1 Accepted for publication in Computers & Education Web-based Personalised System of Instruction: An effective approach for diverse cohorts with virtual learning environments? Andrew Rae and Peter Samuels* Andrew Rae is a former lecturer at Brunel University, UK. Peter Samuels is an Academic Skills Tutor at Birmingham City University, UK, and a Visiting Research Fellow at Coventry University, UK. *Corresponding author: Academic Skills Centre, Library and Learning Resources, Birmingham City University, Perry Barr, Birmingham, B42 2SU, UK. Email: peter.samuels@bcu.ac.uk, telephone: +44 121 331 5687 Key Words Computer-mediated communication Improving classroom teaching Media in education Post-secondary education Teaching/learning strategies Abstract The Personalised System of Instruction is a form of mastery learning which, though it has been proven to be educationally effective, has never seriously challenged the dominant lecture-tutorial teaching method in higher education and has largely fallen into disuse. An information and communications technology assisted version of the Personalised System of Instruction using a virtual learning environment is promoted here based on the authors‟ longitudinal design research into this pedagogy. The particular elements of the virtual learning environment which are promoted are short video clips, online formative tests and an assessment management system. The authors present their experiences of developing and deploying this pedagogy for the teaching of introductory discrete mathematics to large classes of Computer Science students at two UK higher education institutions both with whole cohorts and „at risk‟ groups of students. In particular, this method is promoted as particularly helpful to students who do not adopt a deep approach to learning as many students fail to do. Moreover „at risk‟ students using this method (n = 71) demonstrated an average Glass effect size of 0.83 compared with other „at risk‟ students who did not (n = 35). Based on these experiences, this pedagogy is promoted as an effective approach to teaching in higher education, especially the teaching of cognitive skills to diverse cohorts of students on foundation level modules. 1. Introduction Since the educational reform movements of the 1960s and 1970s there have been profound changes in the higher education environment in many countries, including rapid growth, widening participation and the emergence of institutional virtual learning environments (VLEs), such as Blackboard and Moodle (Browne, Hewitt, Jenkins, Voce, Walker & Yip, 2010). Widespread use of VLEs has begun to change teaching practices across the higher education (HE) sector; for example, many universities now have a minimum requirement that teaching resources are made available via their VLE for every module. This has augmented, but largely not transformed, the dominant lecture-tutorial teaching paradigm (Sheely, 2006). In many European countries, rapid growth of the HE sector (Guri-Rosenblit, Sebkova & Teichler, 2007) and the Widening Participation movement (HEFCE, 2006; Osbourne, 2003) has led to increasingly diverse student cohorts (Jeffrey, 2009). The widespread use of VLEs has partly mitigated the educational challenges created by these changes, but its use is generally criticised by educationalists as ineffective due to a lack of pedagogical