The large number of experimentally determined molecular structures has led to the development of a new semiotic system in the life sciences, with increasing use of accurate molecular representations. To determine how this change impacts students' learning, we incorporated image tests into our introductory cell biology course. Groups of students…

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…

In this research study the authors analyzed the effectiveness of content-area education students tutoring adolescents and documented changes in the attitudes of the education students over time. Tutors tested the reading comprehension of both the students they tutored (treatment group) and students they did not (comparison group). The authors used…

Currently 38% of U.S. college students are age 25 or older. The majority of these are required to take remedial courses, with twice as many taking remedial mathematics as reading or writing courses. Mathematics instructors often use online tutorial programs to deliver homework assignments and course assessments. Web-based programs offer support…

Academics often treat students' discipline-specific literacy as unproblematic. In doing so they may underestimate the difficulties for university students as they move between subjects of study that may involve different disciplines, language genres and academic practices. This paper describes an initiative aimed at supporting students in reading…

This study investigated outcomes (achievement, attitude, and retention) of college algebra students who had access to an online tutoring resource using a pre-posttest control group design. Students in the experimental groups were provided access to an online tutoring service unlike the students in the control group. Both groups had access to other…

Web-based tutorials offer an opportunity to provide automated individualized feedback to help students develop, for example, the ability to identify independent and dependent variables and the ability to discriminate between experimental and predictor variables. Doing so enables them to distinguish between the relatively clear-cut causal…

A crucial aspect of the teaching of professionalism relates to the provision of learning experiences that will promote the achievement of this affective learning domain. The development and trial of a learning opportunity to scaffold learning concepts of professionalism is described in this paper. Peer reviewed literature was used to construct a…

The purposes of this study were, on one had, to determine the impact of a peer tutoring program on preventing academic failure and dropouts among first-year students (N = 100), from Civil Engineering, Economics, Pharmacy, and Chemical Engineering careers; while, on the other hand, to identify the potential benefits of such tutoring program on the…

This article explores the experiences of students with mobility disabilities in Cypriot higher education institutions. In order to obtain relevant information, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 Cypriot students with different forms of mobility disabilities, who attended different Cypriot higher education institutions and a…

For the thirty-eighth time, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two…

Given an unfamiliar audience, an undervalued skill, and a limited time to present, librarian information specialists need a prescriptive means to generate motivation to learn. Tailoring, more commonly used in health communications, could enhance perceived task attractiveness and relevancy. In a controlled trial, two groups were compared on the…

Traditional teaching styles practiced at universities do not generally suit all students' learning styles. For a variety of reasons, students do not always engage in learning in the courses in which they are enrolled. New methods to create and deliver educational material are available, but these do not always improve learning outcomes.…

The purpose of this project was to introduce peer and self assessment on tutorial class participation to a marketing unit at Curtin Sarawak. This assessment strategy was introduced with desire to improve class participation and increase student involvement in assessment. At the end of semester, a questionnaire was used to gather responses from a…

In large lecture courses, it can be challenging for instructors to address student misconceptions, supplement background knowledge, and identify ways to motivate the various interests of all students during the allotted class time. Instructors can harness instructional technology such as screencasts, recordings that capture audio narration along…