Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have been proposed as a mechanism to democratize access to the benefits of apprentice-style scientific research to a broader diversity of students, promoting inclusivity and increasing student success and retention. As we evaluate CUREs, it is essential to explore their effectiveness within…

Most chemistry students struggle with interpreting and understanding NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectra and the general concepts of NMR spectroscopy. NMR spectroscopy seems to be difficult to both teach and learn. Therefore, the corresponding courses should be investigated in more detail. We conducted a survey with N = 39 German university…

This research studied the impact of language barriers and cultural experiences on students' perceptions at the University of North Texas. The population of this study were students who had taken a class with a non-native speaking instructor and those who hadn't. Following a mixed-method research approach, online surveys were distributed to the…

Engagement through the use of technology requires a level of vulnerability and trust amongst teachers and learners. The emotional and social aspects of engagement can be significantly affected by the nuances of the learning setting. The study goal was to explore learner needs related to uploaded lecture-captured recordings and examine how the use…

This paper describes the course outline for a three credit hour nonlaboratory course in Environmental Health Chemistry which was taught from 1981 until 2008 at the State University of New York College at Oneonta. The purpose of this paper is to share the lecture outline in the hopes that it might be useful to others who are preparing to teach…

There is a need to better understand note-taking in lectures. Specifically, how in-class and after-class note-taking strategies are used, whether the use of in-class and after-class note-taking strategies varies by gender, year of study and field of major/discipline and to explore the connection between the use of in-class note-taking strategies…

Since the availability of lecture recordings, there have been limited studies of any associations between face-to-face lecture attendance and academic outcomes. The aims of the study, in an introductory pathophysiology course, where lecture recordings were available, were 1) to quantify lecture attendance and any associations between academic…

In this article we focus on note taking as a practice that is fundamental to (higher) education. We argue that note-taking should not primarily be regarded as a method that supports effective learning, but as formative of the student herself (making her attentive and granting possibilities for self-transformation). Hence it is a practice that has…

Recent years have witnessed the spread of purpose-built active learning classrooms throughout the higher education sector. While these innovative learning spaces are well-suited for a variety of active learning strategies, their lack of a single focal point means they are inconvenient spaces for lecturing. While educational developers often…

This study compares the effects of student-centred teaching methods, teacher-centred methods, and teacher-student interactive methods on students' mathematics academic achievement. For this purpose, calculus, compound interest, annuities, and depreciation topics were taught to first-year college students in three different groups: traditional…

Higher education is beginning to focus on how to effectively cultivate IoT engineers who possess both hard skills and soft skills. Therefore, from the perspective of activity theory and combining it with project-based learning, this study constructed a project-based learning framework based on activity theory and applied this framework to an IoT…

College calculus plays an important role in STEM students' degree and career aspirations. One of the key factors considered in assessing a student's ability to be successful in calculus is their proficiency in topics from prior mathematics courses such as algebra and precalculus. This study set out to examine the impact of students' precalculus…

What 'sources' of knowledge do higher education students draw on, to prepare for exams? And has the pandemic made any difference? The study presented in this paper addresses these questions, in the belief that gaining awareness of the sources through which students learn is important for the instructional design of the courses and the evaluation…

This study tested the interaction effect of the instructor's eye gaze (direct gaze vs. averted gaze) and facial expression (happy face vs. neutral face) on students' attention and learning performance in slide-based video lectures. University students (N = 120) participated in the experiment in a laboratory setting. The results of ANOVAs showed…

Previous studies have indicated the challenges posed by large classes in promoting quality education and better student learning. This paper argues that empirically exploring other latent variables inherent in the pedagogical triangle of the teacher, the learner and the content hold a number of promises in elucidating the dynamics of large classes…