The paper describes an upper-division university course in Mars literature taught online since Fall 2013. The course readings comprise six novels relating to Mars. Authors include H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury, Phillip K. Dick, Greg Bear, and Kim Stanley Robinson. After an introduction, sections of the paper discuss course…

Although research methodology is a staple and essential requirement of many undergraduate political science programmes worldwide, there are still many intense and ongoing debates among teachers and students on the series of effective learning and teaching approaches and strategies for this subject matter that involve theoretical understanding,…

Higher education is rapidly changing, and instructors are striving to match the needs of 21st-century digital learners. There is a growing demand and shift from traditional classes to the online mode of instruction for most post-secondary learning institutions. Additionally, with the recent pandemic (COVID-19), post-secondary institutions had to…

In the past few decades, two novel variations of syllabus have emerged: namely "the Graphic Syllabus" and "the Interactive Syllabus". Each of these two variations of syllabus has its own special advantages. The present paper argues that there could be devised a new combined version of the two mentioned variations, called…

Course: Intercultural Communication. Objectives: After completing this intercultural service-learning activity, students should be able to (1) apply effective intercultural communication skills in culturally different sites; (2) analyze cultures different from their own through service-learning; (3) compare and evaluate course readings with…

The authors write that the longer they study and work in organizations, the more they discover power to be one of the central issues which researchers and students must understand. Researchers who ignore power run the risk of spurious, irrelevant findings. Students who assume administrative positions without a proper understanding of power and how…

The increase of individualised customer demands and tough competition in the manufacturing sector gave rise to more customer-centric operations management such as products and services (mass) customisation. Mass customisation (MC), which inherits the "economy of scale" from mass production (MP), aims to meet specific customer demands…

Physics lab instruction is evolving in response to changing technology, a desire to better prepare students for diverse careers, and renewed focus from physics education researchers. To prepare researchers to evaluate progress in instructional labs in the future, this study set out to understand the current state of instructional physics labs in…

Successful science and engineering programs require proficiency and dynamics in mathematics classes to enhance the learning of complex subject matter with a sufficient amount of practical problem solving. Improving student performance and retention in mathematics classes requires inventive approaches. At the University of Central Florida (UCF) the…

This article discusses principles involved in developing course materials for technology-mediated Chinese language learning, with examples from a new course designed to take into account the needs of distance and independent learners. Which learning environment is most efficient for a given learning activity needs to be carefully considered. It…

As mobile learning becomes increasingly pervasive, many higher education institutions have initiated a number of mobile learning initiatives to support their traditional learning modes. This study proposes a framework for mobile learning for enhancing learning in higher education. This framework for mobile learning is based on research conducted…

Facilitating meaningful interaction among students is a significant challenge of teaching in the online environment. This paper presents a semester-long approach that enables quality interaction among group members within undergraduate online group communication courses while experiencing the challenges of working with geographically dispersed…

In the Internet era, students have increasingly lost interest in traditional lectures; as a consequence, their learning motivation and exam performance have decreased. The widespread adoption of learner-centered teaching methods that address this issue faces certain barriers, including: 1) the significant faculty effort necessary to prepare…

The use of appropriate Educational Simulation systems (software and hardware for learning purposes) may contribute to the application of the "Learning by Doing" (LbD) paradigm in classroom, thus helping the students to assimilate the theoretical concepts of a subject and acquire certain pre-defined competencies in a more didactical way.…

The statistical preparation of in-service teachers, particularly middle school teachers, has been an area of concern for several years. This paper discusses the creation and delivery of an introductory statistics course as part of a master's degree program for in-service mathematics teachers. The initial course development took place before the…