Large cohorts (>200 students) are an ever-increasing presence in the UK higher education (HE) sector. Providing excellent teaching and learning to these large classes is an ongoing challenge for teaching faculty, a challenge intensified when the cohort comprises 85% non-native English speakers. This paper presents the findings of a project to…

With the nationwide focus on increasing students understanding and use of technology, many teachers are beginning to incorporate a variety of technology into small group rotations. However, the use of technology during these rotations often does not require students to use higher level thinking or problem solving skills. By eliminating the…

Supplemental instruction (SI) is a small-group, peer-mentored programme which is compatible with the learning preferences of American Indian students. We tested the hypothesis that SI is a compensatory strategy that reduces the differences in the grades earned in introduction to psychology by Euro-American and American Indian students. The sample…

We study tactics for writing skills development through cross-disciplinary learning in online large-scale classes, and particularly are interested in implementation of online collaborative activities such as peer reviewing of writing. The goal of our study is to carry out collaborative works efficiently via online effectively in large-scale…

MOOCs are open online courses offered by major universities, free to everyone, anywhere in the world. Hundreds or tens of thousands of learners enrollee in MOOCs but completion rate is extremely low, sometimes less than 10%. There is a need to explore new and more engaging forms of pedagogy to improve retention. Focusing on this need, this paper,…

To make our general education biology course for nonmajors more relevant and engaging, we recently implemented an instructional approach featuring collaborative, active-learning exercises. The primary point of interest in this study was the impact of the exercises on students' grades, particularly those students who struggle on tests. Expectedly,…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are often examined and evaluated in terms of institutional cost, instructor prestige, number of students enrolled, and completion rates. MOOCs, which are connecting thousands of adult learners from diverse backgrounds, have yet to be viewed from a learning culture perspective. This research used virtual…

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) can create large scale communities of learners who collaborate, interact and discuss learning materials and activities. MOOCs are often delivered multiple times with similar content to different cohorts of learners. However, research into the differences of learner communication, behavior and expectation between…

In the face of mounting evidence revealing active learning approaches result in improved student learning outcomes compared to traditional passive lecturing, there is a growing need to change the way instructors teach large introductory science courses. However, a large proportion of STEM faculty continues to use traditional instructor-centered…

Small group work is common practice in higher education. However, empirical research on students' emotions related to group work is still relatively scarce. Particularly, little is known about students' appraisals of a group task as antecedents of emotions arising in the context of group work. This paper provides a first attempt to systematically…

We tested the educational utility of "teaching in students' preferred ways" as a new autonomy-supportive way of teaching to enhance students' autonomy and conceptual learning. A pilot test first differentiated preferred versus nonpreferred ways of teaching. In the main study, a hired teacher who was blind to the purpose of the study…

The advent of the internet and digital technologies has given rise to a number of new economic models. These have often been applied to education, but either through faults in the initial models or differences in the characteristics of the education sector, they have not proven to be widely applicable. The use of digital, network technologies…

Sustainable energy is one of the biggest global challenges today. This paper discusses how we can promote adolescents' learning of sustainable energy with the help of an international massive open online course (MOOC). The aim of this case study is to understand: (1) What do the adolescents find relevant in the MOOC course about sustainable…

In their seminal 1995 article, Barr and Tagg encouraged higher education to think differently about undergraduate education and suggested that a new paradigm be adopted that focused less on what is taught and more on what is learned. Dubbed the learner-centered paradigm, this reframing of education challenges long standing practices and removes…

The past few years has seen the rapid growth of data mining approaches for the analysis of data obtained from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The objectives of this study are to develop approaches to predict the scores a student may achieve on a given grade-related assessment based on information, considered as prior performance or prior…