Evidence suggests that college students' concentration levels are limited and hard to maintain. Even though relevant in higher education, scant empirical research exists on interventions to "re-set" their concentration during a college lecture. Using a within-subjects design, four active learning interventions are administered across two…

Objective: The authors aim to evaluate the effectiveness of a presentation designed to increase cultural competence. Methods: A measure was developed to evaluate the attainment of knowledge and attitude objectives by first-year medical students who watched a presentation on the effect of culture on the doctor-patient relationship and effective…

The typical "Astro 101" lecture-based course is passive, and adding well-designed learner-centered labs allows students to experience science as a pattern of thought. In this article, we present an approach to developing an introductory lab course. Identification of goals and student outcomes, particularly skills, and process and attitudinal…

One of the most common uses of a course management system in the on-campus environment is to offer lecture resources to students. Few researchers have investigated how students use such resources. This study considers student use of lecture resources that offer a representation of the lecture presented (i.e. lecture outline, lecture summary, audio…

Based on the perspective of postformal operations, this study investigated whether college students' role models (technical teachers vs. lecturing teachers) and preferred learning styles (experience-driven mode vs. theory-driven mode) in collaborative teaching courses would be moderated by their cognitive development (absolute thinking vs.…

The purposes of this study were to compare the instructional methods and strategies identified as useful in online teaching environments with those used in a face-to-face teaching environment, to investigate relationships between the perceived usefulness of instructional strategies and methods used by higher education faculty in both teaching…

We describe an automatic classroom capture system that detects and records significant (stable) points in lectures by sampling and analyzing a sequence of screen capture frames from a PC used for presentations, application demonstrations, etc. The system uses visual inspection techniques to scan the screen capture stream to identify points to…

This paper describes a one-credit laboratory course for freshmen majoring in electrical and computer engineering (ECE). The course is motivational in nature and exposes the students to a wide range of areas of electrical and computer engineering. The authors believe it is important to give freshmen a broad perspective of what ECE is all about, and…

This research finding is based on the responses obtained from the undergraduate students at a higher learning institution (University) in Botswana. This paper investigated the stressors, symptoms and effects that are likely to be experienced by the undergraduate students in higher institutions (Universities). Stressors related to time, academic…

Peer-facilitated workshops enhanced interactivity in our introductory biology course, which led to increased student engagement and learning. A majority of students preferred attending two lectures and a workshop each week over attending three weekly lectures. In the workshops, students worked in small cooperative groups as they solved challenging…

Within an interteaching context, an alternating treatments design was used to compare the effects of answering versus writing study guide questions on quiz performance in a 10-week methods course in special education. Results indicated quiz performance was not substantially influenced by the type of preparation, but that writing questions led to…

Case studies have been used in undergraduate science education as a way to develop students' critical thinking and problem-solving skills. However, little empirical evidence exists on whether this teaching method is having the desired impact on students in plant pathology courses. This study evaluated the influence of the case teaching method on…

This investigation examined the course experiences of Bachelor of Education Primary students across each year of the course. The aims of the study were to identify gaps in what we know about our students; to identify relevant domains in student experiences and to assist with course improvements. A reflective inquiry paradigm was adopted for…

This study empirically examines the instructional value of online video lectures--videos that a course's instructor prepares to supplement classroom or online-broadcast lectures. The study examines data from a classroom course, where the videos have a slower, more step-by-step lecture style than the classroom lectures; student use of videos is…

The implementation of constructivist teaching strategies has vast professional benefits in nursing education through the promotion of critical thinking skills, as students must demonstrate success on the National Council Licensing Examination for Registered Nurses and ultimately perform competently within the nursing profession. While literature…