This research tested and evaluated how one method--Competency Points (CPs)--increased student success by enhancing engagement and motivation in community college English composition students. In 2005 I introduced Competency Points in my English Composition 1 classes, and began tracking how engaged and motivated students were to succeed as revealed…

Online coursework is common across the United States, and many institutes of higher education include it in their strategic plans (Allen & Seaman, 2011). Special education has embraced distance education technology--especially personnel preparation programs that are in rural areas and/or prepare teachers who will work in rural areas.…

Learning theory from the "behaviorist" camp suggests that quick feedback on a stimulus (problem) followed by repetition (resubmission) will increase student learning. To test this assumption an experiment was conducted. In an introductory management information system class students were given the opportunity to submit several…

We analyzed over 100,000 student evaluations of instruction over 4 years in the college of business at a major public university. We found that the original instrument that was validated about 20 years ago is still valid, with factor analysis showing that the six underlying dimensions used in the instrument remained relatively intact. Also, we…

Many educators use the preparation of a Business Plan as a culminating assignment in entrepreneurship courses. Additionally, a number of institutions and organizations conduct business plan competitions to further entrepreneurship education. The objective for both of these exercises is to prepare student entrepreneurs for the challenging task of…

This article describes the assignments the author created to engage preservice teachers in designing instructional materials that befit today's students to help them overcome hurdles sometimes present when learning classic literature. Secondary and middle school English teachers may find these assignments useful as well so their students, too,…

Some students with Asperger syndrome comprehend text effortlessly, but many others struggle to make meaning of what they read. The unique characteristics of students with Asperger mean teachers must think strategically about how to ensure that they become proficient readers. The author offers seven strategies that teachers can employ to improve…

Student affairs professionals have been called to apply pedagogical methods to promote student learning in the out-of-class setting and show evidence of their contributions to student learning. To fulfill their professional responsibilities, practitioners should enter the student affairs profession with a basic understanding of ways to gather,…

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which instructor immediacy correlated with online community college students' perceived learning. The research questions that were investigated in the study focused on online instructor immediacy as it relates to praise (words of approval), encouragement (words of support) and examples…

The present study examined various aspects of the development of learners' fluency in Japanese using a large set of speech samples collected over a long period, using an online speaking practice/assessment system called "Speak Everywhere." The purpose of the present study was to examine: (1) how the fluency related measures changed over…

Assurance of learning continues to be a hot topic in higher education. Both accreditation agencies and employers are asking a key question: Are we graduating students who actually have the knowledge and skills that we promise? This case study focuses on business writing in an MBA program and presents a prescriptive, five-step program to improve…

Initially designed to be an interdisciplinary experiment that would change attitudes about mathematics, the semester-long collaboration between a writing instructor and a mathematics instructor yielded unexpected long-term results. The collaboration served as an immersion in methods and techniques used by writing instructors. Description of…

This conceptual paper is based on interdisciplinary work the authors have participated in as part of the renewed push for civic engagement, the various forms it takes, and the multiple constituencies involved in its promotion. We focus on what theoretical and empirical content could be incorporated into courses on aging so that students can be…

For an educational reform to succeed, teachers need to adjust their perceptions to the reform's new curricula and strategies and cope with new content, as well as new teaching and assessment strategies. Developing students' scientific literacy through context-based chemistry and higher order thinking skills was the framework for establishing a new…

Preschool students with disabilities engage in social interaction with peers less often than children developing typically in inclusive classrooms. This research explores how divergent theories of literacy learning, those inherent in the structure of special education and those promoted by scholars interested in emergent literacy learning, impact…