Education Commons^™

Investigating Cultural Values And Educational Technology Adoption In Central Asia: A Case Study, Randall W. Gwin

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Although the adoption of new tools for communication and learning could reasonably be expected to influence culture, little is known about the relationship between cultural values and the adoption or diffusion of Web 2.0 technologies. This case study examines the way in which the cultural values of 59 teachers in four Central Asian countries influenced and were influenced by Web 2.0 technologies during five to eighteen months of online professional development. Data was collected through self-introductions, Likert-scale and open-ended prompts on initial and final surveys, online forum discussions, and capstone projects. This allows an examination of changes in the participants’ …

Identifying Factors Impacting The Intention To Use Videos Of Authentic Patient Encounters By Ems Educators, Melisa Martin

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The cornerstones of prehospital provider education include didactic instruction, psychomotor skills training, and hospital and ambulance clinical rotations. Increasing enrollment in healthcare education programs, limited clinical opportunities, and an increasingly technologically savvy student body are compelling educators to pursue supplementary techniques for teaching and learning. Although high fidelity simulators are becoming increasingly commonplace, other educational technologies are less widely adopted. Concomitantly, little research has been conducted exploring rationale and motivating factors for adoption and utilization of technology by EMS educators. Videos of authentic patient encounters recorded in clinical settings (VAPE) have the potential to provide students an opportunity to learn …

An Exploration Of Levels Of Choice In Online Assignments And The Relationship To Students' Work And Their Thoughts About Motivation, Jonathan Crocker

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This case study explored the relationship between levels of content choice in three high school online English language arts courses and evidence of student motivation in student work and students’ thoughts about motivation. These courses were designed around the main components of Self-Determination Theory (autonomy, competence, relatedness) and with a personalized learning framework. During the 2020-2021 school year, students in the courses were given reading options and writing prompts that offered “no choice” (zero options), “low choice” (2-3 options), and “high choice” (4+ options). Forty students completed anonymous end-of-course surveys designed to gather details about the relationship between motivation and …

Video Communication: Explorations Of Community And Connectedness, And Closeness In Online Courses, Eric S. Belt

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Educators and students are using synchronous and asynchronous video communication technologies in unprecedented ways given the ongoing global pandemic. Despite continued educational research on video communication technology, less is known about the social implications of these forms of communication. Online learning has faced challenges (e.g., learner isolation, technological competency, and time management) since its inception; these challenges have been exacerbated in the rapid transition to emergency remote teaching. Given problems like these, additional research is needed to better understand how video communication technology can be used to improve communication and interaction in online learning. The following dissertation presents a series …

Teachers And Digital Literacies: Mixed-Methods Investigation Into 1:1 Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments, Angela S. Wagner

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Despite the bustling technological landscape in which we live and learn, technology is still limited in its integration within classrooms. The current drive in education to promote 21st-century skills and digital literacies appears to remain relatively idle for a variety of reasons. This mixed-methods study examines the impact 1:1 technology has on digital literacies and the barriers faced by teachers with its incorporation into secondary classrooms. It explores the extent to which instructors within 1:1 environments perceive their technology integration and investigates how this indirectly impacts the acquisition of digital literacies within the classroom. By gaining more insight into how …

Understanding Teachers’ Perceptions And Strategies Implemented In High School Mathematics Classes Using Aleks, Tristan Kumor

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS) is an adaptive learning tool used by hundreds of thousands of high school students in the United States. This study was designed to understand how teachers in high school mathematics classrooms used the ALEKS system for instruction and to examine what their perceptions were of its ease of use and usefulness. A basic qualitative study was conducted where five Chicagoland high school mathematics teachers were interviewed three times over the course of one academic school year. This study asked teachers to share first hand experiences and perceptions of using ALEKS. The Technology …

The Influence Of Course Community And Personal Community Support On Learner Engagement In Online Courses, Kristin Kipp

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Borup, Graham, West, Archambault, and Spring (2020) theorized that a student’s level of engagement in an online course is influenced by course community support and personal community support, with both factors helping a student to achieve a level of engagement that is not possible independently. In other words, an individual student’s ability to engage in an online course can be explained by the kinds of community a student finds within a course and their social support from friends, family, and community as they take the class. The purpose of this study is to understand to what extent course community support …

Faculty Views Of Online Competency-Based Education, Self-Efficacy, And Institutional Support: An Exploratory Mixed Methods Study, Christopher Russell Prokes

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Competency-based education (CBE) is essentially an online approach to teaching and learning featuring flexible pacing, robust competencies, and an emphasis on student completion. CBE’s differs from traditional education that focuses on seat time, credit hours, and academic objectives. Though CBE has existed on college campuses in many forms, faculty are often inexperienced in teaching CBE. Facing growing demands for CBE (notably from non-traditional students), institutions must find ways to prepare faculty to take part in CBE. This mixed methods study explored faculty views of CBE, their self-efficacy, and beliefs about support mechanisms needed for those teaching and delivering CBE. Findings …

Exploring The Relationship Between Different Smartphone Reading Annotation Strategies And Students’ Comprehension, Brandon J. Comstock

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the relationship between different smartphone reading annotation strategies and students’ comprehension. Subjects in the study are 139 teenage students enrolled in a religion class in the Southwestern United States. Each of the participants utilized a digital reading app on their personal smartphone to read an 842-word religious text. Subjects were encouraged to look for, highlight, or tag passages in the text that they felt were important to understanding the meaning of the text. After completing the reading, participants completed a multiple-choice quiz with both factual and inferential questions and wrote a short essay on how they felt …

Medical Simulation As A Competency-Based Assessment Within Physician Assistant Education, Michele Toussaint

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Simulation-based practices are widely utilized in medical education and are known to be a safe and effective way to train and assess learners, improve provider confidence and competency, and improve patient safety. Competency-based initiatives are being more broadly utilized to assess learner proficiency in health professions education. Recent publication of competencies expected of new graduate physician assistants, and updated accreditation requirements which include assessment of learner competencies in non-knowledge based domains, have led to the creation of this simulation-based summative assessment of learner competency in communication and patient care skills for Physician Assistant students.

The purpose of this quantitative study …

Understanding Learners' Experiences Of Using Eportfolio In A High School Physics Course, Daniel P. Carroll

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

There has been a move toward personalized learning and alternative types of authentic assessment in K-12 education. This shift toward personalized learning and authentic assessment has been partly driven by increases in the available technology that can support those types of changes. This dissertation is a basic qualitative study aimed at understanding the experience of learners in a first-year physics class working with an ePortfolio as the primary method of assessment for that class. The school in which this research took place fully implemented a 1:1 program and has been piloting personalized learning strategies for the past five years. The …

Effects Of Robotics Instructional Methods On Computational Thinking Skills Of Middle School Students, Andrew Patrick Cook

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

As a tangible and motivating medium for students to engage in computational thinking, robotics has drawn interest from educators and researchers as K-12 schools continue to integrate STEM into curriculum. Through this mixed methods study, the researcher sought to explore the effects of robotics instructional methods (task-based and project-based) on the computational thinking skills of middle school students, including the problem-solving strategies used and the role of peer collaboration. The quantitative results of this study indicated no significant difference in the computational thinking skills of students participating in task-based or project-based robotics instruction. Interviews consisted of open-ended questions in which …

The Impact Of Virtual Radiographic Positioning Simulation On 1St Year Radiography Students’ Clinical Preparedness Through The Lens Of Activity Theory: A Mixed Method Approach, Christopher Ira Wertz

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Radiography education programs are designed to prepare students to perform radiographic examinations and acquire diagnostic medical images of real patients in the clinical setting. Radiographic Science (RS) education, like all healthcare education, is uniquely different from education in other professional fields. Students must not only acquire the technical, cognitive learning required, but they must also master the psychomotor skills necessary to apply didactic knowledge to patients in a clinical setting. In medical imaging, when students are hesitant or lack knowledge and skills they are prone to produce images with decreased quality or expose patients to unnecessarily high amounts of radiation. …

Middle School Students' Reported Self-Regulation Strategies In Completing Online Mathematics Homework, Pepper Erlinger

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study is to benefit our understanding of the potential of online homework as it relates to developing and supporting students’ self-regulated learning (SRL). This descriptive case study explores the use of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies reported by students in the context of completing online mathematics homework (OHW). Eighth-grade students (10 total) from a traditional middle school were interviewed using a validated data collection instrument, the Self-Regulated Learning Interview Schedule or SRLIS (Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1986, 1988). Students’ open-ended responses were interpreted using a framework of self-regulation theory and coded using 14 self-regulation strategies …