Online and Distance Education Commons^™

The Relationship Between Student Characteristics And Success In An Online Business Course At West Shore Community College, Amy J. Wojciechowski

Dissertations

This ex-post facto study was conducted to identify characteristics of successful online students with respect to: (a) gender; (b) age; (c) previous courses completed online; (d) ACT English, Reading, and Composite test score; (e) ASSET Reading and Writing test score; (f) grade point average of student upon completion of the course; (g) withdrawal from previous courses; (h) semester format (16-week vs. 8-week); (i) student status (full-time vs. part-time); and (j) attendance at orientation that will predict success. A small, rural community college in western Michigan participated in the study. The subjects included 179students in an online Introduction to Business course …

Qualitative Analysis Of Aaup Principles And Ihep Benchmarks And The Policies Of The Six U.S. Regional Accrediting Bodies On Distance Education, Julia Ann Hypes

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study strives to identify the differences and similarities among the accrediting policies on distance education of the six regional accrediting agencies for two-year and four-year institutions. Levels of incorporation of the American Association of University Professor (AAUP) principles and the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) benchmarks regarding distance education are identified and listed as either detailed, partial, or none. The growth of distance education programs in higher education must have direction and focus and the distance education policies of the accrediting agencies provide that guidance. The method employed in the gathering of data was a qualitative document analysis. …

Self-Regulated Learning Of Underprepared Students In Online Courses, Leslie A. Stultz

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The growing number of students enrolling at community colleges, the continuing number of underprepared students requiring remedial education, and the increasing number of students interested in the flexibility of online courses were the reasons for this study, which examined not only those demographic variables that research often suggests are related to success, but also the learner characteristic of self-regulation. Participants included 82 first-time freshman enrolled in an online study skills course at a two-year community college. The students' total level of self-regulation and its components of executive processing, cognitive processing, motivation, and environmental control were measured using The Self-Regulated Learning …

Instructor On Demand: Can Online Delivery Of Lectures Promote Learning Achievement?, Rebecca Ann Martindale

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reported enrollments of students taking online courses in institutes of higher learning in the 2000-01 academic years were estimated at 3.077 million, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). Dramatic enrollment increases have led to a need for research that involves both the comparison of learning achievement based on delivery mediums, and student attitudes concerning alternative delivery methods. This study compared the learning achievement of students when the deliveries of course lectures were presented both in-class and online, as well as measured attitudes of students concerning delivery mediums. Both types of lectures were presented …

Melodia: An Online Web-Based Program For Teaching Melodic And Rhythmic Dictation, Aaron Tauchen

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

Raising The Bar: Encouraging High Level Thinking In Online Discussion Forums, Mary M. Christopher, Julie A. Thomas, Mary K. Tallent-Runnels

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

More universities are offering online instruction for students though we know little about effective online learning. Some have found online instruction increases student participation while others have reported that students prefer the traditional face-to-face format This study of gifted education graduate students follows the expectation that online students ought to have time to be more thoughtful with online course interactions as compared to the time-constrained interactions in a face-to-face course. Researchers evaluated students’ thinking levels (as per Bloom’s Taxonomy) in the online discussion forums required by a graduate course in gifted education. Results indicate there was no relationship between the …

Center For Lifelong Learning 2004-2006, Taylor University Fort Wayne

Institute of Correspondence Studies

The 2004-2006 catalog of the Center for Lifelong Learning at Taylor University Fort Wayne.

Constructivist Versus Traditional Methods In Language Education, Emma Agola

Perspectives In Learning

My experience as a teacher in a British oriented system of education equipped me with the skills needed to approach teaching from what is called the traditional classroom curriculum. I was introduced to constructivism as an alternate method of teaching through a course in Improved Teaching of Secondary School Language arts. At first I thought this was a great idea and felt that we ought to toss all traces of the traditional approach out the window and fully adopt the constructivist approach. However, this was before I was faced with the practicality of applying all that I had learned in …

Addressing Diversity Through The Utilization Of Team-Teaching In Teacher Education Field Experiences, Rita Mitchell, Bonita Williams, Paulina Kuforiji

Perspectives In Learning

The inclusion model for the delivery of special education services, the services of support personnel, reading, media, and technology specialists for example, and the use of paraprofessionals and volunteers in the classroom are common structures in place in elementary and middle schools today. Pre-service teachers should be prepared to work in such increasingly more collaborative settings. The growing diversity of the student population in public schools also sets the stage for team-teaching and other collaborative models if indeed we achieve the educational goal of “no child left behind”. In an age of specialization and individualization, some form of teacher collaboration …

The Benefit Of Distance Learning, Mary Porter

Theses Digitization Project

This project will address the issues concerning the benefits of distance learning, a growing area in our education system today. Distance learning takes place when the teacher and students are separated, and technology is used to bridge the instructional gap.

Different Thinking Hats: The Continuously-Evolving Role Of The Instructor In E-Problem Based Learning (E-Pbl), Roisin Donnelly

Papers, presentations and other resources

A hugely important area in any form of PBL delivery is the role of the instructor; in an e-learning environment, it is even more crucial. Hughes and Daykin (2002) have suggested that a move to online delivery needs a greater attention to design and development of facilitator skills than has been previously recognised. An e-learning module for lecturers, delivered using a problem-based learning approach, is the setting for continuing research into the many hats that an instructor has to don during the learning process. Coppola, Hiltz and Rotter (2001) identify a number of roles played by instructors in e-learning, but …

The "Huggy Bear" Program: An Effective Means Of Educating Teacher Education Candidates For Diversity, Doyin Coker-Kolo, Paulina Kuforiji

Perspectives In Learning

The “Huggy Bear” program uses a triad approach that links university professors with supervising teachers and teacher candidates to develop effective strategies for mentoring atrisk students. The program is carried out at the primary school level with pupils who have been identified by their teachers as having some deficiencies in social and academic skills. Additionally, the program has a multicultural component. It offers college students the opportunity to work with pupils of different cultural and social economic backgrounds. The “Huggy Bear” program seeks to change how teacher candidates think about working with atrisk students and to provide them with the …

Re-Engineering Public Education: Developing New Technologies In Teaching And Assessment, Paul Hackett

Perspectives In Learning

In the nineteen-nineties, I was principal of a middle school when the accountability issue burst into prominence in the state of Alabama in the form of norm-referenced testing as the main tool to evaluate school performance. Designed by well-meaning educators to meet the requirements of Alabama legislation, the accountability program in Alabama was developed to put some teeth into the curriculum. Schools and systems that performed poorly faced state takeover. The Alabama accountability issue was one face of a national movement predicated on the idea that the public schools in the United States have failed egregiously and that more stringent …

Traditional Versus High-Performance Cooperative Learning, Todd Applegate

Perspectives In Learning

Through the years, millions of students have participated in some version of cooperative learning. As evidenced by the numbers of published papers, several educators have reassessed and revised their cooperative learning techniques, but perhaps very few have done more for the refinement of this form of teaching than Roger and David Johnson, professors at the University of Minnesota and founders of the Collaborative Learning Center. These two educators have been training teachers to use small groups for instructional purposes since 1966 and seem to have the most productive approach to collaborative learning. Cooperative learning has been misused or undervalued, a …

Martin Studies Bigotry, 1939-1995, James Brewbaker

Perspectives In Learning

Martin's grandmother teaches Martin his superiority.

The Taylor County High School Prom Of 2003, Edward Howard

Perspectives In Learning

Deep in Georgia's agricultural heartland sits the small town of Butler. This town of only 1,900 residents is the county seat for Taylor County, which has a population of only 8,800. Butler appears as the classic example of a rural county seat in the South. Surrounding that are a few dozen pre-war brick buildings that comprise most of the businesses in town. A few pick-up trucks parked at the curb, and some people walking about at a leisurely pace complete the picture of a town where time seems to stand still. Some would say the atmosphere reminds them of the …

Guidance And Counseling Issues In South Africa's Non-Racial Schools, Joyce Hickson, Donna Pascoe

Perspectives In Learning

Guidance teachers and school counselors in non-racial schools in South Africa need to assess the relevance of their services for individuals from different cultures. The importance of providing relevant crosscultural guidance and counseling in school settings has been underscored by numerous empirical studies which indicate that traditional psychotherapy and counseling are often inappropriate for meeting the needs of culturally different clients. Atkinson, Morten, and Sue (1993) assert that despite recognition that cultural diversity requires multicultural rather than monocultural counseling practices, the systematic study of cross-cultural communication only took root in the late twentieth century. Only recently has the term “counseling” …

Preparing Teacher Candidates For Success In Diverse Settings, Cynthia Benator, Tina Butcher

Perspectives In Learning

Field experiences and clinical practice are essential elements in the preparation of teacher candidates. The College of Education (COE) at Columbus State University (CSU) understands the important role these components play in the development of successful teachers. Field experiences and clinical practice must adhere to the guidelines set forth by the governing bodies that accredit educator preparation programs. They must also reflect the philosophy of the individual institution.

Six Best Practice Structures, Two Disciplines, One Instructor, James Brewbaker

Perspectives In Learning

A common perception about teacher educators is that they preach better than they practice. Too many accomplished elementary and secondary teachers recall an education professor’s tedious class on the limitations of the lecture—delivered, sad to say, in a traditional lecture format. Too many accomplished teachers recall courses in which learning was measured solely through pencil-and-paper, short-answer recognition-and-recall tests that promoted cramming, test taking, and, too soon thereafter, forgetting the material in question. Too many accomplished teachers learned their craft in spite of faculty who were anything but pedagogical role models.

Teaching Culture In The Foreign Language Classroom, Jose' Villavicencio

Perspectives In Learning

The United States is going through great demographic changes in the diversity of its population that does not only include ethnic and racial diversity but, also, linguistic diversity. People with limited English proficiency are entering schools in greater numbers. (Gollnick & Chinn, 2002). These demographic changes require that the schools prepare citizens who are knowledgeable of other cultures, who are more accepting of cultural differences, and who can communicate with people of different backgrounds (Cushner, McClelland, & Safford, 2003). In agreement with the above proposition, the foreign language national standards suggest the need to develop citizens with cultural understanding and …

Discipline Based Art Education: One Classroom Approach, Ashley Byrd Kittrell

Perspectives In Learning

In many school districts across the country, the arts are no longer confined to a room in the far wing where students draw, paint, and, if they are lucky, make some pottery or jewelry. Instead, art is front and center in every subject taught in the classroom thanks to the teachings and research of Dwaine W. Greer, director of the Getty Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts. Known as Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE), this concept is being developed and implemented in schools all across the nation. DBAE treats art as an actual subject for study, rather than as …

Synthesizing Social Construction Of Knowledge In Online Conferences Using Concept Maps, Ludmila Ortegano-Layne, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

By using content analysis techniques to compare social construction of knowledge in online dialogues to concept maps generated to synthesize this knowledge construction, this study showed that concept maps are an effective tool to synthesize knowledge construction in online conferences. This finding was also supported by self-reported data in a moderator survey. Concept maps were also considered an effective tool for organizing information which indicates that they can be utilized as a knowledge management and preservation tool in online conferences. All students perceived that the Cmap tool software could be used as a tool to foster online collaborative learning in …

Designing The Social Environment For Online Learning: The Role Of Social Presence, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

A major challenge to designing online learning is the development of appropriate means to facilitate the social environment that is critical for higher-order learning in many disciplines. In many online learning designs, the majority of resources are channeled to web interface design and technology, while little or no resources are devoted to facilitating the teaching and learning process, the negotiation of meaning and the validation of knowledge among peers and instructors that depends on a conducive socio-cultural environment and adequate learner support. This paper seeks to address this issue by examining one factor, social presence that has been shown to …

All For One And One For All: Designing Web-Based Courses For Students Based Upon Individual Learning Styles, Michael K. Barbour, Morris Cooze

Education Faculty Publications

As e-learning begins to proliferate into secondary schools and is opened up to learners of all abilities, it is important that the effects different learning styles have upon how online instruction is provided are taken into consideration. In this study, students from a secondary-level business education class completed a learning styles inventory to determine their strengths in the traditional learning styles and in Gardner’s intelligences. A variety of web-based instructional methods were utilized throughout the school year and the students’ overall performance in the course was monitored.

Mapping Of Thermo-Fluids Laboratory Experiments Into Web-Based Experiments, Sushil Chaturvedi, Rick Mckenzie, O. A. Akan, A. Priyadershini

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

A methodology is being developed for transforming physical experiments from the undergraduate thermo-fluids laboratory into a web-based virtual experiments. Important characteristics of physical experiments are identified in order to preserve them in physical to virtual domain mapping. Several commercially available software are employed to incorporate in the web-based experiments characteristics such as recreation of physical phenomenon in the virtual domain, measurement of physical quantities on a computer screen, assembly of virtual probes and coupling of the virtual experiment with a data acquisition software. A virtual reality software has been incorporated to enable web-based students to navigate through the virtual laboratory, …

The Potential Of Elearning In The Spatial Information Sciences: A Resource For Continuing Professional Development., Kevin Mooney, Audrey Martin

Conference Papers

National mapping agencies have at their disposal a number of resources for the continuing professional development of their staff. These range from attendance at full-time University programmes to short in-house tutorials and workshops. The Technological University Dublin has recently developed an eLearning course in ‘Co-ordinate reference systems for spatial information’ and piloted it with staff of Ordnance Survey Ireland and the Department of Lands and Surveys, Nicosia, Cyprus. This paper evaluates the performance of eLearning in the delivery of the pilot courses pointing to its weaknesses and its strengths. The need for considered and careful use of interactive tools such …

Design Optimization Module For Hierarchical Research And Learning Environment, Oktay Baysal, Mehti Koklu, Ahmed K. Noor

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The present paper describes a learning module on design optimization courses within a hierarchical research and learning network (HRLN). In this environment a knowledge organization can be created as a hierarchical learning network to link diverse inter- and trans- disciplinary teams from a consortium of universities, industry, government agencies and the providers of learning technologies. It is an approach that builds on computer-based training, intelligent tutoring systems, interactive learning, collaborative-distributed learning, and learning networks. The present design optimization module has been developed and described herein, as a demonstrator of a learning module in this environment. This module allows for the …

Psychological Sense Of Community In On-Line Learning Environments, Thomas Chris Laughner

Dissertations

Problem. Current literature discusses differences among populations as they relate to face-to-face learning communities. However, no literature exists to determine if these same differences exist in an on-line learning environment. Since community has been closely linked to social and academic integration and success, additional research on whether populations with certain demographics feel the same absence of a sense of community in an on-line environment must be addressed. This study examines differences in psychological sense of community among students based on ethnicity, age, and sex.

Method. A revised Sense of Community Index was administered to students enrolled in at least one …

Teacher Perceptions Of Internet-Based Distance Education In Adventist Colleges And Universities : A Mixed-Methods Study, Susan B. Smith

Dissertations

Problem. An examination of Internet-based distance education (IBDE) is important in order to maintain the delivery of quality higher education and to encourage the systemic adoption of policies and practices that promote excellence in IBDE. The quality of online distance education will increasingly become the standard by which students choose a program as their educational options have multiplied with the dramatic growth in distance education.

Method. This was a sequential exploratory mixed-methods study o f the perceptions of teachers on IBDE. It was conducted collaboratively with Pamela Cress who examined administrator perceptions. Data were collected for both studies from teachers …

Using Technology To Address Learning Style Issues, Donald J. Polzella, Greg C. Elvers, Ken Graetz

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.