Quality Of Course Content Research Articles

Online capacity building for the health workforce: the case of the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response for the African region.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) has developed a comprehensive capacity devel-opment programme to support the successful implementation of the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response 3rd edition Technical Guidelines (IDSR). As part of the learning program, a series of asyn-chronous online courses are offered on OpenWHO in English, French and Portuguese. This paper describes the use of five IDSR online courses and reports on feedback received from learners on Course 1 in the English series. An online learner survey was developed, and a descriptive analysis was conducted. This paper also reports on use related empirical metadata from the OpenWHO platform. Overall, learners (97%-n/N) of Course 1 IDSR English series indicated a positive perception toward their online learning experience because of the quality of course content, its organization, ease of use and relevance to their workplace needs. In addition, 88% (n/N) of learners reported that they had used their acquired knowledge at least sometimes and 54.4% (n/N) had shared their learning with others. Lastly, the quiz analyses showed an average of right answers of 78.97% for quiz 1 and 69.94% for quiz 2. Online learning is an essential component of a blended capacity development programme and provides cost effective, equitable and impactful learning. Learners who have a learning goal and find their needs met in courses tend to show more satisfaction and motivation to share their learning.

Investigating Factors Influencing Students’ Engagement in Sustainable Online Education

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a rapid shift from traditional classroom-based education to sustainable online classrooms. This has brought attention to the importance of comprehending the intricacies of students’ engagement during virtual learning. Drawing upon the concept of community of inquiry in cognitive, social, and teaching presence, a mixed-methods approach involved data collected via a structured questionnaire administered to 452 university students to identify the factors that influence students’ participation during online classes. Through the application of the CHAID (Chi-Squared Automatic Interaction Detection) decision tree algorithm, the quality of course content is identified as a cognitive predictor of students’ engagement. It is worth mentioning that a significant proportion of students, specifically 61.7%, demonstrated a considerable degree of engagement with faculty content due to its high quality. With respect to the role of social presence, possession of a designated private space boost (69.2%) and requiring students to use their webcams are found to be critical for students’ engagement. Lastly, teaching presence as a factor in enhancing students’ engagement is demonstrated by promoting interactive classrooms and providing rapid feedback to students by teachers. The findings demonstrate the importance of teachers’ quality course material, interactive classes, and the benefits of a physical environment free from distractions for optimizing students’ engagement.

Appraisal of Implementation of Inclusive Entrepreneurship Education Programme in Public Universities in South-South, Nigeria (During Post Covid-19 Pandemic Era)

The study was conducted on appraisal of the implementation of inclusive entrepreneurship education programme in public universities in the post-covid-19 pandemic era in South-South, Nigeria. The study utilized two research questions and hypotheses. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the research. The population of the study consisted of 19,862 final year students in universities in SouthSouth, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 984 students. Instrument titled Appraisal of the Implementation of Inclusive Entrepreneurship Education Programme Questionnaire (AIIEEPQ) was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics and independent t-test analyses were used to analyse the data. The result was tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that quality of course content has not significantly enhanced the implementation of inclusive education programme in post-covid19 pandemic era while students’ disposition has significantly enhanced the implementation of inclusive education programme in post-covid19 pandemic era. It was concluded that quality of the course content in the study of Inclusive Entrepreneurship Education has not successfully helped students in the practice of entrepreneurial activities but what has sustained them remains the positive attitude they developed in course of their study, chiefly based on what improved version of life they hope to make of themselves and others through the empowerment as entrepreneurs. Based on the conclusion, it was recommended among others that government and higher institutions of learning should in addition to training, upgrade and implement their entrepreneurship curriculum content to accommodate today’s entrepreneurship skills as they also pertain to the criteria of inclusiveness.

RESEARCH ON SPOC ONLINE COURSE QUALITY EVALUATION BASED ON LEARNERS' EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR CHANGES

BackgroundCovid-19, which spread all over the world in 2019, disrupted the normal teaching activities of colleges and universities. All teachers and students have not stopped teaching or learning through online courses. Improving the quality of online education is an important issue that can not be ignored in the development of education, especially in the situation of epidemic. SPOC online course quality has attracted more and more educators' attention. Foreign related research is relatively mature. However, China's evaluation methods are still developing, depending on different platforms. The current evaluation lacks relevant specific curriculum evaluation basis. In order to study the view of learners based on learners' psychological experience, it is necessary to establish an online course quality evaluation model based on SPOC. At the same time, the research on the changes of their emotional behavior is also of great significance.Research Objects and MethodsFirstly, this paper expounds the concept of learners' psychological experience, analyzes the influencing factors of SPOC online course evaluation from the perspective of learners' psychological experience, and discusses learners' views, including course content quality, course support quality, course evaluation quality, course evaluation standard, course evaluation standard, course interaction quality and course effect quality. A total of 18 secondary indicators are selected. Then unify the evaluation index unit, calculate the index weight of each index, analyze its relative contribution, establish the contribution judgment matrix, test the consistency, and calculate the influence weight from the standard layer to the target layer. Finally, from the perspective of learners' psychological experience, this paper constructs the SPOC network curriculum quality evaluation system by using analytic hierarchy process.ResultsSeveral teachers were invited to fill in the online course comprehensive evaluation questionnaire according to the importance scale. Therefore, we calculate the maximum eigenvalue of the constructed judgment matrix. The established index system can objectively reflect the quality of SPOC online courses from four aspects: course content quality, course support quality, course interaction quality and course effect quality. It provides a reference for learners to choose courses and teachers to improve online courses. For the quality of course content, consistency is the most important and the most important. For the quality of curriculum support, curriculum materials are the most important index, and the coefficient is small. For the quality of course interaction, clear navigation is the most important. In terms of course effect quality, the weight coefficient of self-study effect evaluation is the largest. At the same time, the study investigated learners' emotional behavior. There is a significant correlation between College Students' emotional regulation self-efficacy and mood state. Among them, the dimension of positive emotional self-efficacy was significantly positively correlated with energy and self-esteem, and negatively correlated with fatigue and depression; Regulating positive emotions, self-efficacy has a significant positive correlation with self-esteem, and a significant negative correlation with anger and energy; The self-efficacy of regulating depression or pain was significantly positively correlated with energy and self-esteem, and negatively correlated with the dimensions of tension, anger, fatigue, depression and panic; The self-efficacy of regulating anger or anger has a significant positive correlation with energy and self-esteem, and a significant negative correlation with the dimensions of tension, anger, fatigue, depression and panic.ConclusionThrough comparative research, interview research and investigation research methods, it is proved that the proposed learning psychological experience index is effective in SPOC online course evaluation system based on analytic hierarchy process. Through questionnaire survey and calculation, the contribution judgment matrix helps to measure the importance of each index. The established index system can provide guidance for the design and development of SPOC online courses, and even serve as the basis for educational management decision-making. It has high universality and can also be applied to many other evaluation systems. In order to improve the objective accuracy of the evaluation results, the indicators in the system can be optimized according to different courses and majors.AcknowledgementsSupported by projects grant from Beijing Education Science Planning Project “MOOC+SPOC curriculum quality evaluation from the viewpoint of learners experience” (Grant No. CDDB2020139).

A Study on the Effect of Education APPs on the Learning Participation and Learning Effect of University Students

Purpose The education APPs offers new ways of learning and improves the quality of learning for students, who actively use this new learning platform to access more and better teaching resources. However, the current research on learning participation and learning effect of education APPs is mainly focused on establishing a single hypothesis, and there is a lack of systematic interpretation. Therefore, it is imperative to study how education APPs should increase the participation and effectiveness of students. Design/Methodology/Approach This paper takes students who have used trade education APPs as the research object, and uses the method of combining theoretical research and data analysis to conduct in-depth research on the degree of student participation and learning effect, and puts forward corresponding countermeasures and suggestions according to the research results. Findings According to the research questions, on the basis of literature research, it is concluded that education APPs has four characteristics, such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived interactivity, and course content quality. Secondly, according to the empirical analysis results, it is found that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived interactivity, and quality of course content have a positive impact on learning engagement, and learning engagement has a positive impact on learning outcomes. Research Implications In terms of theory, this study makes up for the deficiencies of existing theoretical research by investigating the use of education APPs by students and what characteristics of education APPs can improve the learning effect of students. In terms of practice, it provides reference suggestions for providers of education APPs to improve APPs functions and improve business performance in the future.

Massive Open Online Course Fast Adaptable Computer Engineering Education Model

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is a new online education model that provides new opportunities and challenges for the development and reform of teaching in colleges and universities. This paper first builds a MOOC-based model of influencing factors of blended learning adaptability. Through investigation and research, it is found that the six influencing factors all have different ways and different degrees of influence on learning adaptability. Among them, learning motivation has a direct and significant impact on learning adaptability, and learning self-efficacy not only has a direct and significant impact on learning adaptability but also has an indirect impact on learning adaptability through learning motivation. Teacher teaching has indirect effects on learning adaptability through learning self-efficacy, learning motivation, and learning support. Learning support not only has a direct and significant impact on learning adaptability but also has an indirect impact on learning adaptability through learning motivation. MOOC platform has a direct and significant impact on learning adaptability. The quality of course content has a direct and significant impact on learning adaptability through the MOOC platform and learning motivation. The creative results of this research are mainly embodied in the combination of theory and practice, exploring and forming related results based on MOOC-based college students’ learning adaptability. According to the MOOC-based learning-adaptive intervention model, teaching practice is carried out to verify the effect of the intervention model from two aspects of student procedural performance and result performance. Finally, in view of the problems existing in traditional computer teaching in colleges and universities, combined with the design ideas and basic characteristics of MOOC, the teaching mode reform of computer courses is analyzed and discussed, and a MOOC-based computer engineering education teaching mode is proposed.

Analyzing Large Collections of Open-Ended Feedback From MOOC Learners Using LDA Topic Modeling and Qualitative Analysis

There is a large variation in background and purpose of massive open online course (MOOC) learners. To improve the overall MOOC learning experience, it is important to identify which MOOC characteristics are most important for learners. For this purpose, in this article, we analyzed about 150 000 open-ended learner responses from 810 MOOCs to three postcourse survey questions about their learning experience: (Q1) What was your most favorite part and why? (Q2) What your least favorite part and why? (Q3) How could the course be improved? We used the latent Dirichlet allocation topic model to identify prominent topics present in learner responses to each question. We determined the theme of each identified topic through qualitative analysis. Our results show that the following aspects of MOOCs can significantly impact the learning experience: quality of course content, accurate description of prerequisites and required time commitment in course syllabus, quality of assessment and feedback, meaningful interaction with peers and educators, engaging instructor and videos, accessibility of learning materials, and usability of platform.

Student perceptions of rapid transition to emergency remote learning in a hands‐on agricultural college

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic in spring 2020 led to university closures and little time to convert all face‐to‐face courses online. We investigated how students in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA perceived emergency remote teaching during the early stages of the pandemic. The college maintains a hands‐on pedagogy and “Learn by Doing” approach that is challenging to replicate in a remote setting. We conducted a survey of student experiences (n = 304) during the spring of 2020. We found that most students had a negative experience with aspects of emergency remote teaching during the study period. Approximately two‐thirds perceived courses to be less effective at increasing knowledge and career‐related skills; approximately three‐quarters stated group problem solving was less effective; and approximately two‐thirds were dissatisfied with the quantity and quality of course content. Around 10% of students felt courses were more effective in these areas. Familiar instructional modes (synchronous and pre‐recorded lectures) were the most common and preferred by students (with 70 to 85% finding them useful vs 7 to 15% finding them useless), even though other instructional modes can be more effective strategies for online teaching. Our results highlight the need for concrete experiences in agriculture and natural resources courses. We suggest strategies for faculty and students to improve remote teaching outcomes in agriculture and natural resources disciplines.

EMERGENCY ONLINE TEACHING: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION LECTURERS' PERCEPTION OF BARRIER AND PEDAGOGICAL COMPETENCY

In this COVID-19 situation, online learning has been widely implemented in higher education contexts. This issue inspires the researchers to conduct further study on barriers encountered by lecturers in higher education. This study was carried out to explore how the lecturers perceive the barriers in online teaching practices and the level of pedagogical competencies perceived by the lecturers in conducting online learning in this emergency. The study employed a cross-sectional survey research design. Data were collected from 73 early childhood education lecturers from four regions in East Java, Indonesia. The questionnaires were developed to measure lecturers' perceptions of barriers in online teaching practices adopted from the TIPEC framework and measure the lecturers' pedagogical competencies. Multivariate analysis of variances was used to analyze the data. The results showed that limited bandwidth, connectivity, and security were the first significant barriers perceived by early childhood lecturers. Meanwhile, the second barriers are related to student lack of engagement and lack of feedback. Then, third barriers are computer viruses, the quality of course content, and reliability of the online assessment instrument. ANOVA results showed that there were significant differences between gender and technological factors, gender and instructional design factors, as well as educational qualification and strategy implementation of factors.

Methods of Online Teaching and Its Efficiency- A Review

Online teaching has become a more common way to learn in college settings for the past 10 years therefore,curriculum designers must evaluate the best ways in which to deliver information and assure studentknowledge in an online form. Various methods of teaching are known- analytical, episodic, narrative, whichprovide different advantages and disadvantages. They differ on the basis of discussions and include factorssuch as discussion initiation, maintenance and assessment. Chickering’s seven principles of good practiceare used to design courses and the usefulness of each principle and suggests ways in which the principle canbe implemented effectively. In an online forum, other efficiency determining factors have been discussed,which include communication, flexibility, feedback, quality of course content among adapting to studentneeds

Factors Influencing Students’ Decision to Drop Out of Online Courses in Brazil

In recent years, e-learning has been the fastest growing educational form in students' numbers, and this industry's market revenue (Lee, Choi, &Kim, 2013). 
 
 Despite this growth, concern about the significantly higher student dropout rate of students in online courses as compared with conventional learning environments has increased. Brazil has also registered a significant increase in the number of students interested in this type of education, but the dropout rate is a considerable concern to institutions. 
 
 This study’s objective was to identify the relevant variables behind online students’ dropout decision in Brazil. After a literature review that determined the ten most recurrent and relevant variables, we heard professional e-learning experts. They indicated, from their standpoint, what the most pertinent variables influencing dropout would be. Based on this, we conducted a quantitative survey with e-learning students, considering the factors indicated in the literature on this subject and educational professionals’ indications. 
 
 This study's contribution was to verify that the quality support is extraordinarily relevant and has a high correlation with students' perception of Usefulness, the quality of Course Content, and ease of System Use.

Evaluation of the Teaching of Physical Education and Sports Activities by Students in Physical Education

Objective: This study aims to assess by the students of the master’s degree in physical education the quality of course content, assessment methods and adopted teaching strategies implemented by the trainers. Method: The investigation was based on a questionnaire relating to the objectives of the lessons given, the educational strategies, the methods and results of the assessments, and the supervision of the students. The response to each item of the questionnaire was assessed using a Likert descriptive-digital scale at 4 levels. Results: The formulation of the teaching objectives proved to be relevant and their achievement had been acquired at the end of the learning. Regarding the adaptability of course content, the lessons were complete and rigorous for 81.1% of the students, and the quality of work was balanced for 72.2% of them. The courses provided favored sufficient participation for 74.4% of the students, and the mode of assessment of learning was appropriate. Regarding the feeling of having developed skills, 71.1% of students held back general skills, 57.7% for transversal skills, and 56.7% for specific skills. Finally, good structural and institutional organization of teaching was satisfactory: schedule and pace of the lessons, 64.4%; hourly volume allocated to the lessons, 71.1%; material conditions, 68.9%.

Finding their feet: lecturers’ and students’ perceptions of English as a medium of instruction in a recently-implemented Master's programme at an Italian university

ABSTRACTThis article reports on a small-scale qualitative study designed to explore lecturers’ and students’ experiences of teaching and learning on a recently-implemented MSc programme in Biomedical Sciences taught in the medium of English at an Italian university. A focus group format was employed to interview twelve students on the programme, and individual interviews were conducted with six lecturers. Participants’ views were elicited concerning the language proficiency of both students and lecturers, the strategies adopted to meet any challenges associated with weak language skills where these were thought to exist, and the perceived impact of EMI on assessment and the quality of course content. Findings indicate that despite quite lenient language entry requirements, students felt able to cope with the demands of the programme and felt positively disposed towards it and the benefits it afforded, despite at times placing extra demands on them. Lecturers similarly felt positive about the experience both in terms of the students’ and their own development. There is evidence that flexible attitudes towards the use of students’ L1, and the strategies lecturers adopted in their efforts to accommodate to students, were important determinants of these attitudes and the generally positive experience widely reported.

Availability of cookies during an academic course session affects evaluation of teaching

Results from end-of-course student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are taken seriously by faculties and form part of a decision base for the recruitment of academic staff, the distribution of funds and changes to curricula. However, there is some doubt as to whether these evaluation instruments accurately measure the quality of course content, teaching and knowledge transfer. We investigated whether the provision of chocolate cookies as a content-unrelated intervention influences SET results. We performed a randomised controlled trial in the setting of a curricular emergency medicine course. Participants were 118 third-year medical students. Participants were randomly allocated into 20 groups, 10 of which had free access to 500 g of chocolate cookies during an emergency medicine course session (cookie group) and 10 of which did not (control group). All groups were taught by the same teachers. Educational content and course material were the same for both groups. After the course, all students were asked to complete a 38-question evaluation form. A total of 112 students completed the evaluation form. The cookie group evaluated teachers significantly better than the control group (113.4 ± 4.9 versus 109.2 ± 7.3; p = 0.001, effect size 0.68). Course material was considered better (10.1 ± 2.3 versus 8.4 ± 2.8; p = 0.001, effect size 0.66) and summation scores evaluating the course overall were significantly higher (224.5 ± 12.5 versus 217.2 ± 16.1; p = 0.008, effect size 0.51) in the cookie group. The provision of chocolate cookies had a significant effect on course evaluation. These findings question the validity of SETs and their use in making widespread decisions within a faculty.

An Impact of Personality on Academic Achievement of Prospective Teachers

An individual's personality is an aggregate conglomeration of the decisions they have made throughout their life and the memory of the experiences to which these decisions led. There are inherent natural, genetic, and environmental factors that contribute to the development of our personality. Academic achievement has been the criterion for judging the individual's right from the start of formal education. If the goal of education is enhancing academic achievement of the individual, then researchers will have empirically to find answers to various questions related to achievement. The objective of the study were : to study the difference in the mean score of personality on the basis of Gender, to study the difference in the mean score of personality on the basis of their Educational Qualification., to study the difference in the mean score of academic achievement on the basis of Gender and to study the difference in the mean score of academic achievement on the basis of their Educational Qualification. Self constructed and validated tool on Personality test and academic achievement were employed. The findings were : there is no significant difference between male and female in their openness, Conscientiousness, extra version, agreeableness, neuroticism and personality development, there is no significant difference between graduate and post graduate in their openness, Conscientiousness, Extra version, Agreeableness, Neuroticism and personality development, there is a significant difference between male and female in quality of institutional delivery, institutional facility, quality of course content, mode of evaluation and their academic achievement and there is no significant difference between graduate and post graduate in their staff, quality of institutional delivery, entry requirement, institutional facility, quality of course content, mode of evaluation and academic achievement.

MO‐DE‐BRA‐05: EUTEMPE‐RX: Combining E‐Learning and Face‐To‐Face Training to Build Expert Knowledge, Skills and Competences for Medical Physicists in Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology

Purpose:In 2013, the EURATOM authorities of the European Commission decided to support the Horizon2020 project submission ‘EUTEMPE‐RX’ that aimed for a new set of course modules to train medical physicists in diagnostic and interventional radiology to expert level with small group deep learning. Each module would consist of 2 phases: an e‐learning and a face‐to‐face phase, each phase requiring typically 40h of participant time.Methods:The European Federation (EFOMP) and 13 European partners, all of them selected for their excellent scientific and/or educational skills, led the 12 course modules. A quality manual ensured the quality of course content and organization. Educational workshops familiarized the teachers with e‐learning techniques and methods for assessment. Content was set in accordance with the EC document RP174 that lists learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills and competences (KSCs) for different specialties and levels of medical physics. Surveys for stake holder satisfaction were prepared.Results:Today the course modules are being realized. The modules cover most of the KSCs in RP174 document. Teachers have challenged the participants with unique tasks: case studies in medical physics leadership, Monte Carlo simulation of a complete x‐ray imaging chain, development of a task specific QA protocol, compilation of optimization plans, simulation tasks with anthropomorphic breast models, etc. Participants undertook practical sessions in modern hospitals and visited a synchrotron facility, a calibration lab, screening organizations, etc. Feedback form quality surveys was very positive and constructive. A sustainability plan has been worked out.Conclusion:The modules have enabled the participants to develop their KSCs and cope with challenges in medical physics. The sustainability plan will be implemented to continue the unique combined e‐learning and face to face training at high level training in diagnostic and interventional radiology also beyond Europe.The EUTEMPE‐RX project is funded by the Horizon2020 ‐ EURATOM program of the European Commission

Student‐generated content in college teaching: content quality, behavioural pattern and learning performance

AbstractThis study investigates the quality of course content, behavioural patterns of students and learning performance in teaching of student‐generated content (SGC). A total of 49 third‐year university students in educational technology participated in this study. By combining the methods of questionnaire, lag sequence analysis and interview, the study found that (1) SGC quality was acceptable, (2) SGC process has 14 significant behavioural sequences, and (3) students developed their knowledge and capability and were satisfied with SGC‐based teaching approach. In addition, this study revealed problems and proposed suggestions for SGC‐based course teaching. Finally, implications for course teaching in colleges, the limitations and future research plan were presented.

An m-learning framework for ERP systems in higher education

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors of m-learning approaches which can be used for enterprise resource planning (ERP) system training and to propose a theoretical framework for m-learning of ERP systems. Design/methodology/approach – A literature review of several theories relating to success factors for mobile learning (m-learning) and electronic learning (e-learning) are analysed and a theoretical framework of success factors for m-learning of ERP systems is proposed. Two field studies are undertaken to identify the features of e-learning and m-learning systems which users enjoyed and which related to the factors identified in the theoretical framework. The technology acceptance model (TAM) was used to evaluate the acceptance, usefulness and perceived ease of use (PEOU) of the two systems evaluated in the field study, the openSAP e-learning application and the SAP Learn Now m-learning application. Findings – The results confirmed several of the theoretical elements identified in the framework and the m-learning system was rated positively for PEOU and perceived usefulness (PU). The findings confirmed other studies showing the importance of the quality of course content in e-learning and m-learning projects. Research limitations/implications – The empirical study was limited to a small number of participants in higher education. However, a deeper understanding of the factors influencing m-learning for ERP systems was obtained. Practical implications – The study provides a valuable practical contribution because the framework can be used in the improved design of an ERP m-learning approach, which in turn can lead to an improvement in ERP training and education programmes and ultimately ERP project success. Originality/value – Several studies propose the use of m-learning systems. However, research related to the factors impacting on m-learning projects for ERP system training is limited. The paper presents original work and the results provide a valuable contribution to several theories of m-learning.

My place or yours? Perceptions of, and selection choice criteria for, higher education institutions: the case of UK and Malaysian students

There have been a number of studies aimed at assessing student's perceptions of higher education institutions (HEIs) from around the world and based on the results, informing university recruitment strategies and plans. However, no study has addressed a comparison of the UK and Malaysian student's perceptions of the quality of HEIs around the world, or the reasons for, and influencers on, the choice of them. This undergraduate study, based on a large sample of students in one typical HEI in the UK and Malaysia, addresses these issues and shows surprising similarities between both sets of students in terms of perceptions of institutional quality, reputation, reasons for choice of HEI and influencers of choice. Based on the results, recommendations are made on relevant marketing strategies not only to attract international students, but also to address important factors, such as 'location' (e.g. city or rural), 'reputation' (e.g. reputation of university staff), 'learning environment' (e.g. quality of course content, course information and learning materials) and 'career prospects' (e.g. reputation of university for employability after study).

Teaching the Mediterranean Diet in Italy

ABSTRACT: Problem‐based learning (PBL) can provide an enhanced appreciation of the relationship between culture and food for students who aspire to become dietitians or nutrition educators; however, large university classes often inhibit the use of PBL. A professor who specializes in research documenting the relationships among food and culture took 17 Canadian university students, many of whom were studying nutrition and food science, to southern Italy where they learned about Mediterranean diets and Italian food culture. PBL was implemented by encouraging students to work together to solve problems, and by the completion of assignments that promoted observation of and interaction with the local culture. Students evaluated the experience positively with majority agreement that the quality of course content was excellent, that knowledge of the subject areas increased, and that the courses challenged students to critically think about issues. Despite a focused effort on PBL in the courses, not all students agreed that the courses helped them to develop the ability to solve real problems in this field. This may have been due to unawareness of dietetic competencies by some students. Many of the assignments used in Italy could be adopted for use in food culture classes in North America, or by postsecondary instructors planning travel study programs in Italy.