This study aimed to provide an account of how learning takes place in problem-based learning (PBL), and to identify the relationships between the learning-oriented activities of students with their learning outcomes. First, the verbal interactions and computer resources studied by nine students for an entire PBL cycle were recorded. The relevant…

An important learning goal in higher vocational education concerns the professional domain's shared body of knowledge. Constructivist programmes use "authentic learning contexts" and "self-directed learning" to create a close connection throughout the learning process between theoretical knowledge and other forms of…

It has become apparent through the work of many researchers and practitioners that adults learn differently than their younger counterparts in the educational system. This is especially important to those educators teaching in colleges and universities in the sciences. Biology education in the post-secondary setting is inundated with teachers who…

Art and design programmes are educationally unique in that students themselves play a central role in determining their own learning needs. To be successful in their study, art and design students are required to operate with a high degree of independence and self-direction. Developing the skills for greater self-reliance requires students to…

Considering the change of attitudes of plagiarism detection to assessment for learning, it is necessary to explore the effect of the paradigm shift for Turnitin, from "plagiarism detection" to self-service learning aid. Two research questions are explored in the present study: (1) How Turnitin augments self-service skills of students and…

In this paper we present a case study of a self-paced university course that was originally designed to support independent, self-paced study at distance. We developed a social media intervention, in design-based research terms, that allows these independent students to contribute archived content to enhance the course, to engage in discussions…

This research targeted the learning preferences, goals and motivations, achievements, challenges, and possibilities for life change of self-directed online learners who subscribed to the monthly OpenCourseWare (OCW) e-newsletter from MIT. Data collection included a 25-item survey of 1,429 newsletter subscribers; 613 of whom also completed an…

Instructional design can be more effective if it is as fixedly dedicated to the accommodation of individual differences as it currently is to the accommodation of subject matters. That is the hypothesis. A menu of accommodation options is provided that is applicable at each of three stages of instructional development or administration: before,…

Computerized self-assessment testing can help learners reflect on learning content and can also promote their motivation toward learning. However, a positive affective state is the key to achieving these learning goals. This study aims to examine learning gains and emotional reactions resulting from receiving emotional feedback in the form of…

A Virtual Resource Center (VRC) has been brought into use since 2008 as an integral part of a task-based language teaching and learning program for Business English courses at Nantes University, France. The objective of the center is to enable students to work autonomously and individually on their language problems so as to improve their language…

This case study forms a foundation for understanding the drivers for successful online learning within a constructivist paradigm. It investigates whether Chinese international students completing a degree had achieved a level of independence necessary to succeed in this context. It found that these students had not achieved the independence…

Microteaching is a didactic tool of recent application to undergraduate and postgraduate students as a way to promote self-learning. In this work we compared the perceptions of the students who provide instruction in tissue engineering using microteaching and the perceptions of the same students when they receive such instructions. Two similar…

This article investigates the use of multiple learning approaches and different modes and types of learning in the (continuous) professional development (PD) of school leaders, particularly the use of self-assessment and feedback. First, formats and multiple approaches to professional learning are described. Second, a possible approach to…

The research reported here is an exploratory qualitative study aimed at identifying professionals' self-regulatory strategies underpinning the planning and attainment of learning goals in the workplace and showing how a number of organizational factors affect these strategies. The rationale for the study is that existing research tells us…

Critical to maximizing the potential of technology for learning is enhancing language learners' self-directed use of technology for learning purposes. This study aimed to enhance our understanding of the determinants of self-directed technology use through the construction of a structural equation modelling (SEM) framework of factors and…