Enhance Student Learning Research Articles

Digital Cadavers: Online 2D Learning Resources Enhance Student Learning in Practical Head and Neck Anatomy within Dental Programs

Head and neck anatomy provides core concepts within preclinical dental curricula. Increased student numbers, reduced curricula time, and restricted access to laboratory-based human resources have increased technology enhanced learning approaches to support student learning. Potential advantages include cost-effectiveness, off-campus access, and self-directed review or mastery opportunities for students. This study investigated successful student learning within a first-year head and neck anatomy course at the School of Dentistry and Oral Health, Griffith University, Australia, taught by the same teaching team, between 2010 and 2015. Student learning success was compared, for cohorts before and after implementation of a supplementary, purpose-designed online digital library and quiz bank. Success of these online resources was confirmed using overall students’ performance within the course assessment tasks and Student Evaluation of Course surveys and online access data. Engagement with these supplementary 2D online resources, targeted at improving laboratory study, was positively evaluated by students (mean 85%) and significantly increased their laboratory grades (mean difference 6%,P<0.027), despite being assessed using cadaveric resources. Written assessments in final exams were not significantly improved. Expanded use of supplementary online resources is planned to support student learning and success in head and neck anatomy, given the success of this intervention.

Electronic Health Record: Faculty Education to Enhance Student Learning (FEESL)

Electronic Health Record: Faculty Education to Enhance Student Learning (FEESL)

Does pluralism matter? Examining students' experiences of undergraduate economics curriculum in relation to the mission of the university

Critiques of the mainstream economics curriculum raise two keys concerns: 1) the limited opportunities for students to engage with and expand their critical thinking skills and democratic values; 2) the possibility that students will develop a narrow understanding of economics which could limit innovation in the area of economic theory, methodology and policy. Using an in-depth interviews methodology, the paper explores aspects of these critiques through the experiences of undergraduate students in an economics program in an urban university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The exclusion of alternative economics theories does not prevent students from developing critical thinking skills. However, findings show that students exposed to various theoretical perspectives were able to better communicate about differences and theoretical limitations. A pluralistic approach to the curriculum, which includes a critical examination of various economic theories, methodologies, their historical origins, and interdisciplinary linkages, can provide opportunities to enhance students learning and outcomes.

Collaborative Experiential Learning Model

An entrant to engineering has to undergo many fundamental courses in the first year of curriculum. Basic electrical engineering is one amongst these courses. The traditional way of teaching the course was teacher-centric and aid used for teaching was chalk and talk. Less emphasis was given for student interaction. Traditional style of teaching rarely gives students the opportunity to apply their newfound knowledge to actual situations, resulting in a serious time lag between students learning and applying new knowledge. As a result many students have trouble determining the relevance of what they are being taught, and thus lacking any obvious need to learn and fail to engage in the learning process. To provide an opportunity for collaborative experiential learning to reinforce the theoretical concepts imbibed in students we proposed a model on collaborative experiential learning which concentrates on the beginning of instruction referring to Fink's Model containing Knowledge of subject matter, Design of Course, and Course management. In particular, the Teacher-student interaction is adopted which is an umbrella term that refers to all the different ways teachers interact with their students. For better interfacing, Kolb's experiential learning theory based on a four-stage learning cycle is applied. In addition to the above in teaching learning process learning style of an individual is important to undergo different learning cycle. The three main types of learning styles are, auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Whenever the task is given for an individual the above learning styles can be adopted, meanwhile if the task is for a team with different learning style of a student then we need to focus on style of learning. The three styles of learning are active learning, cooperative learning and problem based learning. The proposed model is applied to the course on Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering, Apart from the regular classroom teaching we used principles of instruction to select, plan and develop an activity based on Industry visit to enhance students learning. To realize the impact of learning happened through the industry visit pertaining to topics like actuators and/or sensors, the written examination was conducted and feedback at two intervals, before and after the industry visit was taken. Individual question wise inferential statistical analysis using paired t- test was performed and inferred that the activity improved the knowledge and exposure level of a student.

Peer Assessment Enhances Student Learning: The Results of a Matched Randomized Crossover Experiment in a College Statistics Class.

Feedback has a powerful influence on learning, but it is also expensive to provide. In large classes it may even be impossible for instructors to provide individualized feedback. Peer assessment is one way to provide personalized feedback that scales to large classes. Besides these obvious logistical benefits, it has been conjectured that students also learn from the practice of peer assessment. However, this has never been conclusively demonstrated. Using an online educational platform that we developed, we conducted an in-class matched-set, randomized crossover experiment with high power to detect small effects. We establish that peer assessment causes a small but significant gain in student achievement. Our study also demonstrates the potential of web-based platforms to facilitate the design of high-quality experiments to identify small effects that were previously not detectable.

The Use of Mobile Apps to Enhance Student Learning in Introduction to Psychology

The current study examined the impact of mobile applications or apps on student learning in an introduction to psychology course. Students were assigned to complete a learner-centered worksheet activity on the brain and central nervous system using either an interactive 3-D Brain app or their online course textbook. We measured student learning based on the change in performance from pretest to posttest separately on labeling and multiple-choice items and then from a composite (labeling + multiple choice) score. There was a significant increase in performance from pretest to posttest for the app group on all measures, however, there was only a significant increase in the labeling measure for the text group. The app group answered more items correctly than the text group on the multiple choice and composite measures, but there was no difference in the labeling measure. Also, there was no difference in self-reported ratings of enjoyableness between the app and the text conditions on the worksheet activity. The results demonstrate one way in which mobile devices, in general, and mobile apps, specifically, can be effectively integrated in an introduction to psychology class to enhance student learning.

Enhancing Student Learning Outcomes with Simulation-based Pedagogies

Enhancing Student Learning Outcomes with Simulation-based Pedagogies

Enhancing Student Learning through Proactive Feedback Based Adaptive Teaching for Engineering Courses

This paper presents a proactive anonymous feedback based adaptive teaching for enhancing student learning for engineering courses. In conventional university teaching, typically, students come to the class and instructors lecture the material, assign home assignments, take exams, etc. After grading assignments or exams, the instructor provides feedback to students. Most of the time, students are reluctant to ask questions or ask instructor to revisit the topic which was already covered. However, there is no immediate anonymous feedback mechanism for each topic or class to notify the instructor about topics which are not clear to students. There are advantages that enhance students’ learning experience by using a proactive anonymous feedback approach in teaching, learning and assessment. In this paper, we present the immediate impacts of proactive anonymous feedback based adaptive teaching on student learning and assessment. Furthermore, anonymous online based feedback mechanism provides faster feedback than conventional mechanism (where students wait until the first exam or so). Immediate feedback for each topic discussed in the class streamlines the process of reporting and the provision of active studying. The results show that students get better grade and instructors get better student evaluation score since the anonymous feedback provides a mechanism for students to ask questions anonymously and the instructors get an opportunity to answer the questions or concerns in a timely manner. We implemented the proactive anonymous feedback approach in many courses in different semesters and observed similar results. However, as an example, we present one course and instructor to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

The Importance of Discussing Crime Victimization in Criminal Justice Courses: An Empirical Assessment of a New Curriculum to Enhance Student learning

Victimization and the costs of crime sometimes can be an afterthought in courses on crime and criminal justice, which often are focused on offenders. However, shifting attention to victims of crime potentially motivates students to better understand the causes and consequences of criminal victimization, thereby improving the learning of course concepts and producing better-prepared criminal justice practitioners. A new curriculum kit on understanding crime victims was implemented in two of three sections of a criminological theory course, with the third section acting as a control group having a unit on “offenders” instead of “victims.” In short, the kit did improve student knowledge of crime victimization, but so did a lecture on offenders. Interestingly, students exposed to the kit coupled with a service learning component continued to improve knowledge of crime victimization throughout the course, while the control group did not. Implications are discussed.

Using Technology-Nested Instructional Strategies to Enhance Student Learning

Students today expect the use of technology in their classes, rather than have to listen to less-than-engaging lectures. College students are connected electronically and incessant technology consumers. As a result, they may prefer the infusion of technologies to help them learn and enjoy the process of learning, rather than having to listen exclusively to lectures. To investigate this, the authors solicited student perceptions to assess the importance of learning through technology-nested instructional strategies. Student perceptions give direction to and affirm the benefits of instructional strategies that increase student motivation to engage more actively in their learning. Based on quantitative and qualitative responses through action research in multiple courses, students perceive their learning as more engaging and enjoyable when technology-nested instructional strategies are infused into their classes.

Teaching with Instructional Assistants: Enhancing Student Learning in Online Classes

Abstract This article details a pilot project incorporating instructional assistants (IAs), or upper-level undergraduate writing tutors, embedded in the courses of an online writing program at a large land-grant university. The curriculum, called the Writers’ Studio, focused on heavy process and portfolio assessment. Students were asked to create multimodal projects for public audiences in an effort to prepare them to participate as literate citizens beyond higher education. As a result of the multimodal emphasis and process-centered curriculum, the students needed additional instructional support to successfully demonstrate understanding of the learning outcomes for the course. Recognizing that digital writing environments can increase workload, the instructional team had to reconsider ways to manage the instructors’ and students’ needs. The answer was the incorporation of undergraduate teaching assistants, or instructional assistants. In online classes where students write several drafts for each project, instructor feedback on multiple drafts was simply not possible with the number of students assigned to the teacher, no matter how she managed her time. The use of IAs provided what instructors could not: a chance for students to receive feedback on their writing throughout the actual process of writing. Although students still maintained interaction with the instructors, the IAs gave them additional individualized attention. In this article, we provide an in-depth look at the pilot project, including a detailed description of our IA training practices, as well as comments from students about the benefit of the instructional assistants.

Enhancing student learning of two-level quantum systems with interactive simulations

The QuVis Quantum Mechanics Visualization project aims to address challenges of quantum mechanics instruction through the development of interactive simulations for the learning and teaching of quantum mechanics. In this article, we describe the evaluation of simulations focusing on two-level systems developed as part of the Institute of Physics Quantum Physics resources. Simulations are research-based and have been iteratively refined using student feedback in individual observation sessions and in-class trials. We give evidence that these simulations are helping students learn quantum mechanics concepts at both the introductory and advanced undergraduate level, and that students perceive simulations to be beneficial to their learning.

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Service Learning through Educational Outreach Enhances Student Learning and Engagement

Service Learning through Educational Outreach Enhances Student Learning and Engagement

Blended Learning Approach for Enhancing Students Learning Experiences in a Knowledge Society

Blended Learning Approach for Enhancing Students Learning Experiences in a Knowledge Society

Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in the EFL Classroom and its Impact on Effective Teaching-learning Process in Saudi Arabia

It is very interesting to see how Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has attracted many Arab students in learning English as a foreign language in the institutions of higher learning. It has great impact on their academic lives especially on teaching-learning process inside the classrooms. As a response to the students’ attraction in call, computer technologies have been brought into classrooms where they are considered to be effective in enhancing students learning and addressing certain education problems. The institutions of higher learning in Saudi Arabia, their students and faculty members have decided to try their best to utilize computer and other related technologies in their EFL classrooms for their fruitful teaching and learning outcomes. Thus, computers have taken centre stage and play an important role when it comes to language instruction in Saudi Arabia.

This Old Thing? Using Old Laboratory Equipment to Enhance Student Learning

Using a surplus of older laboratory instruments, 48 students in a learning and behavior course completed an assignment designed to provide an introduction to the history and use of some instruments in psychology. Students worked in pairs, were assigned one instrument, and created labels in which they identified several keys characteristics of an instrument. Assessments indicated that students learned from and also enjoyed this assignment. Sixteen of the 48 students presented and demonstrated each instrument to 19 students enrolled in a history and systems class. Pre- and posttest assessments in the history and systems class indicated significant increases in knowledge about these instruments. This is a simple, versatile activity than can be used in a variety of psychology courses.

The influences of a two-tier test strategy on student learning: A lag sequential analysis approach

Recently, programming skills have become a core competence. Many teaching strategies were developed to improve programming skills. Among them, online tests were widely applied to enhance students learning. Nonetheless, they may not be able to engage students in deep thinking and reflections. Thus, a two-tier test strategy was proposed to address this issue. However, previous research mainly focused on investigating the effectiveness of the two-tier test strategy but there is a lack of studies that investigate why the two-tier test approach is effective. To this end, we developed an online test, where the two-tier test strategy was implemented. Additionally, an empirical study was conducted to explore the influences of the two-tier test approach on students' learning performance and behavior patterns. Pre-test and post-test scores were applied to assess students' learning performance while a lag sequential analysis was used to analyze behavior patterns. Regarding learning performance, the proposed two-tier test can improve students' programming skills. Regarding behavior patterns, the two-tier test approach facilitates students to develop a learning by reviewing strategy, which is useful to improve their programming skills.

Effectiveness of Case Study in Enhancing Student Learning in Operations and Supply Chain Management

Effectiveness of Case Study in Enhancing Student Learning in Operations and Supply Chain Management

LOL Teacher! Using Humor to Enhance Student Learning

Laughing with students can help them connect with teachers and the content on a deeper level. This article includes four strategies teachers can use to incorporate humor into their teaching.