More instructors at every educational level are developing online courses and adding online components to face-to-face courses on an ever-broadening array of topics each semester. This paper provides recommendations for designing and maintaining online learning environments that encourage active learning, interaction, and academic integrity based…

The purpose of this paper is to describe and evaluate an active-learning exercise designed to allow college students the opportunity to experience the consequences of stratification by social class. In particular, this activity challenges the belief that success is primarily an outcome of hard work (i.e., the belief in a meritocracy). Data…

This article advances a view of Computer Algebra Systems (CAS) as powerful inquiry-based learning tools. Through an in-depth exploration of the "Emptying the Bowl" activity, upper level mathematics students test their own mathematical hypotheses, thoughtfully analyse and manipulate computer-generated output, and answer questions…

This study uses two national data sets to explore the relationship between faculty practices and student engagement. Our findings suggest that students report higher levels of engagement and learning at institutions where faculty members use active and collaborative learning techniques, engage students in experiences, emphasize higher-order…

Colleges and universities have made considerable effort to get students to use information technology productively. This study uses data from the 2003 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to investigate the relationships between student uses of information technology and other forms of student engagement. There…

Technology has long been a part of the classroom space. Sometime in the 1990s, the word technology was co-opted to refer only to digital tools. "Technology in the classroom" or "technology stocks" or "the dangers posed by technology" came to refer only to digital technology rather than to technology as a whole. As such, much of the discussion…

This paper examines the effectiveness of the case study method in a team-teaching environment designed to augment a large capstone communications course that satisfies general education requirements. Results from a survey revealed that the use of case study enhanced the otherwise missing connection between the large lecture and the recitation…

This article describes an active learning method for the teaching of physical sciences and mathematics to engineers. After defining the challenges involved in the training of engineers, we shall describe the answers provided by our method, "learning by doing" (named "Apprentissage Par l"Action" in French), by introducing…

Incorporating newspapers into a science course encourages students to take control of their learning. Assignments related to newspapers facilitate active learning in a classroom environment focused on the learner. Several different types of assignments are described for three different general education science courses. (Contains 3 tables.)

This article describes the following aspects of teaching biochemistry in undergraduate health courses: objectives, number of hours, time in which the subject is studied, selection of content, teaching strategies, and evaluation methodologies used. Fifty-three courses distributed in 13 areas within the health field and offered by 12 institutions…

Teachers discovered that the mathematics classroom is an ideal setting for the development of a more precise use of language that leads to better communication. It is found that students are enthusiastically engaged in lively discussions during every phase of the activity, striving to outsmart their partners, by continually correcting each other,…

The new political dispensation and socio-economic transformation in South Africa do not, unfortunately, guarantee jobs for those who wish to enter the labour market after school. Indications are that only between 5-7% of successful Grade 12 candidates in the country find employment in the formal sector. The problem of unemployment and ways to…

Taking students out into the field to visit properties has been a foundation of agricultural education practice in Australian higher education. These excursions are invariably popular with students, but their enjoyment of these activities may be largely due to factors other than the achievement of learning outcomes. This paper reports on a…

This paper reviews a series of formative assessment studies that were conducted to inform and evaluate a large-scale instructional software development project at the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR). The three-year project, entitled "Taking the Next Step in Engineering Education: Integrating Educational Software and Active Learning,"…

Previous research with classical instrumental musicians has highlighted the intrinsic benefits of teaching in addition to the perhaps more obvious benefits of securing a regular income. Yet, despite the presence of educational activities in the portfolio of most musicians, teaching remains on the periphery of many music performance programmes in…