A course syllabus can affect students' perceptions of the motivational climate within a course. Yet, few researchers have conducted experimental studies of students' perceptions of syllabi in courses in which they were currently enrolled. The purpose of the present studies was to assess the extent to which syllabi language and organization…

The objective of this article is to study undergraduate student satisfaction with the educational programme in Applied Mathematics in terms of identification of areas for teaching process improvement. Currently, there are no instruments for student evaluation of teaching accepted by the teaching community in Russia, and student feedback…

This paper describes the content, organization and rigor of the f2f and online summer algebra courses that were delivered in summers 2011 and 2012. Examining the content of both types of courses is important because research suggests that algebra courses with certain features may be better than others in promoting success for struggling students.…

The existing literature on indicators of an optimal learning environment for high-ability students frequently discusses the concept of challenge. It is, however, not clear what, precisely, constitutes appropriate challenge for these students. In this study, the authors examined an undergraduate honours course, Advanced Cell Biology, which has…

The Elaboration Theory of Instruction is an alternative to organizing instruction in terms of a hierarchical task analysis. The hierarchical organization results in an instructional sequence that begins with highly fragmented, small pieces of the subject-matter content, which many educators have found to be demotivating. The elaboration theory…

The relationship of internality-externality and dominance-submissiveness to student preference for course structure and course difficulty was examined for 86 college students. Preference measures were used, which focused on specific dimensions of instruction--structure and difficulty. In contrast to some other research results, internal and…

The success of distance teaching depends largely on students' comprehension and appreciation of print communication. A communication gap exists, and many students are unable to recognize levels of complexity presented to them. Changes in course structure can help alleviate this learning problem. (MSE)

Increasing emphasis is being given to the construct of course structure in educational research. The Course Structure Inventory (CSI) was designed to measure this construct as a unitary dimension made up of student attitudes toward varying degrees and kinds of structure (ACS). In addition to measuring ACS, the CSI has the added advantage of…

An analysis of aptitude-treatment interaction (ATI) for preferences for course structure and of instructor orientation preferences was undertaken for 50 first-year college students. Results indicate that students are more satisfied with instructors who are perceived as student oriented but that students who prefer low-difficulty instruction…

The way that department heads interpret the effort required by college faculty to teach classes was studied with a national sample of 491 department heads in 25 major U.S. universities. Based on the responses of department heads, a model was developed to relate the effort required to teach a class to the level, size, instructional mode, and…

This study investigated predictors of Harvard University (Massachusetts) student ratings of courses. Data were drawn from 33,180 evaluations of 1,114 undergraduate courses in 47 departments. Predictors examined at the student level included satisfaction with the course, perceived course difficulty, whether the course was in the student's major,…