This paper builds on a case study on e-learning in Sri Lanka with focus on students underlying beliefs about how one learns. E-learning programs are most often set up with the assumption that students should think, act and learn independently and with underlying values of constructivism and learner-centred learning. For students used to…

Student retention rates are a constant concern in higher education, but this concern has become especially challenging as online courses become more common and there are widespread reports of low completion rates for online, self-study courses. We evaluated four self-study online pharmacy courses with a history of very high completion rates for…

This paper reviews the themes emerging from Bangladeshi teachers' experiences of taking part in the initial research and the development stage of a professional development programme they were involved with. The Secondary Teaching and Learning Programme is an information and communications technologies-enhanced supported open distance learning…

This research examined the impact of formative quizzes on e-learning designed to teach volunteers how to tutor struggling readers. Three research questions were addressed: (1) Do embedded quizzes facilitate learning of e-content? (2) Does the announcement of upcoming quizzes affect learning? (3) Does prior knowledge interact with quizzing and…

In face-to-face instruction of "Reciprocal Teaching (RT)", students' reading processes and dialogues with their peers are hardly observed. As a result, the teacher has few clues to identify students' learning difficulties and provide further scaffoldings. To record students' reading processes and enhance their comprehension, this study reports on…

Humans draw on their stereotypic beliefs to make assumptions about others. Even though prior research has shown that individuals respond socially to media, there is little evidence with regards to learners stereotyping and categorizing pedagogical agents. This study investigated whether learners stereotype a pedagogical agent as being…

This paper explores the possibility of an uncanny digital pedagogy. Drawing on theories of the uncanny from psychoanalysis, cultural studies and educational philosophy, it considers how being online defamiliarises teaching, asking us to question and consider anew established academic practices and conventions. It touches on recent thinking on…

Learning theory suggests that student learning can be improved if students are required to articulate and reflect about work that they have done. This process helps students think more clearly about their work and such articulation also enables tutors to better assess student knowledge and mental models. There are various electronic tools…

Digital video equipment and studios newly available for faculty use can be incorporated into the technological repertoire of college faculty, enabling professors to customize and enhance the learning experience of their students. Today's students are particularly attuned to analyzing visual images and data, so the use of customized films in the…

This paper describes a method for analysing the learning processes that take place in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. The approach is based on tracking the interactions between learners and tutors. Keeping track of meaningful events serves three main purposes: evaluation of the quality of the process, monitoring…

Algebra has been identified as the foundational course for all other mathematics courses. Yet, research has shown that African-American students are low achievers in all strands of mathematics (NCES, 2001). Computers, on the other hand, have been marketed as an instructional tool to teach and reinforce classroom instructions. This study…

Instructional strategies for teaching concepts have long been identified. Less commonly studied is a learner's level of confidence and certitude in their knowledge based upon exposure to these instructional treatments. This experimental research study used an instrument referred to as the Spatial Probability Measure (SPM) to solicit levels of…

Electrical stimulation of nerve and muscle tissues is frequently used for teaching core concepts in physiology. It is usually expensive to provide every student group in the laboratory with an individual stimulator. This article presents the design and application of a low-cost [about $100 (U.S.)] isolated stimulator that can be controlled by two…

Collaboration scripts facilitate social and cognitive processes of collaborative learning by shaping the way learners interact with each other. Computer-supported collaboration scripts generally suffer from the problem of being restrained to a specific learning platform. A standardization of collaboration scripts first requires a specification of…

We consider two different algebra topics that can be taught in a typical college class. With each topic, we demonstrate how a teacher can delve deeper using a computer algebra system.