Instructional Media Design Commons^™

National E-Criteria In Finnish Higher Education: A Tpack-Informed Policy Analysis, Ejike Okonkwo

Essays in Education

Responding to calls for a deeper understanding of contextual factors shaping learning, this paper examines the Digivisio 2030 e-criteria, a recently introduced national higher education quality framework designed to enhance digital pedagogy. Document analysis was used to examine five key features of the e-criteria: research-based, modularity, diversity, accessibility, and availability. The findings reveal that the e-criteria function as structural enablers, offering non-prescriptive guidelines that support reliable and user-friendly digital environments, flexible course design, inclusive teaching practices, equitable access to learning resources, and ongoing reflection on pedagogical processes. These findings are interpreted through a deductive approach using the Technological, Pedagogical, and …

Peacock Competency Model For Online Library Instruction, Rebeca Peacock

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Academic librarians are an integral part of academia offering niche expertise that benefits faculty and students alike. But they often lack specific guidance on developing competencies for the online teaching that is increasingly expected of them. This article addresses the lack of field specific guidance for academic librarians' online teaching by proposing a competency model grounded in expert practice. The study used semi-structured interviews with 18 academic librarians to address this gap asking: what knowledge, skills, and attitudes are needed for academic librarians to be successful in providing effective online library instruction?

Building Micro-Credential Frameworks: A Strategic Approach For Institutional Success, Justin R. Louder

TxDLA Journal of Digital Learning

The rise of micro-credentials in higher education presents a transformative opportunity for institutions to deliver flexible, workforce-aligned learning experiences. This article explores key strategies for implementing micro-credential frameworks that align with institutional goals while ensuring quality, scalability, and employer recognition. Drawing from existing models and institutional case studies, the article outlines five critical factors for success: (1) aligning micro-credentials with institutional priorities, (2) conducting market and audience analysis, (3) ensuring academic quality and rigor, (4) leveraging technological infrastructure, and (5) fostering external partnerships. The discussion highlights best practices from leading institutions and offers actionable recommendations for practitioners looking to launch …

Student Success And Retention In Online Post-Secondary Education: A Phenomenological Study, Alison Weslake

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the experiences that participants from Northeastern College have in post-secondary online learning environments and recognize the overall factors that lead to student success and retention. The theory that guided this study was Bruner’s constructivist theory as it indicates the influence of experience on cognitive development and encourages the consideration of all factors that may impact the overall learning process. A hermeneutical phenomenological study was conducted with participants from Northeastern College in Ontario, Canada in order to accurately reflect personal experiences with the phenomenon of online post-secondary education. The central research question …

Creating An Engaging Environment For Adult Esl Learners In E-Learning Settings: Reducing Affective Filters And Cognitive Overload, Qian Liu

Master's Projects and Capstones

Countless online ESL programs targeting adult learners have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially since the unemployment crisis made people start thinking about self-improvement. This emergence of online education is a life-changing chance not only for the ESL education industry and teachers, but also for countless learners. This field project includes appropriate background, a review of relevant literature, and ultimately presents a free, online self-training session for novice online ESL teachers who teach adults.

Research that informed the creation of this project indicated that online second language education programs that use technological tools can lead to positive learning outcomes. Adult …

Faculty Job Satisfaction Related To Online Course Design, April Marie Hixson

School of Education Doctoral Projects - Higher Education

Online education has expanded and evolved slowly through the decades, but the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021 put online education at the forefront of teaching and learning worldwide and sped up the design and delivery of online courses. This study sought to examine faculty attitudes and opinions (amid a global pandemic) toward online course design that may affect their job satisfaction levels. Specifically, it explored factors that could inhibit or contribute to faculty job satisfaction during their engagement in online instructional design. Further, the study was designed to gain an understanding of how pedagogical and technological changes influence the degree of …

Influence Of Curricular Organization On Cognitive Load And Student Performance In Online Learning Environments, Michael Wilder

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of curricular organization on student cognitive load and student performance in online learning environments. The findings of this study contribute to the development of usable instruction design principles for online education.

This research study used the lens of cognitive load theory to examine how online course organization affects student learning. A review of the literature included the elements of cognitive architecture that have been measured in prior studies, various methods in which cognitive load has been measured, and the basic requirements for measurement of cognitive load in instructional research.

A …

What Do They Really Like?: An Investigation Of Students' Perceptions Of Their Coursework In A Fully Online Educational Technology Program, Jesus Trespalacios, Patrick R. Lowenthal

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The higher education market space has become increasingly competitive during the past few years. For instance, there are now hundreds of fully online master’s programs in educational technology. Given this increased competition, it is more important than ever for those working in graduate education to understand what students, and specifically those who have graduated from their program, like and dislike about their coursework. We constructed a survey using Rovai’s Classroom Community Scale (CCS) and some additional questions about the easiest, most difficult, and favourite courses to investigate what graduates thought about the coursework of the program they just completed. Results …

Online Course Design: A Review Of The Canvas Course Evaluation Checklist, Sally Baldwin, Yu-Hui Ching

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The evaluation of online courses is an important step in providing quality online courses. There are a variety of national and statewide evaluation tools used to help guide instructors and course designers of online courses (e.g., Quality Matters, OSCQR). This paper discusses a newly released course evaluation instrument from Canvas, the second largest learning management system (LMS) used by higher education institutions in the United States. The characteristics and unique features of the Canvas Course Evaluation Checklist (CCEC) are discussed. The CCEC is also compared to established national and statewide evaluation instruments. This review is helpful for those interested in …

Assessment And Evaluation In Online Learning, Ross A. Perkins

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Humans are evaluative by nature. It is quite likely one of the essential characteristics of our species that has allowed us to persist for hundreds of thousands of years. Despite what might be considered our almost instinctual inclination to assess or evaluate, we do not always do it well. There are any number of examples of the wrong questions being asked, or the wrong data being collected, or the wrong analysis being conducted, or the wrong conclusions being drawn. An aphorism, perhaps especially well known to readers of this text, warns, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” The maxim …

Educational Technology Use In Neurodiagnostic Clinical Skills Training, Margaret Ann Marsh-Nation

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The current shortage of clinical sites for neurodiagnostic technology (NDT) students is limiting enrollments and subsequently limiting graduates from NDT schools in the U.S. A lack of knowledge or consensus concerning the use of educational technology in NDT clinical skills training prompted this investigation. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of educational technology in providing NDT clinical skill training. This qualitative Delphi study was guided by experiential learning theory and cognitive constructionist epistemology. Thirty expert panelists were recruited to rate the effectiveness of educational technology methods in addressing neurodiagnostic competencies for electroencephalography. Twenty-four completed round one, …

Improving Access To Ministerial Training Through The Use Of Electronic Devices: A Qualitative Study Of Educators In Developing Nations, Andrew John Beaty

Theses and Dissertations

This study was based on the concern that in developing nations, the vast majority of pastors in local churches have no training to prepare them for the duties they are expected to carry out as ministers. With the increase of technology being available around the world, the questions have arisen as to whether or not technology can be utilized to help improve access to this training.

A qualitative approach was employed to interview thirteen people involved in global theological education in developing nations and to learn from them as to the trends that they see being utilized in regards to …

Online Course Design In Higher Education: A Review Of National And Statewide Evaluation Instruments, Sally Baldwin, Yu-Hui Ching, Yu-Chang Hsu

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research identifies six online course evaluation instruments used nationally or in statewide systems. We examined the characteristics (i.e., number of standards and criteria) and coded the criteria that guide the design of online courses. We discussed the focus of the instruments and their unique features.

Online Educators’ Recommendations For Teaching Online: Crowdsourcing In Action, Joanna C. Dunlap, Patrick R. Lowenthal

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Over the years, online educators have learned a great deal about what works and doesn’t work when designing and facilitating online courses. During the past few years, we have used crowdsourcing to invite experienced online educators to share their recommendations for teaching online. In this article, we describe our use of crowdsourcing to curate a robust list of online-teaching recommendations, present the recommendations experienced online educators have shared with us, share the themes resulting from our analysis, describe how the themes align with the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model, and discuss how adhering to the crowdsourced recommendations may enhance the …

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.

Identifying Professional Development Needs Of High School Teachers Tasked With Online Course Design, Debbie Jean Lugar

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

To satisfy demand for online learning opportunities at the high school level, 3 school districts in the northeast United States established a consortium to share resources to develop and deliver online courses. High school teachers who volunteered to develop courses for the consortium attempted the task without previous training in online course design and facilitation. High school students enrolled in the courses often did not successfully complete them, which obstructed the mission of the consortium. The purpose of this qualitative single critical case study was to explore teachers' experiences with and perceptions of designing and developing online courses without accompanying …

Impact Of Online Orientation For First-Time Online Students On Retention, Academic Success, And Persistence, Lynda Marshall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A challenge faced by higher education is whether online orientation that is offered before the start of class can impact academic performance for online students. The purpose of this quantitative research study was to determine if there are significant differences in retention, academic success, and persistence between first time online students who have participated in an online orientation and those who did not participate and if there was a significant difference in retention, academic success, and persistence by gender of first-time online students. The sample for this study was extracted from archived data originating from 433 first-time online undergraduate students …

Student Perceptions Of Online Courses, Irma S. Jones, Dianna Blankenship

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

Presently, at the post-secondary level, digital or online education is offered in addition to traditional face-to-face courses and the number of online course offerings is rapidly growing. The Occupational Outlook Handbook reveals that employment in” computer and information technology” occupations is projected to grow 12 percent between the years 2014 to 2024, faster than the average for all other occupations. This is directly related to an emphasis on cloud computing, the collection, storage and connectivity of data to the Internet and the continued demand for mobile computing (Online Learning Consortium, 2015). This survey will describe online student perceptions and their …

Using Voicethread To Facilitate Asynchronous Communication: A Design Case, Jesús Trespalacios

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Online courses have traditionally used text as the only medium to communicate. However, new technologies make it easier than ever before to integrate audio and video communication into online courses. The purpose of this design case study is twofold. Firstly, we sought to describe the different instructional activities designed for an Instructional Design online graduate course. Secondly, this study undertook to explain the integration of VoiceThread (a Web 2.0 tool with multimedia capabilities) to facilitate students’ interactions and the revisions made on some activities that used this tool. Data collected from two surveys administered at the end of the course …

Logging In To Learning Analytics, Edna J. Pressler

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

According to the most recent Higher Education Editions of the Horizon Report (Johnson et al., 2013; Johnson, Adams, & Cummins, 2012; Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine, & Haywood, 2011), learning analytics (LA) is an emerging technology that will be widely adopted within the next few years. In this article, I use the McKinsey 7S Model (Waterman, Peters, & Phillips, 1980) as a way to organize a review of the learning analytics (LA) literature, in order to help organizational leaders assess and increase an organization’s readiness for LA. More specifically, I identify the 7 areas of an organization that need to be …

Natural Gas Safety For First Responders, Aimee Levy

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

Natural gas leaks and explosions are growing problems across the country. Recommended Practice (RP) 1162, a federal regulation, requires pipeline operators to implement public awareness programs. One key stakeholder audience includes first responders and fire departments.

This training was developed for a Utility Company, who is a regional pipeline operator, to teach first responders response protocols of different types of natural gas incidents. The module not only helps the Utility Company meet its RP 1162 outreach requirements but also fills educational gaps of firefighters.

To design this training, a team of subject matter experts was assembled to develop the content …

The Forgotten Teachers In K-12 Online Learning: Examining The Perceptions Of Teachers Who Develop K-12 Online Courses, Michael K. Barbour, David Adelstein, Jonathan Morrison

Education Faculty Publications

Like many K-12 online learning programs, the Illinois Virtual High School (IVHS) began by utilizing vendor content to populate its online courses. In its fourth year, the IVHS began a concerted effort to design more of its own online course content internals. The aim of this study was to examine the nature of the support needed and application of tools used by IVHS course developers. The data consisted of a two-part, web-based survey and telephone interviews that were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inductive analysis. The results showed these developers had a strong desire to use interactive elements in their …

Close Examinations Of Texts By Online Learning Communities Through The Final Word Protocol, Matthew Borgmeyer

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This study documents a potential approach to rich discussions around complex texts by using a combination of protocols and synchronous technologies. The shortcomings of both online text discussion technologies and protocols can be overcome by using best practices from both approaches. Includes a series of documents, guidelines, and instructional screencasts that will illustrate the implementation of the Final Word protocol using the technologies of Google Docs and the iPad app Subtext. Finally, the study discusses potential applications of this approach for leadership contexts both in K-12 education and higher education.

Social Networking Systems As A Vehicle To Promote Sense Of Community And Performance In Online Classes, Jonathan Mark Woodward

Dissertations

Academicians are navigating through the intersection of information technology and social change. The path that educators choose will help determine the future of higher education in traditional and online settings. The journey of teachers is clouded by the abundance and rapid creation of emerging technologies, but the trends of Net Generation students offer direction. Among Web 2.0 applications, social networking systems (SNSs) offer students a new approach to communicating, learning, and collaborating.

The sociocentric view of knowledge and learning and the theories of Vygotsky and Dewey are helping to drive educators to look for a solution to a missing link …

Variables Associated With Sense Of Community In Online And On-Ground Clinical Doctorate Education, Tracy Chapman

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

This study examined classroom community, as measured by the Classroom Community Scale (Rovai, 2002c), among online and on-ground students (N = 386) enrolled in Doctor of Pharmacy or Doctor of Occupational Therapy courses. Multiple regression analysis identified variables (student and course variables) shown to significantly predict the presence of community among students. Results revealed the set of predictor variables are different for each sub-group of students. Community among on-ground students was predicted by the amount of small group work used in a course, the course’s primary type of learning outcome (affective or cognitive), and the students’ self-reported estimated grade. …

School Change: Adolescents Transitioning From Conventional Schooling To Home-Based Online Education, Harvey Klamm

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This hermeneutic phenomenological research explored the lived experiences of six recently graduated adolescents to extrapolate the valued essence of their transitional encounters in changing from conventional school to home-based online schooling. The homeschool research shifted the emphasis from the outcome-based academic achievement studies prevalent during the past 20 years to a focus on internal and external factors impacting student learning within this technological instructional process. Findings produced from analysis and interpretation of reflective adolescent lived experiences revealed rich truth regarding the internal emotions, environmental adaptations, academic ramifications, and social adaptations encountered when changing from conventional schooling to home-based online school. …

The Development Of An Online Plagiarism Tutorial, Kenetha J. Stanton, Sally Neal

Scholarship and Professional Work

Case Study of a pilot online plagiarism tutorial at Butler University.

A Descriptive Analysis Of Quality Online Practices As Perceived By West Virginia Higher Education Faculty, Michael H. Murphy

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent West Virginia higher education faculty agree their online courses reflect high quality practices, as identified by the literature, for teaching in an online educational environment. The identified high quality practices are: (a) support, (b) collaboration and teamwork, (c) flexibility, (d) feedback, (e) assessment, and (f) adult learning techniques. This was a non-parametric study that incorporated measures of central tendency and the Kruskal Wallace test for significance to analyze the data. The instrument used in this research was a cross-sectional, self-reporting survey, titled the Survey of Online Educational Practices. The participants …

Design Of Web-Based Courses For Secondary Students, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

This article reports the initial findings of a study that investigated design characteristics of a Web-based distance education programme for rural secondary school students who were unable to access a full range of courses at their school. Discovering the characteristics perceived to be important by course developers and teachers of Web-based courses along with the perceptions of the secondary students themselves was central in this study, which was guided by the research question: What characteristics do developers, teachers, and students perceive as important for an effectively designed Web-based course for secondary school students?

This study was the initial portion of …

Webquest: A Solution For Online Learning, Ellen W. Wiley

The Southeastern Librarian

Designing and developing meaningful and engaging online activities presents a challenge when preparing to teach a totally online course for the first time. How do you structure the activities so that the learner can focus on the content instead of the delivery system? How do you effectively communicate the content and activity instructions so that the learner can easily follow the flow of information? These are two of the questions that must be asked as one approaches the design and development of a totally online course.