Education Commons^™

Ensuring Culturally Inclusive Online Learning For International Students: A Delphi Study To Identify Requisite Instructor Competencies, Kristen Lina Heaster-Ekholm

Doctoral Dissertations

The dramatic expansion of online learning in U.S. higher education has been accompanied by a notable shift in the demographics of students enrolled in these courses. International students are among those participating in online courses in growing numbers, infusing the virtual space with greater cultural diversity. Many instructors are unprepared for this change. Culture plays an influential role in how we learn, yet instructors rarely consider it in the design and facilitation of their online courses. This can have a negative impact on learners and often affects international students in disproportionate ways. The purpose of this study was to identify …

Mandated Learning: Administrators' Perceptions Of Unfunded Mandates In Online Education, Ronald Aaron Hennen

Doctoral Dissertations

Online education has become a solution for many states to facilitate the growing requests from state legislatures to lower educational costs while meeting the academic needs of students. Legislation from Florida provided the impetus for this study, after Florida CS/CS/HB 7197 mandated that all students enroll in an online class for 1 credit as a graduation requirement. While the rationale for such legislation may be cost savings, for most school districts, implementation may be viewed as an unfunded state mandate. The purpose of this study was to examine administrator’s perceptions of mandated online teaching as an additional financial burden on …

Examining The Impact Of Course Modality And Course Content Presentation Modality On Undergraduate Grade Outcomes And Course Evaluations, Valerie E. Hogan-Sandi

Doctoral Dissertations

This study was conducted with students previously enrolled in an introduction to educational psychology course during the fall 2019 “F2F”, fall 2020 “online”, and fall 2021 “mixed” semesters, (N =515). The primary goal of this study was to examine how course modality, online and F2F, impacts certain course variables. Specifically, research questions examine how course modality impacts overall course performance, exam performance, homework completion, homework timeliness, and student ratings. Overall course grade, exam grades, and homework completion information were downloaded from Canvas and students identifying information were removed. De-identified student evaluation data were shared with the investigator.

A Kruskal-Wallis H …

Online Program Management Providers And Higher Education: A Revelatory Case Study On Value Co-Creation, Britta Svoboda

Doctoral Dissertations

With an increase in distance learning and online degree programs, many higher education institutions have partnered with online program management (OPM) providers, leading to a dramatic growth of the OPM industry over the past decade. The purpose of this study was to develop an empirically based understanding of the value proposition of entities of higher education partnering with OPMs through an in-depth, revelatory case study of value co-creation as experienced in the partnership between a doctoral research institution, specifically an academic department, and its OPM provider. The following research question guided this study: How does an OPM co-create value with …

“What’S Happening?” Assessing The Sustainability Of Virtual Professional Learning Communities On Social Media: A Quantitative Study Of ‘Sense Of Community’, Matthew Hensley

Doctoral Dissertations

While research has highlighted the multifaceted benefits of Twitter as an informal professional learning resource, there remains a lack of literature that adequately teases apart the dynamic underpinnings of these types of informal professional learning communities (Thacker, 2017; Visser et al., 2014). Greenhow & Gleason (2012) posited that there is a need to better understand Twitter’s place within the education profession, as well as “how participants understand their experiences and place within the Twitter community and beyond” (p. 473).

Grounded in ‘sense of community’ theory, this study examined ‘sense of community’ as a construct supporting the #SSChat community’s sustainability. Additionally, …

Academic Library Resources And Services For Online Distance Learners: An Exploratory Study, Roseanne Michele Sasso

Doctoral Dissertations

In this study distance learning library resources and services as provided by member institutions belonging to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) were examined. The goals of this study were (a) to identify the types of distance learning library resources and services being provided, and (b) to gain insight into the experiences and perspectives of Association of Research Libraries’ library personnel in delivering library resources and services to their distance learning library patrons. This exploratory study consisted of two phases, where both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Phase one involved a content analysis of member institution’s distance learning websites …

Learning To Teach Online: An Investigation Of The Impacts Of Faculty Development Training On Teaching Effectiveness And Attitudes Toward Online Instruction, Karen Elizabeth Brinkley

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between one approach to training for online faculty and the ways in which the program influenced the participants’ teaching effectiveness and attitudes toward online instruction. Two research questions guided this study: (1) how did participating in an intensive course redesign intervention influence instructors’ teaching effectiveness in the online environment? and (2) how did participating in the training influence instructors’ beliefs or attitudes about online teaching? The theoretical framework guiding this study was the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) model, developed by Mishra and Koehler (2005). Using a concurrent, mixed-methods design, …

The Relationship Between Demands And Resources And Teacher Burnout: A Fifteen-Year Meta-Analysis, Tammy Marie Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations

This meta-analysis explored the phenomenon of teacher burnout— the biggest contributor to teacher attrition (Owens, 2013; Unterbrink, 2014; Yu, 2015). The focus of this study was to use meta-analytical procedures to explore the relationship between burnout dimensions (i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of personal accomplishment) and specific demand and resource correlates. Demand correlates included work overload, role conflict, role ambiguity, and student misbehavior. Resource correlates included peer support, supervisory support, and decision-making. This meta-analytical research method encompassed fifteen years of published and unpublished studies from January 2000 through January 2015. A total of 116 studies met the following inclusion …

A Study Of Alabama Educators' Perceptions Of Electronically Delivered Professional Development Modules, Joel Wayne Mccay

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to discover which technological delivery media (web-based, CD-ROM, PDF documents as downloadable files for print from the Internet) Alabama public school educators select most often for delivery of their own professional development, as learning modules, why they select them, and whether or not they prefer those modes of professional development to the more traditional modes previously experienced. There were 28 participants in this study.

The questionnaire which attempted to assess the role of the media for delivery of professional development learning modules was specifically designed for this research. Demographic information collected from the 28 …