Educational Technology Commons^™

Investigating Teachers' Perceptions Of An Ai-Powered Educational Platform In Stem Teaching And Learning, Manhal Moosa Elemam

Thesis/ Dissertation Defenses

This study investigates teachers' perceptions of the Alef platform's influence on student engagement and learning progress within STEM teaching and learning in the context of UAE public schools. Understanding how teachers perceive such platforms is important, as their interpretation and use shape how these tools are integrated in everyday classroom practice. While AI-powered platforms are often celebrated for their adaptive potential, their actual impact on teaching practices and learner outcomes depends on how teachers perceive, interpret, and implement these tools in daily instruction. Engagement and learning progress are central constructs in this investigation. To explore these relationships, the study adopts …

Enhancing Student Engagement In Numerical Methods: The Impact Of Alternative Grading Practices, Vivek Singhal, Kenan Baltaci, Oai Ha

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version of this introduction here.

Student engagement is critical for achieving positive academic and social outcomes. However, maintaining high engagement levels in challenging math-based courses like numerical methods can be difficult. This study addresses this challenge by implementing two assessment-based strategies: a bonus point self-assessment rubric and peer evaluations. These interventions aim to incentivize engagement and reward essential skills such as effort and teamwork, which are often overlooked by traditional grading systems but are crucial for success beyond the classroom. While existing research highlights the potential benefits of self-assessments and peer evaluations, there is limited evidence …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 9, Issue 2, Fall 2025

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full-length Fall 2025 issue (Volume 9, Issue 2) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version (with downloadable EPUB format) here.

This issue of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence brings together articles that highlight approaches for engaging students and broader communities through teaching, coaching, and assessment in higher education. The contributions examine community-engaged learning in graduate coursework, the use of coaching practices to support student-centered teaching and advising, Cooperative Extension staff readiness for virtual instruction, and alternative assessment strategies aimed at increasing engagement and reducing anxiety in challenging STEM courses. Collectively, the articles …

Maybe It Really Is Those Damn Phones, Sarah F. Garvin

Honors Projects

Technology is an integral part of modern life and has extended into elementary classrooms where one-to-one device programs have become the norm. While technology can increase accessibility to education, its widespread integration in learning environments raises concerns about its long-term impact on students and teachers. This research critically examines gamified learning applications and technology use in elementary education, questioning whether they enhance learning, curiosity, and problem-solving skills. A qualitative methods approach was employed, using surveys and interviews conducted with educators in Seattle Public Schools to assess the effects of technology-driven instruction. The resulting data were analyzed through thematic analysis to …

Motivation Generation: An Ai's Strength And Student Engagement In The Alternative-Setting Science Classroom, Matthew Scotkovsky

Graduate Research - College of Education

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that continues to become increasingly more prevalent, for better or worse, in the classroom. One such way that it has seen use in the classroom is in the generation of lesson plans by teachers who use AI-driven large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. To see if these LLMs are, or could be, a reliable way to craft lessons as the technology continues to improve, the purpose of this study is to determine if a correlation exists between the strength of these different LLMs (measured in “parameters”) and the levels …

Raising Student Engagement With Instructional Videos Through Personalized Feedback, Hope Y. Kelly Phd

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Discover how personalized feedback and targeted video content impacted student engagement and completion rates in a library instruction module at Virginia Commonwealth University.

• Understand the theoretical reasoning that supports simple methods of personalized feedback and its impact on student engagement.

• Gain insights into the benefits of action research in instructional design utilizing analytics tools from a video streaming platform (Kaltura).

• Explore strategies for improving persistence and completion rates of library instruction modules.

Demonstrates how libraries can uplift and support students through reflective instructional strategies. By sharing the methods and results of this action research, gain practical insights into enhancing student …

Gamification In Education: Its Impact On Engagement, Motivation, And Learning Outcomes, Hansika Ukgoda

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Gamification, integrating game design elements into educational contexts, has emerged as a promising strategy to enhance student engagement, motivation, and learning outcomes. This systematic review synthesizes findings from 41 peer-reviewed studies published between 2012 and 2023, offering a comprehensive overview of the current state of gamification in education. Following PRISMA guidelines, the review evaluates the effectiveness of gamification elements such as points, badges, and leaderboards. Key Findings indicate that while gamification can foster positive learning attitudes and competition, its effectiveness depends on the context. The impact of game elements on engagement and motivation varies based on the learning environment and …

Online Inclusivity: Mission And Best Practice, Colin P. Marks, Zoe Niesel

Faculty Works

This essay examines the role of inclusivity as a foundational principle in online legal education, arguing that it is essential to fulfilling institutional missions, aligning with established pedagogical best practices, and enhancing the overall learning experience. Drawing on the development of a fully online J.D. program, the piece outlines how inclusivity can be embedded at both the institutional and classroom levels. It highlights strategies for fostering a sense of community among geographically dispersed students, including integrating online learners into broader academic and co-curricular activities, designing courses that balance synchronous and asynchronous instruction, and implementing consistent instructional standards. The essay further …

Tech-Forward Learning: Text-To-Speech Impact On Catholic High School Students, Dennise A. Leyva

Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study was conducted to improve instructional support for diverse learners in a Southeast Florida Catholic high school by exploring teachers’ use of the Apple iPad accessibility feature, text-to-speech (TTS). Although this Catholic high school implemented a 1:1 iPad program, many teachers had limited experience using the built-in TTS feature to meet the diverse needs of students, including English Language Learners and those with reading difficulties. Teachers often used conventional approaches that failed to integrate assistive technology for inclusive and equitable learning.

The researcher conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with six high school teachers to examine their experiences implementing the …

Ai In Education: Teaching, Learning, And Thinking With Machines, Mary Strawderman, Jesse Senechal, Eric Ekholm, Jason Vest, Moe Greene, Dawn Johnson, Daniel Case, Oscar Keyes, Yaoying Xu, Robert Godwin-Jones, Kait Donahue, Kim Elmore, Haley Hendershot, Amy Corning, Paulina Guerrero, Samaher Aljudaibi, Justin Thurston

AI in Education: Teaching, Learning, and Thinking with Machines

This collection from the Humanities Research Center (HRC) Digital Technology in Education (DTE) working group arose from questions around how rapidly emerging generative AI tools are reshaping teaching and learning in K-12 and higher education. The contributions, loosely organized around ethics, policy, and practice, adopt a humanities lens to probe how generative AI and other emerging digital technologies impact human values, experiences, and social structures, surfacing their philosophical, ethical, cultural, and societal implications for schooling. From the perspectives of practitioners and interdisciplinary scholars, the pieces showcase various dimensions of AI's creative potential in education, while also questioning its limitations and …

The Impact Of Student Engagement Activities On Future Climate Change Adaptation: The Case Of Student Simulation Models, Bassel Mostafa Elkalaf

Future Journal of Social Science

This paper explores the critical role of student engagement in addressing the growing challenges of climate change, with a focus on the Model United Nations (MUN) as a case study. As climate-related security threats increase globally, educational platforms that prepare youth for effective leadership in climate politics are more essential than ever. MUN, a widely practiced student activity simulating global policy-making, provides a valuable opportunity for students to deepen their understanding of the interconnectedness between climate change, peace, and security. By participating in MUN simulations, students engage in debates, develop innovative solutions, and practice diplomatic skills, all while exploring the …

Understanding How Social Media Influences Student Engagement Within The Classroom: Middle Grades Students' Perspectives., Anthony Dawyne Myrks-Brewer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigated the concept of student engagement and participation through the lens of middle school students. Studies and research show that overall student engagement amongst middle school-aged students is the most unengaged period throughout students' K-12 educational journey. Today's students live in a completely different generation from their guardians and parents due to the technology component, including smartphones making the element of social media more accessible. Social media is a platform that helps people communicate through various applications, and middle school students engage and participate in various social media applications daily. Student engagement is a critical component within education …

How Does Vr Affect Motivation, Engagement, Performance And Student Interest In High School Science?, Ann Marie Carrier

Dissertations

This study investigates the impact of virtual reality (VR) on high school science students' motivation, engagement, performance, and interest in STEM disciplines. Building on Huang et al. (2021), this research replicates and extends their findings, focusing on how different levels of VR immersion influence learning outcomes. The study aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE). Utilizing a quasi-experimental design, 123 high school students experienced varying levels of immersive VR via the Titans of Space Plus app on Meta Quest 2 headsets and desktop computers. Study population included 55% males, 45% minorities, and …

Undergraduate Student Sense Of Belonging And Edtech Tool Engagement: A Mixed Methods Exploration Of The Virtual Campus Experience, Veronica Wilson

Dissertations

The contemporary postsecondary learning experience is heavily mediated by educational technology (EdTech) tools and yet little is known about the ways in which these tools impact student engagement and sense of belonging, two indicators which are important to student persistence and graduation. Using Strayhorn’s (2023) critical socioecological sense of belonging framework, this convergent mixed methods study offers insights into these relationships by examining student engagement with EdTech and student sense of belonging and the impact of student traits on the relationship between EdTech and sense of belonging. This study was conducted at a private, broad access Hispanic-Serving Institution in the …

Investigating Factors Influencing Chinese Private College Students’ Engagement In Emergency Online Learning, Limei Cao

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Online learning has witnessed a rapid growth following its widespread adoption across global higher education throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic. Although online learning was intended to maintain continuity of education during the public health emergency, the issue of student engagement in emergency online learning (EOL) has risen to prominence. Given the close association between student engagement and academic outcomes, investigating factors influencing student engagement in EOL is crucial for informing effective educational policies and interventions that support student success. In the absence of a comprehensive theoretical model for understanding student engagement in the unique context of EOL, this study proposed …

Www (When Websites Work): Students’ Perceptions Of Their Engagement When Using A Website Creation Tool, Jamie J. Els

Perspectives In Learning

When students find value in technology and can apply that technology in their learning and beyond, they become more actively engaged in the classroom. After having first-year seminar students use Web 2.0 technology, specifically a website creation tool as part of an assignment, they participated in a survey to provide feedback over their engagement in creating a Google Sites® website. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected and analyzed to determine students’ perceptions of their engagement when using website creation tools to complete a modified discussion assignment. Results indicated students were significantly more engaged than the normal population when they used …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 7, Issue 2, Fall 2023

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full-length Fall 2023 issue (Volume 7, Issue 2) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version (with downloadable EPUB format) here.

The Fall 2023 issue presents research and guidance on topics related to educational adaptation. The first article by C. Farrell describes an adaptation of the interteaching method to the hybrid delivery method. The second article by C. C. Loose and R. Jagielo-Manion describes a study of modules on personalized learning to preservice teachers and its impact on their comfort level and preparation to implement personalized learning in their classrooms. The third article by B. …

Ap Statistics Students’ Conceptions Of Engagement And Technology In A Flipped Classroom: A Phenomenographical Study, Kimberly Gile

Doctor of Education in Instructional Technology Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to study student engagement and disengagement within an AP Statistics course using flipped classroom strategies. Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding, Dewey’s Active Learning Theory, the Microsystem of Student Engagement in a Flipped Classroom, and the Framework for Engagement with Mathematics were the theoretical foundation for this study. A phenomenographical methodology was followed to answer the question: How do AP Statistics students experience engagement in the flipped classroom? as well as the sub questions: Which learning experiences help to engage students and why? And which learning experiences contribute to student disengagement and why? …

An Investigation Of The Advantages And Disadvantages Of University Students As Avatars In Virtual Learning Spaces, Gary Burnett, Catherine Harvey

International Journal of Emerging and Disruptive Innovation in Education : VISIONARIUM

Authors have noted the increasing importance of avatars in Higher Education, as more teaching is conducted virtually, drawing upon gaming conventions. However, it is also recognised that little is known about how students make use of avatars (especially over an extended period) and the subsequent impact on learning experiences. For the last three years, a university module has been conducted within a persistent virtual world – where students (49 in 2020; 95 in 2021; 122 in 2022) predominantly interact with each other and teaching staff in avatar form. Observation data constitutes 60 hours of video recordings of virtual world seminars. …

Engaging Young Female Students In Digital Technology Programs: Part One, Sarah Buckley, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Kristy Osborne, Celia Mcneilly, Shani Sniedze, Rachel Felgate

Digital learning research

This report is part of a larger project commissioned by CSIRO and designed to highlight the enablers and barriers to young female students engaging with digital technology. By addressing this function, the report will thereby aid CSIRO to increase the participation of young female students in the digital technology programs offered by CSIRO’s Education and Outreach (CEdO) unit. CSIRO’s Digital Careers team have developed activities and resources to enhance and extend students’ computational thinking skills and to develop other integral skills such as teamwork, critical and creative thinking, and problem solving. In collaboration with industry partners, CEdO are responsible for …

Engaging Young Female Students In Digital Technology Programs: Part Two, Kristy Osborne, Rachel Felgate, Sarah Buckley

Digital learning research

This report is part of a larger project commissioned by CSIRO and designed to highlight the enablers and barriers to young female students engaging with digital technology through a primary research project. This research aimed to gain insight from teachers, students and tertiary educators in order to trace the pathway from primary through to tertiary digital technology education. The perspectives of these stakeholders are compared with the findings from Part One of the project. Part Two of the larger project relates to a primary research project designed to gain further insight into the factors that facilitate and hinder young female …

Institutional Support For Academic Engagement In Online And Blended Learning Environments: Exploring Affective, Behavioral, And Cognitive Dimensions, Charles R. Graham, Jered Borup, Sara Tuiloma, Adriana Martínez Arias, Ross Larsen

Faculty Publications

In light of the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders of higher education institutions around the world have been contemplating ways to help their universities engage in a digital transformation that must have student engagement and learning as the foremost considerations. This study reports on the work conducted at a university in Colombia that created an evaluation instrument based on the Academic Communities of Engagement (ACE) framework (Borup et al., 2020) to examine how well the institution was supporting the affective, behavioral, and cognitive (ABC) dimensions of engagement in its online and blended learning course offerings. This survey, the …

Understanding The Role Of Online Teaching Assistants In Student Engagement, Sara H. Tuiloma, Charles R. Graham

Faculty Publications

In this paper, we examine how online teaching assistants (OLTAs) interact with students in terms of affective, behavioral, and cognitive support and the influence of OLTA training on these interactions. Through a thematic network analysis, using a tracking instrument and semi-structured interviews with 10 OLTAs, we examined how online university students are supported based on the quantity and quality of interactions with OLTAs, and how training contributes to interactions. Our research addressed two key questions: (1) How do OLTAs support learners in the quantity and quality of interactions? and (2) How does OLTA training around affective and behavioral support influence …

An Exploration Of Institutional And Personal Barriers To Online Academic Engagement At A Brazilian University, Cinthia Bittencourt Spricigo, Bárbara Maria Camilotti, Charles R. Graham, Ruth Baptista

Faculty Publications

The recent global pandemic has raised institutional awareness around the world concerning the importance of having high quality online learning options for students. Learner engagement is often correlated with quality outcomes such as student academic success and student satisfaction. Learner engagement is commonly thought of as having three important dimensions: affective engagement, behavioral engagement, and cognitive engagement (ACE framework). Engagement is also enabled or limited by facilitators/barriers. Three important categories of facilitators/barriers are learner characteristics, personal environment, and course environment. Elements in each of these three areas enable or are barriers to students fully engaging in a course. This research …

Analyzing The Effectiveness Of Different Media To Enhance Mathematical Discourse, Kyle Och

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This qualitative and quantitative study compared the effect of paper-pencil work in a mathematical discourse with problems and prompts presented virtually through various technological tools. The participants of this study were ninth and tenth grade students in two separate blocks of geometry class. These classes consisted of predominantly White students split into class sizes of 26 and 21. Since students were separated into two different geometry classes, one class was given paper problems and discussion prompts while the other received problems and prompts through Desmos Classroom Activities. This way, a quantitative analysis of three data points could be compared between …

Foundations Of Online Learning: Challenges And Opportunities, Christine Greenhow, Charles R. Graham, Matthew J. Koehler

Faculty Publications

Online learning—learning that involves interactions that are mediated through using digital, typically internet-based, technology—is pervasive, multi-faceted, and evolving, creating opportunities and challenges for educational research in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this special issue, we advance an interdisciplinary agenda for online learning research at the intersection of educational technology, educational psychology, and the learning sciences. In this first article in the issue, we define online learning including its variants, review historical and current contexts, explore its multidimensionality, and assert key issues shaping contemporary online learning. We propose five important lenses: community, engagement, pedagogy, equity, and design-based research, through …

Incremental Improvements: Examining Instructional Changes And Rationales Of K-12 Online Teachers Using The Picrat And 4e Frameworks, Jered Borup, Rocio Quiroga Velasquez, Charles R. Graham, Leanna Archambault, Royce Kimmons

Faculty Publications

Teacher preparation programs have been slow to prepare teachers for the online environment, leaving many online teachers needing to learn on the job. However, little research has examined how online teachers grow as educators. One way to better understand this growth is to examine the changes online teachers make in their instruction and their rationales for making them. In this qualitative case study, we surveyed online teachers three times during an academic year regarding their instructional changes. Participants described these changes and categorized them on a modified PICRAT matrix to indicate if the changes made student learning more passive, interactive, …

Student Engagement In The Honors Biology Flipped Learning Environment, Hillary M. Wilson

Doctor of Education in Instructional Technology Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate four constructs of engagement (affective, behavioral, cognitive, and social) within an Honors Biology flipped learning environment. Social constructivism, the Bioecological Model of Influences on Student Engagement, and Academic Communities of Engagement (ACE) served as the theoretical foundation for the study. A mixed methods convergent parallel design was used to answer the following research questions: What are student perceptions of engagement in a flipped learning environment based on the dimensions of engagement (e.g., affective, behavioral, cognitive, and social)? How do high school Honors biology students affectively, behaviorally, cognitively, and socially engage during the …

Characteristics Of Initial Posts And Peer Engagement: Density Score Analyses For Social Presence In Online Discussions, Kathy Hanselman, Leping Liu

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

A common activity in online courses that allows for student interaction is the asynchronous discussion; however, discussions do not inherently lead to meaningful engagement among students. This study explores how the moves that students make in their initial discussion posts influence the emotional engagement of their peers in response posts. 1500 asynchronous online discussion messages were collected from an undergraduate online course offered at a western state university. 608 online discussion threads were analyzed to determine how the characteristics of initial posts are associated with the engagement in peer responses. Six characteristic variables from initial posts were identified and analyzed. …

Addressing Student Engagement During Covid-19: Secondary Stem Teachers Attend To The Affective Dimension Of Learner Needs, Tiffany Roman, Laurie Brantley-Dias, Michael Dias, Belinda Edwards

Faculty Articles

This case study examines how a cohort of eleven induction secondary STEM teachers engaged learners during the onset of COVID-19 and their designs for student engagement given an online or blended teaching context in fall 2020. Participants attended a summer professional development workshop guided by trauma-informed teaching practices and learner engagement conceptual frameworks. Through the analysis of teacher artifacts and interviews, we identified dimensions of student engagement that teachers prioritized. Results indicate a marked increase in teachers’ attention to affective and social dimensions of learner engagement. We argue that teacher awareness and action in the affective domain of student engagement …