Under the broad research question, “Can multiple electronic learning resources improve students’ academic performance in a large first-year General Chemistry course?”, this study examines how students used a wide range of online resources during the Fall 2011 and Winter 2012 academic terms and correlates this information with their academic success, measured by their grades on two midterms, a final exam and their final course grade.
Since 1996, Professor Robert Burk has taught Carleton University’s large first-year chemistry course, CHEM 1000. The course was a full credit course and spanned the fall and winter terms. In 2010, the Department of Chemistry adjusted the curriculum and the course has since then been offered as two half-credit courses – CHEM 1001, which runs in the fall term, and CHEM 1002, which runs in the winter term. Only students who achieve a passing mark in the fall term are eligible to enroll in the winter section of the course. Course enrollment has increased from 350 in 1996 to 700 in 2011.
Teaching is a science, an art, and a craft.
The purpose of our research project was to assess the relevance and value added of using a specific technology – video screen capture (VSC) – for instructional purposes in university-level second-language writing courses. VSC technology makes it possible to "trace" all activities visible on a computer screen. Our objective was to understand how VSC, which helps visualize the process of writing on computers, can support this process and enhance students’ autonomy as second-language writers.
“This report reinforces the effectiveness of financial aid in closing Canada’s education gap for Aboriginal students. Along with culturally relevant curriculum, programs, and outreach, financial support is key to improving both access and success for Indigenous students in post-secondary education. AUCC is pleased to partner with Indspire and others who share a commitment to getting results.”
Vision
• Unlocking potential.
Mission
• We provide pathways to success, an exceptional learning experience, and a global outlook to meet the needs of students and employers.
Despite professors’ education and socialization and the significant rewards they receive for research activities and output, the 80/20 rule seems to apply; that is, there exists a system of stars who produce a disproportionate volume of research such that most research tends to be undertaken by a small percentage of the academy (Erkut, 2002). Although a growing body of research seeks to address this imbalance, studies of research productivity have tended to reveal its institutional and non-behavioural antecedents. As a result, there exists very little re- search that considers the strategies that individuals employ to improve their personal research productivity. This exploratory, questionnaire- based study of a sample of Canadian
professors attempts to address this gap by examining the relationship among a number of strategies, what professors report as being their average annual number of publications over the past five years, and their perceptions of their level of research productivity. Not surprisingly, in this study, we found that the amount of time that individuals invested in research activities
predicted their level of research productivity. Additionally, strategically focusing one’s research positively influenced journal publication levels, both directly and through its interaction with seeking resources (such as research grants). A strategic focus
also positively predicted self-perceived re- search productivity through its interaction with managing ideas. Fi- nally, although the perceived need to free up time from teaching and committee work was negatively related to journal publication levels, it was positively related to perceptions of productivity.
How do you teach the same concepts and skills to students with diverse abilities and interests? Different learning profiles? And how do you do that in real classrooms, with limited time to plan?
Differentiated instruction is one answer that has been extensively documented (see “Recommended Resources” at the end of this post).
GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) is a research program focusing
on culture and leadership in 61 nations. National cultures are examined in terms of nine dimensions: performance
orientation, future orientation, assertiveness, power distance, humane orientation, institutional collectivism, in-group collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and gender egalitarianism. In a survey of thousands of middle managers in food processing, finance, and telecommunications industries in these countries, GLOBE compares their cultures and attributes of effective leadership. Six global leadership attributes are identified and discussed. ©
The University of Waterloo will decide this fall whether a standardized system for course evaluations can balance
student demands for more feedback on their classroom learning with faculty concerns about the impact of bias and
evidence that such surveys may not improve student outcomes.
York University is partnering with the Government of Ontario to conduct leading-edge research with the potential to transform educational programming and inform targeted approaches to addressing the needs of students. This research will take the form of a feasibility study into collecting additional province-wide data to further inform understanding of student populations and school communities, as well as address the principles outlined in the Ontario Ministry of Education’s Achieving Excellence: A Renewed Vision for Education in Ontario.
This study examined aspects of approval processes for baccalaureate degree programs in colleges in the following 11 jurisdictions: Alberta, British Columbia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Flanders, Florida, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. More detailed profiles are provided for seven of the jurisdictions. In order to make the data more relevant for the Ontario reader, some comparisons with characteristics of the baccalaureate degree approval process in Ontario are noted.
The University of Toronto serves a large and diverse student population and is dedicated to fostering an academic community that allows its students to thrive. The University environment is one that is both stimulating and demanding at every stage, from transition to the learning and social environment, through to graduation.
Student health and well-being has become a prime consideration in post-secondary institutions. While the majority of students flourish during these years, many others experience mental health challenges that may put them at risk. The mental health continuum can range from healthy and flourishing behaviour where students are comfortable, confident and capable of performing, to situations that create anxiety and stress, to clinical disorders that persist and impair ability to function in a safe and productive manner.
cientists who attain a PhD are rightly proud — they have gained entry to an academic elite. But it is not as elite as it once was. The number of science doctorates earned each year grew by nearly 40% between 1998 and 2008, to some 34,000, in countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-opera-tion and Development (OECD). The growth shows no sign of slowing: most countries are building up their higher-education systems because they see educated workers as a key to economic growth (see ‘The rise of doctor-ates’). But in much of the world, science PhD graduates may never get a chance to take full advantage of their qualifications.
Canada is now a digital society. Decades of evolving digital technologies have changed how we interact, the amount of cultural content we create and exchange, and the methods we use to create and exchange this content. This reality has profoundly affected the established ways in which memory institutions, such as libraries, archives, museums, and galleries, have been
managing Canada’s documentary heritage for future generations. Indeed, the sheer volume of digital content necessitates new ways of locating, maintaining, and accessing digital holdings that must coexist alongside the continued need for the preservation
of non-digital content.
OUSA’s LGBTQ+ Student Experience Survey was a mixed methods research project conducted in Novem-ber 2014 designed to gain understanding of the opinions and experiences of Ontario university students who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Questioning, or other orientations or identities that do not conform to cisgender and heterosexual paradigms (LGBTQ+). The purpose of the survey was to identify any gaps that might exist in university services, programming, and supports that can diminish or negatively impact university experiences for these students.
A learning studio is a classroom or specialized learning space that typically features enhanced teaching and learning technologies, comfortable seating, flexible furniture and an open layout. The learning studio concept is gaining popularity in many educational institutions. The increasing use of the learning studios, with the concomitant construction and equipment costs, inevitably raises questions regarding their effectiveness.
This study poses and tests five questions concerning the effectiveness of learning studios when compared to the traditional classroom.
Do the students better achieve course learning outcomes in a learning studio?
Do the students experience greater course completion rates in a learning studio?
Are students more satisfied with the learning experience in a learning studio?
Are the instructors more satisfied teaching in a learning studio?
Does the learning studio enable and allow for greater use of technologies or alternative teaching methods than the traditional classroom?
As Lambton College converted a few classrooms into learning studios and the faculty migrated courses from the former to the latter, the opportunity arose to examine the effect of the learning studios. For this study, 11 courses were identified in which a section of the course was taught one year in a classroom and the following year in a learning studio. In the successive deliveries of each of these courses, the instructor, course outline, evaluation scheme and student academic program remained constant, and the student demographics remained relatively steady. With the classroom as the control and the learning studio as the experimental venue, the achievement of the learning outcomes and the completion of the course by the students, and the satisfaction of the students and of the faculty could be compared for the two venues.
In 2013-14, the number of new college graduates in the U.S. — students earning their first postsecondary credential — fell for a second straight year, while the number of students receiving their second or third undergraduate credential continued a postrecession increase (Figure 1). The number of new college graduates saw strong growth in the first two years covered by this report (increasing at annual rates of 4.9 percent in 2010-11 and 4.3 percent in 2011- 12), followed by two years of declines (-2.1 percent in 2012-13 and -1.3 percent in 2013-14). In 2013-14, U.S. Title IV degree-granting institutions awarded 1,981,534 associate and bachelor’s degrees to students with no prior postsecondary award, only 0.7 percent more than they awarded in 2010-11 (1,968,334). Cumulatively, over eight million students received their first college degree (associate or bachelor’s) during this four-year period.
The expansion of public, postsecondary education and the attendant additional costs associated with that expansion are significant concerns to governments everywhere. Ontario is no exception. Innovation in the delivery of academic programs holds the potential to contain costs, improve quality, and enhance accountability. This project is intended to assist the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HECQO) to better understand how a shift to competency-based education might affect the cost and quality of higher education programs, institutions and systems and to investigate how competency-based education might enhance the productivity and accountability of public higher education systems and institutions.
Attainment of a post-secondary education has become a prerequisite to participate in the Canadian workforce. This shift was precipitated by a recession that resulted in the near-collapse of Canada’s manufacturing sector, but it reflects a broader shift that has been happening for the past two decades in Canada and around the world.
As the global marketplace becomes increasingly competitive and knowledge driven the potential social and economic benefits of education have increased. As a result, the past few decades have witnessed an unprecedented expansion in the demand for post-secondary education (PSE) worldwide.
The Canadian Council on Learning monograph series, Challenges in Canadian Post-secondary Education, was launched in November 2009 as a means of examining the impact of this expansion on the PSE sector.