Adaptive learning (AL) courseware holds promise for helping break down challenges students face in college. In 2016-2017 we developed an AL Political Science course, Global Issues, implemented it across 51 classes and more than 5,200 students over the next two academic years, and initiated a study to assess student perceptions and performance. In…

Gateway courses in English challenge students to strengthen skills in critical thinking, reading, grammar, and writing structure and strategies -- skills that also help build competency in comprehension and composition. They can also prove to be a particular challenge to many community college students. This case study examines the efforts at…

This project examines the utility of a particular course enhancement, Cengage's Aplia, and more generally interactive tools designed to facilitate reading in the introductory American government course. Using two control and two treatment sections of the course (one section each for two instructors) during the Fall 2013 term, we measured student…

Educators have found that kinesthetic involvement in an experiment or demonstration can engage students in a powerful way. With that as our goal, we developed three activities that allow students to connect with and quantitatively explore key physics principles from mechanics with three fun physical challenges. By presenting these activities as…

This article presents a method for utilizing technology to increase student engagement in large classroom formats. In their lives outside the classroom, students spend considerable time interfacing with media, and they are receptive to information conveyed in electronic formats. Research has shown that multimedia is an effective learning resource;…

Despite the author's initial skepticism, a classroom set of iPads has reinforced a student-directed approach to writing instruction, while also supporting an inclusive classroom. Using the iPads, students guide their writing process with access to the learning management system, electronic information resources, and an online text editor. Students…

Interactive whiteboards are somewhat unimpressive at first and look like the whiteboards that already hang on the walls of many classrooms. However, integrating interactive whiteboard technology in a unit on adding and subtracting integers enhances student engagement and understanding. In this article, the author describes how she used an…

This study concentrated on faculty perceptions of the instructional methods used in delivering online mathematics courses. Included in the study were mathematics instructors from 3 Florida public postsecondary institutions. A concurrent, mixed methods approach was used to evaluate instructors' self-perceived levels of implementation of the 7…

Objective: To develop a totally online reality-based course that engages students and enables the development of enhanced teamwork and report-writing skills. Setting: Outbreaks of infectious diseases impacts upon commerce, trade and tourism as well as placing strains on healthcare systems. A general course introducing university students to…

The main purpose of this study is to introduce a check list for evaluating persuasive features of mathematics courseware. Since mathematics is a source of anxiety among students (Zeidner & Matthews, 2010), this research is an attempt to employ persuasive features that can be used in mathematics courseware. Specifically, we sought to determine…

Purpose: As educational technologies are more widely adopted in higher education teaching and learning, publishers often include online resources to accompany their textbook offerings. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study forming part of a larger ongoing evaluation of the third party software product WileyPLUS.…

This document presents the proceedings of the 18th Annual Research Forum held June 26, 2013, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following 13 action research papers: (1) Developing Oral Language Ability in the Secondary Spanish Classroom Using the Interpersonal and Presentational Modes of Communication…

For the thirty-ninth time, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two volumes.…

In this article, the authors focus on the use of Web-based instruction in social studies methods courses. They examine in what ways Web-based instruction transforms both teaching and learning and explore the problems and possibilities involved with electronic classrooms, including Web-supported instruction. Their study is classroom…