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Full-Text Articles in Education

Live Synchronous Web Meetings In Asynchronous Online Courses: Reconceptualizing Virtual Office Hours, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Joanna C. Dunlap, Chareen Snelson Dec 2017

Live Synchronous Web Meetings In Asynchronous Online Courses: Reconceptualizing Virtual Office Hours, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Joanna C. Dunlap, Chareen Snelson

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Most online courses rely solely on asynchronous text-based online communication. This type of communication can foster anytime, anywhere reflection, critical thinking, and deep learning. However, it can also frustrate participants because of the lack of spontaneity and visual cues and the time it takes for conversations to develop and feedback to be shared, as well as the self-directedness and discipline it requires of participants to regularly check in and monitor discussions over time. Synchronous forms of communication can address some of these constraints. However, online educators often avoid using synchronous forms of communication in their courses, because of its own …


The Design And Implementation Outcome Of An Online Undergraduate Thermodynamics Class, Dazhi Yang, Krishna Pakala Dec 2017

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 …


Evidence-Based Survey Design: The Use Of A Midpoint On The Likert Scale, Seung Youn (Yonnie) Chyung, Katherine Roberts, Ieva Swanson, Andrea Hankinson Nov 2017

Evidence-Based Survey Design: The Use Of A Midpoint On The Likert Scale, Seung Youn (Yonnie) Chyung, Katherine Roberts, Ieva Swanson, Andrea Hankinson

Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Likert-type scales are often used in survey instruments, and practitioners and researchers need to clearly understand the appropriate use of a midpoint in these scales. The authors of this article explore research studies from various disciplines to indicate that there are circumstances when a midpoint should be included and others where it should not. They provide tables, summarizing the benefits and problems in each case as well as evidence-based strategies to employ.


Following A Ten-Step Procedure To Evaluate The Administrative Services Qualification Card Program, Julie R. Barkin, Seung Youn (Yonnie) Chyung, Megan Lemke Sep 2017

Following A Ten-Step Procedure To Evaluate The Administrative Services Qualification Card Program, Julie R. Barkin, Seung Youn (Yonnie) Chyung, Megan Lemke

Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article, the authors describe a ten-step procedure for conducting program evaluation in the HPI context, followed by a case study illustrating the procedure taken and outcomes produced. A team of graduate students at Boise State University completed an evaluation study of an Administrative Services Qualification Card program in a not-for-profit organization by following the ten-step evaluation procedure. The end result was a set of evidence-based recommendations focused on improving the quality of the program.


In Search Of A Better Understanding Of Social Presence: An Investigation Into How Researchers Define Social Presence, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Chareen Snelson Aug 2017

In Search Of A Better Understanding Of Social Presence: An Investigation Into How Researchers Define Social Presence, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Chareen Snelson

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research on social presence and online learning continues to grow. But to date, researchers continue to define and conceptualize social presence very differently. For instance, at a basic level, some conceptualize social presence as one of three presences within a Community of Inquiry, while others do not. Given this problem, we analyzed how researchers in highly cited social presence research defined social presence in an effort to better understand how they are defining social presence and how this might be changing over time. In this article, we report the results of our inquiry and conclude with implications for future research …


Social Presence, Identity, And Online Learning Research: Research Development And Needs, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Vanessa P. Dennen Aug 2017

Social Presence, Identity, And Online Learning Research: Research Development And Needs, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Vanessa P. Dennen

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Scholars across many disciplines have grappled with questions of what it means for a person to be and interact online. Who are we when we go online? How do others know we are there and how do they perceive us? Within the context of online learning, scholarly questions tend to reflect more specific concerns focused on how well people can learn in a setting limited to mediated interactions lacking various communication cues. For example, how can a teacher and students come to know each other if they cannot see each other? How can they effectively understand and communicate with each …


Building An Effective Online Thermodynamics Course For Undergraduate Engineering Students, Dazhi Yang, Krishna Pakala Jun 2017

Building An Effective Online Thermodynamics Course For Undergraduate Engineering Students, Dazhi Yang, Krishna Pakala

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Online learning does not appear to be the common option when approaching some core engineering courses. However, the growing need for online engineering courses necessitates the development of online courses that can allow for the flexibility and convenience these distance learning experiences can offer, which also can help broaden the participation in engineering education. Thermodynamics is among the most difficult engineering subjects to teach, 1 , 2 especially online, where instructors are unable to demonstrate the overwhelming number of equations and applications as they would in face-to-face lectures. 3 , 4. This paper describes the design and development of …


Evaluation Instruments And Good Practices In Online Education, Sally J. Baldwin, Jesús Trespalacios Jun 2017

Evaluation Instruments And Good Practices In Online Education, Sally J. Baldwin, Jesús Trespalacios

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education offers extensively researched and validated tenets for best practices in higher education. After a review of the literature, twenty-eight evaluation instruments currently used to design and review online courses in higher education institutions were collected and divided into categories, based on geographical reach and the type of institution for which they were developed. This study investigates how evaluation instruments used in higher education assess the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education, and what other items are addressed in the evaluation of courses. Findings show that national …


Confessional Technologies Of The Self: From Seneca To Social Media, Norm Friesen Jun 2017

Confessional Technologies Of The Self: From Seneca To Social Media, Norm Friesen

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Foucault’s general notion of “technologies of the self” provides an invaluable starting point for investigating a range of broadly “confessional” practices and technologies over time — from medieval confession to contemporary forms of networked identity construction. Foucault defines technologies of the self as “reflected and voluntary practices by which men not only fix rules of conduct for themselves but seek to transform themselves, to change themselves in their particular being, and to make their life an oeuvre.” These are practices or techniques, in other words, that are both undertaken by the self and directed toward it. Specifically confessional technologies …


Using World Of Warcraft To Teach Research Methods In Online Doctoral Education: A Student-Instructor Duoethnography, Chareen Snelson, Christopher I. Wertz, Kimberly Onstott, Jason Bader May 2017

Using World Of Warcraft To Teach Research Methods In Online Doctoral Education: A Student-Instructor Duoethnography, Chareen Snelson, Christopher I. Wertz, Kimberly Onstott, Jason Bader

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The educational potential of games has captured the ongoing interest of scholars and educators who have sought to understand when, how, and under what conditions games support the teaching and learning process. General knowledge of how games support literacy, scientific thinking, or social learning has been theorized and researched, but some applications of game-based learning remain unexplored. One area where much remains to be learned is within online doctoral education and particularly in the poorly understood area of research methods education. In this study, three doctoral students and an instructor collaboratively fieldtested a set of instructional activities within World of …


Persistence Factors Revealed: Students’ Reflections On Completing A Fully Online Program, Dazhi Yang, Sally Baldwin, Chareen Snelson May 2017

Persistence Factors Revealed: Students’ Reflections On Completing A Fully Online Program, Dazhi Yang, Sally Baldwin, Chareen Snelson

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite the rapid growth in online programs, online programs routinely face student attrition. How to retain students and help students successfully complete an online program is usually a top priority for online programs. This study investigated persistence factors that contributed to students’ successful completion from one of the largest and most successful online programs in the United States. Results show that both personal and program attributes contributed to students’ successful completion of a fully online program. Main individual attributes include interest in or career goals related to technology, time and effort invested, and perceived utility of learning. Main program attributes …


The Flipped Training Model: Six Steps For Getting Employees To Flip Out Over Training, Quincy Conley, Heather S. Lutz, Carrie Lewis Miller May 2017

The Flipped Training Model: Six Steps For Getting Employees To Flip Out Over Training, Quincy Conley, Heather S. Lutz, Carrie Lewis Miller

Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

One of the latest trends in education is ‘flipping’ the classroom. The premise behind this form of blended learning is to reframe the role of the teacher in the classroom, to shift the focus towards the student as the constructor rather than receptor of information. As such, a stepwise framework for flipping the classroom is presented in this paper, serving as a starting point for training practitioners interested in how to flip the corporate classroom.


Exploring How Individual Traits Influence Enjoyment In A Mobile Learning Game, Youngkyun Baek, Achraf Touati Apr 2017

Exploring How Individual Traits Influence Enjoyment In A Mobile Learning Game, Youngkyun Baek, Achraf Touati

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study investigated individual traits as predictors of game enjoyment by including learning style, intrinsic motivation, collaboration skills, and computer game attitude as key parts of a model that also included achievement. Results of correlation and regression analyses revealed that intrinsic motivation was the only variable to predict game enjoyment. This supports the conceptualization of enjoyment as need satisfaction of intrinsic needs. Enjoyment was also found to be positively correlated with achievement. Other significant relations emerged, particularly how a player’s attitude toward games predicted intrinsic motivation. The present study examined children’s enjoyment experiences in the mobile version of the Minecraft …


Assessment Of Student Learning Using Augmented Reality Grand Canyon Field Trips For Mobile Smart Devices, Natalie Bursztyn, Andy Walker, Brett Shelton, Joel Pederson Apr 2017

Assessment Of Student Learning Using Augmented Reality Grand Canyon Field Trips For Mobile Smart Devices, Natalie Bursztyn, Andy Walker, Brett Shelton, Joel Pederson

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In searching for ways to improve undergraduate success in introductory geoscience courses, the importance of experiential learning in engaging students has become clear—and in geoscience, that is encapsulated best by field trips. However, as general education class sizes increase, so do the cost, liability, and difficulty of running a field trip. A solution for economically and conveniently bringing kinesthetic field experiences to a broader audience lies in the integration of technology through mobile-device games, apps, and augmented reality (AR) field trips. We report here an examination of learning gains at five colleges after intervention with augmented reality field trips to …


Interactive Storytelling: Opportunities For Online Course Design, Sally Baldwin, Yu-Hui Ching Mar 2017

Interactive Storytelling: Opportunities For Online Course Design, Sally Baldwin, Yu-Hui Ching

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Compelling interactive stories can be used to get and keep learners’ interest in online courses. Interactive storytelling presents information in a manner that involves learners by allowing them to connect with the content. Incorporating interactive storytelling into online education offers the potential to increase student interest and knowledge retention. Interactive storytelling also allows learners to create a personalized experience. By analyzing examples of interactive stories, we identified five features of interactive storytelling: dynamic presentation, data visualization, multisensory media, interactivity, and narration. We explain each feature, and its educational benefits, with illustrations provided from five interactive storytelling examples. We also discuss …


Lost In Translation: Wittgenstein As A Tragic Philosopher Of Education, Norm Friesen Jan 2017

Lost In Translation: Wittgenstein As A Tragic Philosopher Of Education, Norm Friesen

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

As a landmark philosopher of language and of mind, Ludwig Wittgenstein is also remarkable for having crossed, with apparent ease, the “continental divide” in philosophy. It is consequently not surprising that Wittgenstein’s work, particularly the Philosophical Investigations, has been taken up by philosophers of education in English. Michael A. Peters (1999), Christopher Winch (2002), Smeyers & Burbules (2010), and others (e.g., Aparece 2005) have engaged extensively with the implications of the later Wittgenstein’s philosophy for education. One challenge they face is Wittgenstein’s use of the word “training.” It appears throughout his discussions of language learning and in his periodic references …


Moving Beyond Smile Sheets: A Case Study On The Evaluation And Iterative Improvement Of An Online Faculty Development Program, Ken-Zen Chen, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Christine Bauer, Allan Heaps, Crystal Nielsen Jan 2017

Moving Beyond Smile Sheets: A Case Study On The Evaluation And Iterative Improvement Of An Online Faculty Development Program, Ken-Zen Chen, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Christine Bauer, Allan Heaps, Crystal Nielsen

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Institutions of higher education are struggling to meet the growing demand for online courses and programs, partly because many faculty lack experience teaching online. The eCampus Quality Instruction Program (eQIP) is an online faculty development program developed to train faculty to design and teach fully online courses. The purpose of this article is to describe the eQIP (one institution’s multipronged approach to online faculty development), with a specific focus on how the overall success of the program is evaluated using surveys, analytics, and social network analysis. Reflections and implications for improving practice are discussed.


Exploring Small Group Analysis Of Instructional Design Cases In Online Learning Environments, Jesus Trespalacios Jan 2017

Exploring Small Group Analysis Of Instructional Design Cases In Online Learning Environments, Jesus Trespalacios

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The case-based approach is a constructivist instructional strategy that helps students apply their emerging knowledge by studying design problems in authentic real-world situations. One important instructional strategy in case-based instruction is to analyze cases in small groups before discussing them with the whole class. This study investigates the use of small-group structure to analyze case studies in online learning environments, as well as students’ perceptions of the use of VoiceThread presentations to improve their learning of instructional design. The results show that a small group strategy has great potential to help students analyze case studies and consequently enhance learning. The …


Instructor Social Presence: Learners' Needs And A Neglected Component Of The Community Of Inquiry Framework, Jennier C. Richardson, Patrick Lowenthal Jan 2017

Instructor Social Presence: Learners' Needs And A Neglected Component Of The Community Of Inquiry Framework, Jennier C. Richardson, Patrick Lowenthal

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Social presence theory was the term first proposed in 1976 to explain how telecommunications influence how people communicate (Short, Williams, & Christie, 1976). Short and colleagues (1976) defined social presence as the degree of salience (i.e., quality or state of being there) between two communicators using a communication medium. This theory became particularly important for online educators trying to understand how people communicated in primarily text-based online courses during the 1990s (Lowenthal, 2009). In fact, social presence was identified as one of the core elements of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, a widely used guide for planning, developing, evaluating, …


Culture As A Design "Next": Theoretical Frameworks To Guide New Design, Development, And Research Of Learning Environments, Tutaleni I. Asino, Lisa A. Giacumo, Victoria Chen Jan 2017

Culture As A Design "Next": Theoretical Frameworks To Guide New Design, Development, And Research Of Learning Environments, Tutaleni I. Asino, Lisa A. Giacumo, Victoria Chen

Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the design ecosystem, culture is often ignored or relegated to the periphery, perhaps because some see it as a concept that is hard to explain or completely capture. To contribute to a new direction, our paper presents a portion of an on-going study integrating and recognizing culture in the design process. We argue that the “next’” focus of design should be an inclusion of culture into design practices; an inclusion that is merged into every stage instead of being treated as an afterthought – most notably, during the evaluation stage. There exist numerous models and guides exploring the role …


Brainbook: An Impact Study Of A Statewide Concussion Awareness Training For High-School Athletes, Quincy Conley, Willi Savenye Jan 2017

Brainbook: An Impact Study Of A Statewide Concussion Awareness Training For High-School Athletes, Quincy Conley, Willi Savenye

Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

With so much recent attention given to the diagnosis of, treatment of, and recovery from brain injuries, the sports world is now recognizing concussions as a major public health concern. This paper examines the impact of an e-learning course designed to improve student engagement by replicating popular social network features such as blog posts, videos, and the like. Also, this paper outlines the program overview, evaluation procedures, results, implications of the resulting data, and recommendations for further action. Evidence shows that learning took place as a result of taking the Brainbook course. Furthermore, it was found that high-school students had …


Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Mobile Learning In Korea, Youngkyun Baek, Hui Zhang, Seongchul Yun Jan 2017

Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Mobile Learning In Korea, Youngkyun Baek, Hui Zhang, Seongchul Yun

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mobile devices have become ubiquitous, and their uses are various. In schools, many discussions about mobile devices are ongoing as more and more teachers are adopting the technology for use in their classrooms. Teachers’ attitudes toward mobile learning takes an important role in initiating its usage in schools. This study aims to investigate the attitudes toward mobile learning among Korean teachers. The authors’ primary focus lies on the teachers’ attitudes toward mobile learning in view of their differences in gender, school level, teaching experience, and subjects taught. In order to find out teachers’ attitudes toward mobile learning, the Mobile Learning …


Social Presence And Communication Technology: Tales Of Trial And Error, Patrick Lowenthal, Dave Mulder Jan 2017

Social Presence And Communication Technology: Tales Of Trial And Error, Patrick Lowenthal, Dave Mulder

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Social presence, as evident in the chapters throughout this book, continues to be a hot topic in online education. Social presence resonates with people because education depends on effective communication, but communication changes when it is electronically mediated. From its inception, social presence theory has focused on how technology influences communication.