The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive account on case-based instructional practices. Semester-long participant observation records in torts, marketing, and online instructional design classes, instructor interviews, course syllabi and teaching materials were used to describe the within-class complexity of the practices in terms…

This article first explores the theoretical bases for why dramatic forms of instruction stimulate student learning and recall. Next, the article considers a practice that systematically applies drama, fun, and fantasy to embed selected content objectives into students' memory. This practical tool, which facilitates instructional reform in the…

The history of technology can play an important role in illuminating the fundamentals of technological change, but it is important that technology teachers, teacher educators, curriculum developers and researchers can be provided with good analytical tools for this purpose. In this article, we propose a model of techno-historical interplay, as a…

This paper describes the redesign and implementation of the course, "Introduction to Programming for Engineers" using microcontroller (MCU) hardware as the programming target. The objective of this effort is to improve the programming competency for engineering students by more closely relating the initial programming experience to the student's…

Just as the popular television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" targets the demolition and reconstruction of a home so that it better meets the needs of its owners, Fink's approach to integrated course design (ICD; 2003) provides higher education faculty with the tools to deconstruct and do a major remodel of their college courses. Teaching…

This article presents an interdisciplinary approach to course redesign that enhanced student learning across all six categories in Dee Fink's taxonomy. A meta-analysis of the results provides evidence that integrated course design produces significant learning. In this article, the authors tell four connected stories: (1) how Fink's book,…

This paper details a successful and inexpensive implementation of a remote laboratory into a distance control systems course using readily available hardware and software. The physical experiment consists of a beach ball and a dc blower; the control objective is to make the height of the aerodynamically levitated beach ball track a reference…

This paper presents a new environment for teaching practical work in AI subjects. The main purpose of this environment is to make AI techniques more appealing to students and to facilitate the use of the toolkits which are currently widely used in research and development. This new environment has a toolkit for developing and executing agents,…

When learning about a phenomenon, one must directly experience it in order to fully understand it (Kolb, 1984). So how may an instructor of introductory organizational communication ensure that students "directly experience the phenomenon" of organizing? The author describes an activity he developed to enable students to share a direct experience…

Affirmative action, a controversial topic about which students have many misconceptions, lends itself especially well to a sociological analysis. This paper describes an approach to teaching that: (1) informs students of different affirmative action programs; (2) gives them the opportunity to apply and integrate a variety of concepts and research…

Teaching about intersecting, fluid and historically contingent identities has been taken up extensively within the sociology of race, class and gender and women's studies. Oddly, the case of Jewish women has been virtually left out of this robust literature. This article explores the challenges raised through teaching the course "Jewish Women in…

The University of Florida is a large research institution with a freshman class of more than seven thousand students out of a total enrollment of about fifty thousand. Although a partnership with the University Writing Program has allowed the Libraries to reach almost four thousand students this past academic year, certain barriers still exist.…

Undergraduate students often memorize a keyword or definition for an exam without a deeper understanding or the ability to apply the meaning of the concept. While using examples during a lecture may help, the combination of movies and verbal review has been shown to be a valuable instructional tool, increasing recall (Elischberger & Roebers, 2001)…

Although many of us would like to get beyond lecturing, we often lack concrete strategies for doing so, particularly in our larger classes. This paper suggests one such strategy for creating a discussion-based course. The success of such a course is predicated on students reading and thinking about the course material (receiving "first exposure")…

Criminology and Deviance Classes are often among the most popular in the sociology undergraduate curriculum. These courses provide a unique opportunity for teachers since many students come to class with an intense interest in the subject matter combined with strong opinions about crime, criminals, and deviants. Because these opinions are often…