Online and Distance Education Commons^™

To Game Or Not To Game? How Using Massively Multiplayer Online Games Helped Motivation And Performance In A College Writing Course: A Mixed Methods Study, Papia Bawa, William Watson, Sunnie L. Watson

Journal of Research Initiatives

The use of Massively Multiplayer Online Games or MMOGs is receiving attention in the educational world due to increased availability of such games, a growing consumer base, and the proven benefits of video games as engagement tools. MMOGs that have been known to possess a significantly high capacity to keep users involved over sustained periods, which gives them the potential to enhance learning experiences and performances. However, most available studies on MMOGs do not discuss relationships between MMOG use and performance outcomes in Higher Education. Additionally, majority of such studies focus on examining a single MMOG, providing limited scopes of …

Elementary Administrators' Exploring The Factors That Promote Or Inhibit Reading Achievement, Ashley Holder, Linda Wilson-Jones, Brian Phillips, Paris Jones, Jerry D. Jones

Journal of Research Initiatives

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that promote or inhibit the reading achievement of elementary children. The participants for this study were administrators who were employed at eleven Title I schools in North Carolina. The study used a qualitative design and collected data by phone interviews with elementary administrators.

Several recurring themes and patterns surfaced from the data gathered from the eleven participants. However, the overarching themes that promoted reading achievement were (a) family support, (b) early literacy exposure, and (c) teacher effectiveness and expectations. The reoccurring themes that inhibited reading achievement were (a) lack of …

Apathy And Concern Over The Future Habitability Of Earth: An Introductory College Assignment Of Forecasting Co2 In The Earth’S Atmosphere, Benjamin J. Burger

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Non-science, first year regional undergraduate students from rural Utah communities participated in an online introductory geology course and were asked to forecast the rise of CO₂ in the Earth’s atmosphere. The majority of students predicted catastrophic rise to 5,000-ppm sometime over the next 3,100 years, resulting in an atmosphere nearly uninhabitable to human life. However, the level of concern the students exhibited in their answers was not directly proportional with their timing in their forecasted rise of CO₂. This study showcases the importance of presenting students with actual data and using data to develop student forecasted models. …

Engagement Across The Miles: Using Videoconferencing With Small Groups In Synchronous Distance Courses, Amy Piotrowski, Marla Robertson

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

This article presents suggestions for conducting small group work in synchronous distance courses taught using Interactive Videoconferencing (IVC) systems. One challenge of teaching over an IVC system is getting students involved in class activities. The authors share how they have used a videoconferencing tool to break up IVC classes into small groups for discussion activities and get peer feedback on written work. These activities engage students in applying what they are learning and constructing knowledge through discussion with their peers.

The Globalized Classroom: Integrating Technology To Improve Communicative And Cultural Proficiency, Nicholas Frank

International ResearchScape Journal

The purpose of this project was to explore how the integration of technology affects students’ communicative and cultural proficiency in a second language when connecting two world language classrooms from across the globe. Through a series of weekly emails between partner schools, students practiced their interpretive reading and presentational writing skills while gaining knowledge of their partners’ cultures and colloquial language in a meaningful and individualized manner. The participants were U.S. high school students learning Spanish and Spanish high school students learning English. This created an authentic and organic environment for language acquisition, showing improvement in both communicative and cultural …

On Demand Streaming Video In Self Paced Lab Environments, Donald R. Morris

ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium

This is a quasi-experimental study which investigates the effectiveness of streaming video as an educational medium in self-paced lab environments. This study investigates student mastery of the subject as well as student attitudes and perceptions towards their performance and the usefulness of streaming video as an educational tool.

An Expert Instructor’S Use Of Social Congruence, Cognitive Congruence, And Expertise In An Online Case-Based Instructional Design Course, Sunnie Lee Watson, Adrie A. Koehler, Peggy Ertmer, Woori Kim, Rudy Rico

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Promoting and sustaining effective discussion—that which contributes to learning—is a skill that eludes many instructors (Darling-Hammond, 2008; Ge, Yamashiro, & Lee, 2000). This study explored the role and strategies of an expert instructor in an online advanced instructional design (ID) course that utilized a case-based learning (CBL) approach. Discussion posts, as well as interview data, were analyzed and coded to explore how the instructor utilized three strategies noted as being critical to students’ learning during problem-centered discussions: social congruence, cognitive congruence, and content expertise (Schmidt & Moust, 1995; Yew & Yong, 2014). Results showed that facilitation choices were made with …

Teaching Introductory Statistics To Graduate Students In The Social Sciences: A Mixed Method Investigation Of The Effectiveness Of Simulations In Statistics Education, Liuli Huang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of using simulations as an instructional tool in an introductory doctoral level statistics course. The study focuses on the impacts of simulations on students’ attitudes and understanding of statistical concepts, as well as how the simulations could inspire students’ positive attitudes and improve statistics performance or would fail to help. In addition, since the statistics anxiety has been a primary obstacle to students’ statistics education, and “statistics anxiety” is experienced by as many as 80% of graduate students (Onwuegbuzie, 2004). The researcher is interested to explore the details of …

Book Review: The End Of College: Creating The Future Of Learning And The University Of Everywhere, Bruce Henderson

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

Review of Kevin Carey's The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere.

Increasing Research Requirements For Tenure At Teaching Universities: Mission Creep Or Mission Critical?, Elizabeth Blakey, Crist Khachikian, Daisy Lemus

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

What social forces are driving the increase in research requirements for tenure at teaching universities? Engaging Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, this case study examines a state comprehensive university, at multiple levels of analysis, and via multiple methods. Field theory is a viable alternative to neoinstitutional theory for higher education scholars. The methods used are quantitative content analysis, qualitative discursive analysis and interviews. The study provides a detailed account of whether economic or cultural forces are the stronger influence on the trend to increase research requirements. Economic factors, such as national enrollment trends, do not necessarily have a strong effect on …

Understanding Chinese Students’ College Choice To Increase Chinese Student Recruitment: A Focus On Music Majors, Tamara Yakaboski, Sonja Rizzolo, Lei Ouyang

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

The focus of this study was to understand why 20 Chinese students selected a rural, regionally focused research university. The research sought to (1) offer new, nuanced understanding of how Chinese students selected a university not well-known to international students and (2) advance how an institution of this type could meet its goal of improving and increasing Chinese student recruitment. As a majority of the Chinese students who selected this institution were majoring in music, this study offers implications for niche marketing and recruitment. In addition to the knowledge produced, this study models academic and student affairs collaboration where the …

Byte-Sized Bits November 2017, Online Campus

Byte-sized Bits - Online Campus Newsletter

No abstract provided.

November 2017, Marci Grant

The CETL Correspondent

No abstract provided.

Describing The Experience Of Teaching Theological Education Courses Cross-Culturally Using E-Learning Methods: A Phenomenological Study, Michael Loren Bogart

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study will be to describe how selected Western theological educators have experienced the process of teaching theological education courses cross-culturally using e-learning methods. The essential phenomenon will be explored through the central research question: How do Western ministry educators experience cross-cultural theological education using e-learning formats? The theoretical framework guiding this study will be Knowles’ Adult Learning Theory, with Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture informing the cross-cultural elements. Participants will be selected from a population of educators within Nicene Christianity with theological bachelor’s degrees and above from accredited Western educational institutions. The methods of data …

Designing Authentic Learning Activities To Train Pre-Service Teachers About Teaching Online, Tian Luo, Alexander Murray, Helen Crompton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Online learning is increasingly being used in K-12 learning environments. A concomitant trend is found towards learning becoming authentic as students learn with tasks that are connected to real-world occupations. In this study, 48 pre-service teachers use an online environment to engage in authentic practice as they developed online learning experiences for their future students. Using a design-based research methodology, the researchers were involved in planning, designing, implementing, and evaluating the higher education class across two macro cycles. An authentic learning framework was utilized in the development of the class. Findings explicate the design of the course and how it …

Commentary: Disempowerment Of The Adjunct Online Instructor (Aoi) In Educational Institutions, Batya Weinbaum

Journal of Interdisciplinary Feminist Thought

Institutions structure how we think about ourselves and how we interact with one another. Hence, at numerous levels, institutions instigate powerful forces determining and regulating various behaviors, including the behavior of individuals in institutions of higher education. These institutions have considerable power in women’s lives not only as learners, consumers, and users of services but also as instructors, workers, and deliverers of services both nationally and internationally.

This essay explores and highlights how powerful educational institutions limit and abuse the rights of contemporary women, particularly as service deliverers and as adjuncts in online higher education, including imposing severe limitations placed …

Moving The Library: Bringing Resources To Students (Using A Learning Management System), Karen Venturella Malnati, Steven Shapiro, Sara Tarpley

Charleston Library Conference

Students are increasingly finding library resources online due to the explosion in online courses and the use of course management software for all courses, whether fully online, hybrid, or traditional face-to-face courses. Librarians from Union County College (a two-year community college) and Montclair State University (a large research library) discussed the various approaches used to promote and market library services and resources using their institutions’ library management system (LMS). A representative from Gale Cengage presented how Gale is connecting library content to the classroom while helping libraries raise their profile on campus.

Apples To Oranges: Comparing Streaming Video Platforms, Steven Milewski, Monique Threatt

Charleston Library Conference

Librarians rely on an ever-increasing variety of platforms to deliver streaming video content to our patrons. These two presentations will examine different aspects of video streaming platforms to gain guidance from the comparison of platforms. The first will examine the accessibility compliance of the various video streaming platforms for users with disabilities by examining accessibility features of the platforms. The second will be a comparison of subject usage of two of the larger video streaming platform providers (Alexander Street Press and Kanopy) done at Indiana University Bloomington, a large public university.

Critical Digital Literacies Across Scales And Beneath The Screen, Noah Asher Golden

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Digital technologies and education scholarship tend to focus on either individual creative design or analysis of the political economy. To better understand how ideologies travel across networks, critical digital literacies must focus on enactments beneath the screen, as the linguistic constructs known as software can enact interests across scales of activity to “disembed” local actions and meaning. Investigations of these mobilities and disembedding effects challenge popular notions of digital technologies as neutral, rendering overt the ways that algorithms can naturalize manifestations of power and social arrangements. Such a framework allows for descriptive analyses of the ways hegemonic discourses are enacted …

Influencia Del Inbound Marketing En La Intención De Compra De Los Leads, Denise A. Soto, Allen Kevin Zapien

Adventist Online Learning Conference / Conferencia de Aprendizaje en Línea

La llegada de la internet ha revolucionado la manera en que las empresas se comunican con los consumidores, así como también la forma en que ellos dialogan con la marca.

El inbound marketing es una metodología que combina técnicas no intrusivas de marketing para ofrecer valor con contenido de calidad, de manera que los consumidores se acerquen y se los pueda acompañar en su proceso de compra (Samsing, 2016). ¿Cómo esta estrategia puede ayudar en el reclutamiento de estudiantes?