Education Commons^™

Fostering A Sense Of Online Community: Faculty Reflections Through Narratives, Brittany D. Anthony

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study will explore how MSW faculty describe a community in online courses and what strategies they use in fostering a sense of community within courses from an online Master of Social Work program at the University of South Florida. There is an imperative need to ensure online courses provide a sense of community to support students for success. During the timespan of an online course, strategic pedagogical approaches to fostering a community are essential to enriching the overall learning experience for students. Many studies tend to focus on the challenges faced when building an online community. Still, the …

Fostering A Sense Of Online Community: Faculty Reflections Through Narratives, Brittany D. Anthony

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study will explore how MSW faculty describe a community in online courses and what strategies they use in fostering a sense of community within courses from an online Master of Social Work program at the University of South Florida. There is an imperative need to ensure online courses provide a sense of community to support students for success. During the timespan of an online course, strategic pedagogical approaches to fostering a community are essential to enriching the overall learning experience for students. Many studies tend to focus on the challenges faced when building an online community. Still, the …

Leadership Education In A Changing World: The Efficacy Of Service-Learning As A Pedagogical Asset In Online University Leadership Courses, Sam Perry

Student Scholarship

The purpose of this study is to explore the domains of service-learning, leadership education, and online education to generate new ideas relevant to providing a comprehensive educational experience that successfully aids students to lead in subsequent positions. This is an in integrative literature review with supporting information from 35 sources including journals, books, dissertations, relevant media, and surveys that are used to discuss leadership education, online education, service-learning, and the leadership development potential for students when service-learning assignments are utilized in online leadership courses. Themes from each section will be identified and combined to produce new ideas in employing service-learning …

Identifying Standards Of Quality In Christian Online Theological Education, Ryan Baltrip

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Changes in computer and communication technology have sparked an educational revolution. For over 20 years, higher education, as a whole, has been adapting to the changing educational landscape. Christian theological education, which is not immune to changing educational realities, has also been adapting to decentralized educational tendencies and experiencing rapid growth in distance and online learning. Christian theological education appears to be a decade or so behind higher education in its contemporary adaptation to online learning,. Questions that higher education began asking over a decade ago about online learning are now part of the contemporary conversation within Christian online theological …

The Quality Of Saudi Accreditation Standards For Distance Learning: Benchmarking And Expert Validation, Sultan Abdulaziz Alarifi

Wayne State University Dissertations

The quality of distance learning is a concern among different stakeholders. An online learning degree is recognized in some countries while it is not accredited in others. Saudi Arabia is one of these countries that have skepticism in the quality of distance learning. It also has specific conditions for accrediting distance learning programs. Saudi Arabia recently has developed accreditation standards to ensure the quality of this learning mode but Saudi universities have not adopted the standards yet. Thus, the quality of these standards has not been tested yet. Therefore, this study investigates the quality of these standards by applying the …

Examining Fully Online Degree Students' Perceptions Of Online Student Support Services: A Mixed Method Study Using Grounded Theory And Rasch Analysis, Tamara Dean Heimberg

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The higher education market is becoming much more competitive as more students are attracted to online courses and online degree programs. In order to remain competitive, higher education institutions must provide students access to online support services. However, an online student support services plan is an often overlooked component of an online initiative even though it is a critical factor in the overall success of an online program.

This research specifically focuses on online student support services for students enrolled in fully online degree programs in an effort to identify the most important online student support services from students’ perspectives, …

What Is The Participant Learning Experience Like Using Youtube To Study A Foreign Language?, Yuan-Hsiang Lo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research is to explore and understand participants' experience using YouTube to learn a foreign language. YouTube and learning has become more and more popular in the recent years. The finding of this research will be adding more understanding to the emerging body of knowledge of YouTube phenomenon. In this research, there are three interviews and two questionnaires. The interviews are conducted to find in-depth responses from participants; the questionnaires are used to inquire demographic and basic information about the participants. There are twelve themes found in this research. These themes reflect on the perceived experience using YouTube to learn …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Small Business Owner-Managers' Participation And Learning In An Online Discussion Forum : Not Quite Paradise Found, Tara Laureen Smith

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Small business owner-managers (SBOMs) are a difficult group to engage in formal face-to-face training and learning activities. Research to encourage SBOMs' participation has focused on two main themes: first, trying to ascertain why they do not attend training and, second, determining their learning preferences. They are reluctant to attend formal training because they prioritise business operations (no time to attend training), perceive training as a poor return on investment, have negative perceptions of training and education, and believe the training provision often does not meet their needs. In terms of their learning preferences, it is clear that SBOMs prefer informal, …

Saudi Students' Attitudes, Beliefs, And Preferences Toward Coeducational Online Cooperative Learning, Salim Alanazy

Wayne State University Dissertations

In Saudi Arabia, the single-sex learning environment is the only choice for students due to social and religious concerns. Recently, online education is a growing field in Saudi Arabia. However, there is a paucity of research examining coeducational online cooperative learning that allows virtual interaction between male and female learners. The purpose of the study was to investigate the attitude, belief, and preference of Saudi students regarding working in a coeducation online cooperative learning environment. The participants of the study were 707 students from the Saudi students in the USA. An electronic questionnaire was developed by the researcher for the …

Saved By The (Alexander Graham) Bell: An Analysis Of Synchronous Communication And Student Satisfaction / Retention Rates In The First Year Online Composition Classroom, Jennifer Jane Lynch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Online first-year writing courses, with all of their promise, still maintain alarmingly low retention and student satisfaction rates, driving online curriculum designers to take another look at ways to increase both retention and satisfaction. To replicate the high rates of face-to-face classes, we must revisit and revise our approach to communication in the first-year writing online classroom. Think about it: The online classroom has abandoned a mainstay in education for thousands of years - synchronous communication. Why have we been so quick to dispose of it? Are we now paying the price?

This research will provide additional value to the …

Revision And Validation Of A Culturally-Adapted Online Instructional Module Using Edmundson's Cap Model: A Dbr Study, Marie A. Tapanes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the present study, the Cultural Adaptation Process Model was applied to an online module to include adaptations responsive to the online students’ culturallyinfluenced learning styles and preferences. The purpose was to provide the online learners with a variety of course material presentations, where the e-learners had the opportunity to select their preferred structure for learning. The research methodology for the study is Design-Based Research (DBR), which has been identified by many prominent researchers in Instructional Technology as the most productive research approach for the field. DBR integrates different data types and data collection methods (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed) with …