Increasing Student Engagement and Retention - Böcker

"Increasing Student Engagement and Retention using Online Learning Activities: Wikis, Blogs and WebQuests" uses case studies, surveys, and literature reviews to critically examine how these technologies are being used to improve writing and publishing skills, student subject awareness, and literacy create engaging communities of practice, and as experiential learning tools. Chapters include ones on the design for a robust use of wikis, using blogs to enhance student engagement by creating a community of practice around a course, integrating blogs across a range of college level courses, publishing activist biographies on Wikipedia, using blogs to increase off-campus student engagement, using video and wiki technology to engage learners in large international cohorts, using wikis as an experiential learning tool, consuming and constructing knowledge through WebQuests, and rethinking WebQuests in second language teacher education. This volume will also discuss frameworks for deploying and assessing the effectiveness of these technologies.

"Increasing Student Engagement and Retention Using Immersive Interfaces: Virtual Worlds, Gaming, and Simulation" uses case studies, surveys, and literature reviews to critically examine how gaming, simulation, and virtualization are being used to improve teamwork and leadership skills in students, create engaging communities of practice, and as experiential learning tools to create inter-cultural, multi-perspective, and global experiences. Chapters include how to increase learner engagement using serious games, using game features for classroom engagement, using client-based peer assessment in multi-role, whole-enterprise simulations, using virtual worlds to develop teacher candidate skills, enhancing leadership skills through virtual simulation, using online video simulation for educational leadership, using augmented reality in education, using open source software in education, using educational robotics laboratories to enhance active learning, and utilizing the virtual learning environment to encourage faculty reflection. This volume will also discuss a framework for deploying and assessing these technologies.