Online and Distance Education Commons^™

What Does Motivated Mean? Re-Presenting Learning, Technology, And Motivation In Middle Schools Via New Ethnographic Writing, Justin Olmanson

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

This article offers a critique of the way middle schoolers are often positioned as generalizable objects that can be acted upon to produce measurable increases in motivation and learning. The critique invites a reconsideration and cultural analysis of some of the dominant discourses and perceptions of technology, young adolescence, and the study of motivation. The use of New Ethnographic Writing—a method that performs a cultural critique via extended scenes—connects to the roles and status of motivation, technology, and educational research methods deployed within public schools. Coupled with weak theory, this approach offers a way to understand young adolescents as navigating …

Virtual Education: Not Yet Ready For Prime Time?, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

The field of K–12 online and blended learning is varied and growing. Regardless of whether a student is enrolled in a brick-and-mortar school and taking one or two courses online, or if they are completing all of their education from a cyber school, more and more students are enrolled in online and blended learning opportunities each school year. Over the past decade, there have been successive legislative and regulatory changes in jurisdiction after jurisdiction designed to encourage this growth in K–12 online and blended learning. Many of these changes have been spurred by proponent claims that K–12 online and blended …

Exploring Quality Teaching In The Online Environment Using An Evidence-Based Approach, Elena Prieto-Rodriguez, Jennifer Gore, Kathryn Holmes

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Online learning is increasingly ubiquitous in higher education. However, research regarding online teaching often focuses on the affordances of the online environment rather than on the quality of pedagogy. In this paper we consider how online learning could be enhanced using rich pedagogical models that are consistent with a wealth of existing knowledge on pedagogy for face-to-face settings. To do so, we apply an established framework, the Quality Teaching model, to explore pedagogy in the online environment and illustrate its potential benefits using a case study of 60 students in a tertiary mathematics teacher education program. We conclude that the …

Interacting At A Distance: Creating Engagement In Online Learning Environments, Robert L. Moore

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Effective online instruction requires understanding not only interaction but also how to facilitate interaction through technology (Moore & Kearsley, 2012). Specifically, Moore and Kearsley (2012) categorize these types of interactions as "learner with content, interaction with instruction [or] interaction with other learners" (p. 132). This chapter examines each of these interaction types and suggests ways to incorporate them into online learning environments (OLEs). The chapter provides techniques and approaches that will be beneficial to both instructional design practitioners and online instructors. It seeks to assuage some of the concerns that faculty have about OLEs and provides ideas and activities that …

Developing Distance Education Content Using The Tappa Process, Robert L. Moore

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The proliferation of distance education has occurred alongside the emerging technologies of the Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 environments, changing the way instructors approach, design, and deliver their instructional materials. In the past, instructional design (ID) practitioners relied on instruction system design (ISD) models that focused primarily on macroinstruction. It is now important for these practitioners to use microinstruction strategies to keep pace with the technology evolution. This case study describes the TAPPA (Target, Accomplishment, Past, Prototype, Artifact) Process which was created using the Generic Model for Design Research (GMDR) proposed by McKenney and Reeves (2012) and uses selected ID …

Supporting Documentation Of Informal Learning And Making From A Distance With Voicethread, Kevin Oliver, Robert L. Moore

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This best practices session and paper describes the incorporation of Voicethread as a tool for supporting design documentation of makerspace projects among graduate distance education students in a course on informal learning. All students successfully utilized the tool to present photographic and video evidence of design processes with oral annotations, and received clarifications and feedback from peers. Students reported positive affordances of the tool in terms of marking up slides to communicate particular design decisions, sharing video as "proof" of successfully completing a particular make project and as exemplars of makers’ problem solving and thinking, documenting a linear process with …

A Formalism For Plan – A Big Data Personal Learning Assistant For University Students, Timothy Arndt, Angela Guercio

Business Faculty Publications

Big Data-based methods of learning analytics are increasingly relied on by institutions of higher learning in order to increase student retention by identifying at risk students who are in need of an intervention to allow them to continue on in their educational endeavors. It is well known that e-Learning students are even more at risk of failing out of university than are traditional students, so Big Data learning analytics are even more appropriate in this context. In this paper, we present our approach to this problem. We wish to place control of a student’s learning process in his own hands, …

Remedial Education Programs And Student Success: Perceptions Of Faculty And Administrators At Hbcus, Tenora J. Simonez

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine factors that contributed to student success in remedial education as perceived by faculty members and administrators at one public HBCU in the University System of Georgia. The five specific areas that contributed to student success and were identified for review were administrative factors, curricula and instructional models, academic support services, importance of placement tests, and the impact of financial issues. Each of these areas was represented in literature regarding the histories of remedial education programs and HBCUs, recent federal and state admissions and fiscal changes, and instructional best practices of remedial …

Learning Through Personal Connections: Cogenerative Dialogues In Synchronous Virtual Spaces, Stephanie Bondi, Tareq Daher, Amy Holland, Adam R. Smith, Stacy Dam

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

This study describes the role of cogenerative dialogues in a synchronous virtual classroom. Cogenerative dialogues are a way for students and instructors to reflect upon in-class events and work collaboratively during the course to optimize teaching and learning. In the present study, cogen has been found to be a tool for enhancing connections among graduate students in the class leading to a reported increase of motivation and engagement. Cogenerative dialogues were essential in shifting responsibilities so that students took a more active role in their own learning while supporting each other.

How To Design Culturally Inclusive Online Learning Experiences, Casey Frechette, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Ludmila Layne

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

In this paper, we argue that adapting online courses for specific cultural groups takes time-intensive guesswork. Instead, instructional designers should employ the principles of universal design and social constructivism to build a course culture inclusive of all learners. Culture affects learners’ experiences in important, interconnected ways. Yet, it is equally difficult to predict culture’s effects on learning (Guild & Garger, 2016). These difficulties stem from the inherent complexity in human behavior. First, individuals may not reflect their cohort, especially when they belong to groups with conflicting values. Second, beliefs can influence one another in unforeseeable ways, and cultural values can …

Analyzing Social Construction Of Knowledge Online By Employing Interaction Analysis, Learning Analytics, And Social Network Analysis, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Nick V. Flor, David Gomez, Damien Sanchez

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

This article examines research methods for analyzing social construction of knowledge in online discussion forums. We begin with an examination of the Interaction Analysis Model (Gunawardena, Lowe, & Anderson, 1997) and its applicability to analyzing social construction of knowledge. Next, employing a dataset from an online discussion, we demonstrate how interaction analysis can be supplemented by employing other research techniques such as learning analytics and Social Network Analysis that shed light on the social dynamics that support knowledge construction. Learning analytics is the application of quantitative techniques for analyzing large volumes of distributed data ("big data") in order to discover …

The Added Value Of Conducting Learning Design Meeting To The Online Course Development Process, Denise Shaver

Faculty Publications

Do you find it challenging to have discussions with instructors about designing online courses and best practices in teaching? This article will highlight key components to conducting effective Learning Design Meetings. It outlines techniques used by our institution in engaging faculty in a discussion regarding better use of Learning Management Systems (LMS), storyboard layout, learning outcomes, student engagement, learning activities, formal assessments, and content delivery. Learning Design meetings have proven to be a compelling manner of decreasing faculty resistance while exposing instructors to best practices in pedagogy, andragogy, and online learning. Instructional Designers (IDs), Instructional Facilitators (IFs), and Course Authors …

Faculty Online Questionnaire Protocol, Undergraduate Scholarly Habits Ethnography Project, Maura A. Smale, Mariana Regalado, Jean Amaral

Publications and Research

This research protocol describes a questionnaire used for data collection in the Undergraduate Scholarly Habits Ethnography Project to explore the lived experiences of faculty use of technology in the hybrid and online courses they teach.

Embedding Online Based Learning Strategies Into The Engineering Technology Curriculum, Vukica M. Jovanovic, Otilia Popescu, Orlando M. Ayala, Mileta Tomovic, Alok K. Verma

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Various blended learning strategies have been implemented at engineering technology programs to facilitate different learning styles and different time constraints given to faculty. Some of these efforts are related to the effective use of online tools such as online course management systems, ePortfolios, narrated presentations, web-based polling systems, tutorials and educational materials posted before the class and asynchronous learning methods. As technology changes, some of the online learning methods are getting more advanced which is enabling more innovative approaches and data compression. Various distance learning programs started with having access to videos of recorded lectures (on VHS tapes, or CDs) …

The Relationship Between Successful Completion And Sequential Movement In Self-Paced Distance Courses, Janine M. Lim

Faculty Publications

A course design question for self-paced courses includes whether or not technological measures should be used in course design to force students to follow the sequence intended by the course author. This study examined learner behavior to understand whether the sequence of student assignment submissions in a self-paced distance course is related to successful completion of the course. The study included 543 students in 89 different general education courses at a private university in the United States during a two year period. Results indicate that students who completed at least one assignment or exam out of the intended sequence of …

Negotiating Cultural Spaces In An International Mobile And Blended Learning Project, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Agnieszka Palalas, Nicole Berezin, Caitlin Legere, Gretchen Kramer, Godwin Amo-Kwao

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper explores the cultural spaces that had to be negotiated by a team of North American and Ghanaian partners when designing, developing and implementing a mobile and blended learning solution to train physician assistants in Ghana. In addition, it examines how these cultural spaces correspond to five mobile and blended learning spaces: temporal, physical, transactional, technological and pedagogical. Employing qualitative narrative inquiry and paradigmatic analysis procedures, we analyzed six types of data to determine the cultural spaces that emerged. Results indicate that cultural spaces were most often negotiated in the transactional mobile and blended learning space and included: identity …