A unique pedagogical challenge is presented in the form of a concentrated 400-level introductory public relations course that meets for a total of 15 lessons of 2.5 hours each. The instructor details the benefits of active learning in the classroom, as well as how the use of team projects helps bring real-world examples and hands-on experience of…

The value of experiential learning projects (which are usually major assessments in courses) in education has been touted since the early 1900s (Dewey, 1938). These projects have the potential to deepen students' understanding of course topics by allowing them to put concepts into practice and watch the results develop. However, experiential…

In this paper the authors discuss the challenges and rewards of building a graduate level Managerial Communication course around an experiential communication audit project. The purpose of the project was to provide MBA (Master of Business Administration) students with exposure to the real world responsibilities and demands of working in a complex…

This paper compares how two universities, Iowa State University and the University of Saskatchewan, exploit a service-learning and authentic learning approach to instructional design. Both programs emphasize student engagement and responsibility, as well as projects that have social significance. At the same time, the courses offered by the two…

In the rapidly changing world of higher education, innovative approaches to teaching adults are needed to drive instructional practices for helping to prepare the professionals of the future. The papers collected in "Innovations in Teaching Adults" were originally presented at a conference at City University of Seattle. The authors of…

From February to June 2008, Google ran its first ever student competition in sponsored Web search, the 2008 Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC). The 2008 GOMC was based on registrations from 61 countries: 629 course sections from 468 universities participated, fielding over 4000 student teams of approximately 21,000 students. Working with a…

Discusses an alternative teaching approach that incorporates action learning principles along with authentic project-based methods into the full-time study of instructional design. Describes the implementation of action learning principles within a graduate program in instructional technology at George Mason University. (Author/LRW)

This paper presents an empirical study of how Second Life (SL) was utilized for a highly successful project-based graduate interdisciplinary communication course. Researchers found that an integrated threefold approach emphasizing project-based pedagogy, technical training and support, and assessment/research was effective in cultivating and…

A fieldwork procedure that enables students to design and conduct meaningful evaluation research in one semester is described. The procedure has been used in a 13-week program evaluation course in a master's program in community psychology and industrial/organizational psychology. About 2 months before the course begins, administrative units…

The objective of a graduate course at North Dakota State University was to move students beyond a prescriptive approach for conducting qualitative research to a holistic consideration of the ethical dimensions involved in qualitative methods. Successive discussions allowed students the opportunity to fully consider ethics in a multi-faceted…

A teacher describes his efforts to apply the Foxfire approach in a graduate course for teachers on integrating community resources into the curriculum. In an atmosphere of cooperative learning and teamwork, the graduate students produced a guide to using ordinary people and places as learning resources. (SV)

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota developed a new engineering design curriculum to meet the pedagogical needs of undergraduate and graduate engineering students and to excite and retain engineering students of both genders and from all backgrounds. The curriculum is based on a series of guided, hands-on…