"The First-Year Seminar: Designing, Implementing, and Assessing Courses to Support Student Learning and Success," a five-volume series, is designed to assist educators who are interested in launching a first-year seminar or revamping an existing program. Each volume examines a different aspect of first-year seminar design or administration and…

Active learning has been championed in academic circles as the pedagogical fix to boring lectures typically found in introduction to information systems courses. However, the literature on active learning is mixed. In this paper, we critically examine active learning research and discover a misplaced emphasis leading to paradoxical findings in…

We describe the development of a course to teach modeling and mathematical analysis skills to students of biology and to teach biology to students with strong backgrounds in mathematics, physics, or engineering. The two groups of students have different ways of learning material and often have strong negative feelings toward the area of knowledge…

A discussion of goal specification and evaluation as a beginning point for the formative evaluation of a university course for departmentalprogram. (Author)

A justification for a strategy and the whole strategy then described and illustrated as it was applied to the development of a course for the Royal Australian Navy. (Author)

A discussion of educational design with emphasis on development of behaviorally stated objectives for a course. (JT)

IN 1965, IT WAS DECIDED THAT ALL COURSES AT THE COLLEGE SHOULD BE PLANNED IN ORDER TO CREATE HIGH QUALITY OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICE AND RESPECTABILITY. THIS MANUAL OUTLINES THE MANNER IN WHICH THE PLANNING IS TO BE DONE. COURSE OBJECTIVES ARE TO BE STATED IN A TEACHER-ORIENTED FORM AND IN A STUDENT-ORIENTED FORM. THE TEACHER'S DOCUMENT WILL IDENTIFY…

Systematic analyses of instructional objectives are requested more and more in educational contexts, but there is little agreement about what such analyses are and what value they have. A few possible criteria for goal analyses are outlined and illustrated: empiricism and comprehensiveness in seeking information, firm rules for decision-making on…

The California Education Code requires school boards to "establish standards of expected pupil achievement at each grade level in each area of study" and to consider student progress when evaluating teachers. The guidelines in this document have been prepared to help superintendents, principals, and teachers take steps to meet these…

The current status and frequency of nonmajor biology courses offered in colleges and universities in the United States and Canada were investigated. A random sample of 300 four-year colleges was sent a questionnaire and a request for copies of their syllabi for nonmajor biology courses and other nonmajor science courses. Of the 134 respondents,…