Two thousand students from 66 academic departments in six contrasting disciplines from British colleges completed an "approaches to studying" inventory and a course perceptions questionnaire. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to ways in which the organization of teaching and courses may affect students'…

"Teaching Sociology" recently published several articles dealing with the use of computer-assisted pedagogical techniques. Many authors assess the effectiveness of specific computer-assisted instruction (CAI) forms by examining either student performance or student course evaluation. Typically one group uses some form of CAI while the other does…

Online classes appear increasingly popular, making it critical in each discipline to study the advantages and disadvantages of learning online. Following up on anecdotal impressions that scientific/technical writing students appeared to do either better or worse in an online course than an offline equivalent (unpublished data), it was decided to…

The study described in this paper outlines an attempt to explore those factors that contribute to learning performance improvement in laboratory instruction. As a case study, the educational methodology involved in a basic microcontroller course was analyzed. Traditional lab sessions based on the control of peripherals with low interactivity have…

To understand how technology changes today's classrooms, two Russian educators working in the United States examine instruction through their technology-based course in high school chemistry. Eight tables compare traditional and innovative perspectives on course goal, course content, context shells, learning styles, assessment,…