Research Summary: Iclicker technology has little impact on student performance Audience Response Systems (ARS), such as iclickers or electronic voting systems, are becoming more common in the classroom in an effort to better engage students and improve active learning. But a new study from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) found that the […]
Tag: Quality
Quality
Employability skills enhanced in University of Waterloo professional development courses Co-op students at the University of Waterloo who take online professional development courses to enhance their employability skills are generally positive about the value and relevance of the courses, according to a new study from the Higher Education Quality Council (HEQCO). And based on employer […]
Research Summary: Productivity 101: Increase teaching load of university professors who aren’t active researchers If professors who are not active researchers taught more, the teaching capacity of full-time professors in Ontario’s universities could increase by 10%, equivalent to adding 1,500 additional faculty members across the province, according to a new report from the Higher Education […]
Research Summary: Lessons from the gym: Linking assignments to learning outcomes strengthens core skills Can learning technology “workouts” both develop and assess cognitive skills? Using a muscle-building analogy, the authors of a new study from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) find evidence that students can strengthen their self-reflective and critical thinking skills […]
Research Summary: New study largest to date on impact of Instructional Skills Workshop More than 100 institutions worldwide have offered the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) over the last 30 years to develop more student-centred, reflective instructors, but relatively little research has been conducted on its impact. According to a new study from the Higher Education […]
Research Summary: Inquiry-based training improves teaching assistant effectiveness, student outcomes Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) play a growing role in university education, particularly in lab components of STEM courses. A new study from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) finds that training GTAs in inquiry-based learning techniques in lab settings can improve both teaching […]
Research Summary: Students Find Online Learning Tools Helpful and Convenient Combining online teaching tools with in-class instruction, known as blended learning, gives students the flexibility to adapt learning to their schedule and offers a potential cost savings for institutions. A new study by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) examined the impact of […]
Research Summary: Students Prefer Using Innovative Tool for Learning Hand Anatomy Students in Humber College’s massage therapy program found that they preferred using a new teaching tool, the Anatomy Glove Learning System (AGLS), for learning the complexities of hand anatomy. The tool was developed by two professors at the University of Toronto to provide students […]
Research Summary: Long-term training programs for teaching assistants have greater impact Training programs for university teaching assistants (TAs) improve the quality of teaching and learning. But a new HEQCO study of short and long-term training programs at two Ontario universities finds that while both make important contributions, long programs had a greater impact. Assessing Graduate […]