As programming emerges as a critical skill in the digital age and digital tools continue to evolve, understanding students' perspectives on the integration of such technologies into their education is crucial. This empirical study explores the perspectives of students in Sweden and Taiwan on the use of digital tools in their programming courses.…

Universities across Canada and elsewhere have a longstanding focus on improving students' writing skills, including for the purpose of fostering better learning. In this paper, we present findings from two sources of data--a discursive analysis and student survey--exploring the impact of writing instruction and support in the context of a required…

When the first national lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, all higher educational institutions in Ireland moved to remote learning and have effectively remained in this mode ever since. The situation presented enormous challenges for many mathematics lecturers who had not delivered lectures or tutorials online before. This study looks…

This empirical study aims to demonstrate how Dispositional Learning Analytics can contribute in the investigation of the effectiveness of didactical scenarios in authentic settings, where previous research has mostly been laboratory based. Using a showcase based on learning processes of 1080 students in a blended introductory quantitative course,…

In this empirical study, we investigate the role of national cultural dimensions as distal antecedents of the use intensity of e-tutorials, which constitute the digital component within a blended learning course. Profiting from the context of a dispositional learning analytics application, we investigate cognitive processing strategies and…

This article highlights the importance of immediate corrective feedback in tutorial software for language teaching in an academic learning environment. We aim to demonstrate that, rather than simply reporting on the performance of the foreign language learner, this feedback can act as a mediator of students' cognitive and metacognitive activity.…

Tutorials are a common complementary method of achieving student engagement with material covered in lectures, as students achieve deeper understanding by being involved in small group discussions. However, in an attempt to provide students with a taste of everything the industry has to offer, the Centre for Forensic Science at the University of…

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…

An improved first year student experience is a strategic focus for higher education in an increasingly competitive marketplace. A successful peer tutoring program creates a visible community of practice, supports the student learning experience, elevates senior students as ambassadors of the program, and reinforces an emphasis on learning through…

Flexible Learning (FL) is a pedagogical approach allowing for flexibility of time, place, and audience, including but not solely focused on the use of technologies. We describe Flexible Learning as a pedagogical approach in four courses framed by three key themes: 1) objectives and aspects of course design, 2) evaluation and assessment, and 3)…

This paper investigates the effectiveness (measured using assignment and examination performance) of an assessment design incorporating formative feedback through summative tutorial-based assessments to improve student performance, in a second-year Finance course at an Australian university. Data was collected for students who were enrolled in an…

For students new to higher education, the task of developing their academic writing skills, and particularly the principles and practices of source-referencing, can be daunting. Although institutions and teachers can and do provide positive guidance on this score, all too often students veer into inadvertent plagiarism through lack of confidence…

This paper summarizes relevant research concepts, and then describes a case where online tutorials were used to integrate one generic academic skill--information literacy--into first year business courses. Tutorials covering the skills and information required to complete course assignments were designed so the content can be easily modified for…

The transition to undergraduate study is often a challenging step for students as they progress from relatively smaller school/college classes with a high degree of contact time with familiar staff to a university department where one-on-one interaction with staff members is significantly reduced. The first year tutorials module offers one of the…

A series of tutorials was re-designed to further engage students in spiral learning and highlight development of transferable skills. The tutorials focused on self-directed and enquiry-based learning, both of which provided particular challenges to students and staff. The students were randomly allocated a media article related to psychology as a…