Comparing Synchronous Virtual Classrooms: Student,Instructor and Course Designer Perspectives

The synchronous tool that is right for developing an online course depends on the context, needs and priorities. This report compares synchronous, virtual classroom systems Elluminate Live! v. 9 and Dimdim v. 4.5. The researchers compared the features of each system in terms of facilitation of communication, presentation of course content and logistical requirements. Similarities and differences are outlined. Online workshops were conducted with each of the systems to collect feedback from instructors and students regarding overall perceptions of the systems and ease of use. Recommendations are provided for those making decisions about the selection and implementation of a synchronous, virtual classroom system.     

高等数学教学中形成性评价方式初探——以医学物理专业“线性代数”课程为例

长期以来,我国高校在教学过程中一般将终结性评价作为评价学生学习成绩的唯一标准,对学生的学习过程和主动性重视不够。针对这些问题,教育界提出形成性评价方式,并鼓励教师在教学活动中推广应用。目前国内高校课程形成性评价的研究多为理论描述,且所研究课程多为语言类。因此,对形成性评价方式的研究,特别是针对高校数学课程的研究,具有重要实践意义。我们以医学物理专业"线性代数"课程为例,对形成性评价方式做初步探究。     

美国高等教育国际化政策:历程、动因和走向

美国高等教育国际化政策历经国家安全目标推动阶段、全球化时代背景照应阶段、恐怖主义恐慌笼罩阶段以及多元目标推动阶段。进入新时期后,在国际形势与国家安全、高等教育市场竞争、文化意识形态博弈、科技进步与人才抢夺以及高等教育发展规律等因素推动下,政策主体走向政府、组织、高校三位一体,政策目标走向政治、经济、科技目标并重,政策手段走向外交手段支撑,政策对象走向全面国际化。     

When Diversity and Dollars Collide: Challenges for Higher Education

The challenges of meeting the needs of diverse students have long been recognized in higher education. As many institutions wrestle with austere budgets, however, diversity programs are struggling to maintain their effectiveness amidst financial rescissions. This climate of austerity coincides with demographic predictions for an increasingly diverse student body. This article outlines the challenges and offers ideas for institutions to enhance learning for contemporary students, even in the midst of fiscal challenges. These ideas go beyond the simple prioritization of diversity programs to propose ideas for institutional transformation to meet the needs of a diverse student body.     

Calculator-Available Assessments: The Why,What, and How

In the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1989) advocated that "appropriate calculators should be available to all students at all times" (p. 8) and that calculators (or any instructional tool) should be allowed in the assessment of those students. In response, large-scale assessments such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Scholastic Achievement Test, American College Testing, Advanced Placement, and a variety of state-mandated tests moved to incorporate the allowance of calculator technologies in the assessment scheme. Although rhetoric and large-scale assessments have embraced the allowance of technology, classroom teachers may have difficulty developing their own assessments that permit calculator use. This article discusses the factors involved in h e design and implementation of calculator-available assessments. In particular, four issues associated with calculator-available assessments are examined. (a) the benefits and problems associated with calculator use in assessment, (b) the components of various types of calculator-available assessments, (c) the construction of calculator-available assessments, and (d) the need for additional examination of items included on calculator-available assessments. From this examination, teachers and test developers are provided with a set of recommendations that focus on developing calculator-available assessments and minimizing difficulties arising at the item 1evel.     

When Is Reading Also Writing: Sources of Individual Differences on the New Reading Performance Assessments

This research examined component processes that contribute to performance on one of the new, standards-based reading tests that have become a staple in many states. Participants were 60 Grade 4 students randomly sampled from 7 classrooms in a rural school district. The particular test we studied employed a mixture of traditional (multiple-choice) and performance assessment approaches (constructed-response items that required written responses). Our findings indicated that multiple-choice and constructed-response items enlisted different cognitive skills. Writing ability emerged as an important source of individual differences in explaining overall reading ability, but its influence was limited to performance on constructed-response items. After controlling for word identification and listening, writing ability accounted for no variance in multiple-choice reading scores. By contrast, writing ability accounted for unique variance in reading ability, even after controlling for word identification and listening skill, and explained more variance in constructed-response reading scores than did either word identification or listening skill. In addition, performance on the multiple-choice reading measure along with writing ability accounted for nearly all of the reliable variance in performance on the constructed-response reading measure.     

Contested Latitudes: When is Artwork Scholarship?

"Artwork scholarship" is defined in this context as a forum for inquiry that involves artful expressions, innovative experimentation and critical propositions informed by aesthetic characteristics as well as customary approaches for the advancement of the arts and education. ‘Latitudes’ in turn take into account the adaptations of artful expressions for educational purposes and the contributions of ongoing critique of art as scholarship. If we deliberate on the pedagogic turn to art as research in tandem with a disposition of latitudes, embracing the tensions of ongoing contestations implicated in such evolving conceptual geographies, arts‐based educational research (ABER) becomes a means to negotiate activities that articulate when is artwork scholarship, rather than what is art as research. In this way, latitudes as a proposition – metaphorically, pedagogically and spatially – is a potential mode for the mapping of theoretical, methodological and practical scholarly encounters, embracing the very tension that the arts evoke, and in the course of so doing, makes such work emergent and inclusive of creative possibilities.     

高等学校体育课程设置的实验研究

通过对高等学校体育课程设置、教学模式、教学方法进行分析研讨，提出新的体育教学改革思路，探索体育课程新的教学模式，以便体育教师更好地完成体育教学任务，提高体育教学的质量。     

中国共产党发展高等师范教育的百年历程、成就与展望

中国共产党成立百年来,高等师范教育的发展大致经历了筚路蓝缕的革命根据地探索期、发愤图强的新中国成立初的改造期、锐意进取的改革开放优化期、守正创新的新时代提升期等四个阶段。一百年里,高等师范学校办学规模不断扩大,层次与质量不断提升,成为社会主义现代化师资的培养之基;师资队伍整体素质不断提升,深化立德树人的育人之本;科学研究投入与成果转化率提高,成为创新驱动发展的策源之地;民众对师资满意度不断提升,成为推动社会和谐发展的平衡杠杆。展望未来,我国高等师范教育要坚持以特色化办学为实践目标,推动自身高质量发展;要以师范专业认证为契机,构建创新卓越共存的人才培养机制;要以促进科研成果应用转化为动力,提升自身社会改革的承担力;要以立德树人为发展根基,守好高等师范学校育人主阵地。     

When marketization encounters centralized governance: Private Higher education in Egypt

The growing presence of private higher education institutions, including international branch campuses (IBCs), can potentially lead to transformations in governance and evaluation modes in contexts of state-centric steering. This paper addresses these transformations in the context of Egypt. The paper shows a hybrid progression in the legal and discursive practices governing private institutions, and a shift towards more procedural autonomy specifically in relation to IBCs. The system, however, continues to rely on a centralized a priori evaluation mode and strict controls. This reflects the inherent tensions within systems of centralized governance and weak institutional autonomy to shift into a posteriori evaluation modes, despite the forces of marketization.     

Reading,Writing, and English Course Pathways when Developmental Education is Optional: Course Enrollment and Success for Underprepared First-time-in-College Students

Academic underpreparedness is an issue for many first-time-in-college students, particularly those entering community colleges. Whereas many underprepared students enroll in developmental education, research has indicated that traditional remediation may not increase students’ chances for success. Therefore, states and colleges have begun to implement new course placement strategies to increase the accuracy of initial course placement and new instructional approaches to better serve their developmental students. Specifically, in 2013, the state of Florida passed Senate Bill 1720 which redesigned developmental coursework and placement policies across the Florida College System. The reform lifted developmental education placement exam testing and course enrollment requirements for certain exempt students, irrespective of prior academic preparation or achievement. The current study focuses on these exempt students—those who had the option to bypass developmental education—who were also underprepared, and their initial course selection and subsequent success in their gateway (introductory college-level) English course. Using statewide student-level data and logistic regression techniques, the results indicated that level of preparation was related to students’ course enrollment and gateway English course success. Students slightly underprepared in reading or writing were more likely than severely underprepared students to enroll in the gateway English class, relative to a developmental reading or writing course. In reading and writing, slightly underprepared students were more likely to pass English, relative to severely underprepared students. The authors consider the findings in light of recent national changes to developmental education and offer recommendations for policy and practice.     

Comparing Learning Outcomes and Satisfaction of an Online Algebra-Based Physics Course with a Face-to-Face Course

Journal of Science Education and Technology - This study aimed to compare the online and face-to-face teaching of a required algebra-based physics course for non-physics majors in large-enrollment...     

Initial Considerations When Applying an Instructional Sensitivity Framework: Partitioning the Variation Between and Within Classrooms for Two Mathematics Assessments

ABSTRACT

Drawing inferences about the extent to which student performance reflects instructional opportunities relies on the premise that the measure of student performance is reflective of instructional opportunities. An instructional sensitivity framework suggests that some assessments are more sensitive to detecting differences in instructional opportunities compared to other assessments. This study applies an instructional sensitivity framework to compare student performance on two different mathematics achievement measures across five states and three grade levels. Results suggest a range of variation in student performance among teachers on the same mathematics achievement measure, variation between the two different mathematics achievement measures, and variation between grade levels within the same state. Findings highlight initial considerations for educators interested in selecting and evaluating measures of student performance that are reflective of instructional opportunities.     

论高职计算机课程教学的定位、路径与措施

熟练掌握本专业的计算机应用技术是对高职生的基本要求。当今的高职计算机课程教学应当坚持传人以知、授人以技,促进创新。目前存在的主要问题是认识不足、师资不配和学生无求,高职计算机课程教学需要着重强化的内容包括:狠抓专业相关基本知识的学透,狠抓将来实用专业技能的苦练,狠抓学生计算机创新力的培养。高职计算机课程教学改革的保障措施是要想方设法引导学生成为学习的主体,尽校之能保障学生的学有所获。     

高职体育理论课构建、教学方式选择及实践

运用文献法、分析法与实验法,对高职体育理论课教学一般原则、教学内容与目标、教学方式以及教学媒体的选择进行了系统阐述。通过对比实验表明,学生对高职体育理论课教学普遍持积极态度;通过理论课学习,学生课堂体育活动参与的积极性、课外体育锻炼的自觉性有明显改善。高职体育理论课教学应得到广泛重视与推广。     

高校本科课程改革的走向、难点与应对论略

本文从我国高校本科课程改革的走向及现状入手，探析了制约课程改革进程中的几个阻碍性因素。认为这些因素构成了深化本科课程改革的难点，并提出了当前突破难点、推进课程创新的应对措施一是以转变教育思想、确立符合时代要求的课程理念为先导，变革培养模式；二是以课程建设为核心，拓宽专业面，增强适应性；三是加强课程理论研究，指导改革实践；四是突破学科间的内联障碍，发挥综合优势；五是宏扬学生的主体性，注重个性发展。