In an online context, without facial, verbal or gestural cues, establishing identities through naming social positions appeared essential to effective written communication for graduate pre-service teacher candidates enrolled in a course on literacy education for elementary students. As they engaged in small group asynchronous discussions about…

Within the New Zealand university context, there has been a dramatic shift in the demographics of doctoral programs. Moving from an elitist educational environment to one that includes a variety of students from different cultures and educational and linguistic backgrounds has meant that "traditional" doctoral study, in which a student…

This article identifies and analyses some of the challenges that arose in a development process of changing from a content-based teaching environment to a student-centred environment in an undergraduate physics course for medicine and biology students at Universidad de los Andes. Through the use of the Critical Research model proposed by Skovsmose…

Assessment is an important element of university curricula for both teachers and students. It provides evidence that students have learned what their teachers expected them to learn. There is good evidence that teachers' use of exemplars in a dedicated marking class held before an assessment task helps students understand what is expected of…

Blended learning has been evolving as an important approach to learning and teaching in tertiary education. This approach incorporates learning in both online and face-to-face modes and promotes deep learning by incorporating the best of both approaches. An innovation in blended learning is the use of an online media annotation tool (MAT) in…

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of online doctoral students' interactions via peer initiated and university initiated technology on their sense of connectedness. The participants of this study were 132 doctoral candidates enrolled in an online Doctor of Education program located in the United States. Findings from this…

This article describes a collaborative self-study undertaken to identify the source of academic writing difficulties among graduate students and find ways to address them. Ten faculty members in a college of education came together to define the problem and to analyze data gleaned from faculty and student surveys, course documents, course…

The purpose of this paper is to study the effectiveness of oral presentation as an assessment tool in a Finance subject. Assessment data collected from a postgraduate Finance subject in an Australian university over a period of five years from 2005 to 2009 was analysed statistically to determine the relation between students' performance in oral…

Many Western universities are experiencing considerable growth in the numbers of postgraduate research students, both local and international. This increase and diversification bring with them challenges for how to make these students' research studies successful. In particular, what students may wish to receive by way of supervisor-student…

Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) are front-line facilitators with first-hand contact with students. They play an important role in providing an engaging learning experience for undergraduate and postgraduate students. However, most of them have not received adequate training and guidance in teaching. This paper reports on an intensive and…

This study investigated the impact of two approaches to research-led education on students' learning and their understandings of research in the context of two university courses in international business involving third year undergraduate and graduate students. One approach involved the lecturer using his research as the basis for a case-study…

This paper attempts to unpack the teaching and learning experiences of academics and students when a new way of teaching radiation physics was introduced. In an attempt to articulate the University of Wollongong's commitment to the enhancement of the teaching/research nexus and to the development of learning communities, staff of the School of…

Public relations educators delivering courses to international students find that each cohort of students interprets and understands public relations theory and its application to practice according to their respective cultures. The premise of this paper is to reflect on some of the interpretations and expectations of public relations students…