college. This institution began a structured mentorship program focusing on URM and ED students using a surgical simulation lab. The objective was to determine the effect of the mentorship program on…

This research explores the extent to which virtual worlds can serve as online collaborative learning environments for students by increasing social presence and engagement. 3D environments enable learning, which simulates face-to-face encounters while retaining the advantages of online learning. Students in Education departments created avatars…

This article is to report an action research conducted in two sections of a course called Second Language Acquisition and Development during the fall semester of 2011 and the spring semester of 2012. By focusing on a three-way blended learning (BL) environment--face-to-face (F2F), eLearning, and Second Life (SL, a virtual-world environment), this…