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This paper studies electrical engineering learners’ preferences for learning methods with various degrees of activity. Less active learning methods such as homework and peer reviews are investigated, as well as a newly introduced very active (constructive) learning method called “slectures,” and some others. The results suggest that graduate students’ perception of the usefulness of the activity increases with its level of activity. For undergraduate students, an increased perception of the usefulness of the activity was observed for lightly active but structured learning methods. Group-based analysis focusing on two types of learners, defined as “instructor-dependent” and “instructor-independent” according to their perception of the usefulness of the classroom lectures, was also performed. The results suggest that instructor-independent learners may benefit more from active learning methods than instructor-dependent learners. For example, instructor-independent undergraduate learners were found to perceive the homework assignment as being more useful than the lectures. Such a preference was not seen in the average group data. In fact, no learning method was found to be perceived as more useful than the lectures, on average. Thus this paper illustrates the pertinence of group-based data analysis.

Each year it is the privilege and responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief to acknowledge the reviewers whose largely anonymous efforts lie at the heart of any scientific publication, and the communities of scholars and practitioners whom it serves. As such, it is worth taking a few minutes to reflect on the purpose of the peer review process, and the contributions our reviewers make. To my mind the principal purposes of peer review are to determine whether the paper merits publication, and to help authors write better papers.

I wish to extend my deep appreciation to all those who have so generously volunteered their time and talents during 2015 to the peer review and publication of the IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting . Special thanks go to our BTS Publications Chair and Associate Editors who have shared their valuable time and broadcast engineering expertise in managing a steadily increasing flow of papers and evaluating manuscripts through the peer review process.