Podcasts used as supplemental material (PSM) and podcasts integrated into the curriculum (PIC) are complementing, extending, and transforming the traditional face-to-face classroom as well as blended and online courses. This paper examines podcast download frequency among students in foreign language and literature courses over a four-year period by using both students’ digital literacy skills ...

Multiple External Representations (MERs) have been used successfully in instructional activities, including fractions. However, students often have difficulties making the connections between the MERs spontaneously. We argue that interactive fraction representations may help students in discovering relevant features and relating the MERs to one another. Support for guiding student interaction i...

Virtual classroom (VC) is the preferred application in distance education since it provides simultaneous interaction and a communication environment between the student and the instructor. The aim of this study is to determine the key components which make VC sessions effective in terms of environment and method. Determination of these components and their effects through experiences of VC is i...

Modern instructional theories are characterized by their focus on rich, multidisciplinary and often collaborative learning tasks that are somehow representative for authentic, real life tasks. This new view on learning heavily increases the complexity of the design process and the resulting instructional systems. It is argued that computer-based instructional design (ID) tools may help to deal ...

To help prepare our students for future learning, we have developed and refined various innovative instructional methods for the first-year physics lab at UBC. One such method is the invention activity. In this article, invention activities are introduced and guidelines for their creation are presented.