The ability to solve problems with people of diverse backgrounds is essential for engineering graduates. A course on engineering grand challenges was designed to promote collaborative problem-solving (CPS) skills. One unique component is that students need to work both within their own team and collaborate with the other team to tackle engineering…

Absenteeism has been a common and very extended problem in university spheres for several years. This problem has become a permanent feature in academic studies in general, yet it has received scarce empirical research attention. This work is focused on the analysis of the factors that determine university absenteeism. It evaluates a series of…

This study uses action research intervention to improve students' attendance at seminars. Specifically, the study asks the question: will students' attendance improve if they drive their own learning by running their own seminars? Records of lecture and seminar attendance at a module and comparative ones were used. Focus group interviews…

This paper centres on the tensions between the introduction of plagiarism detection software (Turnitin) for student and tutor use at undergraduate level and the aim to promote a developmental approach to writing for assessment at a UK university. Aims to promote developmental models for writing often aim to counteract the effects of the structural…

We have introduced a real-time polling system to support student engagement and feedback in four large Level 1 and 2 modules in Biological Sciences. The audience response system makes use of a technology that is ubiquitous and familiar to the students. To participate, students send text messages using their mobile phones or send a message via…

This paper reports on the impact for students of an institutional scheme designed to involve undergraduate students in pedagogic research. Through Undergraduate Research Bursaries at Northampton, students are funded to work as researchers on pedagogic projects in partnership with academic staff. Drawing on data from a larger longitudinal mixed…

The purpose of the study was to offer some quantitative, multivariate evidence concerning the impact of grading rubric use on academic outcome among American higher education students. Using a pre-post, quasi-experimental research design, cross-sectional data were derived from undergraduates enrolled in an elective during spring and fall 2009 at…

Assessment at Masters Level is the subject of a three-year UK National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) project, "Assimilate", which seeks to explore innovatory approaches in this field. More than 40 interviews were undertaken for the project with teachers at Masters level in the UK and internationally. Although national and…

This paper examined undergraduate pre-service teachers' perceptions of their expectations, fulfilment of these expectations and the relevance of their coursework for classroom practices during three different practicum attachments. These aspects were assessed using questionnaires implemented at the end of each attachment. One-way ANOVA with…

Academic dishonesty is a major challenge facing educational institutions worldwide. Within the context of undergraduate education in the Arabian Gulf, oral assessment can help validate the originality of student work, whilst simultaneously facilitating assessment in a mode highly resonant with the region's own educational traditions and…

This paper describes a lecturer's approach to teaching Bayesian statistics to students who were only exposed to the classical paradigm. The study shows how the lecturer extended himself by making use of ventriloquist dolls to grab hold of students' attention and embed important ideas in revealing the differences between the Bayesian and…

This paper presents a learning and teaching strategy based on complexity science and explores its impacts on a higher education game design course. The strategy aimed at generating conditions fostering individual and collective learning in educational complex adaptive systems, and led the design of the course through an iterative and adaptive…

Web 2.0 applications have been widely applied for teaching and learning in US higher education in recent years. Their potential impact on learning motivation and learner performance, however, has not attracted substantial research efforts. To better understand how Web 2.0 applications might impact learners' motivation in higher education…

In many universities, admissions decisions are made based upon the advanced-level (A-Level) results. The purpose of this study was to assess the value of A-level and international equivalents as a predictor of early achievement in higher education. About 135 UK and 92 international undergraduate engineering students from 35 countries were assessed…

This paper looks at the conceptual thresholds in relation to academic reading which might be crossed by undergraduate English Literature students. It is part of a wider study following 16 students through three years of undergraduate study. It uses theoretical ideas from Bakhtin and Foucault to analyse interviews with English lecturers. It…