Online and Distance Education Commons^™

Playing To Grow. Roundtable Interview On Games, Education, And Character, Owen Gottlieb, Matthew Farber, Paul Darvasi

Articles

In this roundtable interview moderated by Paul Darvasi, lecturer at the University of Toronto and co-founder of Gold Bug Interactive, Owen Gottlieb and Matthew Farber discuss research and practice at the intersection of religion, character education, and games in schools. Gottlieb is an associate professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, founder and lead faculty at the Initiative in Religion, Culture, and Policy at the MAGIC center, and founder and director of the Interaction, Media, and Learning Lab at RIT, where he specializes in interactive media, learning, religion, and culture. Farber is an associate professor of educational technology and coordinator …

Impact Of Parental Involvement On The Academic Performance Of African American Elementary School Students: A Multiple Regression Analysis, Olayinka Oluwole Falayi

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative, predictive correlational study investigated the influence of parental involvement on the academic performance of African American students in elementary school. This study is important in determining why African American academic scores and performance are low when compared to their White counterparts. The findings of this study will also be helpful to educational stakeholders, teachers, and the enrichment of existing literature; this is because the study provides more insight into how parental involvement in student learning can influence students' academic achievement. Participants for this study were sampled from elementary school parents/students via convenience sampling. The grade levels utilized include …

Starting The Journey To Excellence With A College Faculty Onboarding Program, Robin Cooper, Judith Slapak-Barski

HCAS Instructional Design and Pedagogy

The journey to engaged, excellent teaching requires support and preparation for those doing the teaching. In this session, we describe a college Faculty Onboarding Program we developed in 2023 to introduce our new Halmos faculty to NSU (Nova Southeastern University) and to Halmos, and to provide them with the resources and information needed to succeed in their new role—driven by the belief that effective onboarding will lead to higher job satisfaction, better job performance, greater organizational commitment, and reduction in stress. Informed by feedback from recently hired faculty, we identified support strategies to help new faculty thrive by proactively removing …

Strategies For Engagement Of Non-Traditional Students In Engineering-Related Courses, Kimberly T. Luthi Dr., David Harvie, Keith Wilson, Monica Surrency

Publications

Project Goals

Overview

• Goal #1: Increase students' commitment to engineering pathways.
• Goal #2: Increase academic performance and persistence in engineering.
• Goal #3: Increase persistence of Veterans in engineering pathways.

Research Questions

• How does students' participation in peer-led team learning activities in online engineering courses correlate to their a) commitment to engineering, b) engineering identity, and c) self-efficacy.
• How do students in peer-led team learning activities compare to students in non-PLTL groups in terms of a) academic performance and b) persistence in engineering pathways?

Does Removing Quizzes Impact Student Performance In An Online Course?, John Griffith

Publications

Data for 295 college online introductory statistics students were examined to determine if removing four module (weekly) quizzes impacted student performance on a cumulative exam. In this research, student performance was not significantly impacted by the removal of the quizzes. The difference in the exam mean score earned by the group of students who did not take quizzes was less than 0.8 of a point lower than the exam average for students who took the quizzes prior to the exam. Withdraw rates significantly declined from 5 percent to 1 percent. Results of this study support the idea that course designers …

Humanizing Online Stemm Education, Emily Faulconer

Publications

The instructor and course design can make a difference in online STEM course persistence.

Humanizing Online Stemm Education, E. K. Faulconer

Publications

Students want to see themselves in the curriculum and learning environment. How to foster the formation of STEM identity: studying diversity in an authentic learning environment. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-020-00254-z

•Students notice diversity in the curriculum •Students intertwine their gender and ethnic identities with STEM identity

•Attention to diversity and inclusion can build positive STEM identities Engaging in science practices in classrooms predicts increases in undergraduates’ STEM motivation, identity, and achievement. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21623

• Recognition as a scientist and positive classroom climate related to learning outcomes for underrepresented minority students

Technology-Supported Distance Learning For Basic Education In The Philippines, Raymund Sison, Auxencia A. Limjap, Frederick Torralballa Talaue, Ryan Samuel Dimaunahan, Kristine Hernandez, Alen Mateo Munoz, Angelica San Buenaventura

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Distance learning (DL) is a teaching-learning modality in which teaching occurs at a different place from learning (Moore & Diehl, 2018). Technology-supported distance learning (TDL) is DL in which learning contents—whether documents, videos, or games—are disseminated via the Internet, broadcast signals, or storage devices like USB drives and can be accessed by a learner any time after they have been received. These three kinds of TDL are called online DL (ODL), DL via datacasting (DLD), and electronic DL (EDL), respectively. Reproduction of learning materials is much faster and cheaper using TDL than traditional, paper-based DL.

Whole School Improvement Programme (Wsip): A Female Headteacher, Serving In Public School Perspectives, Sultan Alam

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

The research centered on delving into the experiences of a female headteacher in a public school who participated in a WSIP initiative and effectively implemented its teachings within her educational institution. This initiative stands as a flagship program of AKU-IED, PDCN in the specific context of Gilgit-Baltistan. Its aim is to introduce educational reforms in the region through formal in-person and distance education modes for headteachers.
The results revealed that the WSIP intervention wielded a substantial influence over the female headteacher's professional methodologies. This led to a transformation in her mindset and a noticeable enhancement of her skills. The headteacher …

Navigating Online Information Spaces With Lateral Reading: Lessons Learned From Two Librarians Working With Students And Educators, Andrea Baer, Daniel G. Kipnis

Libraries Scholarship

As online content’s credibility has gotten harder and harder to evaluate, librarians and other educators have been growing their strategies for teaching online source evaluation. One of those strategies is “lateral reading,” the practice of quickly evaluating a web source by seeing what others on the web say about that source. On the surface, lateral reading is quite simple. However, effective lateral reading often requires complex thinking. How will you search for information about a source? Which search results will you click on and how will you evaluate those sources? How will you decide what you trust and to what …

Exploring Academic Librarians' Perception Of Oer Through The Lens Of Technology Acceptance Model, Yingqi Tang, Hungwei Tseng

Research, Publications & Creative Work

Academic librarians' professional skills make them an ideal candidate to work with faculty in the exploration, adoption, promotion, and preservation of open educational resources (OER). This study used the technology acceptance model (TAM) to explain and predict librarians' attitudes towards OER and their intentions towards utilization in instructional design practices and teaching pedagogies. A total of 213 academic librarians participated in the mixed-methods design study. The results reveal that perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), and self-efficacy (SE) as it relates to OER accounted for 51 % of the variance in librarians' attitude (AT) towards OER. Moreover, librarians' …

Evaluating Universities Twitter Web Pages Responding To The Black Lives Matter Movement, Hind Albadi, Thomas Kenny

Faculty Publications: Communication

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in May 2020, many colleges and universities responded by making statements on their website and social media channels condemning racism. Higher education institutions began initiatives for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for faculty, staff, administrators, and students on campus. Three years later, this study investigates whether universities are still offering and promoting workshops, classes, events, and activities related to DEI to campus communities. To do so, the researchers conducted a content analysis on Twitter categorizing tweets over a one-month period, then they classified the Tweets using the top 10 colleges …

Distance Learning: Serving Those Who Serve, Becky St. Clair

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

Weathering The Perfect Legal Storm: Novel Virus, Novel Instruction, Novel Course, Marissa Moran

Publications and Research

For this legal educator, in the spring and fall of 2020, three simultaneous and novel events-Corona virus, virtual synchronous instruction, and teaching a new interdisciplinary course for the first time, created an environment that could have resulted in the perfect legal storm. Instead, these events contributed to beneficial teaching and learning experiences from which arose many “first-ever” innovative faculty and student endeavors.

Public Health Instructors' Attitudes Regarding Online Instructional Course Design: A Collective Case Study, Meaghan A. Gargin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this collective case study was to describe instructors’ attitudes regarding Keller’s personalized system of instruction (PSI) for a sample of online master’s-level public health instructors at an institution of higher education. The central research question was how do public health instructors describe their attitudes regarding personalized system of instruction and online graduate education? The institution selected for this investigation was “University A.” The theory guiding this study was Keller’s personalized system of instruction (PSI), as it features five elements for student-centered course design in higher education learning. The elements include: (a) self-pacing, (b) unit mastery, (c) lectures …

The Impact Of Instructor Immediacy And Social Presence On Online Students' Academic Success: A Hermeneutical Phenomenology Study, Colette B. Lazenka

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of instructor social presence and immediacy on student success for asynchronous online students at universities that offer asynchronous learning in Southern California. The theory guiding this study was Short’s theory of social presence, as it explains the real and present interaction that affects the saliency and interpersonal relationships of the participants. The methodology for this qualitative study followed a hermeneutical phenomenological design of 10 asynchronous online students enrolled in universities in Southern California. Data were collected using individual interviews, letter writing, and a focus group. The data analysis …

Subject Matter Expert (Sme) Onboarding 101: Improving Development Efficiency And Course Quality Through Sme Training, Heather J. Leslie Phd, Alejandra Lizardo

Learning Design Center: Staff Scholarship

A common challenge for instructional designers and administrators of online programs is ensuring that projects are completed within the development timeframe and that course content meets high standards for quality. This paper describes a training course that was developed to meet those challenges. The course prepares Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to work with a design team made up of instructional designers and instructional technologists so that SMEs can plan their course content using a backward design framework. SMEs participate in a fully asynchronous online course with other SMEs where they can collaborate and brainstorm ideas. Having SMEs take an online …

Free Via Library (Fvl) Etextbooks: Enhancing Affordable Learning By Involving An Academic Library In The Textbook Selection Process, Marc Jaffy

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This paper discusses an etextbook initiative which an academic library adopted to support affordable learning. After providing an overview of how textbook costs affect university students, the paper details the library’s etextbook initiative and how the library works both proactively (before/during the course design phase) and reactively (after textbook selection) to identify library etextbooks which courses can use in place of student purchased textbooks. The paper then reviews data demonstrating the use of library etextbooks in courses and the cost savings to students resulting from replacing student purchased textbooks with library etextbooks. The paper concludes by discussing problems and issues …

Expressing Information Needs And Information Literacy Skills Amongst Final Year Undergraduate Students In Northern Nigeria, Zikrat Abdulsalam, Imoisili Ojeime Odigie

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Information literacy is the ability of an individual to locate, evaluate, and use information. This study expresses the conscious information needs and information literacy skills amongst final year undergraduate students of three Universities in Nigeria; being the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Federal University Lokoja (FUL), and Baze University. A survey research design alongside a questionnaire for the instrument were utilised on a sample size of 307 final year undergraduate students from select faculties within the above-mentioned universities. The findings of the study amongst other show that undergraduate students at the final year level had a conscious knowledge of their information …

Board 256: Development And Evolution Of Workshops To Support Online Undergraduate Research, Dr. Robert Deters, Dr. Brent Terwilliger, Emily Faulconer, Dr. Kelly A. George

Publications

Under a National Science Foundation (NSF) Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) grant, the Research Scholars Program was developed at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University — Worldwide. The objective of the Research Scholars Program is to promote undergraduate research for the online students at the Worldwide campus and to formalize the process in which the students can participate in research. A significant aspect of the project was to create a support network for the students that incorporated existing services provided by the university and established new services to aid students throughout their mentored research experience. One of the new services was the development …

Drivers And Barriers Of Social Sustainable Development And Growth Of Online Higher Education: The Roles Of Perceived Ease Of Use And Perceived Usefulness, Hemamali Tennakoon, Jared M. Hansen, George Saridakis, Mahesha Samaratunga, Joseph W. Hansen

Marketing and Strategy Faculty Publications

Online and distance learning classes have been touted for the last several years as an innovation in higher education that should help improve the entrepreneurial growth mindset of students. However, the reported negative online learning experience of many college students worldwide during the COVID-19 epidemic has shown that many opportunities remain to improve the sustainable development and growth of online visual instruction practices. In this study, we outline and investigate a set of hypotheses related to the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (from TAM) of online video instruction in higher education courses during the pandemic. We employ grounded …

Translanguaging In World Language Higher Education, Alessia Barbici Wagner

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Increased global migration and a myriad of other social and political factors has made today’s universities more diverse than ever. As a result, teachers in higher education regularly find multilingual learners from a variety of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds in their classrooms and must consider this diversity in their teaching. One of the ways that teaching can better serve today’s multilingual and multicultural student population is through translanguaging. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the intentional and unintentional use of translanguaging by multilingual language learners and world language instructors in higher education. Additionally, this qualitative case study …

Swd's In Higher Education, Adan J. De La Loza

Whittier Scholars Program

My research paper consists of researching the experiences of students with disabilities in higher education as well as the history of disabilities acts, what has changed for SWD's in higher education and how we can make more accommodations for higher education. Furthermore, I will be discussing the stigma behind disability as well as include research about accommodation strategies and how accommodations have improved in recent years. The research paper will also entail how online learning during the COVID pandemic has affected students with disabilities in higher education and how inequity as well as the lack of face to face interaction …

Digital Capital And Belonging In Universities: Quantifying Social Inequalities In The Philippines, Wilfred Luis Clamor, Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu

Sociology & Anthropology Department Faculty Publications

This study examines social inequalities in Philippine universities that were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. A quantitative approach using a national sample of 677 university students was utilized to measure the mediating role of digital capital on social inequalities associated with belonging to academic spaces. For the purpose of determining direct and indirect impacts, structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed. Sociodemographic (i.e., gender, age, type of residence, and family income) and educational (i.e., type of university, year in the university, and excellence criterion) characteristics were the direct predictors that were examined as exogenous variables for both digital capital and belonging. …

Giving Students Choice And Agency In Assignments, Heather J. Leslie Phd, Heather Herrera

Learning Design Center: Staff Scholarship

Over the summer, Dr. Heather Herrera (Instructor in SOLES) and Dr. Heather Leslie (Instructional Designer in the LDC) teamed up to design the third course in the dissertation sequence (Doctoral Seminar III). Dr. Herrera came up with a really creative assignment for this course that gave students choice, agency, and the opportunity to build community with their peers during their dissertation process. This is something we both noted we would have greatly benefited from back when we were working on our dissertations where it can feel pretty isolating at times. This post describes the assignment, results, and our reflections.

Supporting Undergraduate Research For Globally Distributed Students And Mentors, Emily Faulconer, Brent Terwilliger, Robert Deters

Publications

Undergraduate research is widely viewed as a high-impact practice. However, participation in undergraduate research among students completing degree programs exclusively online may be impeded due to barriers such as access limitations, time poverty, and adequate institutional support. Through an NSF I-USE project (#2021221), we formed a framework of support, including a research independent study course and a mentoring program, where we deliberately separated and defined the roles of research supervisor and research mentor. In this session, we will discuss interview data on the experiences of faculty and students in both the credit-bearing active research as well as the non-credit-bearing research …

Developing Career Pathways In Uas For Non-Traditional Students Through Collaborative, Online Learning Environments, Kimberly Luthi, Christian Janke

Publications

The integration of drone technologies through online simulation platforms and uncrewed system scenarios offer opportunities to introduce STEM concepts from the fields of robotics, computer science, mechatronics, and aviation. New software technology developments will increase student engagement in STEM education and support learning of uncrewed systems applications and operating competencies. The use of drone simulation software creates a collaborative environment for group activities and sharing of results with peer review.

Engaging The Adult Learner: An Action Research Study On Delivering Effective Online Learning Experiences, Amanda Nolan

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

Since the pandemic of 2020, there has been a vast increase of adults learning online. Today, online learning is the most popular learning approach among adult learners. However, many adults have faced obstacles and challenges when learning online, resulting in a poor learning experience. Online learning is a modality that has become the forefront of learning in our society and continues to grow more and more popular, which makes it a critically important research area. This paper discusses adult learners and their most common challenges and obstacles when learning online and suggestions on how to avoid them. A positionality statement …

Community In The Online Science Classroom, Emily Faulconer

Publications

As online course offerings rise, it is important to design and facilitate courses to promote community so students feel connected to each other and the instructor and feel a sense of belonging as a scientist. Online discussions are a common feature for building and nurturing community and combating isolation. Discussions stimulate active learning, a strategy to promote participation in knowledge construction. This sense of community and science identity is important for both persistence and performance. I will share efforts to promote community while reducing extraneous cognitive load through discussion design and targeted instructor professional development. I will share data on …

Shift To Online Learning: Response Of Pakistani Visual Art Teachers During Pandemic And Post-Covid Era, Tauseef Hussain Mr, Nimra Akram Miss, Rabiya Asim Ms, Amina Sarfraz Cheema Ms, Kiran Zohra Ms

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study aims to investigate the response of Visual art teachers to educational lockdown and shift to online learning at art institutions. The study employed qualitative phenomenological research design to investigate visual artists i.e., painters, sculptors, textile designers, graphic designers, and performing artists who were faculty members in five leading art institutions of Lahore. Data were collected by conducting a total of 15 interviews from each mentioned discipline. These interviews were conducted preferably in their studios, at their homes, or at times online through WhatsApp video calls. The data was analyzed thematically by using NVIVO 12 software.

Findings – It …