Assessment is one of the key elements of the teaching and learning process. It provides teachers with a means of evaluating the quality of their instruction. Students also use it to drive and direct their learning. Online teaching and learning will continue to become more important to Australian universities in order for them to remain competitive…

Many administrators are moving toward using online student evaluations to assess courses and instructors, but critics of the practice fear that the online format will only result in lower levels of student participation. Joan Anderson, Gary Brown, and Stephen Spaeth claim that such a concern often fails to acknowledge how the evaluation process…

This paper examines the impact the use of the Java programming language has had on the way our students learn to program and the success they achieve. The importance of a properly constructed first course in programming cannot be overstated. A course well experienced will leave students with good programming habits, the ability to learn on their…

Movement toward more active, experiential learning pedagogies is a trend that has found increasing interest in the last decade. The reasons for this interest include creating a more involving and interesting experience for the student, creating a more memorable experience, and facilitating more effective and durable learning. This article…

Political participation is critical for the legitimacy of democracy, yet we know surprisingly little about how political competencies develop and can be promoted in young adults. Many studies show low levels of political activity among young Americans, including college students and recent graduates. Although this is widely recognized as a…

This seventh in a series of investigations of the basic communication course at 2- and 4-year colleges and universities that began in 1968 has as its purpose to gather longitudinal data on the nature of the course. This latest study differs somewhat from past studies. The survey instrument from 1999 was revised to include timely concerns such as…

Numerous studies have been undertaken demonstrating that online learning is an effective teaching tool, working best when combined with more conventional teaching methods. There is a paucity of data both examining the longitudinal blending of an e-module with more conventional modes of curriculum delivery and also relating to the time and…

"Object-Oriented Programming" subject is included in the ACM Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate and Graduate Degree Programs in Computer Science as well as in Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science. In a few research studies learning problems and difficulties have been recorded, and therefore, specific pedagogical guidelines and…

This report presents a vision statement and educational goals for Northeast Missouri State University that were developed by the university's student senate, as well as specific recommendations to implement and achieve the vision and goals. The report focuses on: (1) the restructuring of the liberal arts and sciences core curriculum and the…

Higher education relies on student ratings to evaluate faculty teaching, partly because the alternatives (expert peer appraisals or objective performance criteria) are costly or unavailable. Because student ratings are crucial not only to improving instruction, but also in making or breaking faculty careers, it is important to assure that they…

This report describes and evaluates various team teaching models that were implemented through the Training Rural Special Educators in Kentucky through Distance Learning (TREK-DL) project at the University of Kentucky. During the TREK-DL project, five special education courses were taught via distance education, each using a different team…

A distance-learning personnel-preparation course on transdisciplinary services for students with low incidence disabilities was developed through collaboration among four Kentucky institutions of higher learning. The course, "Transdisciplinary Services to Students with Deafblindness and Other Multiple Disabilities," was delivered to…

A study was conducted at John C. Calhoun State Community College (JCSCC), in Alabama, to determine whether there is a significant difference between the grade distribution in sections taught using the telecourse format and in sections taught by the same instructor in the same term, but utilizing traditional classroom format. Data for courses were…

In the tradition of critical ethnography, this study demonstrates the development and use of a structured approach to the qualitative study of an urban alternative public high school. It responds to the need for research that begins to connect the language of possibility in critical educational theory with an emerging language of possibility in…

Iowa State University, through a program called Project BIO (Biology Instructional Outreach), has been using RealAudio technology for about 2 years in college biology courses that are offered entirely via the World Wide Web. RealAudio is a type of streaming media technology that can be used to deliver audio content and a variety of other media…