This study compared student workload and perceived value of coursework assigned for a matching set of semester and term general education courses at [name of University]. Statistically significant differences in workloads were found between most semester and term courses. While term workloads were slightly lighter in general, both could be called “university lite,” in that students did not spend the expected two hours outside of class per hour in class. Math and physics courses came closest to meeting the expected workloads, which tended to remain constant between semesters and terms. Differences in the value students reported for homework varied significantly by the autonomy of the instructor to adapt his own course section. Some of the curricular differences between sessions might be attributed to efficiencies instructors incorporated for shorter sessions without affecting overall course quality. Typically, reading- and writing-intensive courses showed the most negative impact when offered in a term format. The findings from this study suggest that while some subjects lend themselves well to a compressed-time format, not all courses are suited to being taught in this way.

For students pursuing engineering degrees, training in ethics, social responsibility, and allied
topics is advocated by a variety of stakeholders, mandated in ABET accreditation requirements,
and largely presumed by professional associations and licensing bodies. As a consequence,
almost all engineering students have at least some exposure to engineering ethics training.
Additionally, many formal courses and programs have been created to promote ethical integrity
and professional responsibility among engineering graduates, while a variety of other
interventions (e.g., service learning programs) have been developed to more broadly challenge
engineering students to see themselves as socially engaged citizens and professionals.

Nonetheless, there has been a surprising lack of research on development of social and ethical
responsibility among undergraduate engineering students. Few studies have systematically
examined levels of ethical knowledge, decision-making capabilities, and commitments to social
responsibility among large numbers of engineering students, much less examined how such
indicators change over time and are impacted (or not) by specific kinds of learning experiences.
As a result, faculty, administrators, and other stakeholders have little evidence to guide creation
of high-impact courses and programs. Still other recent research suggests that such impacts may
be blunted by a “culture of disengagement” that pervades many engineering schools.

This paper reports on an National Science Foundation (NSF) supported CCE STEM research
project that aims to address some of these gaps. Our study addresses two main questions:
• RQ1: What do engineering students perceive as responsible (and irresponsible)
professional conduct, and what do they perceive as socially just (and unjust) technical
practices?, and
• RQ2: How do foundational measures and understandings of social and ethical
responsibility change during a four-year engineering degree program, both in general and
in relation to specific kinds of learning experiences?

This paper offers an overview of the longitudinal mixed-methods study design we are using to
collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data from undergraduate engineering students at
four universities. These schools represent a variety of institution types, and each has students in
programs of particular interest, e.g., those involving service-learning or intensified ethics
instruction. Our data collection efforts were initiated in early Fall 2015, with survey responses
collected from 757 first-semester engineering students at four schools. The survey includes items
and measures related to engineering ethics knowledge, justice beliefs, political and social
involvement, macro-ethical considerations, moral attentiveness, moral disengagement, ethical
climate, and extensive demographics. Repeat measures will be collected from as many of the
original respondents as possible during their fifth and eighth academic semesters. To more
deeply probe constructs and themes of interest, we will also conduct semi-structured interviews
with more than 10% of survey respondents during their first and eighth academic semesters.

In addition to describing our study design, this paper reports preliminary insights from the first
phase of our study. We especially focus on some highlights from our initial analysis of the
survey data, as well as how select survey results are being used to stratify the interview sample
and tune the interview protocol to focus on some observed patterns in the survey data. We expect
this paper will be of interest to scholars involved with teaching and/or conducting research on
ethics, social responsibility, and related topics.

This study tested an iPad application using a dichotomous key as a scaffolding tool to help students make more detailed observations as they identified various species of birds on display in a museum of natural science. The Mobile Dichotomous Key (MDK) iPad application was used by groups of fifth and seventh grade students. Analysis of the findings suggest that the MDK was equally as effective and in some ways more effective than the educator-led intervention at improving students’ scientific observation skills. In general, the scaffolding key in both mobile and educator-led form was found to be more effective for fifth grade students than for seventh grade students. In addition, the it was found to be effective at improving the level of detail students provided and the number of scientific terms they used, but not at improving the number of valid inferences students made.

The purpose of this research was to explore how technology can be used to teach technological skills and to determine what benefit flipping the classroom might have for students taking an introductory-level college course on spreadsheets in terms of student achievement and satisfaction with the class. A pretest posttest quasi-experimental mixed methods design was utilized to determine any differences in student achievement that might be associated with the instructional approach being used. In addition, the scalability of each approach was evaluated along with students' perceptions of these approaches to determine the affect each intervention might have on a student's motivation to learn. The simulation-based instruction tested in this study was found to be an extremely scalable solution but less effective than the regular classroom and flipped classroom approaches in terms of student learning. While students did demonstrate learning gains, the process focus of the simulation's instruction and assessments frustrated students and decreased their motivation to learn. Students' attitudes towards the topic, their willingness to refer the course to others, and the likelihood that they would take another course like this were considerably lower than those of students in the flipped or regular classroom situations. The results of this study support the conclusion that a technology enhanced flipped classroom was both effective and scalable; it better facilitated learning than the simulation-based training and students found this approach to be more motivating in that it allowed for greater differentiation of instruction.

Federal legislation currently mandates that technology be integrated into school curricula because of the popular belief that through technology learning is enhanced. The challenge for educators is to understand how best to teach with technology while developing the technological expertise of their students. This paper outlines a framework of technological literacy designed to helps educators understand, evaluate, and promote technology integration properly.

This article explores and summarizes trends in research and scholarship over the last decade (i.e., 1998-2007) for students completing dissertations and theses in the area of distance education. The topics addressed, research designs utilized, and data collection and analysis methods used were compiled and analyzed. Results from this study indicate that most of the distance education research conducted by graduate students in this period of time has been descriptive, often addressing the perceptions, concerns, and satisfaction of various stakeholders with a particular distance education experience. Studies of this type typically used self-report surveys and analyzed the data using descriptive statistics. Validating the concern of many distance education scholars, there was a lack of graduate student research aimed at developing a theory base in distance education. On a positive note, projects directly comparing distance education with traditional face-to-face classrooms to determine the merit of specific programs declined significantly in 2007 compared to 1998. This result might indicate that distance learning is becoming accepted as a viable and important educational experience in its own right. Another encouraging finding was the decreased emphasis on studies focused on technology issues, such as those analyzing the quality of distance education technology and questioning educators’ ability to provide an acceptable technology-enabled distance learning experience.

A major objective of NCLB is to hold schools accountable for student achievement including closing the achievement gap and raising standards of student academic proficiency. While the majority of individuals support the underlying values of NCLB, not all agree its accountability policy is reasonable. The most problematic issue is the mandate that schools be held accountable to ensure all students perform at grade level when the methods used by states to determine grade level proficiency preclude the attainment of this standard. The unintended consequences of a policy that does not align theoretically with established educational best practice inevitably result in frustration of educational practitioners and often unwarranted condemnation of the educational system.