Abstract: Large lecture sections are a necessary and often valuable component of the college or university curriculum; however, many educators are frustrated by the impersonal nature of such classes and the potential ineffectiveness of their lecture presentations. Examining the theatrical concepts of dialogue, monologue and soliloquy provides teachers with a conceptual platform from which to evaluate their own modes of communication while also encouraging a mindset that promotes a more personal and productive environment in their classrooms.

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Abstract: Attempts by universities to provide an improved learning environment to students have led to an increase in team-teaching approaches in higher education. While the definitions of team-teaching differ slightly, the benefits of team-teaching have been cited widely in the higher education literature. By tapping the specialist knowledge of a variety of staff members, students are exposed to current and emerging knowledge in different fields and topic areas; students are also able to understand concepts from a variety of viewpoints. However, while there is some evidence of the usefulness of team-teaching, there is patchy empirical support to underpin how well students appreciate and adapt to team-teaching approaches. This paper reports on the team-teaching approaches adopted in the delivery of an introductory journalism and communication course at the University of Queensland. The success of the approaches is examined against the background of quantitative and qualitative data. The study found that team-teaching is generally very well received by undergraduate students because they value the diverse expertise and teaching styles they are exposed to. Despite the positive feedback, students also complained about problems of continuity and cohesiveness.

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Abstract: This instructional paper is intended to provide an alternative approach to developing lecture materials, including handouts and PowerPoint slides, successfully developed over several years. The principal objective is to aid in the bridging of traditional “chalk and talk” lecture approaches with more active learning techniques, especially in more technically-oriented disciplines that employ data or require carefully structured graphs or mathematical manipulation. Using several examples, the paper shows how scarce lecture time can be used more efficiently, thus freeing up students to focus on higher order cognitive issues. Such an approach lends itself to more active-centered techniques. It also improves the incentives for students to attend lectures. The approach is time consuming in its initial development, but arguably pays for itself over the long run.

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Abstract: This instructional article is about an innovative teaching approach for enhancing student engagement and active learning in higher education through a combination of just-in-time teaching and the use of PowerPoint technology. The central component of this approach was students’ pre-lecture preparation of a short PowerPoint presentation in which they answered a few general conceptual questions about the coming lecture topic. The power of PowerPoint, it is argued, is about structuring student thought and student engagement before and during lectures, as well as giving students more power to be involved to shape content and interactivity of university lectures. The article concludes with some valuable lessons and pointers for course instructors across disciplines about the pedagogy and use of PowerPoint as an instructional method for enhancing student engagement and active learning.

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Abstract: Large first-year class sizes have resulted in many lecturers adopting coping strategies consisting of direct-transmission mode teaching, reduced practical time, and assessment. Recently several strategies have been implemented in an attempt to improve student participation and active learning; however, these changes have to be facilitated and fostered by faculty and administrators. Consequently, we present the implementation, results, and feedback of a new Biology first-year course run for the period 2005-2008. In this course, the number of lectures was reduced, and the number of more co-operative tutorial and practical-based sessions was increased. The aim of these changes was to promote active participation of students and to encourage them to take responsibility for their own learning. Despite some initial problems, most students and staff were positive about the learning experience, and the skills developed were considered of value to other science courses. Other courses are encouraged to follow this example and move to a reduced lecture and increased interactive tutorial/workshop and practical approach to promote student learning and development.

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Abstract: This study examined test performance as a function of test format (proctored versus unproctored) and course type (traditional versus distance). The participants were 246 undergraduate students who completed introductory sociology courses during four semesters at a southeastern university. During each semester, the same instructor taught a traditional lecture section and a distance section of the course. Students in both course types took unproctored online tests in two semesters while students in both course types took proctored classroom paper-and-pencil tests in the other two semesters. Students scored significantly higher on the unproctored online tests than on the proctored classroom tests. There was no significant difference in test performance between students enrolled in distance courses and those enrolled in lecture courses. Additionally, no significant interaction was found between test format and course type. Implications of these results for the design and structure of online and hybrid courses are discussed.

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Abstract: The inclusion of supplemental online assignments and in-class active learning activities can lead to greater levels of student engagement and learning. Students reported that they were more engaged in the classroom and felt that both helped them in exam preparation. Both were also shown to have positively affected student performance and, perhaps most hearteningly, seemed to have had the greatest impact on lower achieving students.

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Abstract: Colleges and universities are beginning to invest in active learning (AL) classrooms in an effort to replace the traditional lecture style pedagogy that is frequently used by many professors in higher education (Eagan et al., 2014). This is a quantitative research study conducted at a medium-sized Midwestern university. Students were given the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Survey in three different classes. The research study compared students’ perceptions of Teaching Presence (TP), Social Presence (SP), and Cognitive Presence (CP) differences from classes first taught in a traditional auditorium lecture-style format, then taught in an AL classroom. This study shows that it is not the physical structure of AL classrooms that had an impact on students’ levels of TP, SP, and CP, but the instructional design of these classes that had an impact in these areas. The study also shows that when implementing AL classrooms, instructors need to make intentional design decisions to keep the levels of TP at high levels.

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Abstract: Existing research on student acceptance of the flipped classroom in higher education is somewhat equivocal: some students appreciate the opportunities for active learning that a flipped classroom affords, whereas others expect their learning to occur via in-class lectures. The current study sought to disentangle some of these mixed results by manipulating aspects of hypothetical flipped and traditional classroom environments through a vignette comparison approach. In the first study, a third of the participants reported a preference for a flipped classroom that utilized video lectures as the primary pre-class preparation activity, in comparison to a traditional classroom characterized by at-home reading and in-class lecture. In contrast, the second study demonstrated that half of the sample preferred the flipped approach when the pre-class participation activity was presented as a menu of choices including, but not limited to, video lectures. Across both studies and class preferences, quantitative and qualitative analyses indicated that participants believed they would learn more in their chosen class environment, and they attributed more positive personal characteristics to their preferred instructor. Implications for instructors contemplating a switch to the flipped classroom from a more traditional approach are discussed.

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