Active learning and cooperative learning are two alternatives to the traditional lecture/lab approach to teaching software development. Evidence supporting use of these learning strategies in Computer Information Systems (CIS) began to emerge in the mid-1990s as faculty sought ways to improve student understanding of programming concepts, reduce the level of frustration, and better prepare stud...

The maintenance of current knowledge in physiology in community colleges is very difficult to accomplish. The absence of a research environment, limited library facilities, and heavy teaching loads often result in the instructor utilizing the teaching textbook as the primary source of information. A cooperative program between The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and San...

The “conceptual graph” is a conventionally adopted assisted teaching method. Conceptual graphs display the achievements of students. This study proposes a novel learning activity called “Two-Phase Cooperative Learning.” The framework of this activity is based on the conceptual graph. The system includes the Dynamic Remedial Instruction Path (DRIP) and the grouping of cooperative learning phases...

Taking lower-secondary schooling within the English educational system as an example, this paper illustrates the contribution of two bodies of international scholarship to the scoping of research-based pedagogical development that aims to improve student attitude and achievement in science and mathematics. After sketching the English context of systemic reform, the paper uses findings from the ...

1. Introduction Web-based Course Management Software (CMS) provides a single portal for students and teaching staff to collaborate in an elaborate interactive environment. This portal provides tools for online submissions, examinations, student performance monitoring, discussion threads, real-time chat, and electronic mail. In higher education, these facilities are becoming more common for deli...

The paper describes how the Technical University of British Columbia (TechBC) is using online and cooperative learning to improve the quality of education offered to its students. To explain how web technology is being used to enhance learning, we focus on a sophomore level course in signal processing. Students study presentations delivered on the Web, discuss problems using an asynchronous con...

This paper first discusses cooperative learning and provides a rationale for its use in higher education. From the literature, six elements are identified that are considered essential to the success of cooperative learning: positive interdependence, face-to-face verbal interaction, individual accountability, social skills, group processing, and appropriate grouping. Three distinct approaches a...

We developed a simple interactive simulation tool that applies the simulated breeding method to evolve populations of Reynolds’ Boids system. A user manually evolves swarm behaviors of artificial agents by repeatedly selecting his/her preferred behavior as a parent of the next generation. We used this tool as part of teaching materials of the course “Mathematical Modeling and Simulation” offere...

Active and cooperative learning techniques have been researched extensively and shown to be effective teaching tools. This paper describes how a senior/introductory graduate course in very large scale integration (VLSI) design was adapted to make extensive use of active and cooperative learning techniques. Heterogeneous student teams are formed by the instructor early in the semester. These tea...

This paper presents an example of how Machine Learning tools can effectively contribute to Guided Discovery Tutoring Environments. MEMOCAR is that kind of environment, developed to evaluate the validity of a cognitive hypothesis concerning the teaching of Chinese characters to non native speakers. This hypothesis states that an early familiarization with Chinese character features is a pre-requ...