Education Commons^™

Students’ Meaning-Making Journeys Towards Self-Authorship Through Self-Designed Gap Year Experiences, Erin Garcia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological, qualitative study addressed student perceptions of their meaning-making process towards self-authorship in a self-designed gap year experience and was conducted in a public higher educational institution in the Southeast. Data was gathered through interviews from a purposeful sample of gap year program participants and program administrators. Emerging themes and categories were identified by coding and analyzing the interview data, such as continual reflection reinforces the value of individual meaning-making, self-expectations versus self-worth, the influence of societal expectations are minimized, and self-designed learning helps to solidify changes in self-authorship. The data showed a strong connection between multiple meaning-making contexts …

Design Variables For Self-Directed Learning In Mooc Environment, Tai Wang, Juhong Christie Liu, Tonggui Li

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can meet education needs from diverse social, cultural, and access backgrounds and require a minimal cost of resources from learners. To successfully scaffold large and distributed populations to learn effectively in these MOOCs, the design needs to optimize self-directed learning. In this paper, the researchers investigated the design variables for MOOCs' learning environment that allowed learning choices made by learners. With this study, the researchers developed a 21-item questionnaire based on a review of the literature and their MOOC design and implementation practices, Massive Online Open Course Learning Environment Design Questionnaire (MOOC-LED). The researchers used …

Teacherless: The Futures Of Design Education, Andrew Hladkyj

Publications and Scholarship

With the ever-growing disruption of education by technology and the trend toward self-directed and autonomous learning, how might we reimagine legacy postsecondary design education in a “teacherless” society? Through a human-centred examination of today’s educational environment, this Major Research Project (MRP) derives 20 aspirational motivations at the heart of an independent

learning model. It reframes the disconnect between design academia and industry using an ’80s computer game and a Greek myth as fresh paradigms to uncover the value of strategic partnership, addictive learning, and platform-agnostic foundational training in preparing post-secondary design education for the future. This research offers four alternative …

Relationships Between Access To Mobile Devices, Student Self-Directed Learning, And Achievement, Scott R. Bartholomew, Ed Reeve, Raymond Veon, Wade Goodridge, Victor Lee, Louis Nadelson

Faculty Publications

Today’s students are growing up in a world of constant connectivity, instant information, and ever-changing technological advancements. The increasingly ubiquitous nature of mobile devices among K–12 students has led many to argue for and against the inclusion of these devices in K–12 classrooms. Arguments in favor cite instant access to information and collaboration with others as positive affordances that enable student self-directed learning. In this study, 706 middle school students from 18 technology and engineering education classes worked in groups of 2–3 to complete an openended engineering design challenge. Students completed design portfolios and constructed prototypes in response to the …

Learner-Directed Vs. Instructor-Provided Curriculum Among Undergraduate Students, Christopher D. Martinez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There has been little or no research on the use of a Learning Object in the field of religious studies. The purpose of this research study was to assess undergraduate student knowledge gain outcomes between instructor-provided and learner-directed methods, which is the independent variable, using asynchronous, online, narrated PowerPoint presentations compared to undergraduate student knowledge gain using an online learning-objects unit, in a college-level world religions survey course at St. Petersburg College. This study assessed undergraduate student knowledge gain outcomes between instructor-provided and learner-directed methods among 90 college undergraduate students and determined whether there was a significant difference in the …

Middle School Student Habits, Perceptions, And Self-Directed Learning, Scott R. Bartholomew

Faculty Publications

Today’s students are growing up in a digital world with constant connectivity, instant access to information, and new technological developments at every turn. The feasibility, effectiveness, and possibilities of students leveraging technological tools around them for learning are the subject of continual debate (Becker, 2017; Bowen, 2012; Tamim, Bernard, Borokhovski, Abrami, & Schmid, 2011). In this study, 706 middle school students from 18 classes worked in groups of 2-3 to complete an open-ended engineering design challenge. Students completed design portfolios and constructed prototypes in their groups in response to the design challenge. Classes were divided with some receiving access to …

Personal Learning Environments For Business Organizations, Denise Wunderlich

Wayne State University Dissertations

This exploratory, mixed-methods case study investigated supervisor/manager-level employees in a hospital health care organization to examine how they created and used personal learning environments (PLEs), what internet/Web 2.0 technologies were used to solve work-related problems (or for professional development), and what strategies were engaged to meet learning goals. Research questions addressed: what internet/Web 2.0 technologies were used to find and retrieve information, build networks, collaborate, and create and share knowledge; what triggered employees to use internet/Web 2.0 technologies to solve work-related problems; how they evaluated information found; how they determined completion of learning goals; how much confidence they had in …