Student interaction at a whole-class level is tied to learning outcomes, but encouraging students to engage with their peers at a whole-class level is difficult. While little research has sought to promote student engagement with one another at this level, one factor that has been shown to increase student interaction in pairs and small groups is…

Reading comprehension instruction in the United States has historically been weak and provided limited support for diverse learners. Though the majority of teachers in the United States use core reading programs to design and teach reading comprehension lessons, virtually nothing is known about how teachers interact with core programs to develop…

Team projects and in-class interactions are the hallmark of a freshmen introductory course in biomedical engineering (BME). Our challenge was to continue team activities, mentoring, and the semester-long design project in a virtual environment after in-person classes ended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper highlights some of the adaptations…

Although artificial Intelligence (AI) is prevalent and impacts facets of daily life, there is limited research on responsible and humanistic design, implementation, and evaluation of AI, especially in the field of education. Afterall, learning is inherently a social endeavor involving human interactions, rendering the need for AI designs to be…

Low degree completion rate within the prescribed time due to exceedingly large failure rate of students has become a growing concern for Distance Learning Institutes. High failure rate in courses as much as 70% in freshman courses and 60% in advanced courses as the students proceed to final semesters--are costly to both; the institution and the…

This article documents the design, delivery, and evaluation of a first-year experience (FYE) course in media and communication studies. It was decided that CMNS 110: Introduction to Communication Studies would start to include elements to address a perceived and documented sense of disconnectedness among first-year students in the School of…

Teachers select multiple representations and adopt multiple visualization approaches in supporting their students to make meaning of chemical phenomena. Representational competence underpins students' construction of their mental models of concepts thus it is important that teachers consider this while developing instructional resources. In…

Despite the popular claim that massive open online courses (MOOCs) can democratise educational opportunities, this study suggests that current MOOC platforms are not designed to be accessible and inclusive for learners with disabilities. Our main goals in this study were to identify the needs and barriers that learners with visual impairments face…

This article details a role-playing "citizenship simulation" used in a large graduate seminar offered by the Masters of International Relations (IR) faculty at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While recognizing the need for a more systematic analysis of the relationship between class size and active learning strategies, this…

Despite the promised benefits of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) to address the digital divide and promote equity in educational opportunities, the use of MOOCs is still lagging especially in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate the barriers underlying the adoption of MOOCs in the context of a developing country.…

Since the introduction of connectivism as a learning theory in 2004 a body of literature has developed both offering criticisms and expanding on applications and empirical validation. This article surveys recent literature on the topic, grouping it into themes, and developing an understanding of current perspectives in connectivism. It surveys…

Both large lectures and online formats are encouraged as viable options for the delivery of course material in higher education today, especially in large general education courses. However, how do such delivery formats impact student learning? In an effort to understand how lecture format impacts cognitive learning, this study investigated how…

This experimental study examined the effects of pre-tests and feedback on learning outcomes in a five-week massive open online course (MOOC). The participants (N = 399) were adults from around the world who self-enrolled in the American Museum of Natural History's (AMNH) climate change MOOC (called "Our Earth's Future") offered on the…

A criticism of cross-cultural course requirements at the collegiate level is just how effective these courses are in promoting multiculturalism among students. Many of these courses are also taught in large lecture format, cultivating an environment in which students are passive receivers of information rather than active participants in open…

Purpose: Although sampling teachers' child-directed speech in school settings is needed to understand the influence of linguistic input on child outcomes, empirical guidance for measurement procedures needed to obtain representative samples is lacking. To optimize resources needed to transcribe, code, and analyze classroom samples, this…