Education Commons^™

Chapter 2- Productive Disruptions: Resilient Pedagogies That Advocate For Equity, Beth Buyserie, Rachel Welton Bryson, Rachel Quistberg

Resilient Pedagogy

When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered universities in March 2020, many students and faculty were thrown into shifting uncertainties regarding course delivery and pedagogy. As the pandemic persisted, faculty and students experienced new stressors caused by social isolation, unequal access to technology and resources, economic distress, and many other factors. In addition, the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others in the Black community sparked widespread social unrest that added to and compounded the emotional and material weight of the pandemic. Amid this tumult, higher-education faculty began asking questions about how to move forward with pedagogies resistant to unpredictable and …

School Library Media Specialists: An Evolving Profession In A Pandemic, Heather Kapanka

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

In March 2020, Michigan’s school library media specialists, along with the entire educational community, found themselves facing unprecedented challenges brought by the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. As learning shifted online, the roles of school library media specialists shifted as well. Three southeast Michigan school library media specialists were interviewed to obtain their perspectives regarding the adaptation to distance learning, as well as how they predicted educational practices will evolve going forward. The educational practices of learning commons, guided inquiry, co-teaching, and information literacy were found to be particularly valuable during the shift to distance learning. The increased dependence on …

And Finally... A New Era..., Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Some have written that the modern era of distance education began with the widespread availability of the internet. Others move the date back to when it was possible to communicate quickly, such as with the telephone.

And Finally... Crisis Planning, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

The time to plan is now. If you do not have a plan to move to online teaching and learning, develop one. If you do have a plan, review it, update it, and train everyone.

And Finally … It’Ll Never Happen …, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Educational contingency planning is the process of developing in advance what will be done if there is an event that impacts the school or training organization. Contingency planning for distance education is a subset of general contingency planning.

And Finally … The Night Is Dark …, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

For many, the previous 18 months have been dark and uncertain. Jobs have been changed, friends are different, and future events seem threatening— the playing field of doomsayers and charlatans preaching negativity.

Digital Equity In The Time Of Covid: Student Use Of Technology For Equitable Outcomes, Joy Washington, Andrea Woodard, Jonathan D. Becker, Joan A. Rhodes, Andrew Harris, Oscar Keyes, David B. Naff

MERC Publications

This issue brief is the third and final in a series published by the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) addressing digital equity in K-12 schools. It examines research regarding students’ use of and outcomes related to technology. Research finds that inequities exist in use and outcomes for students based on gender, language, ability, race, SES and other sociocultural factors. Based on these inequities, theoretical and practical recommendations are discussed.

Belize Student Success And Well-Being During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Study Report 2020-2021, Ariana J. Groen, Daniel Houlihan, Jacob Wessels, Collin Estrada

Psychology Department Publications

The Student Success and Challenges to Education in the Country of Belize During the COVID-19 Pandemic studies were created and conducted in the hopes of attaining data on the needs, success, and barriers to students, their families, and educators during distance learning. The purpose of the survey is to examine parents and educators in Belize to understand the scope of potential challenges during the COVID pandemic as it relates to student education, well-being, support, access to materials, availability of resources, and areas of concern. Questionnaires were created to hear the voices of parents and guardians as well as educators of …

The Perceived Effect Of Promoting A Sense Of Community In Online Doctoral Courses Through Intentional Course Design, Lucas Austin Farmer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe the sense of community experienced in online courses for Doctor of Ministry students at Liberty University. At this stage in the research, sense of community will be generally defined using Rovai’s (2002a) definition. Rovai (2002a) defines classroom community using four dimensions: “spirit, trust, interaction, and commonality of expectation and goals, in this case, learning” (p. 4). Essentially, members of a classroom community, according to Rovai (2002a), experience each of these four dimensions. A number of authors argue that a sense of community can be promoted in online classrooms (Rovai & Baker, …

The Future Of Education As A Wicked Possibility, Eric Busser

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Over the past few decades, technology has become more and more integral in education. The online education response to the COVID-19 pandemic shows how capable technology in distance learning has become in recent years. Education still has a lot more room for implementing technology, and this paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of the inevitable implementation of distance learning in education.

Generational Differences In Faculty And Student Comfort With Technology Use, Amanda Culp-Roche, Debra Hampton, Angie Hensley, Jessica L. Wilson, Amanda Thaxton-Wiggins, Jo Ann Otts, Sharon Fruh, Debra K. Moser

Nursing Faculty Publications

Background: Navigating through online education courses continues to be a struggle for some nursing students. At the same time, integrating technology into online courses can be difficult for nursing faculty.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess faculty technology integration practices, student attitudes about technology use, and generational differences related to faculty and student technology use.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was used to obtain data for this study.

Results: Integration of technology into online courses and student attitudes about technology use were not significantly different by generation. Faculty and students from the Baby Boomer and Generation …

Edustream, Jon Le, Moises Lopez, Koby Yoshida

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

After getting a glimpse into a world where we are unable to leave our houses, we realize the level of in-class education has been a difficult one to uphold. Many people are currently struggling to keep up with class material due to the new online format. However, there have been people experiencing these problems with education long before 2020. EduStream aims to provide tutoring sessions through live-stream and recordings to anyone looking to improve their education. During early versions of EduStream, user testing was collected through paper prototyping and the testing revealed EduStream is a program that university students would …

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.

A Case Study Of Teaching Mba Quantitative Analysis Online, Daniel R. Ball

Faculty Works: Business (1973-2022)

Advancements in video capture and learning management systems (LMS) provide faculty with more tools than ever before to effectively teach quantitative business subjects to graduate students enrolled in blended and online courses. Students pursuing an MBA often come from diverse educational and professional backgrounds, with some continuing directly from undergraduate programs while others may be returning to school after spending years in the workforce. These students require instructional design that is both comprehensive and flexible to meet their various needs, accommodating the increasing preference for visual content delivery. Early in an MBA program, a course in quantitative analysis often serves …

And Finally... Course Quality Or Instructional Quality, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Quality has become a popular word in distance education literature. Quality this, and quality that, all demanding that distance education, online learning, or virtual schooling must “have” something called quality— most often course quality.

And Finally … Open Access, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Open Access—the idea that scholarly literature should be free and easily available to read online to anyone with an interest. We distance educators naturally embrace the idea of having readily available content that can be used in courses in a format that is easy to use and access. According to the web location Opensource.com there are two different versions of open access—libre and gratis.

And Finally … Telepresence—New Or ?, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Telepresence is most simply defined as the virtual presence of a speaker who is at a distance. More sophisticated definitions emphasize the use of technologies that allow a videoconference viewer to feel as if distant participants are present.

Factors Contributing To Student Retention In Online Learning And Recommended Strategies For Improvement: A Systematic Literature Review, Pauline S. Muljana, Tian Luo

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Aim/Purpose

This systematic literature review investigates the underlying factors that influence the gap between the popularity of online learning and its completion rate. The review scope within this paper includes an observation of possible causal aspects within the non-ideal completion rates in online learning environments and an identification of recommended strategies to increase retention rates.

Background

While online learning is increasingly popular, and the number of online students is steadily growing, student retention rates are significantly lower than those in the traditional environment. Despite the multitude of studies, many institutions are still searching for solutions for this matter.

Methodology

A …

Distance Education: Methods Of Education For Students In Remote Areas Of China, Emily R. Kaminsky

Student Publications

This paper illustrates that distance education is a useful mechanism of education for students living in remote areas or those who desire a native English-speaking teacher to improve their own language skills. However, it will also show the ways in which distance education is not the perfect solution. This paper will overall find that distance education improves future economic opportunities, causes changes in teacher/student power dynamics, and does, to some extent, increase access to schooling for children living in rural, remote areas.

And Finally... Engagement, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Engagement of a learner is defined as emotional and intellectual involvement or commitment—the participation in learning activities via interaction with others in meaningful ways. Engagement theory considers engagement as the process of involving learners in groups or teams working collaboratively on project-based and authentic activities.

And Finally... Doing It Wrong—Who Says?, Michael Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Several years ago there was considerable discussion among leaders of schools, colleges, universities, and organizations who wanted to offer instruction at a distance. In response, Distance Learning published a column titled “Designing the Perfect Online Program” hoping that the set of guidelines provided would assist organizations in their planning, and to reduce the likelihood that illconceived plans would be implemented.

Investigating The Relationship Between Students’ Digital Literacy And Their Attitude Towards Using Ict, Salma Jan

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This study aimed to explore the relationship between secondary school students’ digital literacy and their attitude towards using information and communication technology in a private secondary school in Karachi, Pakistan. For this study, the data were collected through survey questionnaire using google forms. The total sample size for this study was 344 secondary school students having almost equal ratio of male and female. On bivariate correlation analysis, digital literacy was found to be associated with students’ attitude towards using information and communication technology (ICT) and other ICT related demographics. Further analysis using multiple linear regression analysis showed that digital literacy …

The Lecturer As Learner: Exploring That Digital Divide One More Time, Mary O'Rawe

Conference papers

Although there is widespread acceptance of the importance, and indeed superiority, of student-centred learning in the contemporary success equation (McCabe & O’Connor, 2014), charting the route to such success remains problematic. Many assumptions around the nature of digital learning, and inter-generational attitudes to such learning are still made.

Specific to the context of technology-enhanced teaching, learning and assessment in a higher education environment, a range of generic and particular debates around how to be student-centric arise. Technology-enhanced learning (TEL) has been examined extensively from both the student’s viewpoint, and the lecturer’s perspective (Waycott et al., 2010). But how can these …

And Finally ... Online Courses Have Three Critical Components (And Learning Management Systems Are Not One Of Them), Michael R. Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

It is happening again. Vendors—and some well-meaning educational administrators—are talking about the power of course/learning management systems and claiming that the technology used to deliver online courses has an impact on student achievement.

And Finally … Social Media And Online Learning: Pros And Cons, Michael R. Simonson

Faculty Articles

Excerpt

Are social media applications empowering or addicting—or both?

Staying Current In Your Field Of Interest: Tips For Aspiring Students As Researchers, Dor D. Abelman

Health Studies Publications

Undergraduate students are becoming increasingly involved in research. They already posses the skills required to make meaningful contributions to their field of interest. Some important components of their success relates to a student's ability to stay up to date in the research of their field, and to learn practical skills pertaining to the publishing process. This article hopes to help with this through presenting easy-to-follow summary tables and short paragraphs on tips for success. Topics include staying up to date in a practical way, getting involved, reaching out for help, and publication. For students, by students, this report is relatable …

Education Individualized Through Technology, Rachel M. Leers

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis will overview technology in the classroom and the impact as well as the potential that is has individualizing instruction in order to meet the needs of every kind of student. The thesis will consist of thorough research on the subject matter. Technology is a great tool to use for individualizing instruction as it consists of many recourses, it increases communication, increases discussion, has high availability, it is affordable, and consists of a variety of lesson plan ideas to meet the needs of each student. Individualized learning is especially important in the classroom as it increases student achievement, provides …

Rwu's New 'Rising Tide' Of Educational Opportunity 9-8-2016, Roger Williams University

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.