Digital Commons Network^™

Is Learning Relative? Exploring Student Learning In A Special Relativity Digital Game Case Study, Meredith Rae Kunz

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this embedded single case study was to explore how undergraduate students learn special relativity theory in a digital game at Midwest College. The theory guiding this study was Sweller’s cognitive load theory as it applies to how students learn in a digital game environment. The central research question was: How do students learn special relativity theory in a digital game environment? I conducted a qualitative embedded single case study at a small liberal arts college in the Midwest under the pseudonym of Midwest College. Purposive and criterion sampling was used to select participants. This embedded case study …

Identifying Higher Education Employee Experiences Using A Diffusion Of Innovations Checklist Planning For Knowledge Management Implementation: A Phenomenological Study, Eric Christopher Viets

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenology study was to understand the experiences of higher education employees planning to implement knowledge management through utilizing a diffusion of innovations checklist. Knowledge management is generally defined as the process of creating, sharing, using, and managing the knowledge and information of an organization. The theory guiding this study was the diffusion of innovations by Everett M. Rogers, as it provided a clear and comprehensive model of the stages of change and knowledge management implementation. The research questions sought to understand the experiences of ten higher education employees utilizing the diffusion of innovations checklist within …

Exploring The Lived Experiences: Social And Emotional Well-Being Of Virtual Instructors In The Federal Government, Jody Renee Sutton

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the social, emotional, and professional factors that affected the well-being and effectiveness of federal instructors teaching virtually. The investigation filled a crucial gap in the current body of knowledge and provided empirical insights to inform the development of targeted strategies and interventions designed to enhance instructional confidence and self-efficacy. The theory guiding this study was Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy, as it offered a foundational framework for understanding how individuals’ beliefs in their abilities influenced their motivation and performance, which was critical in exploring how virtual instructors perceived their teaching experiences. This …

A Quantitative Examination Of The Role Of Relationship Status In Asexual College Students’ Sexual Victimization, Amanda Mollet, Wayne Black, Leslie Shelton

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

This exploratory quantitative study examines sexual violence among asexual college students using the Asexual Community Survey. We conducted analyses to examine the coercive tactics used by sexual violence perpetrators against asexual college students with a focus on examining statistical differences based on characteristics of students’ relationships. Findings revealed that across multiple forms of relationships, asexual college students’ relationship experiences were significantly correlated with experiencing higher levels of multiple types of sexual violence. The study challenges existing narratives of campus-based sexual violence while highlighting the unique and specific influences of power on sexual victimization within the context of asexual college students’ …

Assessing University Students' Behavior Toward Environmental Sustainability In Pakistan; A Case Study Of Islamabad And Rawalpindi, Shahla Rani

CBER Conference

The rising temperature and unsustainable environmental conditions are worldwide issues, posing critical threats to the ecosystem and human well-being. According to the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) 2022, Pakistan ranks second last among 180 countries, highlighting severe environmental challenges. This study aims to understand the current state of students' behavior toward the environment using the theory of planned behavior. By understanding these behaviors, the research seeks to determine whether students' actions align with sustainable practices. Additionally, the study will review environmental policies in Pakistan and internationally, focusing on the extent to which these policies incorporate behavioral aspects. This research intends to …

Integrating Diverse Perspectives In Graduate Statistics Education Through Academic And Library Faculty Collaboration, Christina Jones, Ethan Fridmanski, Julie A. Lorah

Journal of Graduate Librarianship

Graduate-level statistics education is often narrowly focused on the mathematical aspect of modeling. While this aspect is important, this focus results in a gap in the student’s understanding regarding the context of the development and use of statistical models. This article provides a description and initial evaluation of a program designed to address this gap. Specifically, the authors collaborated to create a reading list related to the topic of social justice in statistics and integrated the resources on this list into a graduate-level statistics class on the topic of multilevel modeling. The article describes this integration, preliminary evaluation, and future …

Mindfulness Matters: Addressing Anxiety And Navigating Toward Wellbeing Through Miea Mindfulness Practices, A Mixed-Methods Study Of Lgbtiq Graduate Writing Students, Kim Westerman

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Mindfulness Matters: Addressing Anxiety and Navigating Toward Wellbeing Through MIEA Mindfulness Practices, a Mixed-Methods Study of LGBTIQ Graduate Writing Students

Anxiety has always been a part of the human experience, even before the phenomenon was conceptualized in the 17^th century and named by Freud in the 19th. And human beings have devised many strategies for addressing anxiety: reducing it, ignoring it, distracting oneself from it, despairing over it, medicating it, engaging with it, moving through it, co-existing with it. The current zeitgeist, more than four years into the COVID-19 global pandemic, situates anxiety as a central facet of …

Uab Fall Commencement Is Dec. 14 At Bartow Arena, Shannon Thomason

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

2024-12-05 Number Of Faculty By Department, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate.

Faculty Senate Records

The number of faculty by department at Morehead State University as calculated on December 5, 2023.

Bounded By Place: Rural Students, College Knowledge, Educational Motivation, And College Going, Sarah Rutt Williams, Frimpomaa Ampaw, Skylar R. Duke, Anne M. Hornak

Mid-Western Educational Researcher

Rural students face inequitable access to educational opportunities when compared to their suburban and urban counterparts (Koricich et al., 2018; Ovink et al., 2018), and their postsecondary experiences and outcomes remain understudied. Research on the role of college knowledge in the persistence of this educational inequity is particularly scarce. Using a non-experimental survey design, the present study seeks to understand the effect of rural students’ college knowledge on their postsecondary intentions. We use surveys completed by rural high school seniors and logistic regression to analyze the relationship between students’ college knowledge, their motivation, and their postsecondary plans. Our findings show …

Empathy And Academic Achievement Among Black/African American College Students In An Hbcu, Hyung Nam Kim

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Empathy is the ability to understand the thoughts, behaviors, and feelings of others. In addition to fostering strong relationships and overall personal growth, empathy plays a crucial role in college students achieving positive academic outcomes. However, a knowledge gap exists concerning the role and impact of empathy among college students, particularly Black/African American students at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). This research aims to address this gap by examining those students’ empathy levels and their association with academic achievement. The study found relatively low levels of empathy and a negative association between empathy and academic performance. Further research is …

Reframing And Reclaiming Poetry In The Esl Classroom, Rebecca C. Eagleson

Master's Theses

The debate over using poetry as an authentic text in the ESOL classroom has persisted for nearly a century. However, emerging research from an EFL context suggests that reconsidering poetry in the ESL classroom may be timely. This literature review examines the origins of the controversy by highlighting the intersections of linguistics and literary criticism and how they shaped current ESOL approaches to poetry. It then outlines the standard points and counterpoints of the ESOL controversy over poetry. Finally, it evaluates recent case studies and methodological reviews from EFL contexts that have reignited new interest and research into utilizing poetry …

Gender Differences: The Impact Of Gender Grouping On Egyptian Stem Undergraduates’ Online Group Work1, Wesam Khairy Morsi, Hala Medhat Assem Ms

English Language and Literature

This paper reports a study that compares teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) through face-to-face (FTF) and CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) methods, comparing them with the interdisciplinary perspectives of sociology, social psychology, and educational technology. Based on the sociocultural theory, the influence of gender grouping on the academic performance of 141 English as a foreign language (EFL) Egyptian undergraduates enrolled in a technical writing course in the Faculty of Engineering was examined in a CALL context. Students’ academic performance was measured by overall grades on group work assignments and submitted peer evaluation forms. Sixty six students were assigned …

Responding Through Listening: Promoting Listening Skills Through Lightning Talks And 2x2x2 Storytelling, Elizabeth L. Angeli

Journal of Response to Writing

Current scholarship in writing pedagogy and peer review focuses on how and what to write and say. What is often left unaddressed in these discussions are how we listen and how we teach our students to listen, making listening an often overlooked and understudied piece of the peer review and writing response process. Yet, the quality of the feedback we receive and offer is directly tied to how well we listen to what is said and written. To this fill this gap, this teaching article offers two activities, Lighting Talks and 2x2x2 Storytelling, that promote students’ listening skills so that …

Oer Curation Worksheet, Theodore J. Szpakowski

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This worksheet aids library staff in curating open educational resources for a given class.

The Impact Of Student Engagement Activities On Future Climate Change Adaptation: The Case Of Student Simulation Models, Bassel Mostafa Elkalaf

Future Journal of Social Science

This paper explores the critical role of student engagement in addressing the growing challenges of climate change, with a focus on the Model United Nations (MUN) as a case study. As climate-related security threats increase globally, educational platforms that prepare youth for effective leadership in climate politics are more essential than ever. MUN, a widely practiced student activity simulating global policy-making, provides a valuable opportunity for students to deepen their understanding of the interconnectedness between climate change, peace, and security. By participating in MUN simulations, students engage in debates, develop innovative solutions, and practice diplomatic skills, all while exploring the …

[Coming Soon: Exploring Diversity With Statistics: Step-By-Step Jamovi Guides], Ruth Walker

Open Textbooks

These resources were created to complement our undergraduate statistics lab manual, Applied Data Analysis in Psychology: Exploring Diversity with Statistics, published by Kendall Hunt publishing company. Like our lab manual, these Jamovi walk-through guides meaningfully and purposefully integrate and highlight diversity research to teach students how to analyze data in an open-source statistical program. The data sets utilized in these guides are from open-access databases (e.g., Pew Research Center, PLoS One, ICPSR, and more). Guides with step-by-step instructions, including annotated images and examples of how to report findings in APA format, are included for the following statistical tests: independent samples …

Writing In Philosophy: Pedagogy And Practice, Sarah K. Donovan, Renée Smith

Philosophy and Religious Studies

Even a cursory internet search of syllabi for philosophy courses shows that the tradition of assigning papers—five-page papers, ten-page papers, fifteen-page papers—is still thriving. Yet the schedule of topics, often listed on those same syllabi, very seldom reveals any course time devoted to teaching students how to write. Perhaps the assignments themselves reveal the process of writing papers, rubrics reveal the expectations, and feedback nudges students to improve their writing. But that kind of information is not transparent in many syllabi. Even if we suppose that philosophy faculty support the idea of Writing Across the Curriculum, in practice faculty across …

Impact Of Campus Recreation On Student Success At A Small, Private Institution, Abe Cross

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Institutions of higher education are seeing a decline in enrollment and state funding. These matters are compounded by a smaller number of graduating high school seniors than years past (Pell Institute, 2022). Considering that it costs more to recruit new students compared to retaining current students, colleges and universities are focusing on effective retention strategies (Pell Institute, 2022).

Meanwhile, Misener (2019), Battjes (2019), and Zegre (2019) have found a correlation between campus recreation utilization and student success at NCAA Division 1 schools. Each of these schools enrolls more than 25,000 students. Their work is built on Tinto’s (1975, 1993) Theory …

Why Am I The Only Black Student? An Examination Of The Expected Level Of Engagement At Indiana Universities For High Achieving African American Students Based On Precollege Factors, Zoretta Ward-Holloway

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the individual and school level precollege factors, including student engagement levels, associated with high achieving African American graduates of varied high school types to ascertain whether a relationship/pattern emerges that provides a profile and helps to explain the interactions between multiple levels of ecological factors that impact academic success in high school and expected level of engagement in college. The Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE) instrument was used to consider self-reporting archival data of high-performing African American students as a means of gathering the voices of students. BCSSE instruments from …

Evidence Of Capacity Building And Critical Consciousness In An Institutional Partnership: An Organizational Case Study Of The Gateway Research Park, Natasha E. Johnson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are complex and intricate systems of people, processes, and practices. HEI practices and processes are often extended through strategic partnerships and external collaborations, increasing their capacity or ability to obtain their stated goals. This notion extends to minority-serving institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities. It is important to understand whether partnerships have the capacity to meet their goals, especially if there are risks for minority-serving institutions and those traditionally marginalized, which is a problem. The purpose of this qualitative organizational case study was to explore the evidence of critical consciousness and capacity building in a …

Book Review Of Lorena Basso, Magdalena Cardoner, Paula De Bonis, Mariana Ferrarelli, Stefanía Martínez León And Pedro Ravela. Aprender En Comunidad: Prácticas Colaborativas Para Transformar La Evaluación (Learning In Community: Collaborative Practices To Transform Assessment), Montevideo: Grupo Magro Editores

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Finding Home Away From Home: Adaptation Tactics Of Higher Education African International Students In The U.S. And Its Impact On Their Social And Academic Performance, Sabina Adu-Wusu

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Complexities in African international students’ adaptation and experiences impact their success in their new social and academic environment as these complexities go beyond the diversity of socio-cultural background to the collective classification of identification, resulting in less provision of assistance by institutional structures of support. Furthermore, even though the number of active international students from Africa studying in the U.S. alone is large—over 65,000 in 2021, the unique experiences of this group of international students have not been captured as the population is usually grouped and studied with international students from other cultural backgrounds, hence the need for research. This …

Incorporating Domestic Students Returning From International Educational Experiences Into Internationalization At Home: Challenges And Opportunities, Andrew M. Robinson

Journal of Global Education and Research

While domestic student—international student interactions have received attention in the literature as a means of advancing internationalization at home (IaH), the potential contributions of domestic students who return from international educational experiences (IEEs) have been noted but remain largely unexplored. This article seeks to initiate a conversation on this topic by identifying mechanisms through which such knowledge transfer might happen, barriers it might face, and possible approaches to facilitate greater knowledge transfer. The article’s analysis draws upon three antecedent bodies of literature to reflect upon findings from 20 original interviews with domestic returnee alumni of a comprehensive university in Ontario, …

Intentional Unlearning Practices In Postmassified University Systems: Reformation For The Metamodern Era, Mihaela A. Lynn

Journal of Global Education and Research

A crucial aspect of the learning cycle, unlearning has recently received more attention in academic discussions about the future of higher education. In an attempt to improve equality and equity of access to quality educational experiences in the wake of postmassification, the recent literature has highlighted the need to incorporate unlearning practices to transform university learning experiences. This literature review examines the role of the unlearning process in engaging diverse student populations in tertiary learning environments. First, traditional and contemporary conceptualizations of unlearning are explored. Next, specific issues related to unlearning in higher education are discussed before synthesizing current studies …

Reflective Practice Of Early Career Teachers: Identifying And Mitigating Major Instructional Challenges, Saheeh Shafi

Journal of Global Education and Research

This paper employs a qualitative descriptive research design to determine how early career teachers (ECTs) use reflective practices to identify and mitigate major instructional challenges in the context of Bangladeshi higher education. A questionnaire was given to 20 ECTs working in different universities to collect data on their reflective practices related to instructional challenges. Analysis of the responses of the ECTs to the questionnaire via thematic analysis revealed three major challenges: (a) inadequate logistic support, (b) diversity of students and pedagogical context, and (c) inadequate comprehension of the students. Solutions to these challenges include (a) three levels of collaboration, (b) …

Exposing The Disaster Disparities And Experiences On College Campuses, Deleanor Kirkpatrick Murray

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Challenges in higher education continue to arise, providing administrators with insights into how prepared—or unprepared—their institutions may be for future crises. The purpose of the study is to examine how mid-level leadership, staff, and students perceived the disaster response to Hurricane Ida during the 2021–2022 academic year. Using the theoretical frameworks of the Four-Frame Model (Bolman & Deal, 2021), Critical Race Theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017), and Institutional Theory (Manning, 2018), this case study employed interviews with 8 participants. Data analysis resulted in the emergence of 7 major themes and 11 sub-themes. The findings from the study suggest that participants …

Understanding The Experience Of Being Food Insecure At An Independent College Or University, Natalie Wagner

Dissertations

Many people struggle to consistently access enough food for an active and healthy life (United States Department of Agriculture, 2020). Research has shown that college students experience food insecurity at rates higher than the general population while also facing negative academic, mental, physical, and social consequences (Baker-Smith et al., 2020; Bruening et al., 2018; Dubick et al., 2016; Henry, 2017; Martinez et al., 2018). Although studies on food insecurity among higher education have increased in the past few years, much of the research has been quantitative in nature and has been conducted at community colleges and state-funded institutions (Baker-Smith et …

An Animation Production Extension Of Spirit Spider, Jayden Abbott

Postgraduate

The Spirit Spider project comprises two components, a creative work called Spirit Spider and this accompanying exegesis. This project exemplifies a deep exploration of the animation process, emphasizing the iterative nature of creative development over the interpretation of the final product. Through each phase, from initial storyboarding to overcoming technical challenges and refining skills in Blender, the project has adhered to a methodology that prioritizes creative problem-solving and adaptability.

This exegesis has examined the careful selection of tools, such as Blender, and the integration of newly learned techniques that continuously shaped the project’s direction. By dedicating focused time to both …

Passing The Whiteness Threshold: The Lived Experiences Of Uk-Based Turkish Academics, Tugay Durak Tugay Durak

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.