Describes the innovative content and structure of an introductory course on clinical patient care at the Illinois College of Optometry. Critiques its success based on student grades and feedback, concluding that it was successful in imparting skills of data analysis but had minimal impact on students' ability to empathize with patients. (EV)

Addresses the question of what constitutes a writing course. Maintains that the main objective of a writing course is the development of the writer, and that the privileged text is students' writing. Takes issue with writing courses that emphasize reading, subject content, or investigation over the writing process. (TB)

Generalizability theory is used to show that the assumption that reliability for groups is greater than that for persons (and that error variance for groups is less than that for persons) is not necessarily true. Examples are provided from course evaluation and performance test literature. (SLD)

Compared the quality of courses at the University of Cyprus to courses at the University of Auckland using the Learning Improvement Strategies Questionnaire (LISQ). Findings indicated that the LISQ is reliable for quickly indicating the quality of one-semester courses; the Cyprus courses were of a uniformly high standard and compared favorably…

Surveyed students about how "reaction cards" (index cards for student comments) affected their classes. Faculty also reported on card use. Found that students believed the cards had a positive impact on their classes by improving communication, increasing involvement, and improving their connection to material. There were also some negative…

"Growing Old in a New Age," a Public Broadcasting Service telecourse, was evaluated by 40 faculty, 29 state aging administrators, 2 international public broadcasting users, and a training specialist. The course was generally considered effective, but improvements were recommended in content, integration of video and text, and updated…

Describes Flashlight Online, a collaborative Web-based service for creating, administering, and analyzing surveys that help institutions examine the effectiveness of their uses of technology in instruction. Explains how Flashlight Online is being used at Washington State University by faculty for online surveys of their courses. (LRW)

Describes and evaluates the use of Web page design in an undergraduate course in the United Kingdom on town planning. Highlights include incorporating information and communication technologies into higher education; and a theoretical framework for the use of educational technology. (LRW)

Discusses the development of online courses in higher education that can be used to supplement traditional classes. Explains requirements for designing a successful course, including flexibility to accommodate differences in learning styles, textbook connections, and class interaction; and reports results of a course evaluation. (LRW)

This study examined the impact on a course evaluation of the course being either an elective or a required part of a training programme. Three elective and three required courses were evaluated using both a scaled and an open-ended response form. Many variables were taken into account when examining the effect of course status which other…

Previous research into the effects of gender differences on course evaluations has failed to take into account a number of intervening variables. In part 1 of the present study a questionnaire was administered to 504 female and male students measuring whether they noticed, remembered things, and related to others. These are all measures which have…

Novice teachers today struggle to integrate engaging pedagogy into their standards based curriculum. 21st century students have been immersed in technology from birth and are accustomed to multi-tasking with several types of technology each day. Students no longer rely on the traditional ways of communication and absorb their information via…

The described study investigated the effectiveness of an e-learning Web 2.0 course redesigned from the perspective of cognitive load theory. The analyzed variables were course wiki design features, levels of instructor support, levels of cognitive load and engagement, and values students placed on particular pedagogical approaches used during…

English language teaching (ELT) has played an important role in the Chinese Radio and Television Universities (RTVU) network since its establishment in the late 1970s. Based on a literature review and reflection from an insider's perspective, this paper gives a full account of the RTVU distance ELT model, examining how it supports autonomous…

Purpose: This paper aims to provide a TQM framework that stresses continuous improvements in teaching as a plausible means of TQM implementation in higher education programs. Design/methodology/approach: The literature survey of the TQM philosophies and the comparative analysis of TQM adoption in industry versus higher education provide the…