Mastery-based assignments typically provide students with multiple opportunities to improve their performance, but getting students to take advantage of these opportunities is difficult. We report on the implementation of a two-part series of nudges designed to improve students' engagement with and performance on mastery-based assignments in…

Email etiquette is an important skill, especially in professional settings. Research demonstrates that undergraduate students follow email rules when given written instructions plus an example. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of computer-based email instruction on undergraduate students' email etiquette and to assess…

Misunderstandings about how the academic world operates are common among international students. This research investigated international students' understandings of academic regulations. Qualitative content analysis of 3,438 email messages indicate international students used a constellation of arguments to make academic requests/complaints to…

The present study seeks to delve into the intricacies of feedback strategies adopted by male and female Jordanian EFL postgraduate university instructors when responding to their students' assignment submissions and inquiries via asynchronous communication mode, namely email communication, to see if there are any significant differences in their…

We explore the use of text message reminders to improve student performance. The effectiveness of text messaging reminders is examined by comparing two large sections of a course where students focused on personal branding. One section received deadline reminders by email, while the other section received opt-in text reminders. The results of the…

This article offers readers 13 "My Favorite Assignments" that were presented at the Association for Business Communication's 83rd annual conference held in Miami, Florida, in 2018. The teaching innovations offered include assignments that present quick, fun icebreaker exercises; visual communication and diversity; rhetoric; email; and…

The design, development and deployment of online instruction has become standard practice. The focus of the study was on student perceptions of course rubrics and not on the rubrics, themselves, or the instructors. In order to improve student engagement online we conducted an exploratory study of the awareness and perceptions of course rubrics.…

An asynchronous online discussion forum was created and used to post Arabization homework-assignments consisting of application questions and discussion threads covering the topics taught in class. The instructor gave communicative feedback on the location and types of errors. Errors were color-coded. No correct answers were provided. The…

As the prevalence of online education continues to grow, so do concerns about student success. Online students tend to withdraw more often and earn lower grades, compared to students in traditional classrooms. Explanations for this disparity range from student characteristics to institutional shortcomings to course design. Attempts to counter this…

The study examined potential factors and attitudes associated with providing fraudulent academic claims. A total of 319 students completed an online survey which involved reading a vignette about an incomplete assignment. Participants reported whether they would contact their instructor to gain an extension, expressed their confidence in the…

While many researchers have sought to identify pedagogical strategies to create a sense of connectedness in online courses, few have investigated e-mail correspondence between student and instructor. The current study addressed this issue and found students' sense of connectedness to be strongly correlated to feedback on assignments, instructor…

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate a novel assessment method developed to determine if the curriculum from two separate safety degree programs provided sufficient opportunity for students to obtain the knowledge required for professional practice in occupational safety. The method relies on the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP)…

This article, the second of a two-part series, features 13 "My Favorite Assignments" that were introduced at the Association for Business Communication's 82nd annual conference held in Dublin, Ireland, in 2017. The pedagogical innovations include assignments that teach students how to conduct primary research, present their findings,…

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which instructor immediacy correlated with online community college students' perceived learning. The research questions that were investigated in the study focused on online instructor immediacy as it relates to praise (words of approval), encouragement (words of support) and examples…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the use of online storytelling as a motivation for young learners to practice narrative skills, measured through active choice, persistence and mental effort (Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). Web analytics was used to track 24 home schooled participants of an online application to teach a 21st…