Education Commons^™

Trustworthiness In Sampling Selection: Remedies Against Introspective Chaos, Cécile Gabarre, Serge Gabarre

The Qualitative Report

The ethical dimension pertaining to protecting participants from psychological harm due to the in-depth nature of the inquiry and to the intimacy resulting from prolonged engagement is well-documented. This is laudable, but very few studies focused on guiding the researchers against chaotic emotions arising from introspectively questioning their beliefs and motivations and inspiring their judgments underlying their decisions. In our involvement with masters’ students’ thesis writing and research management training, supervision, and examination, we became aware of recurring cases of novice researchers silently disappearing from the program, eventually reappearing, continuously struggling with their thesis. Investigating this process, we identified the …

Bringing Classroom And Outside World Together: Mobile Instant Messaging Via Whatsapp© For Extracurricular Writing, Şakire Erbay Çetinkaya

The Qualitative Report

Mobile phones have a rapidly growing language teaching and learning potential due to various technologies and applications including instant messaging. However, the related literature mostly documents studies aiming at investigating their role for teaching vocabulary, pronunciation, and content, and thus there are calls to focus on other skills, including writing. Responding to these calls to solve the problem of research scarcity on other skills, I opted for a qualitative research design to investigate the pedagogical potential of WhatsApp©, perceive my students’ experiences, and evaluate the process with all strengths and weaknesses. I attempted to make contributions to the existing knowledge …

Stem Education In College: An Analysis Of Stakeholders’ Recent Challenges And Potential Solutions, Santanu De, Georgina Arguello

FDLA Journal

A vast majority of academic disciplines and curricula in the college center around Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), which are critical to developing the skills necessary for a global workforce. Rapid changes in pedagogical setups, educational modes, and advances in instructional technology entail diverse challenges for key stakeholders (i.e. students, faculty, and the organizations). This paper highlights the most relevant challenges and potential solutions in STEM higher education at the college level, reported in the last decade. The holistic analysis combining the three stakeholders’ perspectives would help elucidate significant contemporary aspects impacting the fields. The goal is to further …

Best Practices Of Virtual Advising: The Application Of An Online Advising Portal, María G. Méndez, Georgina Arguello

FDLA Journal

Online education has taken precedence worldwide, not only temporarily due to the COVID-19 new reality, but also because higher education institutions have realized the importance of meeting the needs of all types of students. As higher education institutions increase their online offerings, we need to take into consideration the importance of quality in online student support services, such as academic advising. Virtual advising is a way to provide vital, sensitive, flexible, and innovative services, which may support distance education students in achieving their educational goals. Implementing best practices of virtual advising will help break down the existing barriers of time …

Raising The Bar With Professional Development In The Use Of Distance Learning Tools, Victoria Brown, Jillian Powers, Ann Musgrove Dr., Daria Olden

FDLA Journal

Abstract: Strategic plans to increase online student enrollment and distance learning (DL) enrollment are driving professional development centers to change their approach to faculty preparation for designing, developing, and facilitating online courses. As it takes approximately three to five years to achieve change in teaching attitudes toward technology (Hall & Hord, 2014), understanding factors that influence faculty adoption of technology, their self-efficacy, and attitudes toward technology becomes indispensable. This paper describes a study that explored how different professional development (PD) options affect faculty self-efficacy and attitudes toward adopting distance learning tools for online instruction. The authors welcome a discussion on …

Youth’S Usage Of New Media: Exploring Learning And Identity Formation, Nurzali Ismail

The Qualitative Report

This study investigated youth’s usage of new media technologies in and out of school as well as how it relates to learning and identity formation. Even though youth’s usage of new media in school is inferior compared to out of school, it does not mean that both contexts are disconnected. In fact, there is a possible relationship established between both contexts and such connection can prove to be significant for youth’s learning and identity formation. Communities of Practice (COPs) was adopted as the theoretical foundation of the study. The research method employed was case study. Data collection involved six 13 …

Understanding The Diverse Field Of “Educational Technology” As Revealed In Twitter Job Postings: Encoding / Decoding Approach, Merve Basdogan, Zulfukar Ozdogan, Curtis J. Bonk

The Qualitative Report

In this study, we attempt to understand discursive interrelationships among five professional job advertisements which are often used interchangeably, including educational technology, educational design, instructional design, learning design, and instructional systems design. The purpose is to better understand the distinctions, interactions, and overlaps of these disciplines using Encoding/Decoding Model over the discourses of the jobs’ announcements. We collected data using a social network analysis tool, NCapture, and imported to qualitative analysis software (i.e., NVivo) to conduct thematic analyses. For this study, 171 job postings in Twitter were captured by using NCapture as a Web-browser extension. Findings indicated that the relations …

A Cross-Cultural Qualitative Study On Students’ Attitudes Towards Computer-Assisted Language Learning, Dara Tafazoli, María Elena Gómez Parra, Cristina A. Huertas-Abril

The Qualitative Report

This cross-cultural qualitative study investigated the attitudes and perceptions of language students towards computer-assisted language learning (CALL). We examined the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of CALL in language education according to Iranian and Spanish students’ perceptions and attitudes. In addition, we found out the differences between Iranian and Spanish language students’ perceptions and attitudes towards CALL. The participants were 237 language students, and the researchers applied an online 10 open-ended question instrument for data collection and a SWOT analysis for data analysis. The findings of the content analysis revealed that many language students in Iran and Spain approved that …

And Finally A Baker’S Dozen Ideas For Creating An Online Course, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Most likely, everyone reading this column in Distance Learning journal has been asked how to quickly develop an online course, or tasked to actually redesign a course for online delivery. For those who have taught and learned in the world of distance education this process is easy, straightforward, even if time-consuming. One issue for new online designers or instructors is that much of the process for converting a traditional course to an online one is not intuitive, and in some respects is counterintuitive. For example, the idea of chunking instruction into single concept building blocks is an example of …

And Finally... Blending In All The News That’S Fit To Print, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Even the New York Times agrees. In a recent Business section article about success in online courses, the Times wrote that “The instructional ingredients of success include … short videos of 6 minutes or less, interspersed with interactive drills and texts; online forums where students share problems and suggestions; and online mentoring and tutoring” (“Online Courses,” 2020). The Times got it right.

And Finally … What’S In A Name?, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Call me Ishmael” is the first line of the classic novel, Moby Dick. Most high school students do not realize the importance of Ishmael’s name when they start reading. However, if they wanted an A on the final essay they wrote about the novel, they should have mentioned how this first line of three words set the intellectual tone for Herman Melville’s masterpiece.

Exploring The Development Of Pre-Service Teachers' Knowledge And Attitudes Toward Integrating Computational Thinking And Robotics Into The Classroom, Jillian Powers, Ann Musgrove, Victoria Brown, Mohammad Azhar

FDLA Journal

This paper presents an introductory computational thinking (CT) module that can be implemented into teacher education curricula. The researchers examined how the integration of CT and robotics instruction into an undergraduate instructional technology course influenced pre-service teachers' understanding of CT and robotics and their attitudes towards adopting these tools in their future classrooms. The online module was developed as a result of a collaboration between computer science and education faculty from two universities. A total of 93 students participated in the study. The course was delivered during the spring, summer, and fall semesters of 2020 via distance learning at a …

Unix Administrator Information Security Policy Compliance: The Influence Of A Focused Seta Workshop And Interactive Security Challenges On Heuristics And Biases, John Palmer Mcconnell

CCE Theses and Dissertations

Information Security Policy (ISP) compliance is crucial to the success of healthcare organizations due to security threats and the potential for security breaches. UNIX Administrators (UXAs) in healthcare Information Technology (IT) maintain critical servers that house Protected Health Information (PHI). Their compliance with ISP is crucial to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of PHI data housed or accessed by their servers. The use of cognitive heuristics and biases may negatively influence threat appraisal, coping appraisal, and ultimately ISP compliance behavior. These failures may result in insufficiently protected servers and put organizations at greater risk of data breaches and financial loss. …

Factors That Influence The Perception Of Higher Education Leaders In The Adoption Process Of Instructional Technology And Distance Education, Diego Tibaquirá

Theses and Dissertations

The problem addressed by this study was that many administrators at institutions of higher learning are faced with the task of finding ways to provide the latest technologies while being extremely constricted by budgets and the rising cost of education. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence the perceptions of higher education leaders in the adoption process of Instructional Technology and Distance Education. This included an examination of the decision-making process and what determined if Instructional Technology and Distance Education were either implemented or upgraded at various higher learning institutions.

The researcher implemented a mixed-methods …

A Comparative Study On Parental Involvement, Roldens Paulynice

Theses and Dissertations

Parental involvement has been found by many researchers to be important in student academic success. However, many school leaders are challenged to get many parents actively involved in their child’s education. At the research site, for example, the researcher observed that many parents do not get actively involved in their child’s education, and they miss the school parental meeting or programs. If this problem is solved, school staff members or leaders would care and would benefit from it. The purpose of this study was to explore the perception of educators on the impact of parental involvement on student success and …

Status Of Women’S Leadership In The Instructional Technology Field, 2014-2018, Kerrian A. Gordon

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess the leadership status of women in the instructional technology field during the period 2014-2018. Five areas of leadership were examined (a) faculty rank in instructional technology programs, (b) positions on editorial boards of leading instructional technology journals, (c) publications in leading instructional technology journals, (d) presentations at leading conferences in the instructional technology field, and (e) leadership of four leading professional organizations in the field.

The study utilized a quantitative content analysis research method. A code sheet was developed for the five areas of leadership. Research Question 1: What was the leadership …