Students entering medical college generally show vast diversity in their school education. It becomes the responsibility of teachers to motivate students and meet the needs of all diversities. One such measure is teaching students in their own preferred learning style. The present study was aimed to incorporate a learning style-based…

Visual literacy, the ability to interpret and create external representations (ERs), is essential to success in biochemistry. Studies have been conducted that describe students' abilities to use and interpret specific types of ERs. However, a framework for describing ERs derived through a naturalistic inquiry of biochemistry classrooms has not…

Learning and teaching are faced with radically new challenges in today's rapidly changing world and its deeply transformed communicational environment. We are living in an era of images. Contemporary visual technology--film, video, interactive digital media--is promoting but also demanding a new approach to education: the age of visual learning…

Although specific cognitive abilities, cognitive style, and learning preferences are assumed to be inter-related, the empirical evidence supporting this assumption is mixed. Cognitive style refers to how individuals represent information, and learning preference refers to how individuals prefer the presentation of information (Mayer & Massa,…

An activity involving analysis of art in biology courses was designed with the goals of piquing undergraduates' curiosity, broadening the ways in which college students meaningfully engage with course content and concepts, and developing aspects of students' higher-level thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. To meet these…

What does it look like to "understand" operations with fractions? The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) uses the term "understand" when describing expectations for students' knowledge related to each of the fraction operations within grades 4 through 6 (CCSSI 2010). Furthermore, CCSSM elaborates that…

Higher education is mandated to document student learning outcomes and ePortfolios have been offered as a panacea for assessment, evaluation, and accreditation. However, the student voice regarding the value students construct from building and utilizing web-based electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) in higher education has been sparse or…

This paper describes an emerging learning design for a popular genre of learner-generated video projects: "Ideas Videos" or "iVideos." These advocacy-style videos are short, two-minute, digital videos designed "to evoke powerful experiences about educative ideas" (Wong, Mishra, Koehler & Siebenthal, 2007, p1). We…

The present study examines how display model, English proficiency and cognitive preference affect English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' listening comprehension of authentic videos and cognitive load degree. EFL learners were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The control group received single coding and the experimental group received…

As part of the Visual Learning Lab's initiative of promoting visual learning supported through technologies in Higher Education, this VLL funded study explored part-time mature doctoral students' use and perceptions of a mobile device in support of their research activities. The study was conducted by the Graduate School in collaboration with the…

Retroactive interference (RI) in list learning occurs when the learning of a second list of words interferes with the recall of the first learned list. Having the lists be thematically different can reduce retroactive interference within list learning; however, this study demonstrates how RI can be reduced when the lists contain similar words.…

This paper presents an evaluation of the visual problem appraisal (VPA) learning environment in higher education. The VPA has been designed for the training of competences that are required in complex stakeholder settings in relation to sustainability issues. The design of VPA incorporates a diversity of instruction strategies to accommodate the…

The so-called millennial learners who currently populate college classrooms are purportedly digital natives whose repeated exposure to a host of new technologies has allegedly resulted in enhanced skills in several areas, including those related to technology and visual communication. By extension, the argument has been made that digital natives…

This article discusses and evaluates the inclusion of ethics learning modules in a graduate- level visual design theory course. Modules were designed as a part of an NEH grant. Students grappled with case studies that probed the ethics of visuals at the crux of the BP oil refinery accident, NASA space shuttle disasters, the Enron collapse, and…

Visual aesthetics in instructional design was defined for the purposes of this dissertation by the design actions of contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity (CARP), insofar as they contribute to learning experience. Occurrences of visual aesthetics were identified and analyzed in three frequently required, graduate-level textbooks in…