Although Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) has long focused on incorporating writing and related literacy activities into STEM education, the extent to which these pedagogies are widely used in STEM teaching remains unclear, as does their impact on student course performance, especially for underrepresented and marginalized student groups. Using…

Investigating student engagement in active learning activities could provide valuable insight into variations of student learning outcomes when active learning is included in a course. This study sought to explore students' engagement in relation to active learning activities incorporated in a general chemistry lecture course using the Activity…

Predictors of student academic success do not always replicate well across different learning designs, subject areas, or educational institutions. This suggests that characteristics of a particular discipline and learning design have to be carefully considered when creating predictive models in order to scale up learning analytics. This study…

Recent studies have shown that sorting tasks are a useful tool both for measuring and aiding student learning as well as facilitating the transfer of knowledge to novel contexts. These tasks require students to categorize scenarios or information in new ways that facilitate connection making and deeper understanding. As such, sorting tasks…

Purpose: Within higher education, there was an abrupt shift from face-to-face to online lecturing with the introduction of social distancing measures in light of a global pandemic. The purpose of this study is to enrich the connection between students and instructors, the authors integrated elaborated interactive activities into large online…

Guided by self-determination theory, we conducted a live lecture experiment in two 50-min college courses to manipulate autonomy-supportive instruction (i.e., the amount of choices and rationales offered to students). Participants were 201 undergraduate students who either attended a lecture where the instructor gave students choices over the…

Small group learning activities have been shown to improve student academic performance and educational outcomes. Yet, we have an imperfect understanding of the mechanisms by which this occurs. Group learning may mediate student stress by placing learning in a context where students have both social support and greater control over their learning.…

New instructional technologies have been increasingly incorporated into the medical school learning environment, including lecture video recordings as a substitute for live lecture attendance. The literature presents varying conclusions regarding how this alternative experience impacts students' academic success. Previously, a multi-year study of…

The evaluation process is complex and extremely important in the teaching/learning process. Evaluations are constantly employed in the classroom to assist students in the learning process and to help teachers improve the teaching process. The use of active methodologies encourages students to participate in the learning process, encourages…

Universities have experienced increases in technology ownership and usage amongst students entering undergraduate programs. Almost all students report owning a mobile phone and many students view laptops and tablets as educational tools, though they also report using them for nonacademic activities during lectures. We explored the relationship…

Lab-centric instruction emphasizes supervised, hands-on activities by substituting lab for lecture time. It combines a multitude of pedagogical techniques into the format of an extended, structured closed lab. We discuss the range of benefits for students, including increased staff interaction, frequent and varied self-assessments, integrated…

This paper reports on a collaborative project to improve assessment undertaken by a cross-discipline group of university lecturers (Business, Engineering and Psychology) using action research methodology. First-stage analysis was based on results from an Assessment Experience Questionnaire developed by the FAST FDTL4 (Formative Assessment in…

This study examines the interaction between learning styles and academic performance in an anatomy course that blends traditional lecture with an array of hands-on activities. Participants were 19 students (ranging from 18 to 24 years of age) at Columbia College, Chicago. The Felder-Silverman Index of Learning Styles and a 25-item pre-test and…

The paper describes a study involving simulation activities in a college level survey course in economics. In addition, it compares student learning in an economics course based on simulation with student learning in a lecture discussion course. The hypothesis was that certain types of students would benefit from the simulation-gaming approach…