Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

A Mindful Search For Basic Writing Identities: Constellating Contemplative Classroom Pedagogies, Classroom Community Circles, And Critical Discourse Analysis In A Cultural Rhetorics Ecology, Elizabeth Edwards Weems

English Theses & Dissertations

Many Basic Writing students have stories which are informed by traumas, othering, and marginalization. Finding pedagogies which address students’ stories, in addition to meeting academic goals, is crucial. Sometimes, students question how improving their reading and writing skills can help them navigate other areas of their education and experiences, especially their lives outside of academia. I have worked to create a kairotic pedagogy which invites students to read and write ‘the word and the world’ (Freire, 1970; 1988). Using Contemplative Classroom Pedagogies, I attempted to follow Freire’s (1992) call to make “teaching a creative act, a critical act, and not …

Expanding A Mechanical Engineering Technology Curriculum To Include Additive Manufacturing, Hamid Eisazadeh, Mona Torabizadeh

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has become a game changer for the manufacturing industry. With growing implementation of AM in various industries, it is the responsibility of different levels of education to expose students to AM technologies and to integrate AM into their curriculum. It is well known that students who gain the skillsets of today’s industry have a better chance in getting a competitive job. In response to this need, a new senior level elective course on AM, has been developed for the first time in Old Dominion University (ODU) region in the South. The course was developed and taught by …

When Failure Is An Option: A Scoping Review Of Failure States In Game-Based Learning, F. Eamonn Powers, Robert L. Moore

STEMPS Faculty Publications

As interest in the use of games and gaming elements within learning environments grows, educators and designers may find it easier to account for winning than for losing and failure. This scoping review examines the role of failure and loss within game-based instructional interventions. Because of the varied methods and relatively small number of articles directly addressing the intersection between failure and loss within game-based instructional interventions, a scoping review was undertaken. This review included 14 peer-reviewed articles which explored a range of instructional contexts implementing failure state game mechanics. We identify several key takeaways that indicate how failure state …

Exploring Student Perceptions Of Flipgrid In Online Courses, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Robert L. Moore

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Asynchronous video-based discussions have affordances that can address some of the constraints of asynchronous text-based discussions. However, little research has been conducted on the use of asynchronous video-based discussions in online courses. As a result, the purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate students’ perceptions of using Flipgrid for asynchronous video-based discussions in fully online courses. We used a cross-sectional survey design to survey 79 students who used Flipgrid in a fully online course. Students overall reported that they liked using Flipgrid, it was easy to use, and that it helped improve social presence. In this paper, we will …

Transformative Learning And The Power Of Experience Contextualized In Tertiary-Level Study Abroad, Colleen M. Kolb

Educational Foundations & Leadership Master’s Level Projects/Papers

The study abroad experience for many students is ineffable by nature. Teasing this apart and understanding how to maximize student learning abroad can lead to more enriched and potentially transformative experiences. There is little training offered to faculty and administrators at most American institutions about how to integrate study abroad learning into the wider higher education curriculum before, during, and after a global experience. By utilizing transformative learning theory (TLT) and experiential learning theory (ELT), this thesis provides a space for thought to conceptualize study abroad as a fully integrated part of the college curriculum that enhances the learner experience …

"Meet Me At The 50": A Critical Discourse Analysis Of How Higher Education Curriculum Is Meeting The Needs Of Black, Male Student-Athletes, Julia Diane Morris

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

The overarching goal of this research is to make proverbial payments towards Ladson-Billings’ (2006) “education debt” owed to historically resilient populations by promoting equitable and democratic practices in all facets of education. Black men, specifically those who participate in athletics, are advocated for in this research because these men identify as part of a community of voices who are not only historically oppressed but are being failed by current educational practices. Further, student-athletes provide a predetermined and specific sociocultural context, and thus social location, by which to compare how various types of critical literacy assignments are addressing said contexts. Using …

Community College Faculty And Administrators' Perceptions Of Civic Engagement In General Education, Eric Thomas Vanover

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The President’s Commission on Higher Education (1947) firmly established civic engagement as a principle function of higher education. The report emphasized college-level learning as a democratic function by producing informed, active citizens essential to the future of American democracy. Chickering (2008) argued the United States faced a critical lack of engaged citizenship and in A Crucible Moment (2012), this concern was declared an outright emergency. In recent years many colleges and universities have re-embraced civic engagement as an important component of general education. Although the establishment of community colleges was a direct result of the Truman Commission’s report, the literature …

Design A Class Infusion Project Of Asme Geometric Dimensioning And Tolerancing Standard, Cheng Y. Lin, Hamid Eisazadeh, Alok K. Verma

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

This paper describes the development of a short course of Geometric Dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) for Mechanical Engineering (ME)/Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) students in their freshman/sophomore classes. This class-infusion project was assisted and validated by an ASME Standards and Certification Engineer and was jointly sponsored by the ASME Committee on Engineering Education and the ASME Council on Standards and Certification. To assess the performance of the project, an instrument was developed with multiple-choice problems and survey questions for the students. The results of a field test in a sophomore manufacturing class are presented. The module is available at the ASME …

Students At A Crossroads: Ta Development Across Pedagogical And Curricular Contexts, Cassandra Ann Book

English Theses & Dissertations

A longstanding question in rhetoric and composition has been how to best educate composition graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs). Although many assume that writing centers are useful spaces for TAs to practice pedagogy and learn about writing processes in preparation for classroom teaching, recent scholarship complicates the claim that transfer from writing centers and/or practicums into composition classrooms is straightforward. Moreover, no study fully considers how the role of the writing center and teaching writing in English MA programs intersects with students’ development as teachers, writers, and scholars. This project brings together several strands of scholarship—the transferability of writing center experience …

I Had To Do The Reading: A Phenomenological Case Study Of College English Students, Jennifer Eleanor Frank

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

The purposes of this qualitative phenomenological case study were to investigate multiple student experiences in a general elective introduction to literature course when music was added as an autonomously structured assignment. Music and song lyrics are no strangers to the classroom setting, but there is a gap in the literature examining the space where students can create meaningful links between music they enjoy and assigned course readings in college English. Informed by social constructivism and English studies theories this study was designed to investigate any impact that autonomously driven music-link assignments may have on students. The structured assignments were called …

Self-Regulated Learning Strategies Vs Evidence-Based Study Strategies, Wanda Brooks, Linda Bol

College of Education & Professional Studies (Darden) Posters

There is a growing concern about students entering college only to drop out or change majors after a semester or more of study. There are multiple reasons for this including personal reasons that may have nothing to do with academics, of course, but sometimes students switch to different majors because they feel that their original choice is too difficult after not doing well in the required introductory courses. Training in self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies may enable students to gain the skills necessary (e.g., making goals, planning, organization) to succeed in gateway courses that have a minimum grade requirement. These behaviors …

A Multi Case Study Of Community College Discipline Faculty’S Participation In A Disciplinary Literacy Professional Learning Community, Kristen Howell Gregory

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

Many students enter college with inadequate reading, writing, and critical thinking skills to successfully navigate discipline-specific college-level coursework (Duff, 2010; Hyland, 2006; Lea & Street, 1998; Tsui, 2002). As such, college faculty, and specifically community college faculty, are challenged to meet the multiple literacy needs of their students while still maintaining high expectations within their discipline-specific courses. One option is for discipline faculty (e.g., history) to integrate disciplinary literacy instruction within their courses. As discipline faculty are deemed experts in their content area and often not trained in literacy, professional development focused on disciplinary literacy could provide the knowledge and …

Graves, R. & Hyland, T. (Eds.). (2017) Writing Assignments Across University Disciplines. Bloomington, In: Trafford., Daniel P. Richards

English Faculty Publications

[First paragraph] For the last three years, I have been part of a team of multi-disciplinary faculty that holds a weeklong workshop each semester for approximately twenty teachers. These teachers, migrating to our cozy space in the library from all corners of campus, have applied—they get paid a modest sum, which is not nothing—to attend our workshop in the hopes of improving their ability to integrate writing assignments into their courses. The workshops are part of a larger initiative, Improving Disciplinary Writing, which was borne out of a needs assessment from our regional assessment body. It is designed to bring …

Curriculum For An Introductory Computer Science Course: Identifying Recommendations From Academia And Industry, Simon G. Sultana, Philip A. Reed

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to define the course content for a university introductory computer science course based on regional needs. Delphi methodology was used to identify the competencies, programming languages, and assessments that academic and industry experts felt most important. Four rounds of surveys were conducted to rate the items in the straw models, to determine the entries deemed most important, and to understand their relative importance according to each group. The groups were then asked to rank the items in each category and attempt to reach consensus as determined by Kendall's coefficient of concordance. The academic experts …

The Effects Of Group-Based Context Personalization On Learning Outcomes And Motivation, Jessica J. Resig

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The rise of online course enrollments in higher education has highlighted the need to establish and validate effective online instructional strategies focused on improving learning outcomes and affective responses towards instruction. One such strategy, group-based context personalization, frames instructional materials within contexts relevant to shared interests among groups of students. This study sought to investigate the effects of group-based context personalization on learning outcomes and motivation towards the instruction when materials were contextualized based on a learner’s academic major.

This study employed a true experimental design to explore the effects of group-based context personalization on learning outcomes and motivation for …

Developing A Career Development Assessment For Predicting Young Stem Graduates’ Employability And Career Barriers, Yi-Ching Lin

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The increased concern of declining STEM candidates could negatively impact the U.S. economy (Kelic & Zagnoel, 2009; Maltese & Tai, 2010). Previous studies suggest that the gap between the supply of STEM students in higher education and workface demand is not reflected merely in the number of STEM graduates but instead in the number of qualified STEM graduates who could satisfy STEM workforce demands (Kelic & Zagnoel, 2009; Lowell & Salzman, 2007). The current study used Rae’s employability theory (Rae, 2007) to develop an assessment for evaluating student’s career development in STEM during their higher education. Unlike other instruments focusing …

Overview Of Game And Content Design For A Mobile Game That Will Prepare Students In Calculus And Physics Prerequisites To The Engineering Curriculum, Katherine Smith, John Shull, Patrick Sean Heaney, Yuzhong Shen, Anthony W. Dean, Jennifer G. Michaeli

VMASC Publications

As part of a research project which assists veterans as they exit the military, complete engineering degrees, and enter the workforce as engineering professionals, a range of serious games for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is under development. The current focus of this development is CAPTIVATE, a serious game to assist student veterans in mastering the calculus and physics skills that are necessary prerequisites to the main engineering curriculum. Building on the development and lessons learned from MAVEN, a game developed previously to help student veterans master precalculus skills, the design and initial implementation for CAPTIVATE involves careful …

Using Pre-Calculus And Calculus Student Work To Examine Student Problem Solving Abilities In Online And Face-To-Face Mathematics Courses, Sarah Catherine Ferguson

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

This study compares the outcomes of student learning between two pairs of courses. Each pair of courses consists of an online section and a face-to-face section. One pair of courses focuses on pre-calculus content while the second pair focuses on calculus content. Both pairs of courses are taught by the same instructor using the same course appropriate materials. Participants for this study include 9 online and 14 face-to-face pre-calculus students and 14 online and 23 face-to-face calculus students from an urban community college in the southeastern portion of the U.S. Written responses from the subjects to a collection of problems …

Research Trends In The Use Of Mobile Learning In Mathematics, Helen Crompton, Diane Burke

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The use of mobile learning in education is growing at an exponential rate. To best understand how mobile learning is being used, it is crucial to gain a collective understanding of the research that has taken place. This research was a systematic review of 36 studies in mobile learning in mathematics from the year 2000 onward. Eight new findings emerged: (1) The primary purpose of most studies was to focus on evaluating mobile learning. (2) Case studies and experimental design were the main research methods. (3) Most studies report positive learning outcomes; (4) Mobile phones were the mobile device used …

Students' Experiences With Different Course Delivery Modalities: On Campus, Online, And Satellite, Mark C. Rehfuss, Andrea Kirk-Jenkins, Tammi F. Dice

Counseling & Human Services Faculty Publications

In an effort to adapt to the technological advances of this century, the training of human services professionals has grown from traditional classrooms and satellite programs to online education. Many human services programs are under pressure from their universities and students to expand into online education. This study examined 252 students’ experiences and perceptions of their Bachelors of Science program as it transitioned to offering courses online in addition to on campus and satellite sites. Students’ narrative responses reflected 4 themes: convenience, interactions, learning preference, and technology. These themes and their implications for educators and students are discussed.

An Exploration Of Student Experiences With Learner-Centered Instructional Strategies, Jill E. Stefaniak, Monica W. Tracey

STEMPS Faculty Publications

In this exploratory study, we examined how undergraduate students experience learning in a learner-centered teaching environment and their perceptions of motivation towards learning material in an introductory public speaking communications course. Six faculty members participated in a semester-long study where their teaching strategies were observed. Three faculty members participated in a cognitive apprenticeship where they were taught how to implement learner-centered instructional strategies into their coursework. Participants were 109 students who were enrolled in an introductory public speaking course. Data was collected by means of classroom observations, interviews, and the administration of a survey. Our findings indicated that students who …

At The College Gates: A Phenomenological Study Of Stem Identity Formation At A Stem Program At A Historical Black University, Maria O'Hearn

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

Melguizo and Wolniak (2011) contend that increasing the success of underrepresented minority students in STEM fields is a significant national and state policy issue given the data showing gaps in gender and racial/ethnic bachelors degree completion rates in these fields (Rask, 2010). Recommendations made by the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE, 2013) highlight the importance of school structures as being fundamental for improving the STEM pipeline from high school to college for underrepresented minority students. Thus, the purposes of this study were to describe the lived experiences of African American students attending a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and …

Student Perceptions Of Online Course Quality: A Comparison By Academic Discipline, Brian Riley Wilcox

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The recent rapid proliferation of distance education necessitates the need for strong levels of academic accountability. An important factor found to influence and predict student success is students' perceptions of their online courses. Understanding how learners perceive their online learning environment is paramount to effective course design and implementation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate community college students' perceptions of online education.

IHEP benchmarks for quality in distance education were used develop a web-based survey designed to measure if students' perceptions of online course quality differed across academic disciplines, what factors impacted students' perceptions of online course …

Using Wikis To Support Peer Assessment Activities In Higher Education, Yanyan Sun, Teresa Franklin, Tian Luo

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This study explored the effectiveness of using wikis as an environment to support peer-assessment in higher education settings. The participants of this study were nineteen per-serviced teachers who enrolled in an undergraduate course on the application of instructional technologies in classroom. In the study, the participants created their personal wiki pages within a course wiki and formed groups of three or four. Five peer-assessment activities were assigned, in which the participants uploaded their class projects to their wiki pages and went to their group member’s pages to provide feedback. The participants were expected to evaluate other’s projects in terms of …

An Examination Of The Predictive Relationship Between Mode Of Instruction And Student Success In Introductory Biology, Lynette Kathleen Hauser

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Community colleges continue to increase online course offerings as these institutions strive to offer open access, cost effective education to a growing student population. With an increased student demand for online learning, community colleges should explore the possibility of offering all courses in the online environment, including science courses. The purpose of this quantitative research was to investigate the success of non-science major students in biology 102 on campus comparing students who completed biology 101 online to students who completed biology 101 on campus within Virginia community colleges. This was the first multi institutional, multi semester study of community college …

The Effects Of Group Size On Student Learning, Student Contributions, \Mental Effort, And Group Outcomes For Middle-Aged Adults Working In An Ill-Structured Problem-Solving Environment, Gary Lee Roemmich

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Group work has become increasingly important within adult education as educators strive to present students with problems and processes that they encounter in their professional lives. In many work environments, individuals are expected to function as a part of a team to solve complex problems. Consequently, there has been a shift towards teaching students how to solve problems as part of a group rather than individually. An important question becomes "What size group maximizes students learning?" This study compared student learning, student participation levels, and mental effort for middle-aged, professional students in large (six students) and small groups (three students) …

A Focus On Technological Literacy In Higher Education, John M. Ritz

STEMPS Faculty Publications

[First Paragraph] Technological literacy continues to be an important construct for learners in all societies.Quite often it is a knowledge area not required of university students unless they are engineering or technology majors. If the mission of design and technology education is literacy for all, this same mission should apply at the university level. An analysis was made of 256 students to determine their attitudes of knowledge gained from a general studies technological literacy course. The course was offered at the 100 level and was designed to expose students to various technologies so they would have a better foundation for …

Implementer Perceptions Of Washington State's Integrated Basic Education And Skills Training (I-Best) Program, Robert W. Fox

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Basic skills instruction has had poor success in equipping adults with the training needed in today's global economy. The educational leaders in Washington State realized the necessity of rapidly equipping adults with career skills and developed the Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) program to meet workforce needs. In 2004, Washington State piloted the I-BEST program in ten institutions, but it has since expanded to all 34 of the State's community colleges. I-BEST is an instructional method which provides basic skills support to ABE and ESL students while they receive career training. I-BEST uniquely pairs a basic skills instructor …

Criminology And Criminal Justice: Differences In Programs At The Master's Level, Ruth Triplett, Elizabeth Monk-Turner

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Our aim in this work is to: (1) determine how distinct the program structure and curriculum content for graduate education in Criminology was compared to Criminal Justice; and (2) evaluate whether the diversity or consistency of the curriculum in either field varied depending of what type of department was offering the degree. Differences in department titles, hours required for the M.A. degree, program descriptions, curriculum content and curriculum content by department type between M.A. programs in Criminology and Criminal Justice were examined. The results suggested there is both consistency and difference in program structure and in curriculum content across the …

The Impact Of On-Line Training On College Faculty Attitudes And Knowledge Of Students With Disabilities, Wayne M. Pollock

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Due to legislation, advances in technology, and hopefully, a more positive social acceptance, students with disabilities are entering college at a faster rate than has ever been experienced. Data reveal that the largest increase in identified disabilities of incoming college freshmen are in the area of learning disabilities. However, many students with disabilities do not complete their college education, partly due to faculty members' lack of knowledge about various disabilities, less than accepting attitudes, and the lack of accommodations made for them. Using the Scale of Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons (SADP) and the Disability Knowledge Questionnaire, the impact of an …