The current investigation tested the effectiveness of an online student research project designed to supplement traditional methods (e.g., lectures, discussions, and assigned readings) of teaching research methods in a large-enrollment Introduction to Psychology course. Over the course of the semester, students completed seven assignments, each…

For over a decade at the University of Minnesota, I have used social media tools in my introductory global history course to improve engagement and final grades. Students and I work as partners in using the tools to engage them more in the class, prepare for exams, and develop these skills for other courses. Our approach is guided by principles of…

With increasing interest in the assessment of learning outcomes in higher education, stakeholders are demanding concrete evidence of student learning. This applies no less to information literacy outcomes, which have been adopted by many colleges and universities around the world. This article describes the experience of a university library in…

In this study, the Science Student Skills Inventory was used to gain understanding of student perceptions about their quantitative skills and compare perceptions of cohorts graduating before and after the implementation of a new science curriculum intent on developing quantitative skills. The study involved 600 responses from final-year…

Online and blended learning have become common educational strategy in higher education. Lecturers have to re-theorise certain basic concerns of teaching, learning and assessment in non-traditional environments. These concerns include perceptions such as cogency and trustworthiness of assessment in online environments in relation to serving the…

The present study examined the relationship between novice learners' counterfactual thinking (i.e. generating "what if" and "if only" thoughts) about their initial training experience with a computer application and subsequent improvement in task performance. The role of anticipated emotions towards goal attainment in task…

This study targeted to explore the effect of memory strategy on EFL learners' vocabulary retention with a consideration of learners' multiple intelligences. In this study, the memory strategy consisted of three parts of grouping, acronym and images. The participants of this study were 80 male and female EFL learners of intermediate level who…

While the literature emphasizes the importance of teaching political science students methods skills, there currently exists little guidance for how to assess student learning over the course of their time in the major. To address this gap, we develop a model set of assessment tools that may be adopted and adapted by political science departments…

We explore how the dynamics of the tutor-tutee relationship influence students' self-reliance and, ultimately, course performance. We examine 333 tutor and tutee pairs at a student success center at a public, comprehensive, university attended by approximately 5,000 undergraduates enrolled in more than 60 courses during spring 2015. The results…

Students often struggle with learning about statistics, which encompass a large proportion of a psychology degree. This pilot study explored how first- and final-year students reflected on their experiences of being taught this topic, in order to identify needs that could be addressed in a project to improve their learning. First-year students…

MemphiSTEP is a five-year STEM Talent Expansion Program (STEP) at the University of Memphis sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The project focuses on retention and persistence to graduation to increase the number of STEM majors and graduates. The project includes a range of student retention programs, including a Summer Mathematics…

Students need to have a basic understanding of research methods before obtaining a communication degree in order to become an intelligent consumer of research--someone who is able to read, understand, explain, and critically evaluate communication and other research reported in scholarly journals as well as in the popular press. These skills are…

This paper presents a learning and teaching strategy based on complexity science and explores its impacts on a higher education game design course. The strategy aimed at generating conditions fostering individual and collective learning in educational complex adaptive systems, and led the design of the course through an iterative and adaptive…

Efforts to retain underrepresented minority (URM) students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have shown only limited success in higher education, due in part to a persistent achievement gap between students from historically underrepresented and well-represented backgrounds. To test the hypothesis that active learning…

The main objective of higher education institutions is to educate students to high standards to proficiently perform their role in society. Elsewhere we presented empirical evidence illustrating that the use of a blended learning approach to the learning process that applies a moderate constructivist e-learning instructional model improves…