The sudden shift to online learning thrust upon universities worldwide by the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis created unique challenges related to effective online education. Challenges were most acute for highly interactive classes that were forced to move to asynchronous online learning environments. In response to these challenges,…

To investigate how physics students perceived the sudden shift to online learning at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, 18 semistructured interviews were conducted with university students in Austria, Croatia, and Germany. Based on the interviews, a questionnaire was developed and data from N ¼ 578 physics students from five universities in…

In this paper, we present our experience with redesigning an introductory computer science course for (electrical) engineers with blended learning concepts. It is a large mandatory course with eight credit points over the course of two semesters, where first year electrical engineers learn how to program with Arduino, C and Python. Additionally,…

Combinations of text and different types of pictures are commonplace in biology as in science in general. The single representations (i.e., text, picture) constituting a text-picture combination may contain redundant or complementary information. The ability to identify and integrate information in different kinds of text-picture combinations is…

Collaboration is regarded as one of the core competences of the 21st century when it comes to complex problem solving. In response to high dropout rates among STEM students, we developed a digital-collaborative intervention on a difficult topic, MO theory, for first-year chemistry students. First, students work independently in a Digital Learning…

At universities, we observe a great range of variation in previous knowledge and decreasing mathematical competences of students -- partly due to less limited qualification rules at universities in Germany. To address the challenges which arise by teaching very heterogeneous student groups we use e-tutorials as an addition to traditional classroom…

What are the perceived effects of Telecollaboration (TC), compared to other types of communication-scenarios with peers (i.e. local peers in small groups and Erasmus students abroad)? This is the question this exploratory study tackles within a blended language learning course. The analysis of students' perceptions paints a rather contrastive…

Use of the "Journalist Method" in science education is described, in which pupils are asked to create short news presentations (we call them news spots) for a fictitious television newscast about science-related issues. The writing of such news spots by cooperative teams of pupils is supported by collections of background information…

They sat in the Cubberley Education Lecture Hall to hear visiting experts. More often they could be found meeting in reduced-size classes, or working on small-group activities. They usually took notes; sometimes they took field trips. They memorized lists and sat for exams, but they also watched films and acted out scenarios. Rather than take…

Remote experimentation laboratories (REL) are systems based on real equipment that allow students to carry out a laboratory practice through the Internet on the computer. In engineering, there have been numerous initiatives to implement REL over recent years, given the fundamental role of laboratory activities. However, in the past efforts have…

Two experiments investigated the proclivity of 14-month-old infants (a) to altruistically help others toward individual goals, and (b) to cooperate toward a shared goal. The infants helped another person by handing over objects the other person was unsuccessfully reaching for, but did not help reliably in situations involving more complex goals.…

This article discusses feedback methods for the enhancement of collaborative learning. It presents results of an exploratory study in which self- and peer-assessments were applied in order to provide students with feedback regarding their perceived individual learning involvement in the collaboration process of face-to-face and face-file-face…