Responding to calls for more future-oriented teaching and learning, an increasing number of institutions of higher education have recently implemented challenge-based learning (CBL). Through work on open-ended and real-life challenges, CBL aims to stimulate students to take the lead in their own learning, acquire and apply knowledge relevant for…

In higher education, a primary concern with online learning versus in-person learning centers on offering and facilitating effective communication and collaboration opportunities for students. New technologies, specifically free and open source system (FOSS) applications, help bridge these gaps by giving instructors and students the means to…

Small class size is often used as an indicator of quality in higher education, and some research suggests that instructors in smaller classes more often use activities that are learner-centered and that involve physical and mental activity on the part of learners, such as group work, simulations, and case studies. However, we have little…

University students of all disciplines are expected to display critical thinking. Critical thinking may, however, be impeded by psychological and sociological factors such as: belief and confirmation biases, framing, social pressure to conform and poor assessment of probability and risk. These factors are rarely, if ever, thoroughly examined in…

Current forms of marketisation in university systems create pressures towards purely ends-focused expectations among students and have implications for learning and assessment processes. The potential harm that these trends have on "learning" should be resisted by educators and students alike. Critical Pedagogy approaches offer one way…

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 important contemporary challenge to the large-group lecture in higher education is that it encourages passive learning which is claimed to be out of sync with academic rhetoric and social needs. Attempts to change this practice have salvaged some aspects of the higher education experience for students, but they have not transformed the learning…

Despite many articles written about assessment in higher education, surprisingly few have examined students' emotional responses to assessment and their perceptions of this impact on their learning experiences and well-being. This article reports on a study using in-depth interviews with 40 undergraduate students who were frequently graded. A…

Many academic institutions are investing thousands of dollars in technology-based classrooms to market themselves as modern and adapt to the new generation of students for whom technology forms part of their everyday lives. This technology is also believed to provide the added benefit of better knowledge acquisition, improved critical thinking and…

This article reports a synthesis and meta-analysis of intervention studies investigating the effects of team-based learning on content knowledge outcomes. Team-based learning is a particular set of instructional components most often used in higher education classrooms. Authors of team-based learning reviews report that team-based learning…

Problem-based learning is often characterised as an approach encompassing interdisciplinary learning; however, little attention has been explicitly paid to what a claim of interdisciplinary problem-based learning means in practice. Even less attention has been given to address the consequences of interdisciplinary problem-based learning for…

The use of screencasts as an instructional technology is increasing rapidly in higher education. While there appears to be a consensus around students' satisfaction with the provision of technology-enhanced tools, there is limited evidence revolving around their impact in terms of knowledge acquisition. Moreover, the reasons why students choose to…

In this article, the impact of assessment tasks on examination result (measured by examination grades) is investigated. Although many describe the advantages of electronic assessment tasks, few studies have been undertaken which compare a traditional approach using a classical examination with a new approach using assessment tasks. The main…

Mind Mapping has predominantly been used by individuals or collaboratively in groups as a paper-based or computer-generated learning strategy. In an effort to make Mind Mapping kinesthetic, collaborative, and three-dimensional, an innovative pedagogical strategy, termed Physical Webbing, was devised. In the Physical Web activity, groups…

Mobile learning (m-learning) environments open a wide range of new and exciting learning opportunities, and envision students who are continually on the move, learn across space and time, and move from topic to topic and in and out of interaction with technology. In this article we present findings from a study of how students manoeuvre and study…