Instructors expect students to read before class to engage them in using higher-order thinking skills that are critical to performing in group work and engaging in discussions. As many instructors are aware, however, for various reasons many students don't read the assigned textbook. In this study, science news articles were used as prereadings to…

The purpose of this Brief is to describe the use of formative assessment processes with students with disabilities during distance learning. Formative assessment is important for all kinds of learning, and especially focuses students on learning and evidence of learning. This Brief presents five strategies that can be used to support student…

Faculty at Bethany College, Kansas found that when engaging with controversial topics like social justice, students needed lower-stakes spaces to think--and history and writing, together, provided these needed spaces. When taught in combination, these two subject areas prompted engagement and self-reflection, and the interdisciplinary synergy…

One way to encourage performance and persistence in STEM fields is to have students write about the utility value (UV) or personal relevance of course topics to their life. This intervention has been shown to increase engagement and performance in introductory courses. However, questions remain about the longevity of the effects and how best to…

This article is an essay exploring the unique pedagogical challenges of an approach to journalistic writing instruction which not only allows--but actually might even encourage--students to consider using a first-person narrator. While some of the pitfalls of the technique are discussed, the central argument is that the first-person voice, rather…

This column provides original articles on innovations in case study teaching, assessment of the method, as well as case studies with teaching notes. This issue discusses dialogue writing guidelines most relevant to case writing.

Gameful course design creates learning environments that support student motivation, drawing inspiration from well-designed games. This dissertation establishes the theoretical framework on which gameful pedagogy is founded. One key piece of gameful course design is that the instructor creates opportunities for students to make decisions about how…

As the standards in different content areas become more in depth, many students especially ESOL students, tend to have difficulty understanding the vocabulary and are unable to read and understand the content, especially in science and social studies. If students are given a literacy push in all areas of school, not just in reading and language…

This article explores the foundations and the content areas that ground the introductory public relations course. Examples of two assignments designed to help students think critically, apply knowledge, and improve their writing skills are offered, as well as the identification of several challenges both students and instructors face and a brief…

As a practical and applied course, Business and Professional Communication is an excellent opportunity to blend theory and practice, prepare students with the knowledge and skills they will need in the "real world," and continually innovate and experiment to meet the ever-changing communication needs of the workplace. Whether filled with…

Structured thinking activities (STAs) are pedagogical tools used to support metacognition in classrooms. Despite their popularity, little is known about how pupils use STAs as platforms to think about and manage their own thinking (i.e. as metacognitive tools). This case study investigated pupils' use of STAs in relation to metacognition…

Through a series of explorations, this article will demonstrate how the Kentucky Derby winning times dataset provides various opportunities for introductory and advanced topics, from data processing to model building. Although the final goal may be a prediction interval, the dataset is rich enough for it to appear in several places in an…

Contract cheating is, potentially, a serious threat to the quality of higher education around the world. Prior research has focused on student perspectives and the companies themselves, but the staff view is poorly understood, despite staff being a major stakeholder with considerable influence over strategies designed to address contract cheating.…

This article offers a conceptual analysis of collusion, the often overlooked relative of plagiarism in debates on academic integrity. Considered as an inherently social phenomenon, we present the results of a systematic effort to understand the anatomy of collusion. The term's meanings and associated governance practices are compared for contexts…

Teachers of literature often have students read works of fiction to learn important truths about the world. But, it is not clear how looking at a work of fiction can tell us about the actual world. This article examines whether and how this can be done.