Inclusion of game elements in health education has proved to be effective in helping student training. Commonly termed as "serious games" these gamified systems can be an alternative to empower and motivate students during the learning process. The literature contains serious games for professional training in many health-related areas,…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of sustainability-focused, cocurricular, interdisciplinary programming for graduate students at creating future leaders in sustainability, i.e. did interdisciplinary sustainability programming further prepared graduate students in sustainability leadership beyond the scope of the…

In recent years, countries including the UK and USA have seen advancements in the use of Randomised Controlled Trials in education, progress that has not been mirrored in Ireland. Ireland does not have a strong tradition of using experimental or quasi-experimental evaluation designs for monitoring and evaluation of education policy despite…

The three articles included in this dissertation are connected through theory and practice. Study one identifies the factors influencing Extension agents' participation in supplemental professional development opportunities using Ajzen's (1985) theory of planned behavior. Study two was a systematic investigation of Extension personnel's…

Education decisionmakers need access to the best evidence about the effectiveness of education interventions, including practices, products, programs, and policies. It can be difficult, time consuming, and costly to access and draw conclusions from relevant studies about the effectiveness of interventions. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC)…

Purpose: An issue that has received limited attention is how teachers make informed decisions when designing learning activities, which makes effective use of resources and technologies. The aim of this paper is to explore how teachers suggest informing their designs for learning. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on documentation…

Mathematics curriculums worldwide are being refined to prepare students for the twenty-first century by focusing on developing students' higher-level thinking skills. As a result, teachers need to adjust their pedagogical approaches to enact new curriculums, which is frequently facilitated through continued professional development (CPD). During…

Developing program-level assessment systems creates an opportunity for faculty to think deeply about their student learning objectives while creating structures that provide meaningful and actionable feedback. Unfortunately, many programs lack the expertise and/or support at the programmatic or institutional level to create efficient and effective…

For some time now, the arts education community has designed for broader outcomes for youth. These programs intentionally foster not only youth achievements within the arts or academics, but also youth and community thriving--through outcomes such as youth civic engagement, occupational identities, and wellness. In this report, the authors seek to…

The following exploratory case study is a program evaluation of a certification program for online instructors at a high-enrollment, 4-year research-intensive university in the southeast. Since 2014 the Online Instructor Certification (OIC) has operated as the predominant platform for preparing faculty to teach online at the site of study. The OIC…

This study evaluated the implementation and impact of the School of Interactive Arts (SIA), a scalable, in-class instructional model designed to introduce high school students to computer science and video game design through a virtual platform called Ghost School. Conducted in New York City Department of Education public high schools, the study…

Concerns about the rising cost of college and growing student loan debt have intensified in recent years, with 85% of non-enrolled adults citing affordability as a key barrier (Gallup & Lumina Foundation, 2024) and a third of currently enrolled college students agreeing that their "institution charges too much for an undergraduate…

This toolkit offers guidance on how to implement efficient, engaging, and effective enhanced outreach to students. It includes both messaging strategies and ways to analyze the results of outreach messaging to determine what is working and what is not. The guidance in this toolkit explains how to craft messages and analyze engagement data to…

This preliminary study examines the efficacy of the Mind Walker Reading Programme in improving word knowledge and, consequently, improving reading comprehension skills for three upper-grade elementary students in a remote setting. The programme is based on the understanding by design (UbD) Model developed by Wiggins and McTighe (The understanding…

We present a framework to help those working in Extension connect program designs with appropriate evaluation designs to improve evaluation. The framework links four distinct Extension program domains--service, facilitation, content transformation, and transformative education--with three types of evaluation design--preexperimental,…