The replacement of Times New Roman (TNR--serif) with Calibri (sans serif) as default typeface on Microsoft Office Word reflects the growing prevalence of screen-based reading. The change also points to a festering conflict in the literature on the readability and legibility of serif and sans serif typefaces in print and computer-based platforms.…

It is well known that schools and colleges often have budget limitations that can hamper the effectiveness of practical education. This article looks at how cheap, off-the-shelf components can be used to produce a simple DIY digital microscope, and how this provides novel opportunities to integrate biology, physics, design technology and computer…

The purpose of this study was to develop a checklist whose validity has been tested in assessing children's books. Participants consisted of university students who had taken a course in children's literature. They were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. Participants in the…

The purpose of this article is to study the personality dominant values in Graphic Design students from the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico. A scale developed by Allport, Vernon and Lindsey called: "Study of values. A scale for the measuring of personality dominant interests" was used. The sample was applied to 124 students,…

As a consequence of fruitful discussions about joining theory and practice both in design research and educational design programmes, this article aims to explore phenomenological parameters in the framework of an exercise for Engineer-architecture students from the University of Leuven in Belgium. Relying upon the arguments of recognised…

This environmental scan aimed to discover research interests and educational needs of faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students to inspire research, education, and practice in the development of a center on aging and well-being for older adults. The scan consisted of a search of university faculty and researchers regarding research on aging; a…

While the use of Twitter for communication and assessment activities in online courses is not new, it has not been without its challenges. This is increasingly true of high enrolment courses. The use of a Twitter Evaluation application which leverages a Learning Management System's (LMS's) application programming interface (API) provides a…

An empirical study examined the effects of two influencing factors in usability tests on user performance and usability ratings. Product aesthetics (high vs. low) as the main independent factor and prior usage event (positive vs. negative) as a subsidiary independent factor were varied in a between-participants design. 60 participants took part in…

To investigate the most efficient way to represent text in reading Chinese on computer displays, three typographic variables, character size (41[feet] arc/24 pixels and 60[feet] arc/32 pixels), character spacing (1/4 and 1/8 character width) and font type (Kai and Ming), were manipulated. Results showed that the reading speed for Chinese…

Many of the communities interested in learning and teaching technologies within higher education now accept the view that a conception of personal learning environments provides the most realistic and workable perspective of learners' interactions with and use of technology. This view may not be reflected in the behaviour of those parts of a…

Website quality measurement tools have been largely static and have struggled to determine relevant attributes of user satisfaction. This study compares and contrasts attributes of user satisfaction based on usability guidelines seeking to identify practical easy-to-administer measurement tools. The website users assessed business school homepages…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between cultural differences and the design of personal Web pages. The research questions were: (1) What differences can be detected between how American and Chinese students employ symbol systems in their personal Web pages? (2) What differences can be detected between American and…

This paper presents an empirical study involving initiatives that encouraged students to log onto online courses in entrepreneurship delivered by the University of Glamorgan. The aim of the research was to explore items of interest to the online students that may increase participation in the forums and hence potentially enhanced engagement with…

This paper reports on a study that observed students creating structured hypertext documents, and how they try to convey structural information, in order to formulate tentative guidelines/principles for the design of concept mapping tools or hypertext systems with an emphasis on the representation of structural knowledge, and to formulated…