This article presents research on students' experiences of learning through a blend of face-to-face and online discussion. The participants in our study were students enrolled in a foreign policy course at a major Australian university. Students' conceptions of learning through discussion, and their approaches to both face-to-face and online…

In building intelligent tutoring systems, it is critical to be able to understand and diagnose student responses in interactive problem solving. However, building this understanding into a computer-based intelligent tutor is a time-intensive process usually conducted by subject experts. Much of this time is spent in building production rules that…

The study examined first-year engineering students' responses to a statistics task that asked them to generate a procedure for quantifying variability in a data set from an engineering context. Teams used technological tools to perform computations, and their final product was a ranking procedure. The students could use any statistical measures,…

Feedback to students is essential for effective learning, but there is little empirical information on what kind of feedback is best. This study compares student responses and performance after receiving two types of feedback, that provided by model answers and that provided by personal comments. In 2004 and 2005, a total of 183 students in first…

Despite years of formal education, approximately one-third of all undergraduate students still cannot explain the causes of the seasons. Student manipulation of a handheld model is one approach to teaching this concept; however, the large number of students in many introductory classes can dissuade instructors from utilizing this teaching…

The widening participation agenda was instigated by a government seeking to develop skilled workers in the global economy, yet it has consistently refused to fund the burgeoning student population adequately. Managers and academics within the HE sector have to reconcile requirements for the implementation of policies with an increasing "audit"…

The study reported in this paper argues for a process model of postsecondary instruction where reader-response literary theory in general, and L. Rosenblatt's transactional theory specifically, provides a theoretical framework for strategies which use computers to teach postsecondary English. The paper begins with an examination of the historical…

Describes instructional use of a microcomputer version of the WORLD2 global population-ecology simulation. Reactions of students and instructors are discussed and a WORLD2 simulation assignment is appended. The BASIC version used by the author runs on Apple II, DOS 3.3, with 80 column board. (MBR)

An experiment conducted at the University of Haifa School of Education examined the cross-cultural usefulness of educational anthropology's theoretical core. Ways students reorganize their cognitive maps are demonstrated by highlighting personal, organizational, social, and cultural conditions that effect the assimilation of new learning.…

Summarizes Carol Kuhlthau's research on the information search process. Discusses how Kuhlthau's model of students' information search process (ISP) has been integrated into a course at Arizona State University and is being used experimentally as a training tool in the library's reference services. Selected student responses to research process…

Measures service quality from the viewpoint of customers (students at an Australian university), using the SERVQUAL model. Obtains evaluations of academic and administrative aspects of the educational service. Makes significant negative evaluations of administrative service quality (resulting from communication problems). Satisfaction with the…

Thirty-three novices and 33 expert calculator users took a test in which they predicted what number would be in the calculator's display after a sequence of button presses (such as 2 + 3 +). Subjects' answers did not depend on the brand of calculator they actually owned. Simple production systems models were fit to the performance of each subject.…

The ecosystem model for assessing student perceptions of their environment was developed by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. The purpose of this report is to discuss the application of the ecosystem model at Arizona State University and to make recommendations concerning how to expedite the model's application. (Author)

Presents a study that focuses on atypical patterns of contextualized learning engagement that are often difficult to interpret because they exhibit varying degrees of conceptual dissonance. Addresses how the question of how dissonance can be interpreted and modeled. Provides an example of an observed interference model of student learning. (CMK)

Describes the student model of an intelligent computer-assisted language learning (CALL) system that is based on current theories in the field of second-language acquisition. Highlights include acquisition order of the target rules; language learning strategies; language transfer; language awareness; and student reactions. (Contains seven…