Study Decisions and Online Textbook Support Sites

Despite the availability and increasingly widespread use of ancillary textbook materials, so far only limited research has explored their impact on learning. Two psychology professors, both teaching the introductory course in that field, decided to explore that impact, specifically in terms of the use of

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Helping Students Memorize: Tips from Cognitive Science

Most teaching professionals are heavily invested in the idea that learning isn’t about being able to regurgitate facts on an exam. We also worry, and with good reason, that emphasizing rote learning steals time and effort away from the deeper thinking that we want students

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What Can We Learn from Accidental Learning?

“I just stumbled onto this. . .” I heard the phrase a couple of times in presentations during the recent Teaching Professor Technology Conference. Faculty presenters used it to describe their discovery of an aspect of instruction that worked well, such as an

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A Few Concerns about the Rush to Flip

I have some concerns about flipping courses. Maybe I’m just hung up on the name—flipping is what we do with pancakes. It’s a quick, fluid motion and looks easy to those of us waiting at the breakfast table. I’m not sure those

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The Relationship between Participation and Discussion

My interest in participation and discussion continues. How do we use them so that they more effectively promote engagement and learning? A couple of colleagues and I have been working on a paper that deals with how we define participation and discussion.

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Could We Be Doing Better with Our Assignments?

Assignments are a terribly important part of the teaching and learning equation. They aren’t just random activities that faculty ask students to complete for points and grades; they are the vehicles through which students learn course content. By studying for exams and engaging with content

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Is It Time to Rethink How We Grade Participation?

My colleague, Lolita Paff, has been exploring student attitudes and beliefs about participation. Most of her beginning economics and accounting students describe themselves as “limited” or “non-participants.” They say they don’t participate because they don’t want to look foolish in front of their

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7 Ways to Support Developmental Online Learners

Teaching developmental courses poses special challenges in the online environment. In addition to helping students learn the content, the instructor also has to help developmental learners navigate the online classroom. Karen Woodring, an associate professor of English HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, teaches developmental English

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eTextbooks: Possibilities and Problems

Publishers are quickly moving into the etext business. Technology makes it possible to provide much more than written descriptions of course content. The authors of an exploration of etexts identify the positive aspects of these technology-enhanced texts: convenience, portability, and currency. But as these authors

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How to Handle Distressed or Disruptive Online Learners

Despite this growing need to know how to work with online learners experiencing mental and emotional challenges, there has not been much written on the topic, and higher education institutions generally do not have the resources and policies in place to the extent that they

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