This case study discusses the integration of information literacy instruction and assessment in a required research course for students of journalism and strategic communication at the University of Kansas. The integration consisted of four components: (1) a unifying threshold concept, (2) an open textbook, (3) a sequence of five assignments, and…

Hands-on learning activities enhance course outcomes in college courses based on increased exam scores and student satisfaction; however, online courses pose challenges for creating hands-on learning opportunities. The objective of this study was to compare online and on-campus students' perception and performance on a soybean processing and…

This report evaluates the use of active, open-ended research problems taken from the instructor's laboratory and assigned as mid-semester projects in Transport Phenomena. Projects are structured in a POGIL [process oriented guided inquiry learning] format and designed to engage students by providing them the opportunity to impact real research…

Faculty at Bethany College, Kansas found that when engaging with controversial topics like social justice, students needed lower-stakes spaces to think--and history and writing, together, provided these needed spaces. When taught in combination, these two subject areas prompted engagement and self-reflection, and the interdisciplinary synergy…

In this article, the authors report on the results of a three-year study they conducted on assessment practices in general education courses at Duke University as part of a three-institution (Duke, the University of Kansas, and the University of Nebraska) research project funded by the Spencer Foundation. At all three institutions, researchers…

On September 21, 2012, two astronomers using a telescope in the International Scientific Observing Network (ISON) near Kislovodsk, Russia, discovered a comet that came to be formally known as C/2012 S1 and was popularly called Comet ISON. Just a year later, two honors instructors in Wichita, Kansas, found themselves teaching a course on Comet ISON…

Michael Wesch has been on the lecture circuit for years touting new models of active teaching with technology. The associate professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University has given TED talks. "Wired" magazine gave him a Rave Award. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching once named him a national professor…

Thirty-three students of fourth semester German at the University of Kansas participated in the study which sought to investigate whether focused written corrective feedback (WCF) promoted the acquisition of the German case morphology over the course of a semester. Participants received teacher WCF on five two-draft essay assignments under three…