One way to encourage performance and persistence in STEM fields is to have students write about the utility value (UV) or personal relevance of course topics to their life. This intervention has been shown to increase engagement and performance in introductory courses. However, questions remain about the longevity of the effects and how best to…

This study investigated the effect of different assessment types on overall success in an online geoscience course covering energy's impact on the environment. Two groups took either the slower 1-credit or the faster 3-credit version of the course, which utilized the same content. Self-assessment questions developed using H5P, quizzes, summative…

Online formative assessment is still challenging although it is getting an increased attention as a significant tool for diagnosing and analysing students' motivation and achievement in various education domains. This research examines the effects of an online formative assessment tool (OFAT) about science motivation and achievement in second-year…

Delivering Anatomy & Physiology (A&P) labs online became necessary in the spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For four semesters (Summer 2020 through Summer 2021), our A&P1 and A&P2 labs were instructed in a virtual format. Each lab session included a one-hour synchronous session led by teaching assistants followed by…

This paper describes pedagogical efforts implemented to promote significant learning in a computational chemistry course. The taxonomy of significant learning advanced by Fink (2013) is used as a framework to discuss the results. Fink identifies six categories of learning: foundational, application, integration, human dimension, caring, and…

In this experiment, students in a large undergraduate biology course were first exposed to the concepts without new technical vocabulary ("jargon") in a pre-class reading assignment. Their learning of the concepts and jargon was compared with that of an equivalent group of students in another section of the same course, whose pre-class…

Recent research supports the benefit of students' construction of relevance through writing about the connection of content to their life. However, most such research defines relevance narrowly as utility value--perceived instrumentality of the content to the student's career goals. Furthermore, the scope of phenomenological and conceptual…

Human anatomy has usually been taught in a didactic fashion in colleges and universities. However, recent calls from United States governmental agencies have called for the transformation of undergraduate life sciences education to include active learning in the classroom. In addition, high structure courses have been shown to increase student…

The recent emphasis in higher education on both student engagement and online learning encouraged the authors to develop an active e-learning environment for an introductory geohazards course, which enrolls 70+ undergraduate students per semester. Instructors focused on replicating the achievements and addressing the challenges within an already…

Writing assignments, including note taking and written recall, should enhance retention of knowledge, whereas analytical writing tasks with metacognitive aspects should enhance higher-order thinking. In this study, we assessed how certain writing-intensive "interventions," such as written exam corrections and peer-reviewed writing…