Many first-year university courses are large and content-driven, which can contribute to low student engagement and difficulty involving students in the dynamic, cross-disciplinary nature of inquiry. Learning communities can address these goals, but their implementation often poses logistical challenges, especially in large courses. Here, we apply…

While competency-based education is growing, standardized tools for evaluating the unique characteristics of course design in this domain are still under development. This preliminary research study evaluated the effectiveness of a rubric developed for assessing course design of competency-based courses in an undergraduate Information Technology…

There are many challenges that undergraduate students face when studying an honours research degree. Honours programmes though traditionally considered within the business discipline as a loss leader, nevertheless, form a direct entry requirement for PhD programmes. The honours degree can be considered a formative research programme for student…

With distance education on the rise, a new program at the University of New Mexico provides an innovative way to teach first-year composition in a fully online format. The program, called eComp (short for Electronic Composition), insists that instructors receive formal and educational training before working in the model. In addition, the…

This paper describes the authors' experience of remixing two existing OER courses to provide an OER course for a particular purpose and context. The developing country target environment is stated as well as the original resources' provenance. The motivation for remixing these OER is explored, and the design of the adapted resource is described…

This essay examines the convergence between enduring ideals enshrined in the American tradition of general education that many faculty members endorse and the learning-centered approach to academic advising. In light of this convergence, and in response to the notion of "advising as teaching" advocated in the literature on academic…

This article discusses the data obtained from an online survey of academic staff who are involved in module design and who are employed within one university. The survey was used as a baselining tool to explore the nature of current module design practice within the survey sample. Do academics consistently employ the pragmatic approaches…

Educators have been challenged to identify threshold concepts and develop transformed students. This stands in stark contrast to many curriculum design and delivery models that currently view students as repositories of knowledge. In this article, we argue that educators can reach both goals, identify stumbling blocks and transforming students,…

Meeting the instructional needs of both students and sales practitioners is a common challenge for sales educators. The dynamic and ever evolving nature of the sales landscape, in conjunction with the need to align sales curriculum with relevant business practices is the focus of this article. Building on previous research, this study investigates…

Notions of design, research, and design research in the field of educational technology are quite different from conceptualizations held by other design fields. Examining the ways that research is conducted and used in educational technology in comparison to other design fields can provide novel insights into how research and design practice can…

The threshold concepts approach to student learning and curriculum design now informs an empirical research base comprising over 170 disciplinary and professional contexts. It draws extensively on the notion of troublesomeness in a "liminal" space of learning. The latter is a transformative state in the process of learning in which there…

This article focuses on the tensions between national and international testing, educational policy and professionalism for middle school English teachers. I argue that state and federal government(s) are responding to the impact of Australia's falling results on the international testing in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment)…

We begin by arguing that curriculum development should start with aims rather than, as is typically the case, with subjects. We, therefore, ask what might be the fundamental aims of school education. We conclude that they are twofold, namely, to enable each learner to lead a life that is personally flourishing and to help others to do so too.…

This report has been developed as part of the MDBfutures Collaborative Research Network project "Towards Place Based Education in the Murray-Darling Basin." The project explores the ways in which sustainability is understood in Murray Darling Basin (MDB) communities of Australia (including Indigenous, rural, small towns and regional…

Most gifted children in the United States spend the majority of their school time in regular classroom settings, grouped with age peers who have a wide range of academic achievement and potential. This expansive range of needs in every classroom underscores the importance of assessing all students appropriately and providing differentiated…