Education Commons^™

Asynchronous Training For Online Teaching Assistants, Jason Snellings

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

The University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB) eLearning and Instructional Design (eLID) team provides technical support to faculty and teaching assistants (TAs) as they teach online courses. There is currently a lack of support for TAs to properly train them to handle the technical tasks designated to them by faculty. This lack of education results in an increased workload on the eLID team in responding to TAs. Research was conducted to determine what the common duties of TAs are and what roles they should be able to fulfill at UMB. In addition, research was used to determine the best method of …

Insurance Claims Adjuster Remote Training Initiative, Pamela Wieboldt

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

This paper contains a full training plan initiative to correct a knowledge gap among remote marine insurance adjusters. The problem originated from a longer claims handling process among remote adjusters dealing with Maritime Law claims. In an assessment in the analyze phase this knowledge gap was confirmed. Through analysis there were three major areas of maritime law that adjusters on staff did not test well on. The modules developed will follow the theory of micro learning due to the staff members having limited time to commit to learning each day. As the employees are remote, all of the learning events …

Talk Matters: Graduate Students’ Perceptions Of Online Learner-Learner Interaction Design And Experiences, Eraldine Williams-Shakespeare

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the design of learner-learner activities including types of pedagogy and media in online courses and graduate students’ perceptions of social interaction, cognitive learning and overall satisfaction. Data collection and analysis involved both quantitative and qualitative methods following a Sequential Explanatory Model. Data instruments include a modified version of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Survey version 14b (Swan, Shea, Richardson, Ice, Garrison, Cleveland-Innes, & Arbaugh, 2008), a Rubric for Assessing Interactive Qualities of Distance Learning Courses (Roblyer, 2004), and a semi-structured interview protocol.

A total of 106 graduate students participated in the survey. Twelve of the participants were …

Improving Argumentation Through Goal Instructions In Asynchronous Online Discussions, Yekaterina Prudchenko

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Argumentation incorporated into class discussions can improve students' problem solving skills and enhance their epistemic and conceptual understanding. Research indicates students sometimes need scaffolding such as goal instructions to improve their argumentation skills. This study examined the effectiveness of different types of goal instructions on participants' argumentation achievement. In particular, the study compared the effects of minimal, moderate, substantial, and no goal instructions in asynchronous online discussions on participants' argumentation achievement, as measured by development, balance, and explanatory discourse scores. The study also tried to understand participants' experiences of the goal instructions by comparing the differences in emergent themes across …