Contrary to expectations, total postsecondary enrollment in the United States (US) declined in Fall 2011. In fact, it continues to decline while online enrollment continues to increase. Students can more easily cross geographic boundaries as online access causes barriers to postsecondary education to crumble, and more than 50% of the demand for…

This article provides a brief history of massive open online courses (MOOCs), a snapshot of the rapidly evolving issue of credit recognition, and the integration of MOOCs into traditional degree programs, like the Gates Foundation-funded MOOCs-For-Credit Research Project. The article notes that MOOCs have accelerated innovation, especially in…

The authors developed a methodology for evaluating student answers on homework assigned in 3 sections (total N = 167) of an undergraduate educational psychology course. The potential of homework to predict exam scores was compared with that of two established predictors (critical thinking and participation in class discussion). The findings…

Student interviews, focus groups, and classroom observations were used in an exploratory study of the nature of student interactions in a large (300+ students) general chemistry course taught with clickers. These data suggest that students are self-assembling their learning environment: choosing ways in which to interact with one another during…

In this reflection, we discuss the connectivist conception of learning in Web 2.0 environments, which underpins the pedagogy of what are known as cMOOCs (connectivist massive open online courses). We argue that this conception of learning is inadequate and problematic, and we propose that cultural psychology is best suited to address the…

For some time, this author had been planning to write a column about Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs). He hesitated, however, mainly because there had of late been so much written and published on this topic that is was difficult to see what could usefully be added. He does have strong feelings about the topic, which he would like to share…

This study attempts to examine how students participate and interact in different discussion modules organized with different group size in an online environment. It adopts a case study methodology where full semester online course with two small-group and three class-wide discussion forums was examined. The researcher counted the number of…

This article examines how a coding scheme for mathematics classroom discussion that was created to highlight how teachers negotiate student responses during whole-class discussion around high-level, cognitively demanding tasks was used to help teachers shift what they notice when analyzing classroom discourse. Data from an intervention that…

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been a relatively recent entrant in the field of online learning, yet with their "massiveness" and "openness" were posited to have the potential to transform learning and development in developing countries by providing willing learners with ready access to knowledge and Higher Education…

We investigated how high school students taking a university preparatory economics course would engage with the learning and assessment components of a Behavioural Economics MOOC that was integrated into their school-based course. Students were divided into two groups, MOOC-only, with no teacher support, and blended-mode, with weekly tutorials.…

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be regarded as a promising next step in the evolution of distance education. However, they have been criticised for their poor learning design. This article describes the development of an adequate learning design in a series of nineteen MOOCs (called online master classes). A formative evaluation focuses on…

Finding effective ways of designing online courses is a priority for corporate organizations. The interaction equivalency theorem states that meaningful learning can be achieved as long as courses are designed with at least a high level of one of three types of interactions (learner-content, learner-teacher or learner-learner). This study aimed to…

Promoting engagement during lectures becomes significantly more challenging as class sizes increase. Therefore, lecturers need to experiment with new teaching methodologies to embolden deep learning outcomes and to develop interpersonal skills amongst students. Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning is a teaching approach that uses highly…

Urban physical education curriculum articles are sparsely published in major educational journals (Chepyator-Thomson et al., 2008; Culp, 2005). This leaves urban physical educators the daunting task to modify and prepare curriculum based on formal class training and educational workshops and to interpret journal articles to be applied to the urban…

As in many universities, class sizes have increased more quickly than teaching and learning resources. A related challenge is the increasing diversity of the student body in terms of socio-economic background, learning styles, English language ability and preparedness. This paper explores ways in which traditional face-to-face teaching methods…