Peer grading has diverse applications in many fields, including the peer grading of open assignments in online courses. The major challenge in peer grading is improving the seriousness (reviewing carefully) of reviewers. Previous studies have proposed several incentive reward mechanisms intended to reward or punish reviewers. Although these…

Hyde Park Neighborhood Club (HPNC) is a small, hyper-local community-based organization that, before the pandemic, provided after-school care and enrichment to children living on the South Side of Chicago. During the pandemic, HPNC created a learning pod for children in grades K-8 to provide parents in the community with childcare and students…

Class size is a first-order consideration in the study of education production and education costs. How larger or smaller classes affect student outcomes is especially relevant to the growth and design of online classes. We study a field experiment in which college students were quasi-randomly assigned to either a large or a small class. All…

When you think of global, online education, the first thing that may jump to mind these days are MOOCs, the "massive open online classes" that are widely publicized (and criticized). The author states that his classes were not these, but rather, closer to what are now being called SPOCs--small private online classes. Enrollment is…

Although the use of clickers and peer discussion is becoming common in large-lecture undergraduate biology courses, their use is limited in small-enrollment seminar-style courses. To investigate whether facilitating peer discussion with clickers would add value to a small-enrollment seminar-style course, we evaluated their usefulness in an…

"Education Matters" is the monthly newsletter of the Association of American Educators (AAE), an organization dedicated to advancing the American teaching profession through personal growth, professional development, teacher advocacy and protection. This issue of the newsletter includes: (1) Whatever It Takes? (Maybe Not): 4 Reasons…

The implementation of online texts, videos, homework, and tests has changed the process of instruction in introductory college mathematics courses. With this change, more of the students' learning takes place outside of the traditional college classroom and in places such as tutoring centers and dorm rooms. A combination of chi-square tests--for…

Peer bias is recognised as a primary factor in negative student perceptions of peer assessment strategies. This study trialled the use of classroom response systems, widely known as clickers, in small seminar classes in order to actively engage students in their subject's assessment process while providing the anonymity that would lessen the…

This article describes a multifaceted program that improves the mathematics instruction in a school district's 10 lowest-performing schools. This program includes seven support components--including monetary incentives for teachers, professional development, education technology, and reduced class sizes. After three years, results show that the…

The Association Supporting Computer Users in Education (ASCUE) is a group of people interested in small college computing issues. It is a blend of people from all over the country who use computers in their teaching, academic support, and administrative support functions. ASCUE has a strong tradition of bringing its members together to pool their…

The headline was dramatic enough to cause a ripple in the reading public. "Students who use computers a lot at school have worse maths and reading performance," noted the BBC news article, citing a 2004 study by Ludger Woessmann and Thomas Fuchs (Fuchs and Woessman, 2004). It was not long before the blogosphere took notice. Taking the…

In "Failure to Connect" (1998), Jane Healy examined pros and cons of computer use, warning that good teachers, small classes, and challenging curricula trump high-tech products. Computers can impede youngsters' development. Computers enhance learning only if teachers comprehend them, use appropriate applications, and define learning…

Reviews 1999 school finance legislation, analyzes 1994-99 state education finance activity, and discusses established and emergent trends in funding for school infrastructure, educational technology, charter schools, student achievement (class-size reduction, school-year extensions, reading instruction, and alternative placements), teacher…