We discuss an upper division applied statistics course that has been structured to satisfy our college's writing intensive requirements within the mathematics major. In this course, students complete two projects, performing both a statistical survey and a controlled experiment, and then write up their work on each project in a formal paper. After…

As educators, we have two missions. First, we must serve our students--they are both our customer and our product. Second, we aim to provide the market in general with graduates with relevant skills and knowledge for jobs that have not even been created yet. Given that most students graduating and moving into the workplace are not necessarily…

The use of multimodal learning techniques is becoming more widespread, however, the pedagogical discourse surrounding its implementation into classroom and course design is complicated as these technologies are either demonized or viewed as the panacea for curriculum ills. Educators are faced with unique challenges when investigating how to…

This article explores project-based cross-cultural and cross-institutional learning. Using Web 2.0 technologies, this project involved more than 240 students and eighteen academic staff from seven international universities. The focus of this article relates to a project-based learning activity named "The Gift". At each institution the…

Project-Based Learning (PBL) connects standards-based content to real-world scenarios through the use of projects to improve student achievement. By engaging students in authentic problems that do not have a predetermined solution, students learn both subject matter and critical 21st-century skills. This "Focus On" addresses what…

Evaluation tools are provided that help students' peer-assessment and self-assessment in group activities for the laboratories and classroom. The self- and peer-evaluations have helped teachers provide better feedback to the students and feel more confident in assigning each individual a grade for their contribution to the group laboratory project.

This paper deploys notions of emergence, connections, and designs for learning to conceptualize high school students' interactions when using online social media as a learning environment. It makes links to chaos and complexity theories and to fractal patterns as it reports on a part of the first author's action research study, conducted while she…

Most systems development projects incorporate some sort of life cycle approach in their development. Whether the development methodology involves a traditional life cycle, prototyping, rapid application development, or some other approach, the first step usually involves a system investigation, which includes problem identification, feasibility…

The ability to assess the work of others is a core attribute for most professionals. To develop this graduate attribute in our students requires the learning of self and peer evaluation, feedback, and review skills. This paper discusses the changing design of peer assessment and the impact of a new groupwork support tool within a capstone…

Although group project concepts and skills have become a major component in most information systems (IS) academic programs, very little research has attempted to examine factors that may improve or undermine effectiveness of IS group projects. Accordingly, based on relevant literatures, this study develops and empirically tests a model of factors…

The purpose of this philosophical paper was to synthesize theoretical and historical foundations of the project method and compare them to modern best-practices. A review of historical and contemporary literature related to the project method yielded six themes: 1) purpose of projects; 2) project classification; 3) the process; 4) the context; 5)…

This study, conducted in 2005 in a New Zealand tertiary institution, examines Asian students' perceptions of the much-promulgated cooperative learning concepts in the form of group work and group assignments. Twenty-two Asian students participated in one-hour individual face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The study found that Asian students…

One of the major purposes of many intercultural communication textbooks is to help students recognize, accept, and appreciate cultural differences. However, one often lacks the necessary motivation to get to know and learn about individuals of a different cultural heritage. Thus, misunderstanding, stereotyping, prejudice, or even racism may…

Instructors and trainers are increasingly using online education and technology-mediated learning (TML) to supplement or replace traditional approaches to classroom teaching. Because mandatory involvement requirements may not intrinsically motivate learners to achieve high quality learning, social factors with commitment, such as identification…

This paper illustrates the use of computer-based projects in two one-semester first-year undergraduate mathematics classes. Developed over a period of years, the approach is one in which the classes are organised into work-groups, with computer-based projects being undertaken periodically to illustrate the class material. These projects are…