Pre-laboratory activities have been known to improve students' preparation before their practical work as they assist students to make available more working memory capacity for actual learning during the laboratory. The aim of this investigation was to compare two different teaching approaches which supported a pre-laboratory session by using the…

Community and culture significantly influence value orientation, perceived needs, and motivation as well as provide the ground for creating shared understanding. All disciplines have their own cultures, and all cultures evolve through cross-cultural exchanges. The computing community has created and documented a sound body of knowledge of…

The Spanish educational system will require certain changes in order to achieve the Bologna objectives for the European Higher Education Area, including a more professional profile, with new activities and roles for both students and teachers, who must assume new skills that will affect concepts and attitudes related to the teaching and learning…

At Dalarna University, Sweden, modes of communication are offered at many points of Kenning's continuum with a web-based learning platform, including asynchronous document exchange and collaborative writing tools, e-mail, recorded lectures in various formats, live streamed lectures with the possibility of text questions to the lecturer in real…

Despite a growing development of virtual laboratories which use the advantages of multimedia and Internet for distance education, learning by means of such tutorial tools would be more effective if they were specifically tailored to each student needs. The virtual teaching process would be well adapted if an artificial tutor can identify the…

This paper presents findings from a two-­year pilot project into the use of ePortfolios as a tool for assessment in a two year, field-­oriented, inquiry-­based teacher preparation program. Participants consisted of five cohorts of pre­service student teachers and five instructors; interviews, focus groups, artifacts, and project meetings provided…

Digital repositories can help Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to develop coherent and coordinated approaches to capture, identify, store and retrieve intellectual assets such as datasets, course material and research papers. With the advances of technology, an increasing number of Higher Education Institutions are implementing digital…

The state of Kentucky has embarked upon a large scale systems change effort to integrate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, including use of digital curriculum and computerized reading supports to improve overall student achievement. A major component of this initiative is the use of Read & Write Gold. As higher expectations are…

This paper reports case study research into the knowledge and understanding of chemistry for six secondary science student teachers. It combines innovative student-generated computer animations, using "ChemSense" software, with interviews to probe understanding of four common chemical processes used in the secondary school curriculum. Findings…

Course management systems (CMSs) currently drive educational delivery in most developed countries. Their absence in higher education in most developing countries creates a digital divide between first- and third-world students. Meeting the needs of higher education in Ghana therefore depends on identifying the factors that should inform the choice…

Computer-supported discursive learning (CSDL) systems for the support of asynchronous discursive learning need to fulfill specific socio-technical conditions. To understand these conditions, we employed design experiments combining aspects of communication theory, empirical findings, and continuous improvement of the investigated prototypes. Our…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to analyze enabling factors in the technology integration change process in a multi-section science methods course, SCIED 408 (pseudonym), from 1997 to 2003 at a large northeastern university in the United States. We used two major data collection methods, in-depth interviewing and document reviews.…

The authors teach upper-level science courses in cell biology, genetics, and biochemistry at a public, four-year "community university" that serves a demographically diverse population of traditional and nontraditional students. In this article, they describe some of the issues they have found to be particularly significant at their "community…

This paper describes how a Wayne State University (Michigan) multimedia design team is applying Keller's ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction) Model of Motivational Design to the entire process of design, development, and evaluation of multimedia courseware. The ARCS Model has been applied to the prototype module and is being…

This paper reflects on the author's participation in two government-sponsored educational software development projects that used a holistic design paradigm in which classroom formative assessment and teacher input played a critical role in the development process. The two project were: R-WISE (Reading and Writing in a Supportive Environment)--a…