In today's dynamic learning environment, educational delivery methods have become increasingly diverse. Using a unique opportunity to assess three types of course delivery--face-to-face, interactive television (iTV), and purely online delivery--the authors look at both initial knowledge acquisition and the retention of this knowledge. The results…

Research in the area of amount of time spent on assignments and effect on course performance has focused exclusively either on the lecture or online format, but not comparison of the two. Nowhere has both modes of delivery been studied using an objective measure of course involvement. This study examines what is most significant in predicting a…

The author gives an overview of typical learning outcomes in business education and assessment instruments that help measure and test these outcomes. Using data from a recently accredited program the author investigated the determinants of performance on assessment exams to help identify and evaluate differences between homegrown and standardized…

The study investigated the effect of teachers' instructional methods on students learning outcomes in selected senior secondary school in Kaduna, Nigeria Two instructional methods (Demonstration and Lecture) were used on target population of one thousand nine hundred and eleven (1,911) senior secondary (S.S. II) Science Students. The sample…

The author uses data from two Principles of Microeconomics courses to examine differences in characteristics and performance of online versus face-to-face students. The analysis indicates that even in a traditional institution, the two delivery modes may be serving students with distinctly different backgrounds and characteristics. In terms of…

Higher education expenditures are being increasingly targeted toward distance learning, with a large portion focused specifically on web-based instruction (WBI). WBI and classroom-based instruction (CBI) tend to offer students diverse options for their education. Thus, it is imperative that colleges and universities have ample, accurate…

Conceptual database design is a difficult task for novice database designers, such as students, and is also therefore particularly challenging for database educators to teach. In the teaching of database design, two general approaches are frequently emphasized: top-down and bottom-up. In this paper, we present an empirical comparison of students'…

Traditional lectures have come under increasing criticism as research indicates lectures may be less effective in achieving learning outcomes than other teaching methods. Student engagement and success can potentially be improved by changing traditional lectures to instructional methods using active learning techniques. Active learning refers to…

Is there an achievement gap for online reading ability based on income inequality that is separate from the achievement gap in traditional, offline reading? This possibility was examined between students in two pseudonymous school districts: West Town (economically advantaged) and East Town (economically challenged; N = 256). Performance-based…

Enthusiasm for problem-based learning (PBL) is widespread, yet there exists little rigorous experimental evidence of its effectiveness, especially in K-12 populations. Reported here is a highly controlled experimental study of PBL in a middle school population. Between- and within-subject comparisons are made of students learning the same material…

Team-based learning (TBL) strategy is being adopted in medical education to implement interactive small group learning. We have modified classical TBL to fit our curricular needs and approach. Anatomy lectures were replaced with TBL that required preparation of assigned content specific discussion topics (in the text referred as "discussion…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of flexible learning options at a university serving multiple geographic areas (including remote and rural areas) and age groups by teaching an introduction to special education course to three large groups of pre-teacher education majors using three modes of instruction. The university offered sections as…

The aim of the study was to explore the effects of cooperative learning on General Science achievement among 9th class students. Based upon previous research literature it was hypothesized that significant difference existed between the mean posttest scores of General Science achievement of experimental group and control group. The pretest…

This study assesses how effective classroom sessions are at teaching geriatric competencies to medical students. At Stony Brook Medical School, most geriatric competencies are taught in the Ambulatory Care Clerkship during small-group educational sessions. Clinical exposure to reinforce these specialized skills varies with preceptor assignment. A…

The purpose of this study was to compare the outcomes among staff members of nonprofit social service agencies who participated in or completed an andragogically-facilitated or a pedagogically-conducted online learning module on foundation grant writing. The efficacy of andragogical methods is unknown and often debated due to scarce empirical…