Team-based learning (TBL) is a proven teaching technique that has been employed in many disciplines and may improve performance of lower-performing students. However, much of the TBL literature involves graduate students in the health professions. The purpose of this study was to determine whether students in an undergraduate, introductory…

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have grown in popularity, particularly within introductory biology courses, to provide more students with authentic research experiences. CUREs have been shown to have many of the same positive effects as conventional research experiences; however, most assessments of CUREs lack an…

Virtual experiments offer opportunities for students to engage in the scientific process and observe scientific phenomena. However, virtual experiments are not always effective for learning. The current study examined how two small manipulations might support better learning from virtual experiments and the extent to which this varied across…

Prompting learners to generate examples has been proposed as an effective way of developing understanding of a new concept. However, empirical support for this approach is lacking. This article presents two empirical studies on the use of example-generation tasks in an online course in introductory university mathematics. The first study compares…

Climate change is a major concern to undergraduate students. Understanding climate change relies on an understanding of polar regions. However, courses on polar regions are rare at undergraduate institutions. Polar ENgagement through GUided INquiry (PENGUIN) modules were designed to give students experience with polar research in a variety of…

This study presents the results of two studies using a virtual reality (VR) public-speaking training simulation as an instructional aid in a basic communication course. Results from the first study suggest that VR practice was associated with higher subsequent speech delivery grades in the course compared to no practice. However, VR practice did…

Thermohaline circulation is a foundational concept in introductory and advanced undergraduate oceanography courses which describes the density-driven flow of water throughout the world's oceans. This concept is commonly taught using two-dimensional (2D) diagrams and graphics. However, students often struggle with the three-dimensional (3D)…

A course about business statistics is essential in the curriculum of business degree programs. Statistics is traditionally a challenging course that may be met with trepidation by many students. A pedagogical approach known as bite-sized learning has gained popularity to alleviate the difficulties associated with comprehending complex concepts.…

Microsoft Excel and Access are widely used in introductory courses designed to teach the fundamentals of spreadsheet and relational database modeling skills in various disciplines. To achieve the targeted learning outcomes, instructors of these courses strive to provide students with guided, frequent, and incrementally fruitful practice with the…

Quizzes are a widely used method for enhancing student performance in college-level courses. This study examined the effects of weekly quizzes for credit versus weekly quizzes for no credit on the performance of undergraduate students in two sections of an Introductory Psychology course. Results suggest that giving quizzes for credit led to better…

Peer Instruction gives practice in the abstract language of physics, addresses common misconceptions among students, and is more effective than traditional lecturing. However, it is not clear what makes Peer Instruction effective nor how we might improve the method. An emerging perspective is that what makes Peer Instruction effective is how it…

This paper describes a study, in the form of multiple field tests, designed to help students in an environmental health science course express and understand the subjective perspectives that they and their classmates hold on important course topics. This study is part of a project using the Q sorting technique found in Q methodology as the basis…

Based on discussions of cultural empathy in intercultural communication and counselling and multicultural psychology, this paper presents a model and a measure of cultural empathy suited for a broad range intercultural interactions -- the Intercultural Empathy Index (IEI). We examined the IEI's psychometric properties via two studies involving…

This study assessed student research papers using a rubric to determine the information literacy skills of students in introductory composition classes. Librarians taught a pilot composition course that infused information literacy (IL) into the traditional English curriculum. The students' IL skills were compared to those of undergraduates…

The heart of design studio teaching is traditionally linked to one-on-one teaching activities and to the exchange of feedback prompting many design educators to think it does not lend itself to online delivery. This study explored how design educators can translate the essence of design studio pedagogy into a blended learning environment. The…