The authors examined the efficacy of Web-assisted instruction for promoting the use of social cognitive theory (SCT) strategies related to physical activity. They recruited college students attending health courses. The authors created 3 groups (Web-assisted, comparison, and control) based on the course structure. The Web-assisted group received…

This paper demonstrates that integrating research into the curriculum can help to enhance the overall student learning experience. The Bourne Stream Partnership is a local community-based project which has provided environmental & geographical science students with the opportunity to work on live projects within a variety of contexts including…

Detecting and combating plagiarism from Web-based sources is a concern for administrators and instructors involved in online distance education. In this paper, we quantify copy-and-paste plagiarism among adult learners in an online geography course offered through Penn State's World Campus Geographic Information Systems (GIS) certificate program.…

Plagiarism is an ugly word. Copying someone else's work and attempting to claim credit for one's self is an act that involves a number of ethical failings--theft, laziness, coveting, and lying among others. Many educators blame the Internet for what they perceive as the rise of plagiarism. Although the Internet certainly enables more efficient…

Business and professional writing courses offer ideal contexts for incorporating service learning into the academic classroom. The focus of such courses on rhetorical analysis and language as social action provide a sound theoretical and practical ground for the application of writing and speaking skills to solve problems and effect change. In…

"Amistad," the story of a group of Mende people illegally brought to the United States from West Africa in 1839, was taught to a group of 90 eighth grade students. To learn about the "Amistad," these eighth graders visited a replica of the ship, read a nonfiction account of the Amistad story, and viewed the Steven Spielberg…

This document is a library instruction manual for an introductory course on library research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The assignments provided are intended for independent study; a syllabus is included for the 7-week course. The manual is divided into seven sections. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the library system, services, and…

As part of a larger ethnographic project addressing the construction of gender through literacy, this study focused on understanding how the children in one writing process classroom expressed their social selves in their written compositions, as well as how those compositions were engineered within the social dynamics of the classroom. The study…

This case study involved designing an electronic-based environment to explore the effectiveness of electronic mail (e-mail) as a writing tool for dialogue journaling. The setting for this study was an intermediate-level reading and writing class in the American English Institute Program on the campus of a large public university. Over a period of…

Beginning college writers often approach the writing classroom with attitudes of fear and alienation. Fostering partnerships between instructor and students allows these writers to extend their private selves, affirm their identities, and connect to larger audiences. Letter writing can help establish an authentic connection between instructor and…

A study investigated the utility of project work in university-level English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction. Projects are defined as assignments that incorporate student input, with content deriving from real second language use through extensive contact with either native speakers or native texts, integrating language skills, and…

Addressing the expressed needs of the writing community, this book presents writing lessons for intermediate, middle school, and secondary school students that incorporate the 5-step writing process into content areas as a natural part of the curriculum. The 30 lessons in this book involve students in large and small groups and in individual…

Using reflective writing throughout the composition course yields better reflective writing for composition portfolios. As writing courses make increasing use of portfolios for individual and program assessment, reflective writing will become more and more important. Brief reflective statements of as little as one paragraph, even when done as a…

Noting that the literature of the Vietnam War can have a powerful impact on students, this paper discusses why such literature should be taught, what types of literature should be taught, and how teachers might go about teaching some of the literature. The paper begins by presenting numerous student responses to various novels on the Vietnam War,…

Stressing that learning to write is learning to think, a series of workshops showed teachers in the content area how to use writing in their classrooms. Following a brief introduction to the program, workshop participants developed eight guidelines for creating effective writing assignments: (1) make all assignments worthwhile, (2) make them…