Education Commons^™

Unpacking And Illustrating Coiro’S Multifaceted Heuristic Of Digital Reading Through The Development Of The Cot-R Assessment, Jodi Pilgrim, Sheri Vasinda

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Although much research exists on digital reading, confusion about literacy terminology persists. Inspired by a recent article in Reading Research Quarterly, the authors explore a multifaceted heuristic of digital reading developed by Julie Coiro. The heuristic, which offers a way to systematically organize, label, and define complex terms, concepts, and practices related to digital reading experiences, served as a reference point to examine the authors’ journey of defining digital reading. Highlighting three aspects of Coiro’s heuristic--text, activity, and context--the authors begin by describing the development of an authentic online reading assessment instrument (COT-R), which focuses on elementary students’ processes of …

Student Camera Use In Synchronous Classrooms: A Two-Study Exploration Of Ctml’S Embodiment Principle, Zac D. Johnson, Kevin C. Knoster

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Two studies were conducted to ascertain whether or not the embodiment principle of the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning would apply to student’s use of cameras in synchronous online instruction. Results from a cross sectional dataset indicate that students who utilize their cameras report more positive outcomes than students who do not utilize their cameras. Results from a quasi-experimental design indicate that students do not report any significant differences between experiencing classes where their peers keep their cameras-on or when their peers keep their cameras-off.

Transforming Experiential Learning In The Honors Interpersonal Communication Course: Interpersonal Enrichment Journeys During The Covid-19 Pandemic And Beyond, Jennifer A. H. Becker

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Drawing upon my own experience as an educator, I describe and reflect upon my experiential learning-pedagogical process of transforming my fall 2020 Zoom-based honors interpersonal communication course in which my students traversed through a series of experiential learning activities called Interpersonal Enrichment Journeys. Quantitative and written data revealed that students achieved desired learning outcomes and strengthened much-needed interpersonal connections despite the circumstances and stressors induced by the pandemic. Interpersonal Enrichment Journeys can be replicated to maximize the features of quality online courses identified by Kaufman and Vallade (2022), such as helping students develop personal connections in a positive learning climate …

Differences In Elementary Students’ Self-Regulated Processes For Computer Versus Printed Reading Assignments, Katerina Sergi, Anastasia Elder, Tianlan Wei, Kristin H. Javorsky, Jianzhong Xu

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

The purpose of this study was to investigate metacognitive self-regulated learning (SRL) differences in computer- and paper-based reading assignments across elementary students. Students in two after-school programs in a southeastern U.S. public school district were recruited. The final sample consisted of 48 students in Grades 2–5 who participated in two counterbalanced conditions involving a computer- and a paper-based reading assignment. The study employed a 2 x 4 (condition-by-grade) mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA) and followup tests to examine metacognitive SRL differences between conditions and grades. The results indicate that elementary students used various metacognitive SRL skills across both conditions. The …

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume 6, 2022

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Course Format, Student Characteristics, And Perceived Teacher Communication And Behavior On Instructional Outcomes Before And During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Elizabeth E. Graham, Heather L. Walter, Tang Tang

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Two studies examined instructional format (intact vs. hybrid and remote vs. online), classroom climate, student characteristics (engagement and communication apprehension), perceived teacher communication and behavior (teacher competence, clarity, caring), and their influence on instructional outcomes, including cognitive learning, communication satisfaction, and intent to persist in college pre-pandemic and during the pandemic. The findings highlight the important role teacher characteristics (caring, clarity, competence) played in instructional outcomes. This study also revealed that high levels of engagement signals students’ willingness to participate in the learning process. Students are a driving force in their own cognitive learning, communication satisfaction, and intent to persist …

An Exploratory Investigation Of Teacher Perceptions Of Education And Communication At The Beginning Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Stephenson J. Beck, Emily A. Paskewitz

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

In March 2020, teachers in the K–12 school system were forced to transition from in-person instruction to a variety of virtual teaching models due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This unprecedented change required extensive communication between teachers, students, parents, and administrators. This study explored communication during the March–May 2020 transition period, utilizing Uncertainty Management Theory as an overarching framework to investigate how teacher comfort with online learning, communication overload, administrative clarity, and student–teacher interaction influenced the effectiveness and happiness of teachers. Across these four variables, communication overload was shown to be a strong negative predictor of teacher well-being; student–teacher interaction predicted …

Responding To Literature Through Student–Author Interviews: Eighth-Grade Students Challenge Chris Crowe’S Mississippi Trial, 1955, Danielle L. Defauw, Chris Crowe, Christine Burnett

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This study explores virtual, student–author interviews eighth-grade students led with Chris Crowe in response to his young adult novel Mississippi Trial, 1955. The opportunity to interview the author motivated students to read the novel. Through their text-world development, students connected with the fictional and nonfictional characters, Hiram Hillburn and Emmett Till, respectively. Through their critical reader-responses, students sought truth about Emmett Till’s case as they questioned Crowe about the choices he made as an author and researcher, which supported students’ understanding of character development and historical significance of Emmett Till’s case. Crowe’s answers to the students’ critical questions were …

Building Community In An Asynchronous Write-To-Learn Course, Mary K. Tedrow

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This study examines one online asynchronous course, Writing in Literature, devised by the researcher to determine the potential for building a student-centered course functioning as a learning community in spite of the limitations of the lack of shared space or time. The course was examined via student surveys that qualified experiences within the course as well as a review and coding of end-of-course student reflections. The survey and reflective commentary indicate that it is possible for an asynchronous course to effectively build a vibrant learning community. The learner to learner, learner to instructor, and learner to content framework recommended …

Empower: An Online Staff Training Focused On Person-Centered Supports For Direct Support Professionals, Amy Castagnino, Meghan Blaskowitz

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Background: Direct support professionals (DSPs) for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) is one of the most rapidly growing professions in the United States. However, there is a gap in recruiting, training, and retraining DSPs to provide appropriate and effective person-centered supports.

Method: The aim of this pilot study was to measure the effectiveness of a staff training program conducted by an occupational therapy doctoral candidate, focused on improving DSPs’ confidence and competence when providing services to adults with IDD. A pretest/posttest quantitative design was used to test changes in the DSPs’ confidence from the beginning to …

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume 5, 2021

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Pandemic Pedagogy: Elements Of Online Supportive Course Design, Nate Brophy, Melissa A. Broeckelman-Post, Karin Nordin, Angela D. Miller, Michelle Buehl, Jeff Vomund

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

The purpose of this study was to identify which course design elements students perceive as supporting an easier transition to emergency remote teaching due to COVID-19, as well as to use those items to develop the Online Supportive Course Design (OSCD) measure. By asking students to rate their course with the easiest transition and hardest transition to emergency remote teaching, this study identified which structural elements were most important for supporting students during the transition. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, a seven-item measure was developed to operationalize OSCD, and initial validity was established by examining the relationships between OSCD, …

Unpacking Privilege In Pandemic Pedagogy: Social Media Debates On Power Dynamics Of Online Education, Roy Schwartzman

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

As one of the world’s major social media hubs dedicated to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Facebook mega-group Pandemic Pedagogy provides a panoramic perspective of the key concerns educators and students face amid a public health crisis that forces redefinition of what constitutes effective education. After several months of instruction under pandemic conditions, two central themes emerged as the most extensively discussed and the most intensively contested: (1) rigor versus accommodation in calibrating standards for students, and (2) ways to improve engagement during classes conducted through videoconferencing, especially via Zoom. Both themes reveal deeply embedded systems of privilege …

Variations On Exposure Therapy: Best Practices For Managing Public Speaking Anxiety In The Online Communication Classroom, Sarah K. Chorley

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy techniques offer unique opportunities for comprehensive management of public speaking anxiety in the online public speaking classroom beyond exposure to only the speech-giving act itself. This best practices article outlines nontraditional strategies for incorporating ERP practices in a distance-learning setting.

Critically Analyzing The Online Classroom: Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas, And The Pedagogy They Produce, J.D. Swerzenski

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Working from the crossroads of critical pedagogy and software studies, this study analyzes the means by which teaching technologies—in particular the popular learning management systems (LMS) Blackboard, Moodle, and Canvas—support a transmission model of education at the expense of critical learning goals. I assess the effect of LMSs on critical aims via four key critical pedagogy concepts: the banking system, student/teacher contradiction, dialogue, and problem-posing. From software studies, I employ the notion of affordances—what program functions are and are not made available to users—to observe how LMSs naturalize the transmission model. Rather than present a deterministic look at teaching technology, …

Editor’S Note To Volume 4 Of The Journal Of Communication Pedagogy “If You Build It, They Will Come.”, Deanna D. Sellnow

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This volume features instructional communication research articles ranging using mHealth patients with invisible chronic illnesses to machine teachers (e.g., Robots) as teachers. It also includes reflective and best practice essays on incorporating audio podcasts into teaching and learning, communication training and development in the multigenerational workforce, managing speech anxiety online, and the role of edutainment in teaching public relations.

On Blending Active Student Responding With Synchronous Instruction To Evaluate Response Accuracy, Nicole A. Hollins

Dissertations

As of 2016, approximately 28% of college students in the United States were taking at least one online course (U.S. Department of Education, 2016), and it was projected that the percentage of students enrolled in online courses would continue to increase 33% each year (Pethokoukis, 2002). The COVID-19 pandemic hastened further shifts from in-person to virtual learning for many institutions of higher education. Given this rapid shift to online instruction, it is critical to evaluate the effectiveness of online instructional procedures. Providing multiple opportunities for students to respond to instruction has proven to be an effective procedure across most educational …

Adapting Independent Reading For The Virtual Classroom, Ellen J. Foley

Dissertations

There is no doubt that the 2020-2021 school year was an unprecedented one. Around the world, COVID-19 school closures forced teachers to change their instructional practices with very little time, preparation, or guidance. While frustrating and challenging, experiences from this particular school year provide unique insight into pedagogical adaptations from in-person contexts to virtual ones.

This qualitative, grounded theory study examines the experiences of six secondary English Language Arts (ELA) teachers and their adaptations of independent reading pedagogies for their virtual classrooms during the 2020-2021 COVID-19-impacted school year. Independent reading is a practice that depends on proximal classroom factors including …

Predicting Student Success In Coursework Within A Regional Online School: An Analysis Of Student-Level And School-Level Predictors, Cary J. Stamas

Dissertations

Online education options in the K-12 environment have steadily increased from the infancy of online education at the turn of the millennia. Educators have utilized this format to meet the many different needs that exist for all students. Early research into the academic success of students in these environments prior to 2000 indicated there was no significant difference in student achievement for distance learning as compared to face-to-face learning. Since 2000, there has been increased focus on student performance in higher education online environments, but research is limited for K-12 schools. For the research that does exist, school-level variables and …

Teaching Reading-Writing Connections Online To Pre-Service Teachers In A Children’S Literature Course, Treavor Bogard

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This account of transitioning a children’s literature course to remote learning during the Covid-19 pandemic describes the use of digital service learning and instructional scenarios to develop pre-service teachers’ knowledge of teaching writing craft across literary genres.

Keeping Things Going: Reflections On Teaching “Teaching Writing” Online, Emily S. Meixner

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

What does it mean to “keep things going online” in an undergraduate teacher education course on teaching writing? In this article, a teacher educator describes how, in consultation with her students, she adapted a secondary English methods course on teaching writing to teach it online. While highlighting and celebrating what worked, she also reflects on lessons learned and teaching questions that continue to persist.

Alternative Delivery Methods: A Reflection On The Semester That Almost Wasn't, Joshua J. Anderson

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

As educators we are by our very nature self-reflective practitioners. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 forced many of us to reconsider our approaches to remote learning, and this narrative describes my experiences with alternative delivery methods of instruction during the past two months. It is my hope that others can learn from both my successes and my failures. I encourage all educators to thoughtfully examine what they have experienced during this unprecedented time and consider how the lessons learned can positively influence their instructional approaches and readiness moving forward. The narrative begins by contextualizing my background, programs, classes, and institution. …

Tell Your Story… Share Hope, Nicole Sieben

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This manuscript emphasizes the practice of storytelling in writing teacher education, particularly how it applies to encouraging graduate methods students and undergraduate college students to tell their stories amidst a pandemic that upended their semesters and for many, their lives. In this piece, a writing instructor examines the effectiveness of inviting students to provide feedback on their level of comfort with the change of instructional mode from face-to-face to remote instruction and with their level of concern/comfort in the current life circumstances. By way of example, the piece shares a specific poetry writing assignment that engaged students in storying their …

Comparing Learning Platform Impact On Low Vision Education For Occupational Therapists, Jaimee D. Perea, William Sit

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

This pilot study examines the impact of face-to-face, remote, and hybrid learning platforms on satisfaction, confidence, and knowledge-application of occupational therapy practitioners during a synchronous low vision continuing education program. Fifteen participants were divided into three groups, each corresponding to one learning platform. They engaged in two 45-min learning sessions and completed pre, post, and follow-up surveys to measure the impact of the learning platform on the dependent variables of satisfaction, confidence, and knowledge application. No significant differences were found between learning platforms for the three variables, but improvements from pre to follow-up survey were found to be significant for …

Communication Pedagogy: The Coronavirus Pandemic, Ron C. Arnett

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

In this historical moment defined by the coronavirus, the global community struggles with and against a seemingly invisible foe. Students, faculty, and administrators open the blinds on windows in the morning, witnessing the brightness of the sun and seemingly the clarity of a morning welcome. Yet, there lurks, not in the shadows, but in the brightness of the everyday sunshine, the possibility of sickness and death. This responsive essay weaves together my communicative rejoinders to the coronavirus and its implications for this challenging time in human history. I turn to the autoethnographic insights of Art Bochner and Carolyn Ellis (2016) …

Preservice Teacher Sense-Making As They Learn To Teach Reading As Seen Through Computer-Mediated Discourse, Angela J. Stefanski, Amy Leitze, Veronica M. Fife-Demski

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Abstract

This collective case study used methods of discourse analysis to consider what computer-mediated collaboration might reveal about preservice teachers’ sense-making in a field-based practicum as they learn to teach reading to children identified as struggling readers. Researchers agree that field-based experiences coupled with time for reflection benefit preservice teachers as they learn to teach reading. However, research is not as clear about which features of practicum experiences lead to preservice teacher learning, which may contribute to preservice teacher misconceptions, and how learning about reading instruction might be rendered more visible to researchers. Grounded in sociocultural perspectives, analysis focused on …

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume, 2018

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Using Postfeedback Delays To Reduce Racing In Online Learning, Anna L. Conard

Dissertations

Computer-based instruction (CBI) has become an increasingly popular tool in both business and education throughout the last decade. Despite the various benefits of using CBI, there are several challenges that accompany this mode of instruction, such as computer-based racing. Computer-based racing occurs when learners respond so quickly that frequent mistakes are made. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the impact of postfeedback delays on racing through online lessons conducted in uncontrolled settings. Six different computer-based instructional formats were assessed in terms of learner performance and satisfaction using a between-group pretest-posttest design. Statistically significant differences were observed in …

Online Cte In The Community College, Brian T. Dietz, Rachal Etshim

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

Community colleges serve the most diverse student population with regard to age, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. These characteristics mirror those of students who enroll in career and technical education (Bragg, 2001, 2014) and online courses (Aslanian & Clinefelter, 2013). Yet only a handful of studies have been conducted about online technical education in community colleges. Given the continued growth in online education (Allen & Seaman, 2015; Lokken & Mullins, 2015), increasing use of technology in the classroom, and the emphasis on career and technical education (CTE) as a means of increasing degree production, more information is needed about …

Gigapan Education, Marissa Morgan

Honors Theses

Secondary-school students and teachers need a safe, secure website where they can experience the life of their peers around the world through GigaPan panoramic images. Using a simple point and shoot camera, students can create deep-zoomable panoramas called GigaPans. A Ruby on Rails website was created to provide a location and interface for sharing and discussing these GigaPan panoramas between students and teachers across the globe. By sharing experiences and culture through this technology, the website aims to create a community of technologically and culturally aware young people.