Online and Distance Education Commons^™

All Your Basecamp Are Belong To Us: Managing Undergraduates To Create A Dh Toolkit, R.C. Miessler, Kevin Moore

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Adapting Digital Humanities instruction to meet the needs of students and faculty members working remotely became a priority as COVID-19 canceled plans for on-campus, in-person classes at our small, liberal arts college. The eventual solution was to develop an online resource to provide asynchronous DH support or to flip synchronous DH instruction. This project, the DH Toolkit, is a collection of tutorials and documentation open to anyone working on digital projects. Specifically, it covers how to use key digital tools, develop accessible user experiences, and navigate copyright concerns.

How Padlet Encouraged Student Collaboration And Engagement In My Virtual Classroom, Annie Yon

New Jersey English Journal

With the growth of virtual classes, it is crucial for teachers to integrate strategies and resources that foster student engagement and build a sense of community in an online environment. One way to augment synchronous and asynchronous communication is to implement an online discussion board, which can provide rich opportunities for students to share insights, ask clarifying questions, collaborate, create multimodal projects, and have their voices heard. By incorporating an interactive discussion board, such as Padlet, as part of class resources, teachers can facilitate discourse among students that transcends the physical boundaries of the classroom, create a motivational environment, improve …

Exploring The Usefulness Of Mindfulness Practices Through Zoom Meetings In Reducing Anxiety And/Or Stress Of Adults With Learning And Developmental Disabilities During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Thatiane Abra

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explored which mindfulness meditations or mindfulness practices could be beneficial in the online sessions, the extent to which adults with learning and developmental disabilities could learn the practices remotely, and how stress and anxiety disorders could be reduced through online mindfulness interventions. Furthermore, it was also necessary to address the online sessions as the only mental health treatment possibility during the Coronavirus pandemic for the clients observed and the benefits and limitations of these interventions. Additionally, the importance of structure and routine for this population, the multi-modal structure of the interventions, and how attunement plays an important role …

Theatre During Covid-19: Perceptions Of High School Students And Teachers, Marissa Lizette Trujillo

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

COVID-19 changed the way theatre was done in a high school setting. Students were required to wear masks and physically distance, and some even did theatre remotely. Doing theatre with limitations was especially difficult because the face and body play a vital role in helping actors tell a story. In this study, the researcher sought to understand what the perceptions of high school theatre students and teachers were while doing theatre during COVID-19. A survey, two focus group interviews, a group interview, and an individual interview were used to collect data, as well as observations in three theatre classes and …

Disconnected, James H. Reeves Ii

Masters Theses

Even with complications, remote learning can be successful with the development of user friendly designed solutions. While there are educational tools and platforms available that electronically support remote learning, many students and teachers do not have deep technological knowledge and many lack internet access outside of school. Without access to the internet, many of them experience interruptions in their education. This underscores the needs of both the educator, and the students during sudden and unexpected periods of school closure. The research objectives of this project focus on current learning tools, their design, and their accessibility during remote learning. The level …

Final Master's Portfolio, Elaina Halverstadt

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

Practical matters of teaching college writing are the primary focus of this portfolio. Specific topics include an exploration of best practices in preparation for teaching an online college writing course, a rationale for introducing technical writing into an institution as a co-taught interdisciplinary course, a four-week teaching unit for teaching grammar concepts through creative writing, and a resource guide for teaching an introductory technical writing course at the college level.

Implementing Digital Portfolios To Document The Writing Process, Patricia George

Open Educational Resources

Implementing digital portfolios to document the writing process offers students a way to curate an exhibit of their work. The Google Sites application provides online spaces for students to upload permanent artifacts. It is user friendly and provides a visual document of student growth over the course of a semester. By publishing drafts and revisions, students are reminded of the progress they have made as writers. In addition, using visual approaches to organizing work also assists students with time management.

Silent Film: A Visual Narrative For Developing Linguistic Competence, Patricia George

Open Educational Resources

Visual narratives in silent films are an effective method for developing linguistic competence in English language education and are equally constructive in developing critical thinking skills across disciplines. “Silent film, more than any other film property, capitalizes on ESL students’ visual literacy, using it as both a foundation and a catalyst for honing the verbal language skills that are key to acquiring and articulating complex knowledge in English” (Kasper and Singer, 2001). Silent films rely on the power of vivid, interactive visual imagery to depict personal struggles, character interactions, and plot development. This medium grabs the attention of ESL students …

Administrative Rhetorical Mindfulness: A Professional Development Framework For Administrators In Higher Education, Melvin E. Beavers

Academic Labor: Research and Artistry (2017-2022 archives)

As part of the post-secondary educational landscape, online programs and courses help institutions reach and enroll more students. To meet the needs of increased enrollments in online education, part-time faculty are often hired to teach online courses. Part-time contingent faculty represent a growing majority across many fields of study in colleges and universities. As Rendahl & Breuch reported, first-year courses, specifically freshman composition, are increasingly taught online. This study uses a mixed-methods design to examine how, and in what ways, writing program administrators (WPAs) approach preparing part-time faculty to teach writing online. The findings reveal that WPAs often encounter workload …

The Writing For Healing And Transformation Project, Heather Elizabeth Osborn

Education Doctorate Dissertations

As a qualitative action research study, the purpose of The Writing for Healing and Transformation Project was to facilitate more inclusive writing strategies and to promote individual and collective healing on issues of social suffering and oppression (Kleinman, Das, & Lock, 1997; Pennebaker & Smyth, 2016) for diverse students at a community college located in the northeastern United States. The 18 participants in the study included students in my English II literature and composition course. The theoretical framework encompassed Pennebaker’s (2016) “writing for healing” paradigm, advocating the use of expressivist writing and “social suffering theory,” examining how power structures affect …

Observación Participante De Clases Virtuales Bilingües En K-2 Durante Covid-19, Jennifer Quint

World Languages and Cultures

The Covid-19 pandemic is shifting education from the classroom to a virtual setting, forcing educational institutions to collaboratively innovate a new structure for virtual learning. The world’s current state of reliance on technology came so suddenly that teachers, students, and families have no choice but to learn as they go. This research analyzes how an elementary dual- immersion bilingual program adapts to new-found challenges such as technical difficulties, variances in at home support, and student independence. Furthermore, students enrolled in a dual-immersion bilingual program face additional challenges to provide students a language immersive environment. From August 2020 to March 2021, …

Studying Chinese Characters In A Web-Based Learning Environment: A Case Study Of Swedish University Students, Tao Yang, Man Gao

Chinese Language Teaching Methodology and Technology

This survey study aims to investigate the perceptions learners have of the character-learning strategies they employ when taking a web-based course in Chinese. The seven Likert-scale statements are included in the questionnaire to examine learners’ opinions on the three character-learning strategies that are widely used in traditional campus courses. A total of 65 students who completed the beginner level ‘Chinese Characters’ web-based course at a university in Sweden completed the survey. The results suggest that students in web-based courses consider these three strategies to be just as helpful and effective as campus students; moreover, the more orthodox strategy – rote …

The (Missing) Human Part: Listening For Students’ Perceptions Of The Value Of Peer Mentors, Adrienne Jankens, Nicole Guinot Varty, Haley Shier, Michelle Borkosh

English Faculty Research Publications

In this paper, we describe an IRB-approved (exempt) study designed to help us understand the impact that engaging with a peer mentor has on student learning in the online, intermediate composition classroom. Our study aimed to both identify the quantity of student interactions with peer mentors in online intermediate composition courses and to understand specifically how these interactions impacted students’ learning. The study focused on this question: “How do students describe the impact of peer mentors on their learning in the writing course?” Using a combination of qualitative methods (student survey, student interview, peer mentor reflection, and local institutional data …

Appalachia On The Airwaves: A History Of Public And Educational Television In The Southern Mountains, Carson Benn

Theses and Dissertations--History

Through a series of historical case studies of individual states within the multi-state region of the Appalachian mountain range, as well as the region as a whole, this dissertation examines educational television (ETV) operations, both at the network level and that of individual stations. Though mostly thought of as “public television”—an educational and noncommercial alternative to mainstream broadcast media—these ETV networks offered, I argue, something more analogous to present-day understandings of distance education and the use of instructional media and technology. Station directors, philanthropic benefactors, and school administrators took different approaches to providing the service of ETV, but all were …

Flipping A Virtual Efl Public Speaking Class Integrated With Moocs During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Zhuo Li, Xiaodi Zhou

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This case study explored Chinese undergraduate EFL students’ attitudes to and perceptions of an online English public speaking course, which employs a virtual flipped classroom model and MOOCs during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Since all classes were moved online, a previously flipped public speaking course integrated with MOOCs was converted into a virtual flipped classroom. All 25 participants of the study were undergraduate students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field. Zoom, Blackboard, and QQ instant messenger were platforms utilized in instruction. There were weekly two-hour Zoom meetings with learning activities using MOOCs on Blackboard. The study collected …

Beyond Tickets And Comma Splices: Using Writing Center Coaching Techniques To Support Online Learners, Lisa Mcneal, Jennifer P. Gray

Georgia Educational Researcher

Many college students struggle with technical difficulties when enrolled in an online or hybrid class. Sometimes students do not even have a choice about online options, such as in the COVID-19 era, when the shift to remote instruction has happened and could happen at any time. Students need support for success in the online environment, yet many support models focus on the immediate problem rather than deeper root causes for the problem or misunderstanding. Traditional support models may use a ticket-based system that strives to quickly resolve the issue at hand. While the ticket-based system has some merit, there is …

Touching Light: A Framework For The Facilitation Of Music-Making In Mixed Reality, Ian Thomas Riley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Drawing upon the historical development of analog and digital technologies alongside the proliferation of computer-assisted performance practices, this research seeks to develop a framework for integrating Mixed Reality applications to live musical performance, specifically through the creation of a Microsoft HoloLens 2 Mixed Reality application in order to facilitate a live performance of an original musical composition for percussion and real-time Mixed Reality environment. Mixed Reality enables a performer to interact with virtual (holograms, VSTs, etc.) and physical (vibraphone, tuned drums, microphones, etc.) objects simultaneously. Tandem to the development of the conceptual framework was the composition of an original score …

Toda Lengua Es Válida Aquí En Esta Clase: Translanguaging Pedagogy And Critical Language Awareness In Sociolinguistics Courses On The U.S.-Mexico Border, Katherine Christoffersen, Kimberly Regalado

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

This study examines how translanguaging pedagogy (García & Lin, 2017), or the leveraging of students’ full linguistic repertoires, is implemented in two asynchronous online sociolinguistics courses at a Hispanic Serving Institution. After describing the courses’ translanguaging design, we present a mixed methods analysis of student code-switching on Flipgrid video discussion boards and reflection papers. Out of 125 reflection papers, 36.0% include code-switching, while the analysis of Flipgrid video discussions shows that code-switching increased throughout the semester, from 3.6% in Week 1 to 38.6% in Week 2. Student reflection papers describe the significance of translanguaging in the course, while also examining …

Exploring Accessibility And Social Inclusion For Children With Hearing Impairments In Residential Camps Through The Occupational Therapy Lens, Tiffany Coles

Student Capstone Papers

Children are encouraged to engage in various play, leisure, and social participation activities to enhance the development of life skills, independence, and social skills. A common leisure and social participation activity for children aged 6 to 18-years-old is to attend residential camp. Residential camps provide children a structured opportunity to engage in leisure activities while learning to become independent and self-confident when socializing and making new friends. Attending camp can be a fun and engaging environment to help accelerate growth in key developmental outcomes, such as positive identity, social skills, physical skills, positive values, and spirituality.

Within the residential camp …

Our Stories, Our Voices: The Lived Experiences Of Black Families With Young Children During Covid-19, Devalin Jackson

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of Black families raising young children during shelter in place orders and distance learning due to Covid-19. The study was conducted virtually through Zoom and Google form due to county shelter in place orders. Participants were recruited from the school in which the researcher worked. Through the use of virtual interviews, the five participants highlighted themes of reconnections, isolations, empowerment, family values and conversations. The families shared experiences of resilience and hope and brought thoughts of how these experiences could be highlighted in instructional and curriculum designs; especially during …

Workout Routine, Valeria Sofia Maynez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Hope Services is an agency that focuses on supporting the community of adults with developmental disabilities. The work there focuses on finding employment avenues for the clients. This population faces difficulty in finding employment opportunities on their own and rely on these services for these resources. Everyone deserves the right to build an income and experience working in their lives. A disability or any obstacle shouldn’t prohibit a person of this opportunity. Due to an overdue stigma towards this group, they have to constantly prove they are fit to work and be productive assets in the workforce. This leads to …

The Integration Of Spiritual Formation Through Distance Education For Christian Higher Education Students, Derwin Earl Lewis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Many factors contribute to the recent increase of digital education in higher learning institutions, including the expanded use of mobile devices, social media, and other online populations. CNBC reports that over two billion users ascribe to Facebook monthly (Balakrishnan, 2017). Over four hundred million Instagram users and over three hundred million active Twitter accounts are being used daily (Clement, 2019). Celebrating technology’s imprint on society presents another opportunity for social sciences to applaud human achievement at the risk of discounting God’s sovereignty. The digital era has created an opportunity for Christian education to expand its reachability through churches and Bible-based …

The Future Of Education As A Wicked Possibility, Eric Busser

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Over the past few decades, technology has become more and more integral in education. The online education response to the COVID-19 pandemic shows how capable technology in distance learning has become in recent years. Education still has a lot more room for implementing technology, and this paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of the inevitable implementation of distance learning in education.

When The Classroom Becomes A Screen: Finding Our Talent Zones For Teaching, Beatrice Mendez Newman

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

A professor who teaches dual enrollment classes shares course strategies and redesign for teaching writing online.

The Validity Of Online Learning And Teaching Of A Spanish Using An Online Delivery Mode, Rosalind Arthur

South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL)

Incorporating Online learning as an optional delivery mode of instruction in tertiary institutions with traditional campuses has been the trend in recent years. The question is whether it should be offered universally or with some discrimination. The presenter teaches Spanish at an HBCU which has been offering some general education courses online during the summer.

Needless to say, while online programs are lucrative, it behooves the instructors and institutions to ascertain the viability of the product in terms of the learning needs of the target population. Must enrollment into these courses be open to all or be vetted in order …

El Asadito Y El Cumple: Personajes Y Espacio Como Formas De Significado, Mariana Pensa

South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL)

El asadito y El cumple: personajes y espacio como formas de significado

En este ensayo se realiza una aproximación a los filmes El asadito (2000) y El cumple (2002) ambos dirigidos por el cineasta argentino Gustavo Postiglioni. Nos detendremos especialmente en la función connotadora del espacio y los personajes en los dos filmes, que remite tanto a una atmósfera espacial sofocante como a personajes alienados, anclados en una innacción existencial.

Observaremos cómo se va construyendo la tensión, expresando así la radiografía de un grupo de personajes que tienen una memoria común, y que se constituyen en síntomas y a la …

Conference Program 2020, Seccll Conference

South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL)

SECCLL Conference Program for 2020

Forced Transitions: Learning Asl In A Virtual Environment, Kara Gournaris

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Engagement with native language models is essential for second language acquisition. Social distancing mandates made this interaction nearly impossible for students learning American Sign Language (ASL), at a small rural university in western Oregon. COVID-19 brought with it many challenges, not the least of which was a hurried transition from face-to-face to online learning. The author found that some courses degraded in content and instruction when shifting to an online platform. Without access to community events where native language models were present, ASL students had less opportunities for incidental learning, legitimate peripheral participation, and connection within Deaf communities of practice.

Tell Your Story… Share Hope, Nicole Sieben

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This manuscript emphasizes the practice of storytelling in writing teacher education, particularly how it applies to encouraging graduate methods students and undergraduate college students to tell their stories amidst a pandemic that upended their semesters and for many, their lives. In this piece, a writing instructor examines the effectiveness of inviting students to provide feedback on their level of comfort with the change of instructional mode from face-to-face to remote instruction and with their level of concern/comfort in the current life circumstances. By way of example, the piece shares a specific poetry writing assignment that engaged students in storying their …

Effects Of Participation In The Summit Learning Platform By Gender On Student Academic Achievement, Taryn Enjoli Echols

College of Education Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the effects by gender of the Summit Learning Platform on student achievement in mathematics, English, reading, and Science measured by the ACT Aspire Summative Assessment for ninth-grade students in four schools in Arkansas. This study provides an in-depth study of mastery learning versus personalized learning through the Summit Learning Platform. The theoretical framework is centered on the comparisons of the mastery mode of learning. Schools A and D participated in the Summit Learning Platform for 2 years. Schools B and C did not participate in the personalized learning platform. Scores from 120 …