Online and Distance Education Commons^™

How Mooc Reality Informs Distance Education, Online Learning, And Connectivism, Adelina G. Hristova, Fernanda C. Bonafini, Kathryn W. Jablokow, Rebecca Y. Bayeck, Eunsung Park

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

In this paper, we draw from our experience as designers, instructors, and researchers in the second edition of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs) called Creativity, Innovation, and Change (CIC) 2.0 to discuss MOOC interactions. Since the CIC 2.0 MOOC was inspired by the tenets of connectivism, we employed connectivism and its four main conceptual components (autonomy, diversity, openness, and connectedness) to discuss these empirical findings from a theoretical perspective. We build our argument on the four levels of interactions (interactions with instructors, learners, course materials, and the interface) traditionally used in the field of distance education and online learning …

Pioneering Alternative Forms Of Collaboration, Rebecca J. Hogue, Jeffrey M. Keefer, Maha Bali, Keith Hamon, Apostolos Koutropoulos, Ron Leunissen, Lenandlar Singh

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

One key experience of human work, life, and play is people working together on a common goal. Yet this aspect of working together does not have one primary recognizable instantiation of what it means to work together. Words like collaboration and cooperation are often used to describe such instances, but even words like ‘collaboration’ don’t always have a neat formula for working through a collaboration. In this article we examine and reflect on our own collaborative experiences as a research group. We do this through an examination of past experiences, and through a method of writing that developed in our …

Virtually There: Distant Freshmen Blended In Classes Through Synchronous Online Education, Phillip A. Olt Ed.D.

Advanced Education Programs Faculty Publications

Synchronous online education occurs when the students and faculty member are in different locations geographically and interaction occurs simultaneously through the internet at scheduled times. In this study I investigated the phenomenon of using synchronous online classes blended with a face-to-face classroom to complete the freshman year of college. The essence of the experience emerged around the concept of ambiguity, specifically in regard to group membership, functionality of technology, and place. This understanding of ambiguity provides a framework upon which to design practices for engaging such distance students and best promoting their learning.

Developing And Testing An Electronic Homework System To Improve Student Engagement And Learning In Engineering Thermodynamics, Stephen Crown, Constantine Tarawneh, Jazmin Ley

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

An electronic homework delivery system was developed for an advanced undergraduate engineering thermodynamics course due to limitations in available electronic homework systems. A commercially available system was effectively used in the introductory course for simple problems. The complexity of problems in the advanced course made adoption of the same system problematic as students needed feedback in the problem solving process. A system was devised that delivers individual problems to each student, provides feedback throughout the process, and records results for assessment. The system has helped students become more active in homework assignments in both completing assignments and in doing original …

School Improvement In The Digital Age: A Study Of The Alliance For Catholic Education Blended Learning Pilot, Anthony J. D'Agostino, Monica Kowalski

Journal of Catholic Education

This article presents a description of the Alliance for Catholic Education’s (ACE’s) approach to and experience of implementing a pilot blended learning and school improvement initiative in five Catholic schools in three U.S. (arch)dioceses. Program evaluation data is summarized, including results of teacher surveys measuring increases in perceptions of knowledge of and attitudes toward components of the model. The project description and findings offer a model for other Catholic schools considering introducing blended learning approaches as part of school improvement efforts.

Traversing Across Learning Environments And The Need For A Single Data Standard In Digital Learning Environments, Liam Mcnamara

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

As Big Data becomes ever present in many industries, in education it presents a particularly interesting problem as many technologies begin to develop, data standards become variant. This raises the issue that ad-hoc data standards present discontinuity across platforms particularly in the analysis and interpretation of data collected in Personalised Learning Environments. This presents an ethical dilemma when this data becomes actionable and active in decision making regarding a learners’ progress and advancement. This article asserts that there exists a hypothetical dilemma in the predicament that ad-hoc data standards result in potentially misleading or erroneous interpretations that have longitudinal effects …

Use Of Lightboard Video Technology To Address Medical Dosimetry Concepts: Field Notes, Julia Vandermolen, Kristen Vu, Justin Melick

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Focusing on Lightboard video technology to create online videos as a resource for Medical Dosimetry students, this field note shares perspectives and student voices on Lightboard videos that can be useful in understanding the concepts pertaining to Medical Dosimetry such as brachytherapy equations. Through the study, the instructors wanted to know students’ perceptions of how video use increased their interest and understanding of brachytherapy equations. A SurveyMonkey questionnaire collected responses from eight students and revealed that these students perceived the use of Lightboard videos provided a solid learning platform to master the concept of brachytherapy prior to performing the homework. …

A New Framework For Online Business Teaching, Cristina Nistor, Prashanth Nyer

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Recently, business education has experienced an expansion of online education programs. In this paper, we propose a framework to improve the effectiveness of student learning in an online lecture format. In particular, we focus on business courses, which tend to be hard to replicate online as they rely on team work and applied logical thinking in addition to the learning of facts and theory. We identify two main areas that are vital to online business education: competition and community building among students. We argue these are an additional task for the instructor to deliberately perform in an online setting, compared …

Perception Of The Online Degree By Accounting Hiring Gatekeepers Of Mid-Size Firms In The Northwestern U.S., Domanic Thomas

Dissertations and Theses

The latest research shows over 2.8 million higher education students or one-in-seven are enrolled in fully online programs. In fields such as accounting, students are able to complete their degree, pass a standardized exam, and enter the workforce with little to no work experience. Accounting firm human resources managers are primarily responsible for the recruitment and selection of candidates. Prior studies conducted show that these hiring gatekeepers prefer candidates with earned degrees in a traditional classroom environment when holding constant for all other factors. While many students invest in online degrees as an ideal pathway to employment, career advancement, and …

Distance Learning Campus Outreach: Bringing Scholarly Commons To Residential And Online Campuses Across The Globe, Debra Rodensky

Digital Commons Southeastern User Group 2018

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) is an institution with 2 residential campuses: 1 in Daytona Beach, Florida and one in Prescott, Arizona. ERAU also has a Worldwide presence through 125 campuses located on military bases and within the private business sector. The ERAU Worldwide Campus doesn’t stop with physical locations, however. It encompasses an online campus with virtual learning opportunities. The degrees offered through all of our campuses range from certificate programs through doctoral studies.

The Scholarly Communication Team is located on the Daytona Beach campus. One of our challenges is to bring the intellectual output of all of our talented …

A Review Of Tools And Techniques For Data-Enabled Formative Assessment, Rob Nyland

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2018

The purpose of this literature review is to understand the current state of research on tools that collect data for the purpose of formative assessment. We were interested in identifying the types of data collected by these tools, how these data were processed, and how the processed data were presented to the instructor or student for the purpose of formative assessment. We identified two categories of data: machine graded and activity stream data. The data were processed using three methods: unprocessed activity streams, descriptive data analysis, and data mining. Processed data were presented to students through reports and real-time feedback, …

Out-Of-School Reading And Literature Discussion: An Exploration Of Adolescents' Participation In Digital Book Clubs, Jamie Colwell, Lindsay Woodward, Amy Hutchinson

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This research used an inductive qualitative method to examine how adolescents participated in online literature discussion, with limited guidance from adults, through a summer reading program. Using a New Literacies framework, the authors considered that literacy is social and collaborative and that adolescents often engage in such literacy practices on the Internet outside of school. This study considered these literacy practices to examine an eight-week voluntary online summer reading program at a public library and how such a program might inform such activities in school settings to promote more authentic opportunities for literacy engagement. In this program, 12 adolescents (ages …

Performing Wechat Recording Tasks In Mixed-Ability Study Abroad Content Courses, Hong Zhan, Leeann Chen

Publications

This case study explores the use of WeChat’s recording tool as a solution to the challenges of teaching mixed-ability students in content courses offered in study abroad programs. The tool successfully reduced anxiety and boredom, created opportunities for students to engage in personalized learning tasks in real time, enabled instructors to provide individualized feedback, and helped course curriculums stay on track. Data was collected from an online survey, email interview, and students’ recordings of topics and instructor’s feedback. The study determined that using WeChat’s recording function to complete linguistic tasks is a useful instructional tool for a mixed-ability classes in …

Motivating Students To Learn A Programming Language: Applying A Second Language Acquisition Approach In A Blended Learning Environment, Lulu Sun, Christina Frederick, Caroline Liron, Li Ding, Lei Gu, Andrew Calvin Griggs Ii, Paula Sanjuan Espejo

Publications

Learning a programming language typically involves acquisition of new vocabulary, punctuation, and grammatical structures to communicate with a computer. In other words, learning a programming language is like learning a human language. A recent study showed that programmers use language regions of the brain when understanding source code and found little activation in other regions of the brain devoted to mathematical thinking. Even though programming code involved mathematical operations, conditionals, and loop iterations, researchers found that programming had less in common with mathematics and more in common with human language.

I-Tree Landscape: A Case Study In Best Practices For Education And Dissemination For Multiple User Groups, Margaret M. Abood

DePaul Discoveries

The urban ecosystems we inhabit provide essential ecosystem services to humans, such as air pollution removal, as well as effective means to avoid costs related to urban development, such as stormwater treatment. A better understanding of the value of ecosystem services and their spatial distribution in urban areas is vital to widespread, wholistic understanding of the relationship of environmental, economic, and social conditions. As such, it should be a component of education in grades 6-12, college, and continuing education. i-Tree Landscape is a free, online model developed by the USDA Forest Service in which users can select a geography (i.e. …

The Implementation Of The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act In A Virtual Public Charter School, Sarah E. Clifford

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guarantees certain rights and protections to students with disabilities enrolled in public schools, and to their families. Even though virtual schools are one of the fastest growing trends in public k-12 education, there is evidence that these schools may not be fully implementing IDEA for enrolled students with disabilities. There has been some concern regarding the appropriateness of virtual education for student with disabilities, as well as some concern for the spectrum of services being offered in virtual schools. This case study examined the implementation of special education supports and services in one …

The Experiential Journey Of Teacher-Scholars: “If You’Re Not A Teacher, You Just Don’T Get It”, Ashleigh L. Pelafigue

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Center of Graduate Schools (2015) published a report detailing applications, enrollment, and trends in graduate schools across the nation showing that approximately one third of all first-time graduate school applicants in master’s degree programs utilizing the GRE assessment identify their career path in either business or teacher education. The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences of classroom teachers who concurrently pursued graduate studies to earn a master’s degree in education and to understand how adult learning provided opportunities for personal growth and the attainment of professional goals. Individual interviews and two focus groups were conducted …

Empowering Students To Develop L2 Identity - Supplemental Online Lessons, Laura Espino

Master's Projects and Capstones

As an immigrant, learning English is part of acculturating to the new culture. From this process, a new identity emerges in the context of the new language and culture. Currently, identity issues and intercultural competence are explicit objectives in language learning. The implications of neglecting identity formation in second language acquisition include vulnerability to culture shock, mental health issues, and the inability to thrive. The unique set of needs, motivations, and strengths of immigrant English language learners should inform language instruction design in order to achieve sustainable and equitable successful language learning and acculturation. Explicitly designing instruction that incorporates issues …

Ascertaining The Impact Of P–12 Engineering Education Initiatives: Student Impact Through Teacher Impact, Marissa H. Forbes, Jacquelyn F. Sullivan, Denise W. Carlson

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

The widespread need to address both science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and STEM workforce development is persistent. Underscored by the Next Generation Science Standards, demand is high for P–12 engineering-centered curricula. TeachEngineering is a free, standards-aligned NSF-funded digital library of more than 1,500 hands-on, design-rich K–12 engineering lessons and activities. Beyond anonymous site-user counts, the impact of the TeachEngineering collection and outreach initiatives on the education of children and their teachers was previously unknown. Thus, the project team wrestled with the question of how to meaningfully ascertain classroom impacts of the digital engineering education library and—more broadly—how to …

Rwu School Of Continuing Studies Dean Receives Award From Alliance Of Ri Southeast Asians For Education, Public Affairs, Roger Williams University

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Jamie E. Scurry earns Success Value Award.