Can distance learning transform higher education, saving money and improving student learning? Modern technologies allow instructors to design distance learning environments with all the features of traditional courses and more. What findings from research on instruction can help course designers make effective choices? I argue that students who take an autonomous stance towards instruction ten...

The ways in which parent-child interactions can encourage the development of emergent literacy skills in young children remains to be fully explored. The present report describes how one parent scaffolded her young child’s emergent writing and letter knowledge in the home. Environmental print provided many rich and meaningful examples for the parent to show that print conveys meaning and is con...

As a growing number of faculty use constructivist and constructionist approaches to teaching in SL, little research exists on the many ethical considerations and legal implications that affect course development. Following the experiences of the instructor and five students, their 12-week journey is documented through interviews, journals, blogs, weekly course activities, SL class dialogs, and ...

By fluorescence enhancement of a proximity-dependent DNA-scaffolded silver nanocluster probe pair and exonuclease III-mediated signal amplification, we present a new fluorescence turn-on mode and its application for specific DNA detection.

While the effect of scaffolding on learning has received much attention, less is known about its effect on students’ strategy use, especially in transfer activities. This study focuses on students’ adaptive behaviours as a function of given scaffolding and when transitioning from a scaffolded to an unstructured activity. We study this in the context of a complex physics simulation in which stud...

The aggregation of cells by lectins or antibodies is important for biotechnological and therapeutic applications. One strategy to augment the avidity and aggregating properties of these mediators is to maximize the number of their ligand binding sites. The valency of lectins and antibodies, however, is limited by their quaternary structures. To overcome this limitation, we explored the use of p...