This chapter considers the essential elements of collaborative learning, reviews research supporting the efficacy of this instructional practice, and argues that students can be more or less active according to the structure of the collaborative task.

This introductory article provides a comprehensive overview of student engagement by reviewing student engagement conceptions and aspects influencing student engagement. The article concludes by highlighting considerations for student engagement and technology-facilitated education.

In this chapter, we explore how faculty employ the use of gamification and game-based learning environments (GBLE) in postsecondary education. Gamification refers to the use of game-design elements while game-based learning refers to the use of digital education games. Both are increasingly popular instructional practices and, in this chapter, we…

Growth mindset is an important psychological factor for effective instruction. This chapter discusses how mindset affects learning and achievement, offering a wealth of tools that can help students and instructors understand and utilize a growth mindset.

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is an increasingly popular interdisciplinary pedagogy. In this chapter, we discuss its roots, benefits, and potential trade-offs and give practical advice applicable to a variety of academic disciplines.

This chapter describes a first-year seminar course designed to develop students' visual literacy skills. After a brief overview of the course and a discussion of the evidence supporting the efficacy of the instructional interventions, a timeline and description of the specific learning activities are presented.

This chapter describes the results of an assessment project whose purpose was to improve the faculty-development program for instructors who teach in technology-infused TILE (Transform, Interact, Learn, Engage) classrooms at the University of Iowa. Qualitative research methods were critical for (1) learning about how students and instructors…

In problem-based learning (PBL), students working in collaborative groups learn by resolving complex, realistic problems under the guidance of faculty. There is some evidence of PBL effectiveness in medical school settings where it began, and there are numerous accounts of PBL implementation in various undergraduate contexts, replete with…

This article discusses how the author used an integrated course design model to create new learning activities in her course on federal taxation. The shoebox case--a simulation where students are given realistic documents to use in preparing a tax return--gave her students an opportunity to construct new knowledge. This activity supported the…

The authors are both teachers in the Economics Department at Fairfield University, where they share responsibility for the introductory and intermediate economics courses. Student's comment illustrates that they were apparently not reaching their students in ways that achieved their goals: developing students' abilities to understand economic…

In his book "Creating Significant Learning Experiences" (2003), Dee Fink challenges professors to create a deep vision for the courses they teach. Educators often have a vision for what their courses could be, but often lack a model for instituting change. Fink's book provides that model. In this article, the author describes how this model helped…

In general, people associate college and university teaching with lecture-based methods, in which an expert (the teacher) delivers information to a group of nonexperts (the students), who subsequently show their newfound "knowledge" by answering examination questions. Because of the common notion that knowledge and intelligence are…

The purpose of assembling this "New Directions in Teaching and Learning" volume was to introduce college and university teachers to a broad range of approaches that reflect evidence-based teaching (EBT). As each of the preceding chapters has shown, EBT not only can increase student learning across a variety of measures, it also can increase…

As a philosopher and an art historian, the authors decided to record their experience after discovering they shared similar journeys changing their courses. They had both been dissatisfied with their students' learning outcomes and their own tired patterns of teaching. After learning about Dee Fink's (2003) integrated course design (ICD) and his…

This article describes the author's first attempt at integrated course design. Students in the author's virology course helped set the learning goals, and the design and content of the exams, and developed rubrics for individual and group projects. The result was that they learned how to direct their own learning. Integrated course design and…