Higher education is characterized by ubiquitous digital technologies and e-learning that are inevitably influencing the development of core competencies and professional skills requirements. There is a need to focus on the synergy between responsive curriculum implementation and e-learning delivery in the context of effective pedagogical practices and optimal integration of digital technologies. Similarly, we need to reexamine higher education practices towards innovative pedagogies and effective e-learning design. The Handbook of Research on Competence-Based Curriculum and E-Learning in Higher Education brings together researchers in the field of education and professionals who design and deliver online learning in higher education to share paradigms, perspectives, insights, contextualized experiences, challenges, and best practices. Covering topics such as mobile learning activities, student interaction promotion, and social media technologies, this major reference work is a comprehensive resource for instructional designers, faculty, administrators and educators of higher education, students in teaching programs, IT managers, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

Education today has been influenced by several factors that are changing the purpose and goals of understanding and thinking and, consequently, how we assess students' understanding. One of these influences has been the rapid advancement and accessibility of digital technologies. While the use and impact of digital technologies as a valuable tool to improve teaching and learning is well documented, there is little discussion of innovative methods used to assess teaching and learning in digital environments. It is important educators view assessments considering the tools used for learning. Even when digital technologies are ubiquitous in education, assessment methods continue to use traditional assessments, typically multiple-choice or short answer. They are inadequate to provide information about a student's reasoning and conceptual understanding, thus they are limited in measuring the sophisticated knowledge and skills needed for 21-century careers. Digital technologies can support inquiry-based learning that is essential to developing a deep conceptual understanding of the content. Innovative practices that include digital-based assessment models allow students to demonstrate higher-order skills while integrating digital technologies as a powerful teaching tool. The book explores the use of digital-based assessments to measure knowledge, shares research and pedagogies related to digital-based assessments, identifies digital tools and applications for the effective assessment of learning, shares models of digital-based assessment in digital learning environments, and identifies best practices and innovation in digital-based assessment. It is ideal for higher education faculty, classroom teachers, administrators, policymakers, educational technologists, and graduate students.

There is growing pressure on teachers and other educators to understand and adopt the best ways to work with diverse groups of races, cultures, and languages. Establishing sound cross-cultural pedagogy is critical given that racial, cultural, and linguistic integration has the potential to increase academic success for all learners. The handbook chapters highlight cross-cultural perspectives, challenges, and opportunities related to promoting cultural competence, equity, and social justice in education, as well as other pertinent topics such as acceptable social justice practices and effective diversity and multicultural education. This handbook is an essential collection for teacher educators, academicians, students, researchers, and librarians. Further, this handbook will benefit school administrators, faculty, teachers, and stakeholders interested in socio-cultural issues, perspectives, and trends in diversity education, cross-cultural competence, equity, and social justice in education.

Active learning occurs when a learning task can be related in a non-arbitrary manner to what the learner already knows and when there is a personal recognition of the links between concepts. The most important element of active learning is not so much in how information is presented, but how new information is integrated into an existing knowledge base. In order to successfully implement active learning into higher education, its effect on student engagement must be studied and considered. The Handbook of Research on Active Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education focuses on assessing the effectiveness of active learning and constructivist teaching to promote student engagement and provides a wide range of strategies and frameworks to help educators and other practitioners examine the benefits, challenges, and opportunities for using active learning approaches to maximize student learning. Covering topics such as online learning environments and engagement approaches, this major reference work is ideal for academicians, practitioners, researchers, librarians, industry professionals, educators, and students.

Various pedagogies, including the use of digital learning in education, have been used and researched for the past 40 years, but schools have little to show for these initiatives. This contrasts starkly with technology-supported initiatives in other fields such as business, health care, and the military. Traditional pedagogies and general digital technology applications have yet impact education in significant ways that transforms learning. This handbook posits that a primary reason for this minimal impact on learning is that digital technologies have attempted to make traditional instructional processes more efficient rather than using a more appropriate paradigm for learning. As there have been transformative applications in other fields, the book will identify suggested transformative applications that empower learners. As technology is used as a partner in other fields, transformative applications become partners with students (not teachers) to empower their learning process in and out of school. This handbook identifies and justifies the paradigm of transformative learning and pedagogies in education, provides exemplars of existing transformative applications that, if used as partners to empower student learning, have the potential to dramatically engage students in a kind of learning that better fits 21st century learners, and provides pedagogical models to help teachers empower students to learn.

We are moving toward a future in which digital practices are becoming more ubiquitous. Also, there is evidence to suggest that innovative digital practices are changing the face of 21st-century learning environments. Critical to 21st-century teaching and learning success is continued emphasis on learner preferences, shaped by innovative digital technology-driven learning environments alongside teacher awareness, knowledge, and preparedness to deliver high-impact instruction using active learning pedagogies. Thus, the purposeful and selective use of digital learning tools in higher education and the incorporation of appropriate active learning pedagogies are pivotal to enhancing and supporting meaningful student learning. The Handbook of Research on Innovative Digital Practices and Globalization in Higher Education explores innovative digital practices to enhance academic performance for digital learners and prepare qualified graduates who are competent to work in an increasingly global digital workplace. Global competence has become an essential part of higher education and professional development. As such, it is the responsibility of higher education institutions to prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and competencies required to compete in the digital and global market. Covering topics such as design thinking, international students, and digital teaching innovation, this major reference work is an essential resource for pre-service and in-service teachers, educational technologists, instructional designers, faculty, administrators, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

Online learning has been touted as one way of reducing the cost of higher education while simultaneously addressing the increasing demand for educational opportunity and providing access to hitherto "left out" populations. Many universities are defying tradition by offering completely online degrees for global participants. As such, research is needed to improve the design of online and virtual learning environments to ensure that they are inclusive and culturally adaptive for the global education marketplace. The Handbook of Research on Cross-Cultural Online Learning in Higher Education shares paradigms, perspectives, insights, challenges, and best practices for the instructional design and delivery of cross-cultural adult web-based learning experiences and examines adult learner characteristics and competencies critical for the design of these applications. The content within this publication covers trending topics including virtual learning, culturally adaptive environments, and online education and is intended for instructional designers, faculty, administrators, students, and researchers.

In the past few years, there has been an influx of immigrant children into the school system, many with a limited understanding of English. Successfully teaching these students requires educators to understand their characteristics and to learn how to engage immigrant families to support their children's academic achievements. The Handbook of Research on Engaging Immigrant Families and Promoting Academic Success for English Language Learners is a collection of innovative research that utilizes teacher professional development models, assessment practices, teaching strategies, and parental involvement strategies to develop ways for communities and educators to create social and academic conditions that promote the academic success of immigrant and English language learners. While highlighting topics including bilingual learners, family engagement, and teacher development, this book is ideally designed for early childhood, elementary, middle, K-12, and secondary school teachers; school administrators; faculty; academicians; and researchers.

Online learning has become an important vehicle for teacher and student learning. When well designed, online environments can be very powerful in a way that is consistent with the goals of inquiry, experimentation, investigation, reasoning, and problem solving so learners can develop a deep understanding of a subject. Some subjects, however, are not well suited for this type of learning due to the need for small group collaborating and hands-on problem solving. The Handbook of Research on Online Pedagogical Models for Mathematics Teacher Education provides innovative insights into technology applications and tools used in teaching mathematics online and provides examples of online learning environments and platforms that are suitable for meeting math education goals of inquiry, investigation, reasoning, and problem solving. The content within this publication examines access to education, professional development, and web-based learning. It is designed for teachers, curriculum developers, instructional designers, educational software developers, IT consultants, higher education faculty, policymakers, administrators, researchers, academicians, and students.

There is growing pressure on teachers and faculty to understand and adopt best practices to work with diverse races, cultures, and languages in modern classrooms. Establishing sound pedagogy is also critical given that racial, cultural, and linguistic integration has the potential to increase academic success for all learners. To that end, there is also a need for educators to prepare graduates who will better meet the needs of culturally diverse learners and help their learners to become successful global citizens. The Handbook of Research on Diversity and Social Justice in Higher Education is a cutting-edge research book that examines cross-cultural perspectives, challenges, and opportunities pertaining to advancing diversity and social justice in higher education. Furthermore, the book explores multiple concepts of building a bridge from a monocultural pedagogical framework to cross-cultural knowledge through appropriate diversity education models as well as effective social justice practices. Highlighting a range of topics such as cultural taxation, intercultural engagement, and teacher preparation, this book is essential for teachers, faculty, academicians, researchers, administrators, policymakers, and students.

While many school districts and institutions of higher education still cling to the traditional agrarian school year with a factory model delivery of education and Carnegie units based on seat time when most people are no longer farmers, factory workers, or reliant on learning in a classroom, there are bursts of promising practices that buck the norm by questioning the educational value of these traditions. Though researchers have investigated the potential of students learning in their own homes via personalized instruction delivered by computers rather than attending traditional institutions, the status quo in education has remained stubbornly resistant to change. Mixed-reality simulations, year-round schooling, grouping students by competencies instead of age, and game-based teaching are just a few of the educational innovations that seek to maximize learning by recognizing that innovation is essential for successfully teaching students in the modern era. The Handbook of Research on Innovations in Non-Traditional Educational Practices is a comprehensive reference source that examines various educational innovations, how they have developed workarounds to navigate traditional systems, and their potential to radically transform teaching and learning. With each chapter highlighting a different educational innovation such as experiential learning, game-based learning, online learning, and inquiry-based learning and their applications in all levels of education, this book explores the issues and challenges these educational innovations face as well as their impact. It is intended for academicians, professionals, administrators, and researchers in education and specifically benefits academic deans, vice presidents of academic affairs, graduate students, faculty technology leaders, directors of teaching and learning centers, curriculum and instructional designers, policymakers, principals and superintendents, and teachers interested in educational change.

Without proper training on the intricacies of race and culture, pre-service and in-service teachers may unwittingly continue outdated and ineffective pedagogies. As the demographics of student bodies shift to include more diverse backgrounds, fluency in the discourse of social justice becomes necessary. The Handbook of Research on Promoting Cross-Cultural Competence and Social Justice in Teacher Education elucidates the benefits, challenges, and strategies necessary to prepare teachers to meet the needs of a diverse student body. Featuring the newest research and pedagogical tools written by diverse scholars in the field of teacher training, this expertly crafted handbook is ideal for teachers, administrators, students of education, and policymakers.

A global citizen is an individual who believes in a public responsibility for their local community to grow and interconnect amongst the world's diverse people and things. Global citizenship education is a fast-moving process that continues to intertwine communities all over the world. As we move toward a more global world, the improvement in education, health, poverty rates, and standard of living should come with it. This global world must be a place where people are aware of what is going on and can have an impact as well. The Handbook of Research on Promoting Global Citizenship Education explores various ways to empower educators to design and implement a curriculum that incorporates global citizen education. Covering a range of topics such as global issues and academic migration, this major reference work is ideal for academicians, industry professionals, policymakers, researchers, scholars, instructors, and students.

Education in the 21st century is shifting focus from accessing and sharing information to designing active and collaborative learning environments which foster student engagement and critical thinking skills. Active learning features a hands-on, activity-based teaching approach during which students synthesize information and take joy in new discovery. The Handbook of Research on Learner-Centered Pedagogy in Teacher Education and Professional Development presents a comprehensive look into the methodologies and strategies necessary to establish classroom climates in which students feel free to question their preconceptions and express opinions. Featuring chapters from international researchers, this book is ideal for administrators, teachers, policy makers, and students of education.

Every generation of students comes to the classroom with different needs than that of their predecessors. Implementing new methods and styles of teaching to meet these diverse needs will provide students with the best chance of success in their educational careers. The Handbook of Research on Pedagogical Models for Next-Generation Teaching and Learning is a critical scholarly source that examines the most effective and efficient techniques for implementing new educational strategies in a classroom setting. Featuring pertinent topics including mixed reality simulations, interactive lectures, reflexive teaching models, and project-based learning, this is an ideal publication for educators, academicians, students, and researchers that are interested in discovering more about the recent advances in educational fields.

With the integration of technology into education systems, our society has begun to embrace the new approaches we have taken towards transforming traditional learning environments into active learning through questions,collaboration and discussions Promoting Active Learning Through the Flipped Classroom Model focuses on an in-depth assessment on strategies and instructional design practises appropriate for the flipped classroom model. Highlighting the benefits, shortcoming, perceptions and academic results of the flipped classroom model, this book is an essential reference for students, educators, administrators and researchers interested in this emerging approach to improving student learning.

Rapid advancements in technology are creating new opportunities for educators to enhance their classroom techniques with digital learning resources. Once used solely outside of the classroom, smartphones, tablets, and e-readers are becoming common in many school settings. Advancing Higher Education with Mobile Learning Technologies: Cases, Trends, and Inquiry-Based Methods examines the implementation and success of mobile digital learning tools. With the inclusion of data on specific learning environments enhanced by ubiquitous educational technologies, this publication emphasises the benefits of exploration and discovery in and out of the classroom. This book is an essential reference source for academicians, professionals, education researchers, school administrators, faculty, technology staff, and upper-level students interested in understanding the future of higher education.

With advancements in technology continuing to influence all areas of society, students in current classrooms have a different understanding and perspective of learning than the educational system has been designed to teach. Research Perspectives and Best Practices in Educational Technology Integration highlights the emerging digital age, its complex transformation of the current educational system, and the integration of educational technologies into teaching strategies. This book offers best practices in the process of incorporating learning technologies into instruction and is an essential resource for academicians, professionals, educational researchers in education and educational-related fields.

As classrooms fill with a generation of learners seeking to interact with their course materials in an increasingly experiential way, the demand for instructional technology as a supplement to, or replacement for, traditional in-class instruction has soared. Models for Improving and Optimizing Online and Blended Learning in Higher Education examines the benefits and costs associated with the utilization of technology-mediated instructional environments. Recognizing that instructional technology could offer alternative means of communication for understanding, this collection of scholarly chapters seeks to forward the discussion on technology tool optimization for academicians, researchers, librarians, students, practitioners, professionals, engineers, and managers.

Online and blended courses are becoming increasingly prevalent in higher education settings, and the pressures to incorporate these environments highlights the increased demand to serve a generation that prefers learning through experience or through interacting with learning tools. Challenges arise in assisting instructors in facilitating and designing blended learning environments that will provide effective learning for all students. The Handbook of Research on Blended Learning Pedagogies and Professional Development in Higher Education is a critical research publication that delves into the importance of effective professional development for educators planning and teaching online or blended courses. It also establishes the benefits of technology-mediated learning environments over traditional learning methods. Highlighting a wide array of topics such as online learning environments, active learning model, and educational development, this publication explores technology-based teaching methods in higher education. This book is targeted toward educators, educational administrators, academicians, researchers, and professionals within the realm of higher education.

With the rapid development of emerging technology tools, the digital nature of learning environments continues to change traditional forms of education. Therefore, knowledge of these changes for incorporation into classroom instruction is necessary. Pedagogical Applications and Social Effects of Mobile Technology Integration analyzes possible solutions over the concerns and issues surrounding mobile technology integration into the classroom. This book is an essential resource for professionals, researchers, and technology leaders interested in providing a direction for the future of classroom technology.

The growing trend for high-quality computer science in school curricula has drawn recent attention in classrooms. With an increasingly information-based and global society, computer science education coupled with computational thinking has become an integral part of an experience for all students, given that these foundational concepts and skills intersect cross-disciplinarily with a set of mental competencies that are relevant in their daily lives and work. While many agree that these concepts should be taught in schools, there are systematic inequities that exist to prevent students from accessing related computer science skills. The Handbook of Research on Equity in Computer Science in P-16 Education is a comprehensive reference book that highlights relevant issues, perspectives, and challenges in P-16 environments that relate to the inequities that students face in accessing computer science or computational thinking and examines methods for challenging these inequities in hopes of allowing all students equal opportunities for learning these skills. Additionally, it explores the challenges and policies that are created to limit access and thus reinforce systems of power and privilege. The chapters highlight issues, perspectives, and challenges faced in P-16 environments that include gender and racial imbalances, population of growing computer science teachers who are predominantly white and male, teacher preparation or lack of faculty expertise, professional development programs, and more. It is intended for teacher educators, K-12 teachers, high school counselors, college faculty in the computer science department, school administrators, curriculum and instructional designers, directors of teaching and learning centers, policymakers, researchers, and students.

With the current ubiquity of technological tools and digital media, having the skillset necessary to use and understand digital media is essential. Integrating media literacy into modern day education can cultivate a stronger relationship between technology, educators, as well as students. The Handbook of Research on Media Literacy in the Digital Age presents key research in the field of digital media literacy with a specific emphasis on the need for pre-service and in-service educators to become familiar and comfortable with the current digital tools and applications that are an essential part of youth culture. Presenting pedagogical strategies as well as practical research and applications of digital media in various aspects of culture, society, and education, this publication is an ideal reference source for researchers, educators, graduate-level students, and media specialists.