Twenty-seven first-year nursing students, divided across six focus groups formed on the basis of their past chemistry experience, were interviewed about their chemistry experience as a component of a Health Science unit. Information related to learning and academic performance was able to be established from student conversations resulting in…

This study aims to explore how online searching plays a role during PBL tutorials in two undergraduate health sciences curricula, Medicine and Dentistry. Utilizing Interactional Ethnography (IE) as an organizing framework for data collection and analysis, and drawing on a critical theory of technology as an explanatory lens, enabled a textured…

Tutorial is one of the student support services often provided by open and distance teaching institutions. These are regularly scheduled meetings between a tutor and his/here students which may include individual consultation sessions, either face-to-face or through telephone; a more formal "lecture format;" optimal participation in…

For students new to higher education, the task of developing their academic writing skills, and particularly the principles and practices of source-referencing, can be daunting. Although institutions and teachers can and do provide positive guidance on this score, all too often students veer into inadvertent plagiarism through lack of confidence…

This case study explored the perception of online tutorials by habitually absent students with familial or socioeconomic circumstances. Researched literature confirmed a link between absenteeism, and academic achievement. Research Questions were designed to determine (a) student perception of online tutorials, and (b) motivation to achieve…

Non-native English speaking (NNES) students in higher educational settings face difficulties writing academic papers and, in response to these difficulties, often seek assistance in understanding cultural, rhetorical, linguistic aspect of writing in English (Harris & Silva, 1993; Powers & Nelson, 1995). One resource available to them is…

In this research study the authors analyzed the effectiveness of content-area education students tutoring adolescents and documented changes in the attitudes of the education students over time. Tutors tested the reading comprehension of both the students they tutored (treatment group) and students they did not (comparison group). The authors used…

Evidence supporting Problem-based learning (PBL) fostering students' self-directed learning (SDL) in hybrid PBL curricula is inconsistent. To explore the influence of PBL in a hybrid curriculum on students' SDL, the authors investigated the following: (1) students' self-assessed SDL ability, (2) students' perceptions of the influence of curricular…

This paper begins by acknowledging the established and powerful link between educational beliefs and the teaching and learning practices of teaches and students. Based on this belief-practice connection, the paper documents the findings of a study that investigated the beliefs of a group of higher education teachers and students, most of whom were…

This article explores the experiences of students with mobility disabilities in Cypriot higher education institutions. In order to obtain relevant information, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 Cypriot students with different forms of mobility disabilities, who attended different Cypriot higher education institutions and a…

This article describes a qualitative study, and it focuses on the analysis of the dynamics surrounding tutorial action in higher education. The authors have tried to determine the specific needs of the students by identifying and examining the functions associated with tutorial action. Several action guidelines aimed at improving tutorial function…

In this paper, we share two blended learning approaches used at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. We have been using these two approaches in the last twelve years in many courses ranging from the diploma to graduate programs. For the first blended learning approach, we integrated one asynchronous communication tool with face to…

This paper examines Oxford University students' conceptions of the role of the tutorial in their learning. An analysis of interviews with 28 students constituted four qualitatively different conceptions of the "Oxford Tutorial". These ranged from the tutorial involving the tutor explaining to the student what the student did not know, to the…

This paper reports on a research study that draws on the perceptions of students, tutors, field centre coordinators and central management to evaluate the support services provided to students in the National Teachers' Institute's distance teacher training programme. Within a conceptual framework that built upon models of teaching and learning…

A program referred to as Language Skills Computer Assisted Instruction (LaSCAI) was chosen to assist volunteer tutors in improving the reading skills of adults. The program was demonstrated at two libraries--one rural and one urban--and an evaluation was completed to determine its applicability in enhancing the on-going tutoring programs at these…