Education Commons^™

The Impact Of Institutional Culture On Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge In Higher Education, Kenna Spiller Vowell

Theses and Dissertations

Teaching and learning online is an increasingly important aspect of higher education, especially post-Covid-19. Previous studies have shown a relationship between Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and teaching efficacy and teaching efficacy and student success. However, the contextual factors impacting TPACK have not been adequately explored. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if the contextual factor of institutional culture impacts TPACK among online higher education faculty at institutions in the Southeastern United States as well as to what extent specific dimensions of institutional culture effect TPACK levels. Data were collected using an anonymous online survey that was …

Examining The Relationship Between Student Age And Modality Choice In A Community College’S New Student Orientation Program: A Preregistered Study To Examine The Assumption Of Self-Directed Learning, Amy L. Foree

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Understanding and navigating college rules, resources, and expectations is a considerable barrier for students accessing and transitioning to college (Conley, 2007; Williams, 1996; Hooker & Brand, 2010; Ardoin, 2013; Sheppard, 2012). To improve students’ acquisition of pertinent, time-sensitive information, many institutions have implemented mandatory new student orientations (NSO). Orientations provide information such as academic policies and procedures, institutional expectations, campus resources, and financial aid assistance. They also allow students to meet faculty, staff, and other new students. By providing these resources, institutions acclimate students to their new environment. Although colleges realize that new student orientations support students’ success, they …

An Evaluation Of Clemson University’S Cooperative Extension Services Online Learning Programs And Framework For Program Development And Evaluation, Christina Leard

All Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic brought online learning to the forefront with the need to define online learning with best practices. Clemson University Extension conducted a retrospective observational study compiling survey data from virtual extension agents and supervisor’s conducting online programs. A literature review analyzed terminology for online learning to obtain a standardized definition to define online learning for Clemson Extension Services programs; evaluate and identify through literature strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges (SWOC) of on-line learning; determine and identify online learning competencies for instructors, assessment and evaluation; and analyze and evaluate response data from virtual extension agents delivering online programs in …

Fostering An Inclusive Learning Environment Through Course Development: A Program Evaluation, Rachel K. Rogers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This evaluation was chosen to address the desire of students to see themselves and their lived experiences in their coursework at University College, the location of this study. The purpose was to complete a utilization-focused evaluation that assessed first, the formal and informal practices involved in the course development process within an academic department at University College, University of Denver, and second to determine the extent to which the course development process contributes to an inclusive learning environment. Data were collected using qualitative methods including semi-structured interviews of key stakeholders in the course development process, observations of weekly course development …

Service Learning In The Digital Age: Understanding Nontraditional Students And Their Experiential Journey Through Electronic-Service Learning, Qianhui Hub

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Service learning (SL) is an experiential learning pedagogy that merges real-life community service activities with structured reflection. Electronic-Service Learning (e-SL) is a blended pedagogy that combines online education and SL. The pandemic has significantly prompted the evolution of SL toward e-SL. In planning pedagogy initiatives, educators must not overlook the changing demographics of their student bodies. Within higher education in the U.S., 75% of students have at least one nontraditional student characteristic. Yet, the perceptions and experiences of nontraditional students on e-SL are critically underexplored. Thus, this dissertation examined the potential and value of developing e-SL with particular attention to …

Post-Pandemic Digital Experiences & Attitudes Among Adult Immigrant Esol Learners, Lacey D. Goodloe

Master's Theses

This mixed-methods study considers the current reality of the “digital divide” as experienced by adult immigrant ESOL learners following the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period. Although prior research often assumes foreign-born individuals to have lower rates of access, skills and motivation to engage with technology, or to lack it altogether, this study seeks to contribute a more realistic picture which encompasses the full diversity of digital experiences among the foreign-born population. The review of the literature first covers two levels of the digital divide that often evince socioeconomic disparities: primarily access, skills and usage; and more recently, attitudes and motivation. Then, …

Doctoral Students' Experiences Of Community Of Practice In A Hybrid Cohort-Based Program: A Case Study, Celeste Avery

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Graduate enrollment in the United States is increasing. With the advent of the cohort learning model and online delivery methods, adult learners now have greater access to higher education. The cohort learning model, which is based on elements of Community of Practice, has been shown to provide learners with a sense of community while also having a positive impact on retention. In a hybrid cohort-based learning model, many institutions provide the convenience of both online and face-to-face classes. Doctoral student attrition remains high, ranging from 40-50% across all programs, with rates as high as 70% in Education programs. The purpose …

Is Online Course-Taking Helping Or Hindering Students With Disabilities In U.S. Community Colleges?, Francisco Expression Narciso Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Students with disabilities in U.S. community colleges continue to disproportionately experience lower degree attainment compared to students without disabilities. Furthermore, students with disabilities are twice as likely to choose community colleges for postsecondary education compared to four-year colleges. Students with disabilities in postsecondary education endure learning barriers including inflexible instruction, inaccessible content, and intimidating and unsafe learning environments. The purpose of this study is to address the increasing achievement gaps for students with disabilities in community colleges. Specifically, this study intended to answer the question to what extent, if at all, does online course-taking impact degree attainment for students with …

Predicting Online Course Success From Usage Of An Online Tutoring System, Brett Miles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As online learning continues to grow in higher education, quality online support services must also be offered in order to meet the needs of online students. This study sought to investigate the relationship between the use of an outsourced online tutoring system and course success in select University System of Georgia eCore introductory online gateway courses to determine the extent of the relationship between tutoring usage and course success. The researcher employed logistic regression analysis to determine if using online tutoring increased the students’ probability for course success. Further, the researcher also studied the amount of usage to understand if …

Impact Of Online Learning On Academic Success Of College Students, Natalie Carbonel

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Online learning has become more prominent in higher education institutions due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic and has ultimately impacted the academic success of college students. The purpose of this capstone is to examine the impact of online learning on the academic success of college students. Through the use of literature review and a survey with 20 students at the community college and four-year colleges, the findings reveal that online learning has negatively impacted their attitude, motivation, self-efficacy and accessibility toward learning. This capstone concludes with suggestions on ways to improve their attitudes and acceptance of the adaptation of the …

Teaching Presence In Online Discussions: Relationship-Based Learning By Design, Mary Quest

Dissertations

Activity Theory, Community of Inquiry Model, Interaction Analysis Model, Online learning, Social Construction of Knowledge, Teaching Presence

A Comparative Exploration Into First Time In College Student Academic Performance In Face-To-Face Versus Remote Learning Environments, Ashley Click

Theses & Dissertations

In spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced educational systems to transition into an emergency remote learning modality. This quantitative study compared retention and productive grade rates of two 16-week academic semesters and compared face-to-face (fall 2019) and remote (fall 2020) emergency remote instruction. The study sample was drawn from the core courses of History, English, and Speech at San Antonio College. Those courses were selected in part due to the high proportion of first time in college students who were considered a vulnerable population regarding performance and persistence. Additional variables (i.e., gender, veteran status, first-generation status, and socio-economic status) were …

Building Educator E-Pedagogy Skill Efficacy And Capacity To Successfully Engage Students In The Online Learning Environment, Karen M. Roeck

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

Students around the world are increasingly seeking options for completing their learning in an online format due to its convenience, flexibility, and opportunity for innovative experiences. Higher education institutions need to adapt their course offerings to include robust online programs and train their faculty with the necessary skills to successfully engage their virtual learners to remain competitive in today’s market. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) identifies gaps of inadequacy of infrastructure to support online learning, limited knowledge of e-pedagogy, lack of clarity about teacher identity, and lack of focus on equity and humanity in the online classroom at a Christian …

Assessing The Relationship Between Mandatory Faculty Development For Online Career College Instructors And Transformative Learning, Tremayne Simpson

Dissertations

Online teaching and learning has become a primary focal point for higher education administrators. Institutions have focused their strategic plans to maximize opportunities to grow their campuses, through distance education. A consistent issue that has surfaced with distance education initiatives is teacher preparation for online education. The issue is further compounded in proprietary institutions that may have limited resources and guidance for structuring effective faculty development programs. It is beneficial for faculty program developers to implement adult learning concepts into their courses to improve the overall training transfer for instructors. Transformative learning is an adult learning theory that focuses on …

Investigating Discussion Forum Impact On Students’ Social Justice Beliefs In Online Undergraduate Mathematics Courses: A Mixed Methods Study, Ashlee Lynn Akin Matney

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

While teaching math for social justice and equity has become a heavily researched topic in recent decades with Jo Boaler (2008, 2015, 2016), Rochelle Gutiérrez (2009, 2013), and Eric (Rico) Gutstein (2003, 2006, 2007, 2013) emerging as recent leaders in the charge, the focus has consistently remained on traditional classroom teaching (e.g. Boaler, 2008; Gutiérrez, 2009; Gutstein, 2003). This convergent design mixed methods study investigated the impact of teaching math for social justice in the online learning environment, specifically, the impact of discussion forums on students’ social justice beliefs in fully online undergraduate math courses.

Quantitatively, 56 students completed pre- …

Online Course Communication And International Student Academic Performance, Christie L. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Online course communication activities can be used to support the social and cognitive needs of students in online courses, but when those students are international students from across the globe studying in the United States where there are language and cultural differences, online learning can be a challenge. The purpose of this study was to examine undergraduate international students’ online course communication behaviors and their academic performance in order to inform quality online course development and delivery. In this qualitative case study, semistructured interviews with 11 undergraduate international students were conducted, online course communication behaviors were observed, and five faculty …

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 …

The Impact Of The Online Learner Advising Model On Retention And Grade Point Average, Julie Delich

Doctorate in Education

As more students experience online learning environments, the academic community must invest more energy into improving retention of these learners. The purpose of this research was to study the impact of an advising model designed to support online learners, the Online learner advising model (OLAM). This study examined new student retention in the first 3 terms and GPA outcomes to measure the impact of the advising approach. OLAM was designed to address the specific needs of online learners through bringing together elements of proactive advising, shame resilience theory, and appreciative advising.

The sample was selected from Concordia University, St. Paul …

The Covid-19 Pivot To Online Education And Bsn Graduates’ Readiness To Practice, Abigail Schulte

Dissertations

There is a major nursing shortage worldwide, and amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to invest in the acceleration of nursing education to meet global needs. Nursing schools had to pivot to online education overnight, and many are unsure how this has impacted students. The purpose of this study is to see if the pivot to online education, prompted by COVID-19, impacted the readiness to practice and grade point averages (GPA) of graduating Bachelor of Nursing students. In this quantitative study, a casual-comparative survey design is used to test for readiness to practice and program modality. A cross-sectional design …

How Can I Help? Investigating The Role Of Social Supports In Academic Resilience For Undergraduate Students, Grace M. Lady

Senior Theses

Academic resilience refers to a student’s ability to emotionally and cognitively adapt to academic adversity, including transitions to new experiences like college. This ability to bounce back is an important characteristic for academic success (Robbins et al., 2018; Hodge et al., 2017). Within the literature, there is a need to understand more interpersonal influences, such as social support, on resilience. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate what social support students rely on and how students use social support through times of academic difficulty, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic and the transition to college. Undergraduate students (N = 189) completed a …

Examining Changes In Learning And Engagement Of Higher Education Students In A Fully Online Flipped Learning Distance Education Classroom, James David Riel

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The challenge of implementing effective online distance education courses for academics and institutions is a centuries-old task. We can look across early developments in the 18^th century with the creation and delivery of correspondence courses; into the 20^th century with teaching and learning across analog methods such as audio and video; and now in the current era of digitized mechanisms that enable the online classroom. This includes advances in internet technologies and computing abilities that are the empowering the backbone processes, bridging connectivity between the student and the instructor. As society has trended toward massive increases in online …

Examining The Role Of Enjoyment, Anxiety, And Emotional Intelligence In Online Graduate Students' Self-Regulated Learning: A Control-Value Theory Perspective, Achraf Touati

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

As online learning continues to grow, particularly amid the COVID pandemic, so too has interest among educational practitioners and researchers to understand the personal and contextual factors that shape students’ emotions in these environments. The control-value theory of achievement emotions has emerged as a useful framework for examining the antecedents and consequences of different emotions that students experience in online learning. The purpose of the present study was to validate the assumptions of the control-value theory in an asynchronous online graduate program, and to examine the role of emotional intelligence in this social-cognitive process. Data were collected from 102 graduate …

How Student Perceptions Of The Online Learning Environment And Student Motivation Predict Persistence, Completion, And Retention In Developmental Mathematics Courses, Samuel K. Gedeborg

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Online developmental mathematics courses have high dropout rates. The focus of this study is to improve understanding of how students’ perceptions of the online learning environment and student motivation from course design predict student drop out. This understanding will benefit faculty and institutions on student support for online developmental mathematics students.

The study included 330 undergraduate students enrolled in online developmental mathematics courses during the Fall 2018 semester at eight public universities and colleges in the Utah State Higher Education (USHE) system. Participants completed a survey with questions measuring their perceptions of the learning environment. They also completed a survey …

Student Outcomes In Online And Face-To-Face Classes At A Hispanic-Serving Institution (Hsi), Rebecca S. Cottrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As online course enrollments are increasing in higher education in the United States, it is increasingly important to understand student course outcomes in these classes, particularly at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI), where there has been limited previous research. This current study examines online course outcomes in the form of student course grades and student withdrawal rates as compared to outcomes in face-to-face courses. The setting for the study is Russell University, a public university in the Rocky Mountain west, and an HSI. Data used in this study came from a large, deidentified data set of all enrollments in any course offered …

Collaborative Mind Mapping To Support Online Discussion In Teacher Education, Rosa Cendros Araujo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mind maps that combine text, images, colour and layout elements, have been widely used in classroom teaching to improve retention, knowledge organization and conceptual understanding. Furthermore, studies have shown the advantages of using mind-maps to facilitate collaborative learning. However, there are gaps in the literature regarding the use and study of collaborative mind-mapping in online learning settings. This integrated-article dissertation explores the implementation of online collaborative mind mapping activities in a mathematics teacher education program at a Canadian university. The studies were developed with participants enrolled in three different courses where at least two of the online activities used collaborative …

Exploring Female Perceptions Of Metacognitive Development In Online Learning, Heather Richards

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

With increased access to higher education through online delivery mediums, it is necessary to evaluate the impact of the learning environment on disadvantaged populations such as female students. As the online learning classroom challenges through distance, isolation, and communication, these factors can influence a positive perception of the learning environment and interfere with deep learning. This qualitative study explored female perceptions of metacognitive development within the online learning environment, as metacognition is a core element of academic success in higher education. Through the design of the conceptual framework and with the support of the literature review, a methodology was selected …

Adaptive Leadership Approaches In Online Education: A Study Of Trust Creation And Change Management In Higher Education, Andrew R. Casiello

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The focus of this study was to determine which aspects of “Adaptive Leadership” are most commonly used by leaders in online education at doctoral research institutions where online education is playing a major role in enrollment. Within this study, the current state of higher education is reviewed and major changes in the financial, technological and competitive landscape are discussed. Challenges within the higher education context are addressed. These challenges include the increasing cost of a college education, decreased state support for public institutions, reduction of regional hegemony caused by technological advancements, increasing competition for students, and student demand for greater …

Globalization, Culture, And Online Learning: An Exploration Of The Sociocultural Perspectives Of Indian Students Participating In U.S.-Based Online Courses, Mitsue S. Shiokawa

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

This study correlates the impacts of globalization on higher education and the generation of online learning programs offered to global audiences. Concomitantly, it examines the sociocultural experiences of international students participating in United States based online courses. Of specific interest is the socialized culture of learning students from India bring with them into an online learning course, and how that socialized culture is negotiated through strategies of acculturation alongside the student’s perceived American culture of learning. The overarching focus of the study explores the advent of cybercultures within online learning course environments as a potential result of the intermingling of …

Epistemic Trust In Online Higher Education : A Mixed Method Phenomenological Research Study, Lisa F. Rapple

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The purpose of this study was to explore the online instructor’s role in building epistemic trusting relationships with adult learners in their online classrooms. A mixed-method phenomenology research (MMPR) approach was used to discover if certain instructor actions influenced an epistemic trust relationship to develop between the instructor and the adult learner. This study examined the instructor’s classroom management actions, communication immediacy actions, and regulatory actions, as well as the level of epistemic trust in 48 fully online courses, focusing on 4 exemplar cases for cross-case analysis. It was determined that the instructor’s classroom management actions and communication immediacy actions …

A Qualitative Study Of Common Faculty Perceptions Of Online Healthcare Graduate Students’ Writing Challenges, Latazia Stuart

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to understand and explore common faculty perceptions of why some faculty engage their online healthcare graduate students who are deficient in writing skills to improve and what interventions they used. This study utilized a case study qualitative approach to collect and analyze the data. This study explored online faculty perceptions of online graduate healthcare students writing deficiencies, exploring how they defined it, what beliefs and motivations underlie their decision to engage these students in the improvement of their writing skills, and what interventions they used to address this problem in an online learning environment.

The …