Education Commons^™

Traditional Liberal Arts Colleges' Consideration And Adoption Of Online Education: A Presidential Perspective, Ericka T. Hollis

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

National research studies have indicated that students are enrolling in more online courses annually (Allen & Seaman, 2010, 2014, 2015); yet, not all higher education institutions are adopting online education. In order to understand more about adoption of online education in higher education and presidents’ perceptions of online education, this study investigated the adoption of online education by traditional liberal arts colleges(TLACs). These institutions and their presidents currently face numerous challenges and threats as TLACs try to remain relevant in the 21st century while maintaining their liberal arts mission. The importance of this study lies in the realization that many …

A Mixed Methods Approach To Investigating Cognitive Load And Cognitive Presence In An Online And Face-To-Face College Algebra Course, Jodi J. Mills

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Most research on Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, 1988) has uncovered many instructional design considerations for learning complex tasks. Additionally, the Community of Inquiry (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) framework describes many of the learning experiences in online education. A gap existed in the literature for investigating cognitive load over the duration of a college algebra course and for investigating the relationship between cognitive load and cognitive presence. This research study has addressed this gap by investigating cognitive load and cognitive presence in an online and face-to-face college algebra course.

The results of this study revealed that face-to-face students earned statistically …