Education Commons^™

Strategies For Engagement Of Non-Traditional Students In Engineering-Related Courses, Kimberly T. Luthi Dr., David Harvie, Keith Wilson, Monica Surrency

Publications

Project Goals

Overview

• Goal #1: Increase students' commitment to engineering pathways.
• Goal #2: Increase academic performance and persistence in engineering.
• Goal #3: Increase persistence of Veterans in engineering pathways.

Research Questions

• How does students' participation in peer-led team learning activities in online engineering courses correlate to their a) commitment to engineering, b) engineering identity, and c) self-efficacy.
• How do students in peer-led team learning activities compare to students in non-PLTL groups in terms of a) academic performance and b) persistence in engineering pathways?

How A Higher Education Aviation Faculty Perceived The Challenges Of An Online Emergency Transition During The Covid-19 Pandemic And Identifies Recommendations For Future Emergency Online Transitions, Victor Miguel Fraticelli Rivera

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this case study is to discover the perceived challenges and identify future recommendations for emergency online learning transition as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic at a major aeronautical higher education institution in the southeast region of the United States. For this study, emergency online learning transition is defined as the period in which higher education faculty members were required to pivot to an online methodology in response to a global pandemic in the spring and fall academic semesters of 2020. The theories guiding this study are the theory of planned behavior (TPB) by Icek Ajzen and …

Teaching Analytics Online: A Self-Study Of Professional Practice, Andrew J. Collins, Brandon Butler, James F. Leathrum Jr., Christopher J. Lynch

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

As the COVID-19 pandemic caused severe disruption to education enterprises throughout the world, the main response by educational institutions was to move to online learning environments. The purpose of this study was to understand better how instructors could improve online learning for a professional-level week-long short course in a highly technical area (data analytics), which had, pre-COVID, been a hands-on computer, laboratory-based learning experience. The authors used self-study of professional practice to elicit and understand the major issues and concerns of the transition to an online learning environment. Under the guidance of a colleague in teacher education, three course instructors …

Flipping The Digital Switch: Affective Responses Of Stem Undergraduates To Emergency Remote Teaching During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Angela Minichiello, Oenardi Lawanto, Wade Goodridge, Assad Iqbal, Muhammad Asghar

Engineering Education Student Research

The Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) catalyzed a global shift to distance education known as an emergency transition to remote teaching (ERT). While prior research investigates students' experiences during traditional online learning, fewer studies examine students' affective responses (i.e., feelings, emotions) to those experiences, particularly when remote learning is unexpected and unplanned. To understand how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduates responded affectively to the COVID-19 ERT, researchers generated open-ended survey data with 1340 undergraduates (253 female) in 27 courses across seven U.S. institutions. Using an inductive qualitative approach, researchers developed a three-tier thematic model to synthesize the self-reported reasons …

The Design And Implementation Outcome Of An Online Undergraduate Thermodynamics Class, Dazhi Yang, Krishna Pakala

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Online learning is not common for most undergraduate core engineering courses. However, the growing need for online engineering courses necessitates the design and delivery of online courses that can allow for the flexibility and convenience the distance learning experiences can offer. Thermodynamics is among the most difficult engineering subjects to teach, especially online, where instructors are unable to demonstrate the overwhelming number of equations and applications as they would in face-to-face lectures. This paper describes the design and development of an online, undergraduate thermodynamics class. It reports the implementation outcome of student final course grade and the students’ learning experience …

Case Study Of Using A Social Annotation Tool To Support Collaboratively Learning, Fei Gao

Fei Gao

The purpose of the study was to understand student interaction and learning supported by a collaboratively social annotation tool — Diigo. The researcher examined through a case study how students participated and interacted when learning an online text with the social annotation tool — Diigo, and how they perceived their experience. The findings suggested that students participated actively in the collaborative learning activity and were engaged in a variety of behaviors including self-reflection, elaboration, internalization, and showing support. Although students generally had a moderately positive attitude toward using the social annotation tool for collaborative learning, a few problems were identified. …

New Model Of Productive Online Discussion And Its Implications For Research And Instruction, Fei Gao, Charles Xiaoxue Wang, Yanling Sun

Fei Gao

We develop a new model of productive online discussion based on a brief review of research literature on online discussion. As compared to previous discussion models, the new model provides a more systematic and comprehensive framework to understand how learning occurs through online discussion. Based on the new model, we propose several directions for research on improving the quality of online discussion and learning.

Effects Of Learner-Instructor Relationship Building Strategies In Online Video Lessons, Yanghee Kim, Jeffrey Thyne

Yanghee Kim

Although research has demonstrated that an increased rapport between instructors and learners can positively relate with increased learning gains, perhaps mediated by the positive attitudes toward the course and self-efficacy beliefs in the coursework, little has been done to test what instructional strategies might increase this rapport in online video-based instruction. This study compared online video-based instruction that made use of relationship-building strategies with online video-based instruction that did not use those strategies. The two instructions were identical in every other way. The results showed that the attitudes of the college students were positively affected by the relationship building strategies …

University Professors’ Perceptions About The Impact Of Integrating Google Applications On Students’ Communication And Collaboration Skills, Jacqueline L. Cahill

Journal of Research Initiatives

A qualitative research study was conducted and data were collected by interviewing university professors on their perceptions about the impact of integrating Google Apps, as a means of classroom instructional delivery, on students’ communication and collaboration skills. The participants consisted of eight university professors from a major university, who integrate, or had previously integrated at least two Google Apps Education Edition collaborative tools into their instructional strategies. The result of this study has the potential to benefit universities that are debating on whether utilizing teaching collaborative technology skills, as an instruction tool, would engage students and enhance their communication skills. …

Case Study Of Using A Social Annotation Tool To Support Collaboratively Learning, Fei Gao

Visual Communications and Technology Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of the study was to understand student interaction and learning supported by a collaboratively social annotation tool — Diigo. The researcher examined through a case study how students participated and interacted when learning an online text with the social annotation tool — Diigo, and how they perceived their experience. The findings suggested that students participated actively in the collaborative learning activity and were engaged in a variety of behaviors including self-reflection, elaboration, internalization, and showing support. Although students generally had a moderately positive attitude toward using the social annotation tool for collaborative learning, a few problems were identified. …

New Model Of Productive Online Discussion And Its Implications For Research And Instruction, Fei Gao, Charles Xiaoxue Wang, Yanling Sun

Visual Communications and Technology Education Faculty Publications

We develop a new model of productive online discussion based on a brief review of research literature on online discussion. As compared to previous discussion models, the new model provides a more systematic and comprehensive framework to understand how learning occurs through online discussion. Based on the new model, we propose several directions for research on improving the quality of online discussion and learning.