With its focus on evidence-based instruction, the science of reading (SOR) is crucial to ensuring all students unlock strong literacy skills, the foundation for future success. This Spotlight will help readers get up to speed with the latest state initiatives; review a reading comprehension glossary highlighting the key components for success;…

In response to the coronavirus pandemic in the fall of 2020, we created hybrid-virtual or fully virtual field trips to replace in-person field trips in two courses. For an introductory soil science course with 178 students enrolled, we used a narrative format supported by 360° ground-level and drone photos, newspaper articles, videos, websites,…

In 2019, National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) was awarded a grant through the federal Teacher and School Leader (TSL) Incentive Program to expand and sustain work to support teachers and improve students' academic success in three Indiana school districts. TSL grants support districts' human capital management systems, specifically…

An antique phone booth was converted into an interactive Virtual Reality (VR) booth to use for potential student recruitment, current student demonstrations, and community outreach. Satisfaction data was collected using a HappyOrNot Smiley Terminal™. In total, 215 users provided feedback on their VR experience over 142 consecutive days. Eighty…

Context: Telemedicine is the practice of providing diagnostic consultations and therapeutic interventions to patients at a distance using some form of technology. Typically, health care students do not have the opportunity to practice telemedicine. Objective: To investigate athletic training students' ability to transfer telemedicine skills…

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disrupted how educators provided supports and services for students with autism spectrum disorder. School closures and related pivoting between learning modalities were difficult for all students, but especially for students with autism, who rely on routine and often require individualized instruction. There has…

Teacher professional development is considered as one of the key factors for improving the quality of teaching and learning. This study aimed to investigate teachers' participation in technology professional development across the states between 2005 and 2015. The present study explored the differences in students' mathematics achievement scores…

Open educational resources (OER), which are free and openly licensed educational materials, have been a widely discussed topic in response to high textbook costs, the need for more pedagogical flexibility, and inequality in access to educational materials. In this study we examine the efficacy of OER through a quantitative analysis of the impact…

This study describes students' development of components of intercultural competence after completing a cultural diversity course and compares degrees of intercultural competence between a face-to-face course and an equivalent online section of the same course. Analysis of final written reflections from students demonstrate that students gained a…

An understanding of human embryology is essential for students to better understand the subjects of human anatomy and physiology. However, human embryology is a challenging subject for many, since they must learn how anatomic structures and physiological processes develop over a period of time. Embryology texts typically use static,…

This case study focuses on our efforts to engage students in one asynchronous, online undergraduate legal "pipeline" course, and the substantive revisions made to the course over 3 years to increase student engagement, self-reflection, self-regulation, and metacognition. A pipeline program is designed to identify, support, and guide…

Students in an online statistics course were prone to become increasingly disengaged as the semester progressed. In Spring 2015, we took a proactive measure to retain student engagement by introducing a cyber mentoring session. We describe the framework, operation and effectiveness of cyber mentoring in improving students' learning experience and…

Facilitating student growth and development in diagnosing and solving technical problems remains a challenge for technology and engineering educators. With funding from the National Science Foundation, this team of researchers developed a self-guided, computer-based instructional program to experiment with conceptual mapping as a treatment to…

The Purdue Technical Assistance Program (TAP) offers a model of university engagement and service that is achieving technology adoption and performance improvement impacts in healthcare, manufacturing, government, and other sectors. The TAP model focuses on understanding and meeting the changing and challenging needs of those served, always…

The study uses a quasi-experimental comparison group design to test the effectiveness of "Treasures" by comparing outcomes for students who used "Treasures" to those who did not use "Treasures", adjusting for differences between the "Treasures" and comparison groups on baseline characteristics. The study…