Small private online courses (SPOCs) have influenced teaching and learning in China's higher education. Learning management systems (LMSs) are important components in SPOCs. They can collect various data related to student behavior and support pedagogical interventions. This research used feature engineering and nearest neighbor smoothing models…

This study was undertaken to evaluate whether the student success associated with the "U-Pace" instructional approach, which integrates mastery-based learning with proactive instructor support in an online learning environment, would replicate for both economically disadvantaged students and students who are not economically…

This article discusses pedagogical exercises developed to help students appreciate the power of sociological perspectives as they seek to better understand their own lives and the world around them. The assignments are focused on fulfilling the particular course learning goal that highlights student mastery of the application of diverse…

Interactive response systems "clickers" can provide multiple benefits to the students and faculty who use them, including immediate performance feedback and greater student engagement in learning. My own exploration of this technology has yielded five pedagogically different types of polling questions, specifically measurement of student…

Discusses the planning, development, implementation, and course management required to use the Personalized System of Instruction in the basic speech communication course. (PD)

Describes a mastery-based learning design developed for an advertising skills course. Discusses the benefits of mastery-based learning for students and teachers. (MG)

The Personalized System of Instruction (PSI), a system that combines the strengths of basic learning, individual instruction, and personalized relationships, all at low cost, is an attractive alternative for the basic speech communication course. It involves mastery learning, self-pacing, stress on the written word, instructor assistants, and the…

Bloom has looked to mastery learning, exemplified by the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI), to reduce individual differences in posttest performance, such as final grades and midterm examination scores. While PSI courses have raised overall performance, there has been little examination of individual differences in these courses. Data from…

The Personalized System of Instruction, known as the Keller Plan, is compared with the mastery learning approach. Learning concepts of both are discussed, as well as differences, difficulties, and effectiveness of each method. (SA)

A laboratory approach to instruction is employed in the basic speech communication course at a southern university. Approximately one-third of the semester is spent on public speaking and performance assignments, while the remainder of the course focuses on interpersonal communication. During the oral performance part of the course, half of the…

A computing literacy course at Michigan State University for non-computer science students was designed with a fixed course structure and continuously changing course content. The structure provides feedback for assessing students and revising content to meet the changing demands of client departments, changing student experience, and changing…

A self-instructional approach used at Central Michigan University to teach basic broadcasting techniques to students in a basic production course is described in this paper. Separate sections discuss the following topics: (1) problems involved in attempting to provide large numbers of students with hands-on training in broadcast production; (2)…

Alternatives to the standard lecture course in introductory economics are presented in this series exploring new teaching methods in college level economics. In this issue "elementary" or introductory economics taught at Vanderbilt University is described. It relies on two techniques: case method and self-paced instruction. Self-paced…

An experimental, interdisciplinary, mastery learning course in intercultural communication--designed to help students at Santa Barbara (California) City College overcome barriers arising from language, attitudinal, nonverbal, and ethnocentric variations in communication styles--is described in this collection of documents. The collection includes…