Encouraged by positive clinical results at the University of Illinois, mastery-style homework was integrated into a large semester-long preparatory physics course via an online homework system that used narrated animated video solutions as correctives. This paper discusses the impact and evolution of the homework in its first two years. The first…

I aimed to document the online undergraduate course supply in biology to evaluate how well biology educators are serving the diverse and growing population of online students. I documented online biology course offerings in the 2015-2016 academic year at 96 American colleges and universities. I quantified differences in variety, extent, and…

Analytical chemistry has often been a difficult subject to teach in a classroom or lecture-based context. Numerous strategies for overcoming the inherently practical-based difficulties have been suggested, each with differing pedagogical theories. Here, we present a combined approach to tackling the problem of teaching analytical chemistry, with…

This graduate-level DNA methods laboratory course is designed to model a discovery-based research project and engages students in both traditional DNA analysis methods and modern recombinant DNA cloning techniques. In the first part of the course, students clone the "Drosophila" ortholog of a human disease gene of their choosing using…

The ability to interpret and reason from Tree of Life diagrams is a key component of twenty-first century science literacy. This article reports on the authors' continued development of a multifaceted research-based curriculum--including an instructional booklet, lectures, laboratories and a field activity--to teach such tree thinking to biology…

Retrieval practice has been shown to produce significant enhancements in student learning of course information, but the extent to which students make use of retrieval to learn information on their own is unclear. In the current study, students in a large introductory biology course were provided with optional online review questions that could be…

We assessed undergraduates' representations of the greenhouse effect, based on student-generated concept sketches, before and after a 30-min constructivist lesson. Principal component analysis of features in student sketches revealed seven distinct and coherent explanatory models including a new "Molecular Details" model. After the…

Computer-aided learning (CAL) is an integral part of many medical courses. The neuroscience course at Oxford University for medical students includes CAL course of neuroanatomy. CAL is particularly suited to this since neuroanatomy requires much detailed three-dimensional visualization, which can be presented on screen. The CAL course was…

The need for renewable and non-fossil fuels is now recognised by nations throughout the world. Consequently, an understanding of alternative energy is needed both in schools and in everyday life-long learning situations. This study developed a two-tier instrument to diagnose students' understanding and alternative conceptions about alternative…

The laboratory has been given a central role in physiology education, and teachers report that it is motivating for students to undertake experimental work on live animals or measuring physiological responses on the students themselves. Since motivation is a critical variable for academic learning and achievement, then we must concern ourselves…

Interest in student conception of experimentation inspired the development of a fully validated 14-question inventory on experimental design in biology (BEDCI) by following established best practices in concept inventory (CI) design. This CI can be used to diagnose specific examples of non-expert-like thinking in students and to evaluate the…

This study sought to examine the activities that go on in physics classrooms in Senior High Schools in Ghana. Specifically, the study sought to investigate the pattern of interaction and instructional methods used for teaching physics and level of coverage of physics syllabus. The survey design was employed for the study in which questionnaire was…

To a first approximation, human memory is divided into two parts, short-term and long-term. Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) attempts to minimize the short-term memory load while maximizing the memory available for transferring knowledge from short-term to long-term memory. According to CLT there are three types of load, intrinsic, extraneous, and…

Early research experiences must be made available to all undergraduate students, including those at 2-yr institutions who account for nearly half of America's college students. We report on barriers unique to 2-yr institutions that preclude the success of an early course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). Using a randomized study…

Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic rise in online delivery of higher education in the United States. Recent developments in web technology and access to the internet have led to a vast increase in online courses. For people who work during the day and whose complicated lives prevent them from taking courses on campus, online courses…