The purpose of this paper is to highlight the complexities involved in higher education provision and how systems thinking and socio-technical systems (STS) thinking approach can be used to understand the education ecosystem. Systems thinking perspective is provided using two case studies: the development of European Learner Mobility (EuroLM)…

There is now a preponderance of evidence suggesting that the types of online course management software (OCMS) used in purely online undergraduate college courses, do not meet the needs of younger immature students. These students often lack the learning skills necessary to succeed in such courses, nor do the popular OCMS include the vigilance…

Knowledge obtained in higher education through de-contextualised tasks and activities often remains "inert" and learners cannot readily transfer understanding to novel contexts. Nowhere is this more evident than in learning a foreign language. Typical language interaction exercises in class do not mirror real-life language use and such…

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education piques students' innate curiosity and opens their eyes to hundreds of career possibilities. This column presents ideas and techniques to enhance your science teaching. This month's issue shares information about a STEM enrichment project for second graders that incorporates nutrition and…

There is growing interest in promoting autism-friendly environments, especially in a school setting. Findings to date have generally advocated an accepted reductionist or generalist approach when providing an autism-friendly built environment. However, previous studies, while very well intentioned, have rarely involved those with autism spectrum…

Faculty and students may benefit from using a well-designed instrument to meet the objectives of both institutional assessment requirements and direct student learning in the discipline. This paper discusses how accounting rubrics can be used to evaluate and assess student learning by providing an organized approach to determine student success on…

This paper describes an experiential capstone strategy course and an interesting innovation by a team of students that helps spread experiential learning to many business courses. Students operate a retail café as a captive client for strategic consulting. Students sweep floors, serve espresso drinks, and set strategy. The café is a learning…

What would it take for instructional design to qualify as a bona fide applied discipline? First and foremost, a fundamental requirement is a testable and tested theoretical base. Untested rationales until verified remain in limbo. Secondly, the discipline's applied prescriptions must be demonstrably traceable to the theoretical base once it is…

This article presents a case scenario that may be used in system analysis and design, database management, and business analytics classes. The case document includes realistic, detailed information on the operations at the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). Examples of assignments for each class and suggested reading are presented. In each…

The last five years have been active and noisy ones for the impact of technology and online education on the future of colleges and universities. Much has been said to disparage the traditional institutional model and champion strategies of disrupting or "unbundling" higher education, powered by the explosion of Web-based learning…

This study seeks to evaluate the basic Priority 1 web accessibility of all college and university websites in the US (n = 3141). Utilizing web scraping and automated content analysis, the study establishes that even in the case of high-priority, simple-to-address accessibility requirements, colleges and universities generally fail to make their…

It is one thing to produce an innovative, construct-based assessment task; it's another to produce 10 a year that are comparable in difficulty, measure the same competencies, are free of differential item functioning, and can be scaled and equated. These challenges contributed to the failure of the performance (or authentic) assessment movement of…

This article presents the results of a case involving the application of project-based learning carried out with students in the Mechanical Engineering degree program at the University of Girona. The project, entitled "Design and construction of a wooden bridge", was conducted at the Polytechnic School in the third-year Structures…

The aim of this article was to determine the mismatch between the existing desks and chairs in elementary schools and the anthropometric measurements of students in several regions of Central Java, Indonesia. Based on the mismatch, recommendations are given to improve the fit of the desks and chairs with the students' anthropometry. Five critical…

Protection of academic integrity in online environments can be challenging. Understanding how the technology works and concerns about each of the methods for monitoring online interactions can assist in the selection of the best proctoring tools. Depending on the content, the type of assessment and the comfort level with the technology, a…