Our project is motivated by the early dropout and low completion rate problem in MOOCs. We have extended traditional features for MOOC analysis with richer and higher granularity information to make more accurate predictions of dropout and performance. The results show that finer-grained temporal information increases the predictive power in the…

Higher education institutions today are increasingly considered to be "means," serving as suppliers for employers, not "ends" that address "wicked" problems. This disregards their role in the generational succession of civil societies. Massive open online courses can strengthen higher education institutions by working…

Over a period of six years, three different types of recitation sessions were implemented into the large enrollment section of a college calculus course. During the fall semesters, the results on the departmental final examination, the DFW rates, and the one-year retention rates of students as STEM majors were examined by the type of recitation…

Internet based education media are developing at an amazing rate and being seen as an upstart that will likely take the place of traditional education means worldwide in the future. This paper presents the results of a comparative analysis on user preferences for four major categories of internet-based media used in China. In this paper, we first…

Open online distance learning in higher education has quickly gained popularity, expanded, and evolved, with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as the most recent development. New web technologies allow for scalable ways to deliver video lecture content, implement social forums and track student progress in MOOCs. However, we remain limited in…

In South Africa and in other parts of the world, many professions are bemoaning the poor ability of many graduates to communicate their skills and knowledge effectively once they enter the workplace. Increasingly, pressure is placed on higher education to do more in terms of equipping future professionals with the necessary critical reading,…

Large classes have increasingly become a feature in many countries around the world. This paper presents a two-pronged analysis of this phenomenon, drawing on the political economy of higher education as well as the sociology of knowledge to contribute to a principled discussion about why we have large classes, and when a large class is too large.…

Studies of inquiry- and context-based science education (IC-BaSE) have shown that teachers find these approaches problematic. In this study, 12 primary school teachers' reflections on challenges related to IC-BaSE are explored. The aim of the study was to investigate which challenges primary teachers experience when working with IC-BaSE and how…

In this article, we introduce a model for preparing school counselors-in-training to conduct large group developmental guidance. Additionally, we present findings from a focus group and individual interviews evaluating participants' perceptions of the model. We identified 7 themes representing school counselors'-in-training perceptions of the…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have gained significant attention in recent years for their potential to impact education at a global scale. This paper presents the findings from a study that examined the cases of three MOOCs, including Human Trafficking, US Food System, and Animal Behavior and Welfare, that were specifically designed to…

The "field trip" is a key pedagogical tool within geographical education to encourage deep learning, though they are increasingly difficult to implement due to reduced budgets, safety concerns and increasing class sizes. We incorporated three field-learning activities into a large introductory module. A traditional staff-led trip was the…

We consider the principles of communities of practice (CoP) and networked learning in higher education, illustrated with a case study. iCollab has grown from an international community of practice connecting students and lecturers in seven modules across seven higher education institutions in six countries, to a global network supporting the…

Many students begin their college experience enrolled in large introductory classes. These classes are likely to enroll students who are at risk of leaving college without a degree. As such, these classes have the potential to reach at-risk students including first-year, first-generation, undeclared, and underrepresented minority (URM) students.…

The focus of all of this intense interchange was the shape and future of learning institutions. Our charge was to accept the challenge of an Information Age and acknowledge, at the conceptual as well as at the methodological level, the responsibilities of learning at an epistemic moment when learning itself is the most dramatic medium of that…

The reality that teachers in developing countries teach large, and even overcrowded classes, is daunting and one that may not go away any time soon. Class size in Kenyan public secondary schools is generally 40-59 students per class. This article reports initial findings on teachers' and principals' perspectives related to large classes. We used…