Education Commons^™

Design And Evaluation Of An E-Learning Service For Online Self-Presentation Education: A User-Centered Design Approach, Zhihua Dong

Open Access Theses

With the booming of Web 2.0, cyber recruiting becomes much more prevalence. This makes online self-presentation literacy a necessity for college students to prepare for better career opportunities. This study proposed to design and implement a working prototype of an online educational platform for college students to learn about online self-presentation management. The design and implementation of the working prototype followed an iterative design process, through which the design was created, evaluated, and improved. Within this process, cognitive walkthrough study, competitive analysis, and usability testing study were adopted as major methods to design and evaluate the prototype.

Through the design …

Analyzing Responses To Open Ended Questions For Spirit Using Aspect Oriented Sentiment Analysis, Animesh Jain

Open Access Theses

Open ended questions provide an effective way of measuring the attitude and perception of respondents towards a topic. Surprising Possibilities Imagined and Realized through Information Technology (SPIRIT) was a program (2008-2012) that employed open-ended questions to gauge program participants' attitudes related to computing. SPIRIT sought to increase the interest of high school students, especially female students, towards computing courses and careers. Pre- and post-attitude surveys were used during the program to measure the changes in attitudes of the participants towards IT and also to analyze the impact different sessions had on different demographic groups of participants. The open-ended survey questions …

Multiple Case Studies Of Stem Teachers' Orientations To Science Teaching Through Engineering Design, Madeline Grace Rupp

Open Access Theses

The following master's thesis is composed of two manuscripts describing STEM teachers' orientations to science teaching through engineering within the context of the Science Learning through Engineering Design (SLED) partnership. The framework guiding both studies was science teaching orientations, a component of pedagogical content knowledge. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews, multi-day classroom observations, pre- and post-observation interviews, implementation plans, and written reflections. Data sources were analyzed to generate two orientations to science teaching through engineering design for each participant.

The first manuscript illustrates a single case study conducted with a sixth grade STEM teacher. Results of this study revealed …

A Computer-Based Approach For Identifying Student Conceptual Change, Junchao Yan

Open Access Theses

Misconceptions are commonly encountered in many areas of science and engineering where a to-be-learned concept conflicts with prior knowledge. Conceptual change is an approach for identifying and repairing the misconceptions. One of the ways to promote student conceptual change is providing students with ontological schema training. However, assessment of conceptual change relies on qualitative analysis of student responses. With the exponential growth of qualitative data in the form of graphical representations or written responses, the process of data analysis relying on human experts has become time-consuming and costly. This study took the advantages of natural language processing and machine learning …

The Influence Of An Advanced Agriculture & Life Science Course On Students' Views Of The Nature Of Science, Megan N. Anderson

Open Access Theses

One of the goals in today's society is to ensure that students exiting school have the ability to understand, develop, and comprehend scientific information. For students to be able to meet these goals, it is imperative that they become scientifically literate and understand the concept of the Nature of Science (NOS). The discipline of Agricultural Education has strong connections with science and today many students are earning science credit and developing science understanding through Agricultural Education courses. If students are continuing to gain science mastery through their Agricultural Education courses, they should also be gaining adequate conceptions of science and …

An Exploratory Study Of Diversified Mentoring Relationships Among Graduate Students And Their Advisors In Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics Fields, Krystin R. Bodden

Open Access Theses

Minorities and women continue to be underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. In graduate education, factors such as racism, prejudice, discrimination, sexism, stereotypes, tokenism, and a lack of role models can all plague students and contribute to uncompleted degrees and non-entrance into STEM fields. One of the tools being used to combat these barriers is effective mentoring. Graduate students and their advisors generally have close working relationships and advisors serve in a tremendously important role in the development of the graduate student, so an effective mentoring relationship is vital.

The purpose of this study was to explore …

Eliciting And Characterizing Students’ Mental Models Within The Context Of Engineering Design, Chelsey Ann Dankenbring

Open Access Theses

Recently, science education reform documents have called for the incorporation of engineering principles and practices into the K-12 science standards and curriculum. One way this has been done is through the use of engineering design tasks as a way for students to apply their scientific understandings to real-world problems. However, minimal studies have documented students' conceptions within the context of engineering design. Thus, the first chapter of this thesis outlines the steps taken to develop a draw-and-explain item that elicited students' mental models regarding the cause of the four seasons after finishing an engineering design task. Students' mental models regarding …

Usability Testing Of The M.A.E.G.U.S. Serious Game, James He

Open Access Theses

Interpreting raw data in serious games and simulations can be a time consuming and uninteresting task without visualizations. This study proposes one possible solution for an interface that incorporates data visualizations for Whittinghill and Nataraja's (2013) MAEGUS simulation, a serious game used to increase the retention of wind energy and solar energy concepts in students, while still being fun. After the interface was designed and developed, a think aloud usability test was conducted to answer the following research questions: how do students use a series of information visualizations to operate a multi-variate game-based simulation and what are some the usability …

Career Intentions Of International Master Students In Hospitality And Tourism Management, Wenjun Li

Open Access Theses

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate career intentions of international master's students in hospitality and tourism management (HTM) in the United States. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of 19 participants at two different U.S. institutions. Interview questions were designed to better understand students' career intentions upon graduation and the determinants behind the plans. Results indicated that student's career intention should include measures of career decision self-efficacy, academic and career outcome expectations, and career exploration intentions. Unique personal background (e.g., gender and marital status, length of time in the U.S.), industrial working experience (e.g., internships), and …

M.A.E.G.U.S: Measuring Alternate Energy Generation Via Unity Simulation, Kavin Muhilan Nataraja

Open Access Theses

This paper presents the MAEGUS serious game and a study to determine its efficacy as a pedagogical tool. The MAEGUS serious game teaches sustainable energy concepts through gameplay simulating wind turbines and solar arrays. Players take the role of an energy manager for a city and use realistic data and information visualizations to learn the physical factors of wind and solar energy generation. The MAEGUS serious game study compares game assisted learning to a more traditional teaching method such as reading material in a crossover study, the results of which can inform future serious game development for educational purposes.

Integrating The Sap Software Into The Manufacturing Engineering Curriculum, Lin Qian

Open Access Theses

The concept of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) was developed to integrate data efficiently and eliminate redundancy within organizations. Worldwide industries rely on ERP systems to keep a competitive advantage in world market place. Besides, cross-functional knowledge is required in industry. It is critical that schools integrate ERP concepts and methods in to academic curricula for Technology and Engineering School.

This thesis examined the effectiveness of a simulation game as a method for teaching for ERP systems in Technology and Engineering. The quasi-experimental design was used in this study to determine if the SAP simulation game had an impact on students' …

Listening To Teacher Voices: Using Narrative Inquiry To Understand The Lives Of Beginning, Experienced And Veteran Female English Teachers, Tiffany Michelle Sedberry

Open Access Theses

Research shows that teacher retention is an issue of serious concern. Job dissatisfaction from personal and professional stressors is causing teachers at different experience levels to reevaluate their commitment to the classroom. Veteran teachers who complete their career are also evaluating whether or not teaching is worth what is invested. This project is grounded in narrative inquiry, in hopes of understanding the lives of female English language arts teachers. For the participants in this study, financial concerns and family commitments, issues of student accountability, and educational reform worry them equally. For all teachers, regardless of experience level, student apathy remains …

Sustainable Systems Thinking In Communication Design Education, Yvette M. Perullo

Open Access Theses

Design ingenuity and sustainability can, and should, work together. Designers have an ethical responsibility to provide ideas that do no harm, and better yet, create positive solutions that nourish the environment, social and cultural structures, and the economy. This approach, referred to as sustainable systems thinking--in contrast to more common design approaches--looks at a problem as an integrated component of an entire network. Sustainable systems thinking helps designers, clients, and consumers to consider who or what is connected to the design outcome, where the project will have positive and negative ecological, financial, cultural or social impacts, and make the entire …

Preschool Language And Phonological Proficiencies In Predicting Stuttering Recovery Or Persistence, Caroline E. Spencer

Open Access Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between expressive and receptive language, phonological, and verbal working memory proficiencies in the preschool years and eventual recovery from or persistence in stuttering. Participants included 40 children who stutter (CWS). At ages 3-5 years, participants were administered the Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language, 3rd edition (TACL-3), the Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test, 3rd edition (SPELT-3), Bankson-Bernthal Test of Phonology--Consonant Inventory subtest (BBTOP--CI), Test of Auditory Perceptual Skills--Revised (TAPS--R) auditory number memory and auditory word memory subtests, and the Dollaghan & Campbell Nonword Repetition Test (NRT). Stuttering behaviors were tracked …