Education Commons^™

A Shift Towards Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices In Workplace Education, Nancy M. Thompson

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) focuses on a nonprofit organization resolving a problem of practice (PoP) that was identified following the withdrawal of its funder’s support. The problem is an absence of culturally responsive teaching practices (CRTP) in the pedagogy knowledge of subject matter experts (SMEs) who are hired to instruct capacity-building programs within community partner organizations. These organizations are working to instil a culture of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization. This OIP unpacks this PoP and creates a pathway forward to implement a change initiative based on a triad model solution: policy, beliefs, and practice. This multifaceted approach results …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Undergraduate University Students With Part-Time Jobs, Miguel F. Bernard Bravo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study explored how the pandemic and the shift to online learning impacted university students’ experiences of learning and working, and how students’ capital and other resources impacted their university experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eighteen undergraduate students who had paid employment in the last 12 months were recruited. In interviews participants were asked about their experiences with work, schooling and balancing the two with the pressures of the pandemic. Students cited financial concerns, as well as challenges with difficulties with online learning, motivation, and isolation. Importantly, this study found that students experiences differed in accordance with their capital and …

Building Educator E-Pedagogy Skill Efficacy And Capacity To Successfully Engage Students In The Online Learning Environment, Karen M. Roeck

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

Students around the world are increasingly seeking options for completing their learning in an online format due to its convenience, flexibility, and opportunity for innovative experiences. Higher education institutions need to adapt their course offerings to include robust online programs and train their faculty with the necessary skills to successfully engage their virtual learners to remain competitive in today’s market. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) identifies gaps of inadequacy of infrastructure to support online learning, limited knowledge of e-pedagogy, lack of clarity about teacher identity, and lack of focus on equity and humanity in the online classroom at a Christian …

Examining Canada’S Scientific Literacy Through Covid-19 Tweets, Samantha Jewett

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Scientific misinformation spread on social media is a concern for science communicators, health communicators, and science educators alike. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement that modern technology has created an infodemic, undermining the COVID-19 response effort. Misinformation spread online threatens public health and can endanger lives. So how do we combat it? The leading solution is education, in particular, equipping individuals with scientific literacy. Scientific literacy, or the ability to critically evaluate, understand, and make decisions regarding scientific information, is the goal of science curriculums globally. There has been much research over the …

A Systematic Review For Identifying Instructional Design Strategies And Principles In Extended Massive Open Online Courses (Xmoocs), Jingrui Jiang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Extended massive open online courses (xMOOCs), which follow traditional university learning models, have become a popular platform for structured learning over the past few years. Despite this popularity, xMOOCs are generally poorly designed, which has caused dramatic drop-out rates; therefore, they require extensive revision using instructional design strategies and principles. Hence, the purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic review of empirical studies that present best practices in the instructional design of xMOOCs and inductively identify effective instructional principles with the aim of improving the effectiveness of xMOOC instruction. We used the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Study …

Better Together: Fostering Student-Level Intercultural Competence Through Collaborative Online International Learning (Coil) And A Collaboratively Created Assessment Tool, Wes Armstrong

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

Many Japanese universities have been undergoing processes of internationalization to mitigate demographic realities that conspire against robust student enrolments. These internationalization initiatives often attract students from other Confucian-based contexts who are expected to move away from their homeland and fully integrate into an unfamiliar, Japanese environment. Resultantly, international student needs are often camouflaged by cultural similarities that favour group harmony and collectivism over more equitable approaches to learning. Therefore, this Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) aims to serve student needs by fostering the development of intercultural competencies through a pilot collaborative online international learning (COIL) project open to all students, and …

Promoting Mentally Healthy Classrooms: Evaluation Of Online Mental Health Literacy Instruction In Pre-Service Teacher Education, E. Robyn Masters

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

To better understand how to prepare large numbers of pre-service teachers for their role in creating and leading mentally healthy classrooms, this program evaluation explores outcomes related to an online mental health literacy course at a large central Canadian university. The course was delivered to 275 teacher education students simultaneously over 10-weeks and 20-hours of online instruction and professional reflection. Results indicated significant improvement in self-reported levels of mental health literacy, stigma toward mental illness, and self-efficacy for teaching students with diverse challenges. Qualitative reviews of participant feedback identified the most valuable aspects of the course and the ways in …

Collaborative Mind Mapping To Support Online Discussion In Teacher Education, Rosa Cendros Araujo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mind maps that combine text, images, colour and layout elements, have been widely used in classroom teaching to improve retention, knowledge organization and conceptual understanding. Furthermore, studies have shown the advantages of using mind-maps to facilitate collaborative learning. However, there are gaps in the literature regarding the use and study of collaborative mind-mapping in online learning settings. This integrated-article dissertation explores the implementation of online collaborative mind mapping activities in a mathematics teacher education program at a Canadian university. The studies were developed with participants enrolled in three different courses where at least two of the online activities used collaborative …

School Shouldn’T End When The Bell Rings: An Exploratory Homeschooling Study, Mackenzie Dukelow

MA Research Paper

Homeschooling has experienced significant growth over the last several decades, yet little to no research has explored the relationship between homeschoolers and the public education system. Being the first to explore this relationship, the current study collected and examined data from 3 semi-structured interviews and 15 online homeschooling blogs in order to understand the growth of homeschooling in Ontario and the relationship between homeschooling and the public education system. The results of this study reveal the relationship between homeschoolers and the public education system varies significantly over time and locale, the challenges within each system and the difficulty of transitioning …

Design, Implementation, And Evaluation Of An Online Systemic Human Anatomy Course With Laboratory, Stefanie M. Attardi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Systemic Human Anatomy is a full credit, upper year undergraduate course with a prosection laboratory demonstration at Western University Canada. To meet enrolment demands beyond the physical space of the laboratory facility, a fully online section was developed to run concurrently with the traditional face-to-face (F2F) course in 2012-13. Lectures for F2F students were broadcast in live and archived format to online students using Blackboard Collaborate virtual classroom. Online laboratories were delivered in the virtual classroom by teaching assistants (TAs) with three dimensional (3D) anatomical models (Netter’s 3D Interactive Anatomy).

Student performance outcomes and student and instructor perceptions of the …