As part of our research on the community college baccalaureate (CCB), we studied the prospects of adopting and scaling CCB degrees in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Higher education leaders in these six Great Lakes states recognized the potential for CCB degrees to increase academic, geographic and financial access to…

Information communication technology (ICT) that is used in instruction has attracted the attention of researchers with many studies having looked at the factors affecting how university instructors apply it in their teaching. Yet little is known about whether the gender of university teachers can impact their ICT use. This research relies on…

The release of the latest LEGO Mindstorms EV3 robotics platform in September 2013 has provided a dilemma for many youth robotics leaders. There is a need to understand the differences in the Mindstorms NXT and EV3 in order to make future robotics purchases. In this article the differences are identified regarding software, hardware, sensors, the…

PowerPoint is roundly reviled and ridiculed, yet this technology enjoys universal popularity. This article reviews the criticisms of PowerPoint and its peer technologies, describes its affordances and advantages, and suggests innovative PowerPoint applications in instruction. Beyond garden-variety applications of PowerPoint, it may also be used to…

At the heart of van der Linden's approach to automated test assembly (ATA) is a linear programming/integer programming (LP/IP) problem. A variety of IP solvers are available, ranging in cost from free to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In this paper, I compare several approaches to solving the underlying IP problem. These approaches range from…

Andragogy is a strategy for teaching adults that can be applied to Photoshop training. Photoshop workshops are frequented by adult learners, and thus andragogical models for instruction would be extremely helpful for prospective trainers looking to improve their classroom designs. Adult learners are much different than child learners, given the…

Interest in using Bayesian methods for estimating item response theory models has grown at a remarkable rate in recent years. This attentiveness to Bayesian estimation has also inspired a growth in available software such as WinBUGS, R packages, BMIRT, MPLUS, and SAS PROC MCMC. This article intends to provide an accessible overview of Bayesian…

Digital learning games are useful educational tools with high motivational potential. With the application of games for instruction there comes the need of acknowledging learning game experiences also in the context of educational assessment. Learning analytics provides new opportunities for supporting assessment in and of educational games. We…

Doing national program so called School Literacy Movement (GLS), classes are expected to do 15-minute regular reading activity every day; including English classes in elementary schools. Witnessing that some classes are having limited English story books to read as well as ready-to-use follow-up activities, this article proposes reading activities…

The purpose of this paper is to review the role of software within an ePortfolio (ePF) initiative for students of a five-semester master's program for Business Education and Development. The didactical aim of the ePF initiative presented is to enhance students' ability for (self-)reflection. An accompanying study of the implementation process…

Language learning applications (LL Apps), especially those that can be downloaded to a mobile device, are popular, widely available and represent a potentially useful tool for language teachers and their students. However, concerns exist that many LL Apps are inadequately aligned with second language acquisition (SLA) theory, and/or poorly suited…

Information and communications technology (ICT) is currently inserted in the daily activities of a human being and has become a necessary resource, vital for their development up to the point of not conceiving activities without using these. In this sense, the education field is not the exception and has been partially including ICT as support for…

This exploratory study focuses on international students' usage of digital tools in order to understand what role such tools play in the transition to their new academic environments and what learning opportunities they provide. Not only do digital tools accompany international students' social, cultural, and linguistic transitions as they move to…

Feedback is one of the most important influences on second language learning. While much research has been undertaken in the field of corrective feedback, the study of student engagement with feedback in languages remains understudied. This article addresses the need for more interactive, effective and time-saving feedback, achieving more student…

Jeff McQuillan offers case studies of intermediate level language learners who read young adult and adult fiction successfully as an argument against explicit vocabulary instruction. Case studies provide useful insights into whatever is being investigated but may not always be generalizable. However, McQuillan's reference to case studies has made…