This series of short essays considers the complex choices and decision-making processes of instructors preparing to teach, and continuing to teach, introductory courses in religious studies. In a paper originally presented in the University of Chicago's "The Craft of Teaching in the Academic Study of Religion" series, Russell McCutcheon…

Colleges and universities are looking for creative ways to increase student enrollment while providing flexible course offerings and maintaining adequate fiscal stewardship. This review of selected literature advocates for the use of online instruction in higher education in order to address, with instructional fidelity, the learning preferences…

During early accreditation visits by the Australian Medical Council (AMC), staff in the School of Medicine (SoM) were asked to demonstrate how and when AMC student outcome statements were being integrated into the MBBS course. As a result, the School Executive committed to developing a curriculum mapping system (CMS) that could systematically…

This paper examines the current stage of development of blended learning in higher education in China, South Korea and Japan, with a comparison to the city state of Singapore. It is noted that blended learning and e-learning are introduced at institutes of higher learning in these countries with varying degrees of success. A review of existing…

How to plan an open and distance learning (ODL) unit in higher education is not clearly described in the literature. A number of ODL facilities at residential universities have not been successful because of a lack of planning or because of failure to ensure that all the different systems for ODL delivery were in place and functioning. This paper…

Although Outcome-based Education has not been successful in public education in several countries, it has been successful in the medical fields in higher education in the U.S. The author implemented OBE in her Managerial Accounting course in H.K. Intended learning outcomes were mapped again Bloom's Cognitive Domain. Teaching and learning…

This article reports on an inter-institutional project to design, develop, pilot, and evaluate a state-wide online training course for higher education adjunct faculty who are preparing to teach their first online course. We begin with a brief literature review to contextualize the stated problem the project sought to address: the need for…

In the current economic crisis, higher education graduates need transferable professional skills more than ever. They need resourcefulness, an ability to work reflectively, a sense of civic awareness and an impressive curriculum vitae. This case study analyses how Dublin Institute of Technology's Programme for Students Learning With Communities…

The question of how best to fulfill the academy's role in civic life animates many discussions about the identity and function of higher education in the twenty-first century. Service-learning is emerging as a central component of efforts to connect both disciplinary learning and general education with this historic and increasingly salient…

A focus group (N = 36) consisting of board of trustee members, community college presidents, senior administrators, administrators, and faculty members from community colleges around the United States developed the top six critical issues faced with respect to instructional planning and services; planning, governance, and finance; and workforce…

Curriculum design is a concern in European Universities as they face the forthcoming European Higher Education Area (EHEA). This process can be eased by the use of scientific tools such as Concept-Mapping Techniques (CMT) that extract and organize the most relevant information from experts' experience using statistics techniques, and helps a…

A multi-stakeholder-driven model for excellence in higher education curriculum development has been developed. It is based on the assumption that current efforts to curriculum development take place within a framework of limited stakeholder consultation. A total of 18 multiple stakeholders are identified, including learners, alumni, government,…

Best practices for online courses are explored as precision teaching (PT) within the context of a case study analysis. The case study focuses on courses taught, 100 per cent online, as part of Quality Systems (QS) at Bowling Green State University (BGSU). PT literature establishes main attributes desired as the basis for best practices. The…

Creating a new generation of leaders and managers has been the task of the innovative U.K. Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

This paper analyzes impediments to implementation of instructional technology (IT) initiatives as seen by a faculty member who has actively used IT since 1995. The three major impediments (the steep learning curve, difficulty in assessing success, and questions of applicability toward professional advancement) are discussed and some tentative…