Online and Distance Education Commons^™

Community College Student Success In Online Versus Equivalent Face-To-Face Courses, Cheri B. Gregory

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As part of a nationwide effort to increase the postsecondary educational attainment levels of citizens, colleges and universities have expanded offerings of courses and programs to more effectively meet the needs of students. Online courses offer convenience and flexibility that traditional face-to-face classes do not. These features appeal to students with family and work responsibilities that typically make attending classes on campus difficult. However, many of the students who tend to take courses in this instructional format have characteristics that place them at high-risk for academic failure. Because of the traditional mission of community colleges, they generally serve more students …

Exploring The Experiences Of Senior Enlisted Military Wives Seeking Higher Education Through Distance Learning, Andrea Disque

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of my study was to explore the experiences of senior enlisted military wives and document how the military lifestyle has affected their ability to attain higher education while their servicemember was on active duty. Specifically, my study focused on senior enlisted military wives who have chosen to pursue their higher education through distance learning. The study portrayed experiences of those spouses who are an integral component of today’s military, yet who are often unseen not only in the military world and the civilian sector, but also in higher education. In the study, I explored four research questions:

1) …

Online Learning And Academic Support Centers: How Synchronous Support Opportunities Affect Graduate Students’ Interaction With The Content, Henri Joseph Moser

All Theses And Dissertations

This study analyzed the effects of live academic support sessions on online graduate students’ interaction with the course content. This was accomplished through qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. In-depth interviews with eight purposely selected online graduate students provided the textual data. Through a systematic framework analysis of the data garnered through interview, it was found that students did perceive the live interactions as being especially effective in improving their interactions with the course content. Students partially attribute the effectiveness to connections made between the students and university stakeholders. This study also revealed that students recognize initial student distress …

Exploring Academic Persistence For Nontraditional Business Students At For-Profit Universities, Leroy Purdie

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This phenomenological study explored academic persistence for 10 nontraditional students pursuing business degrees at for-profit universities in southern Georgia and northern Virginia. The literature review provides a theoretical framework based on Tinto’s (1975) theory of persistence and Bandura’s (1993) self-efficacy theory. Data was collected through a demographic survey, timeline of significant events, in- depth survey, and a letter of advice. Data analysis included identifying significant statements, utilizing participant feedback to create structural and textural descriptions and ultimately describing the participant essences of their experiences. The decision to pursue a degree themes that emerged were career progression, family security, transferability, and …

Qualitative Case Study On The Perspective Of Pennsylvania Superintendents On Distance Education In K-12 Public School Districts, Stephanie Pennucci

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Distance education is rapidly changing the way K-12 students learn. School districts use it for course recovery, to supplement the curriculum with additional courses, and to offer alternative educational opportunities. Pennsylvania’s 500 public school superintendents face a unique challenge in an economic recession, severe cuts in state funding, and competition from cyber charter schools. The purpose of this qualitative intrinsic case study is to understand the impact of distance education on the experiences of Pennsylvania public school superintendents as they deal with the influence of distance education in their programs, particularly the implementation of cyber charter schools. As the educational …

Quality Assurance In Online Graduate Education: Program Review Processes And Assessment Techniques Used In Higher Education, Lindsay N. Turner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose for conducting the study was to form an understanding of the online program assessment and assessment processes in higher education, and how program review processes were adopted and implemented through institutional policies in regard to industry quality assurance standards. The study looked at institutions classified as very high, high, or research universities by the Carnegie Classifications, and which offered online masters programs focused on preparing students for positions in educational administration or leadership roles. The study used an electronic survey and content analysis through institutional policy and quality assurance documents to develop a recommendation for institutional level quality …

Integrating Twitter Into The Classroom, Toria Felton

Master of Education in Instructional Design and Technology Plan II Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project was to research, create, and implement lesson plans that utilized Twitter in the classroom. This project was also used to gauge how students felt about using social media in the classroom. It showed professors how to effectively and easily use the app in the classroom, which helped them to connect with more students and work on a platform that was of interest to many of the students.

From Instructivism To Connectivism: Theoretical Underpinnings Of Moocs, Matt Crosslin

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

While the first MOOCs were connectivist in their approach to learning, later versions have expanded to include instructivist structures and structures that blend both theories. From an instructional design standpoint the differences are important. This paper will examine how to analyze the goals of any proposed MOOC to determine what the epistemological focus should be. This will lead to a discussion of types of communication needed—based on analysis of power dynamics—to design accurately within the determined epistemology. The paper also explores later stages of design related to proper communication of the intended power structure or theoretical design as these relate …

Current Issues In Emerging Elearning, Volume 3, Issue 1

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

No abstract provided.

Learning Through Design: Mooc Development As A Method For Exploring Teaching Methods, Robin Bartoletti

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Exploring new pedagogical approaches and technologies in learning experiences such as MOOCs offers educators a clear opportunity to reflect on and expand their teaching methods and document effective practices. However, while research has affirmed the value of self-reflection as an important means to improve one’s pedagogical practices, very limited data about self-reflection during course design exists for online instructors in higher education. A team of MOOC course designers thus seized the opportunity to investigate whether they could improve their teaching practices by engaging in a connectivist and reflective process to create an innovative MOOC. The MOOC design team for Educational …

Foreword: Mooc Studies Well Past The Year Of The Mooc, Alan Girelli, Leslie Limon

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

As we move nearly a half-decade beyond The New York Times’ declaring 2012 the "Year of the MOOC," the range of discussants involved in discourse on MOOCs has narrowed, yet the sophistication of scholarship produced continues to deepen. This second in a two-part series of special issues of Current Issues in Emerging eLearning celebrates this rich, new scholarship on MOOC theory and practice. Volume 3, Issue 1: MOOC Design and Delivery: Opportunities and Challenges presents an underlying argument: that the MOOC frontier can inform our decisions regarding all manner of educational approaches, from clickers in the classroom to evolving …

What Is It Like To Learn And Participate In Rhizomatic Moocs? A Collaborative Autoethnography Of #Rhizo14, Maha Bali, Sarah Honeychurch, Keith Hamon, Rebecca J. Hogue, Apostolos Koutropoulos, Scott Johnson, Ronald Leunissen, Lenandlar Singh

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

In January 2014, we participated in a connectivist-style massive open online course (cMOOC) called "Rhizomatic Learning – The community is the curriculum" (#rhizo14). In rhizomatic learning, teacher and student roles are radically restructured. Course content and value come mostly from students; the teacher, at most, is a curator who provides a starting point and guidance and sometimes participates as a learner. Early on, we felt that we were in a unique learning experience that we wanted to capture in writing. Explaining #rhizo14 to others without the benefit of traditional processes, practices, roles, or structures, however, presented a challenge. We invited …

Quality Management Of Learning Management Systems: A User Experience Perspective, Panagiotis Zaharias, Christopher Pappas

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Learning Management Systems (LMS) have been the main vehicle for delivering and managing e-learning courses in educational, business, governmental and vocational learning settings. Since the mid-nineties there is a plethora of LMS in the market with a vast array of features. The increasing complexity of these platforms makes LMS evaluation a hard and demanding process that requires a lot of knowledge, time, and effort. Nearly 50% of respondents in recent surveys have indicated they seek to change their existing LMS primarily due to user experience issues. Yet the vast majority of the extant literature focuses only on LMS capabilities in …

Closing The Loop: Building Synergy For Learning Through A Professional Development Mooc About Flipped Teaching, Donna Harp Ziegenfuss

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

This case study describes how a MOOC, funded through an NSF grant, was used to create and assess faculty professional development. The MOOC, designed and developed using a backward design process, guided participants through an online project-based learning experience that integrated learning about the flipped classroom and about how to flip a classroom as the participants designed flipped teaching materials. The course structure involved an introduction to flipped teaching and learning content, experimented with flipped ideas and concepts, and emphasized reflection and sharing of experiences with peers.

Although mentoring faculty in flipped pedagogical design was the primary MOOC goal, the …

How The Community Became More Than The Curriculum: Participant Experiences In #Rhizo14, Sarah Honeychurch, Bonnie Stewart, Maha Bali, Rebecca J. Hogue, Dave Cormier

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

The paper outlines participant experiences in a rhizomatic MOOC, #rhizo14. We begin with a brief outline of the structure of the course before presenting our five participant narratives to illustrate our beliefs that, for us, the #rhizo14 community became more than the curriculum. We then discuss some of the common themes in our narratives: the role that the Facebook group held in fostering our feelings of community, how the diversity of voices in the course promoted learning and engagement of group members, the formation of sub-communities with diverse interests, and the flexibility of participation that the course encouraged. While acknowledging …

Moving Beyond Mooc Mania: Lessons From A Faculty-Designed Mooc, Julia Parra

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have attracted fame, perhaps even notoriety, in recent years. However, we have yet to articulate clearly the purpose and potential for MOOCs. Moreover, we lack established best practices in the process of designing MOOCs. We lack models for practical use by faculty and early career instructional designers, whose group members function with limited resources but would like to engage in the intriguing process of MOOC design. The first goal for this case study is to demonstrate how a MOOC titled Adventures in Learning Design, Technology, and Innovation (#LDTIMOLO) was developed following the ADDIE framework and …

Applying A Community Of Inquiry Instrument To Measure Student Engagement In Large Online Courses, Carol A.V. Damm

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

The similarity of structure shared by Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) and traditional online college courses creates the opportunity to evaluate MOOC and related course offerings using a validated evaluation instrument, the Community of Inquiry (CoI) survey, to measure Teaching, Social, and Cognitive Presences (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) in college-level online courses. In this study, the survey has been adapted to evaluate instances of student engagement in large online courses offered at low cost by a publishing firm. The courses suffer from two of the standard problems associated with MOOCs: high dropout rates and inconsistent participation among all but …

Who Is A Student: Completion In Coursera Courses At Duke University, Molly Goldwasser, Chris Mankoff, Kim Manturuk, Lorrie Schmid, Keith E. Whitfield

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Much of the interest in MOOCs centers on questions about who completes them. Duke’s Coursera-based Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) confirm many demographic trends previously delineated by researchers at peer institutions. As found in previous research, this study found individuals who speak English as a first language and who already earned at least a bachelor’s degree are the most likely to complete a Coursera course. MOOC researchers to date have not, however, developed clear operational definitions about who constitutes a learner at the outset of the course. This paper proposes some possible definitions to standardize future research. Further, this study …

Participant Experience Of The First Massive Open Online Course (Mooc) From Pakistan, Syed Hani Abidi, Aamna Pasha, Syed Ali

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Background: In recent years, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have steadily gained popularity. It appears, however, that MOOC learners are concentrated mostly in the affluent English-speaking countries. MOOCs’ free-of-cost, easy accessibility should make them obviously attractive to participants from low-and-middle-income countries (LMIC). The reason why LMIC enrollments in MOOCs are so low is therefore unclear. In the year 2014, the first MOOC was launched from Pakistan. We administered a survey to the enrollees of this MOOC to explore concerns, fears, and limitations that might be deterring the LMIC audience from participating in MOOCs.

Methods: The MOOC was a three-week course …

Summer Libguide Workshops: Making Our Digital Content More User-Friendly, Eleanor Johnson

Nebraska Library Association: Conferences

In July of 2015, a series of internal library workshops were conducted to improve the quality and accessibility of our LibGuides. The Summer LibGuides Revamp was a four week series, with each week focusing on a different aspect of LibGuides best practices. Each workshop built upon the last one in a scaffolding approach: the profile box/guide homepage, links, appearance, and accessibility. A key component of the workshops was two hours of reserved time each week for participants to work on their LibGuides in a computer lab. Participants had devoted time for implementing ideas from that week’s lesson with others working …