The concept of the massive, open, online course (MOOC) is not new, but high-profile initiatives have moved MOOCs into the forefront of higher education news over the past few years. Members of institutions of higher education have mixed feelings about MOOCs, ranging from those who want to offer college credit for the successful completion of MOOCs…

In "MOOCs, High Technology, and Higher Learning," Robert A. Rhoads places the OpenCourseWare (OCW) movement into the larger context of a revolution in educational technology. In doing so, he seeks to bring greater balance to increasingly polarized discussions of massively open online courses (MOOCs) and show their ongoing relevance to…

During small group instruction, two groups of children--each group comprised of one child with a disability and two without disabilities--were taught to read words using a progressive time delay procedure (PTD). Apart from the children with disabilities, two typically developing peers in each group were taught to comment on tokens given for…

Sometimes through a single person's efforts, a new and innovative game is developed and promoted locally. Occasionally, circumstances cause these games to remain on a local level without being adopted by mainstream physical educators and physical activity professionals. Unfortunately, some educators tend to stick to what they know and teach…

We conducted two AB experiments (treatment vs. control) in a massive open online course. The first experiment evaluates deliberate practice activities (DPAs) for developing problem solving expertise as measured by traditional physics problems. We find that a more interactive drag-and-drop format of DPA generates quicker learning than a multiple…

Lessons from early academic television courses from the 1950s guide an assessment of current disruptive technologies that shape Massive Open Online Courses (known as MOOCs) and other informal online learning opportunities today. This dissertation explores some of the unique contributing factors that led to the creation of "Sunrise…

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have emerged with much popularity in the last five years, yet many questions remain about whom MOOCs best serve and what constitutes learner success. Completion rates, a common metric of student success, remain low (averaging < 8%) and may be a misleading measure of success unless learner intentions are…

Asking scientific questions is the first practice of science and engineering listed in the Next Generation Science Standards. However, getting students to ask unsolicited questions in a large class can be difficult. In this qualitative study, undergraduate students sent SMS text messages to the instructor who received them on his mobile phone and…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) attract diverse student bodies, and course forums could potentially be an opportunity for students with different political beliefs to engage with one another. We test whether this engagement actually takes place in two politically-themed MOOCs, on education policy and American government. We collect measures of…

Application-based assignments are often forgone in large marketing classes because of the daunting implementation and assessment challenges they present. One solution is to divide large classes into groups, but groups present their own challenges--of note, the potential for students to free-ride on the efforts of others. The 4Ps method of case…

Teaching sociological perspectives on race and ethnicity is challenging due to the predominance of color-blind ideology in our supposed postracial society. Students enter the classroom hesitant to discuss race or acknowledge ongoing racism. To better educate students and bridge the racial distance between them, we developed small-group,…

This study examined teachers' concerns about inclusion in mainstream Early Childhood Development (ECD) in Mashonaland West educational province of Zimbabwe. Embedded within the "core expertise" of inclusive pedagogy, the study draws on a sample of twenty-one mainstream ECD teachers purposively selected from the educational province.…

The on-going academic delay of students with emotional and behavioural disorders (EBD) in special education (SE) is concerning. While students with EBD are capable of acquiring fair academic skills, these outcomes are still not being realised on a larger scale. A plausible explanation for these meagre results might lie in a shortage of instruction…

The purpose of this study was to describe how MOOC learners' diverse learning needs, stemming from their different language, cultural, and educational backgrounds, were perceived and responded to during the course design and delivery. Participants were 15 instructors and instructional designers in American higher educational institutions who were…

Life skills preparation for adulthood is a crucial, yet often overlooked concept in education. In schools across the United States, young adults graduate from high school with limited knowledge regarding how to navigate through the expectations of the real world. Although many educators feel teaching life skills in the classroom is necessary, the…