In November 2012, the educational provisions of the Copyright Modernization Act were proclaimed in force, thereby introducing a number of significant changes to the Canadian Copyright Act. These changes include the expansion of fair dealing to include the purpose of education, the addition of new educational exceptions for the online transmission…

Does the subject of research ethics take you by surprise? Does it make you somewhat uncomfortable? Does it seem to have nothing to do with your research or your practice? These are the attitudes we have encountered about research ethics among some SoTL researchers at workshops and conferences. In many cases, these researchers had conducted…

Published accounts of pedagogical experience and pedagogical research are critical resources to post-secondary mathematics instructors, and yet the quantity and scope of this literature is rarely summarized or reviewed. In this contribution, we analyze recent peer-reviewed journal publications regarding post-secondary mathematics, published by…

North American universities are encouraged to increase opportunities for undergraduate research experiences (UREs). To this end, many universities offer directed studies courses (DSCs) which are 1-2 semester long courses involving one-on-one instruction, with a focus on student-led independent research. Building on the understanding of dynamics…

Integrating the arts into higher education pedagogy provides an opportunity for cultivating rich ideas and high-level thinking, capitalizing on the creativity that every person already possesses and uses (Livingston, 2010). As Newton and Plummer (2009) note "the use of the creative arts as pedagogical strategy enables individuals to better…

This study examined the use of lecture capture in students in a large 3rd year undergraduate biological science course at the University of Guelph. Data regarding viewing behaviour, academic performance, and attendance were analyzed in relation to student learning approach (as assessed by the R-SPQ-2F), gender, and year of post-secondary…

The ability to think critically is an important trait of all members of society. With today's multinational, multicultural, complex issues, citizens must be able to sift through large amounts of various data to make intelligent decisions. Thinking critically must be a focus of higher education in order to provide the intellectual training for its…

There have been calls in the literature for reforms to assessment to enhance student learning (Shepard, 2000). In many instances, this refers to the need to move from traditional assessment procedures that are characterized as content-heavy, summative, and norm-referenced approaches to more constructivist and student-centred approaches, often…

The concept of "practice makes perfect" was examined in this work in the context of effective learning. Specifically, we wanted to know how much practice was needed for students to demonstrate mastery of learning outcomes. Student learning patterns in two different university courses that use a similar education approach involving problem based…

The objective of the present study is to analyze four metric qualities of an assessment grid for internship placements used by professionals to evaluate a sample of 110 Franco-Ontarian student interns registered between 2006 and 2009 at Laurentian University in the School of Human Kinetics. The evaluation grid was composed of 26 criteria. The four…

In a milieu where traditional views of scholarship are embedded in the culture of educational institutions, and nursing programs in particular, this paper reports on a research project designed to support nurse educators' capacity to engage in scholarly activities. Rogers' (2003, 2004) "Diffusion of Innovation" model provided a theoretical vantage…

This paper defines and operationalizes definitions of good teaching, scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching and learning in order to measure characteristics of these definitions amongst undergraduate instructors at McMaster University. A total of 2496 instructors, including all part-time instructors, were surveyed in 2007. A total of…

In the 21st Century, Canadian universities are increasingly emphasizing the importance of student engagement. This research paper, by analyzing the reflections of undergraduate students on their experiences in a co-curricular service learning assignment--integrated into a course that included more traditional assignments--in the context of…

The findings outlined in this paper are the result of focus groups conducted with faculty at a mid-sized Ontario university. These nine faculty, all of whom have received awards of excellence from their university for their teaching, shared their insights about how they developed as teachers over time. More specific topics explored were as…

Although specific cognitive abilities, cognitive style, and learning preferences are assumed to be inter-related, the empirical evidence supporting this assumption is mixed. Cognitive style refers to how individuals represent information, and learning preference refers to how individuals prefer the presentation of information (Mayer & Massa,…