The debate over the best delivery of general education, whether through a canon of Great Books, a core curriculum of specific courses and course sequences, or a distribution requirement of course types providing for greater student choice, has existed for generations. Today, the debate plays out in practice across the top-rated colleges and…

Major changes are coming to U.S. financial accounting and accounting education as U. S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and international financial reporting standards (IFRS) converge within the next few years. In 2008, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a proposed "road map" for the potential…

Fonseca and Bird (2007) ask an intriguing question that relates to university branch campuses: "What happened to all the people who thought online learning would drive traditional education out of the market? Just when "click" is supposed to be replacing "brick," branch campuses are proliferating around the country."…

This paper presents an investigation of non-Information Systems (IS) major's perceptions and performance when enrolled in a required introductory Computer Information Systems course. Students of various academic backgrounds were taught Excel, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), JavaScript and computer literacy in a 14-week introductory course, in…

Competition can either increase motivation by providing an added incentive or decrease motivation by threatening participants' sense of competence. The authors used two rounds of competition to examine whether competitions can be structured in ways that motivate high performance and do not discourage losers. Results indicated that a focus on…

Given the downturn in Information Systems (IS) program enrollments, IS departments housed within schools of business are justifiably concerned about attracting more students into their programs. While some reasons for the downturn may be beyond the control of the academic community, it has been argued that IS programs are suffering, in part,…

Pressure from external stakeholders increasingly requires higher education institutions to provide concrete evidence of student learning. As such, assessment of student learning has become a significant part of the process of determining institutional quality. This article describes an example of one of university's response to the call for…

Are the humanities relevant enough to the average undergraduate to be included as a required part of a general education program? The University of Idaho (UI) is currently ten years into the challenge of implementing a cross-disciplinary, university-wide general education program--the UI Core--that has the attention, if not always the support, of…

The purpose of this study was to describe secondary pre-service teachers' past reading experiences, present attitudes and beliefs about reading, their attitudes and beliefs about a required content area literacy course, and their predicted use of reading in future instruction. Secondary pre-service teachers (N = 124) of diverse subject areas…

Because statistical analysis requires the ability to use mathematics, students typically are required to take one or more prerequisite math courses prior to enrolling in the business statistics course. Despite these math prerequisites, however, many students find it difficult to learn business statistics. In this study, we use an ordered probit…

This study reports the results of an electronic survey and two focus groups that included former Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT), students who took a required multicultural education course. As instructors in a pre-service teaching program for adult learners, we used a matrix of relevant materials to promote cultural competency within the…

The National Commission on Writing for America's Families, Schools, and Colleges (2006) specifies that writing-across-the-curriculum programs (including post-secondary coursework) should be well supported. The National Writing Project (NWP) is a group that understands this issue, believing that teachers must be comfortable and confident with…

Foundation degrees (FDs) involve the fusion of academic and vocational paths in higher education (HE) qualifications; the challenge for academics and employers is the credible assessment of the student's workplace learning. Focusing to the workplace enables participants to learn from their daily routines encountered at work. The challenge is to…

To attract and retain more students, colleges are increasingly attempting to maximize their academic offerings by including intensive classes. These abbreviated or condensed courses, which are typically available during the summer and sometimes during winter intersession, provide students with an opportunity to move quickly through required…

The importance of teachers in the success of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is unquestionable. However, designing a teacher course on TBLT raises many questions concerning "what" and "how" it can be implemented. Can teachers' professional development be promoted through Task-Based Instruction (TBI)? This paper explores…