Distance education in an era of eLearning: challenges and opportunities for a campus‐focused institution

The growth of eLearning technologies has blurred the boundaries of educational modes to a point where distance education programs can be offered without drawing particular notice on campus. The experience of distance education staff working in campus‐focused universities and their perceptions of their chances of successfully planning and teaching by distance should inform evaluation of a university’s quality framework. In this case study, we report on the experience of distance educators at an Australian campus‐focused university. We identify organisational structure and culture as critical success factors for quality in distance education, with technology a, perhaps surprisingly, minor consideration. While the eLearning era has opened the door to a distance education cottage industry, eLearning strategy has failed to comprehensively prepare the way for the issues unique to distance education. The paper recommends that campus‐focused universities must protect their reputation by systematically assuring the quality of their (inevitable) distance offerings.     

Teaching About Energy

Science & Education - In this article, we draw upon the Conceptual Profile Theory to discuss the negotiation of meanings related to the energy concept in an 11th grade physics classroom. This...     

Aerobic exercise and type a behaviour

The Type A behaviour pattern is a well‐documented, if controversial, risk factor for coronary heart disease. Surprisingly, relatively little work has been reported on ways of modifying this behaviour pattern. Aerobic exercise, with its demonstrated benefits for both cardiovascular reactivity and psychological ‘well‐being’, is a promising treatment. The literature is reviewed and recommendations are made for practical applications and future research.     

Intercollegiate Athletes and Effective Educational Practices: Winning Combination or Losing Effort?

Scrutiny of intercollegiate athletics has intensified in recent years. This study compares student-athletes with those of non-athletes in terms of their engagement in effective educational practices. Contrary to many reports in the popular media, the findings from this study indicate that, on balance, student-athletes across a large number of colleges and universities do not differ greatly from their peers in terms of their participation in effective educational practices. In most instances, when differences do exist, they favor athletes.     

Social anxiety in learning: stages of change in a sample of UK undergraduates

Social anxiety in learning is prevalent amongst traditional-age students and has a marked effect on their engagement with higher education. It receives little attention from academic or support services and there is a presumption that students will manage their anxieties. Yet it is unclear what psychosocial resources they might bring to this task and how these may develop through the undergraduate years. This study sought to identify possible change processes in student social anxiety by analysing qualitative responses obtained from Level 2 undergraduate students (n=39) in relation to their experience of learning situations such as lectures, seminars and group presentations. Thematic analysis suggested a four-stage developmental progression for students in terms of their experience and orientation to coping with social anxiety. Implications for staff development and student support are outlined.     

The impact of an online intervention (Brainology) on the mindset and resiliency of secondary school pupils: a preliminary mixed methods study

This preliminary study investigated the impact of the online interactive programme Brainology (which aimed to encourage a growth mindset) on the mindset, resiliency and sense of mastery of secondary school pupils. A quasi-experimental pre-, post- and follow-up mixed-methods study was carried out with 33 participants aged 13–14?years. The measures were Dweck’s theories of intelligence scale and Prince-Embury’s resiliency scales for children and adolescents. Quantitative data were analysed using analysis of variance. Qualitative data from focus groups were categorised and coded. The programme led to a significant increase in pre- to post-mindset scores for the intervention group. However, there was a significant decline at follow-up and the initial impact of the intervention was not sustained. There were no significant changes in mindset for the comparison group. There were no significant changes in resiliency or sense of mastery for either group. The significant short-term impact of Brainology and non-significant follow-up findings are discussed. The present study has limitations such as small sample size, which has implications for generalisability. Future research should investigate the longer term effectiveness of educational interventions in schools.

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.     

"I was born full deaf." Written language outcomes after 1 year of strategic and interactive writing instruction

Nonstandard grammatical forms are often present in the writing of deaf students that are rarely, if ever, seen in the writing of hearing students. With the implementation of Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI) in previous studies, students have demonstrated significant gains in high-level writing skills (e.g., text structure) but have also made gains with English grammar skills. This 1-year study expands on prior research by longitudinally examining the written language growth (i.e., writing length, sentence complexity, sentence awareness, and function words) of 29 deaf middle-school students. A repeated-measures analysis of variance with a between-subjects variable for literacy achievement level was used to examine gains over time and the intervention's efficacy when used with students of various literacy levels. Students, whether high or low achieving, demonstrated statistically significant gains with writing length, sentence complexity, and sentence awareness. Subordinate clauses were found to be an area of difficulty, and follow up strategies are suggested. An analysis of function word data, specifically prepositions and articles, revealed different patterns of written language growth by language group (e.g., American Sign Language users, oral students, users of English-based sign).     

Capturing essential understandings of the urban science learning environment

This research is distinctive in that a mixed-methods approach, employing both cogenerative dialogues and student responses from the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES), was used to help to understand 9th grade urban students?? experiences in their biochemistry class in New York City. Factor analyses of student responses demonstrated that empirically there were four robust scales rather than five. Qualitative analyses, using cogenerative dialogues and informal interviewing, demonstrated that more adaptable forms of teaching, learning and assessing could support a variety of students. Shared with students, the contents of the CLES and cogenerative dialogues created opportunities for understanding ontologies and helped to create, access and appropriate resources that assist in bringing about success in the science classroom.