I tested 2 competing theories to explain the connection between students' expected grades and ratings of instructors: cognitive dissonance and revenge. Cognitive dissonance theory holds that students who expect poor grades rate instructors poorly to minimize ego threat whereas the revenge theory holds that students rate instructors poorly in an…

Active investigative student-directed experiences in laboratory science are being encouraged by national science organizations. A growing body of evidence from classroom assessment supports their effectiveness. This study describes four years of implementation and assessment of an investigative laboratory course in human physiology for 65…

Concept mapping activities were trialed over a 2 year period as part of an undergraduate microbiology course. This paper describes this developmental process and offers insight into the most beneficial ways of employing this tool in a higher education setting. The aim was to investigate the use of mapping activities to improve students'…

This article investigates how a structured post-course follow-up reflection activity affects the depth of reflection and facilitates the transfer of learning. The research is reflective, based on the findings from the Action Learning Management Practicum, a 3rd year paper at Massey University, New Zealand. The initial reflections at the end of the…

A new model of library instruction assessment--a 360 degrees analysis--is needed to address the many facets of the teaching process. This model establishes interconnections in all aspects of instruction and requires a multi-faceted approach that incorporates assessment in every stage of teaching and learning. At The University of Montana Mansfield…

This two-part series describes the structure of the stoichiometry course at North Carolina State University. The course had a variety of learning objectives, and several nontraditional pedagogies were used in the course delivery. The first paper outlined the course structure and policies, the preparation given to the teaching assistants who played…

Student motivation within the classrooms is a widely recognized problem and will remain so in the foreseeable future. Literature suggests that students' motivation for learning and performance can be enhanced by creating an appropriate classroom environment, which is again determined by the design of various structural characteristics of a course,…

The purpose of this study was to describe student ratings of teaching effectiveness for faculty in the College of Education (COE) at a Research I institution in the Southern United States. Student ratings of teaching effectiveness were analyzed for the 190 tenure-track faculty in this study based on race (White, Black, and "Other" racial groups…

As instructors adopt web-based learning environments, they must consider how students' evaluations of learning reflect the overall quality of instruction. Traditional course evaluations are used for faculty retention, tenure and promotion decisions, but also provide instructors with valuable information on the quality of their instruction. This…

This article is a formative evaluation of a course in which a blended learning environment was created and a good balance in dimensions of blended learning was sought. Blended learning is defined as the total mix of pedagogical methods, using a combination of different learning strategies, both with and without the use of technology. The…

The paper will argue that adopting a learning design methodology may provide a vehicle for enabling better design and reuse of Open Educational Resources (OERs). It will describe a learning design methodology, which is being developed and implemented at the Open University in the UK. The aim is to develop a "pick and mix" learning design…

A study examined the socio-technical impact of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on students' attitudes towards computers, CMC, and their classes. Five classes at universities across America (119 students and faculty) participated in COMCONF, a BITNET computer conference which provided a unique laboratory for observations of CMC processes in…

Not infrequently, investigators assume that reliability for groups is greater than reliability for persons, or that the error variance for groups is less than that for persons. Using generalizability theory, it is shown that this "conventional wisdom" is not necessarily true. Examples are provided from the course-evaluation and the…

The purpose of the focus group design described in this paper was to identify the needs of students in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs for use by researchers, program designers, and teachers. The pilot focus group consisted of students from various programs who were preparing to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language. They were…

A description is provided of "Principles of Family Planning," a course designed for graduate nursing students or practicing nurses seeking continuing education credit. The first sections of the course description provide a rationale for the course, information on its curricular placement, scheduling information, and statements of long-range and…