When using Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) on university modules, international students unfamiliar with such platforms face navigational as well as linguistic barriers. Short, intensive language courses may not spend time on VLE orientation and rationale, with the result that students do not receive clear guidance on exactly how to move…

This qualitative study investigates tutor and student interaction in an online multiliteracy center (the Hub) at a major public research university. This study addresses a gap in the current literature on how writing centers transition to multiliteracy centers and prepare their tutors for consulting with students around aspects of design. There is…

This article reports on evaluation studies of the Virtual Tutee System (VTS) designed to enhance students' engagement in academic reading. The VTS is a web-based peer-tutoring environment in which students teach a virtual tutee about the content in course readings that students have been assigned to learn. With the VTS, students interact with…

This article explores the efficacy of formative assessment feedback models in higher education. Over 1 year and two courses, three feedback techniques were trialled: staff-to-student feedback in class, peer-to-peer feedback in class and peer-to-peer feedback online, via "the Café," an e-learning application hosted by…

The ubiquitousness of images in the digital era highlights the importance of individuals' visual communication skills in the 21st Century. We conducted a literature review of visual literacy initiatives in academic institutions to illustrate best practices for imparting these skills in students. The literature review identified five categories of…

We apply a "tutorial design process", which has proven to be successful for a number of physics topics, to design curricular materials or "tutorials" aimed at improving student understanding of important concepts in a university-level introductory materials science and engineering course. The process involves the identification…

Design techniques for generative computer-assisted-instructional (CAI) systems are described in this report. These are systems capable of generating problems for students and of deriving and monitoring solutions; problem difficulty, instructional pace, and depth of monitoring are all individually tailored and parts of the solution algorithms can…