The purpose of this evaluative study was to review the implementation of a Webcam Test-Proctoring Program (WTPP) implemented in a Kindergarten through 12th grade public virtual school. Results of the evaluative study will be used to determine if the secure Webcam proctoring method would be a viable solution to a problem of practice—requiring full-time virtual school students to participate in the multitude of required state and Florida school district assessments. At the core of virtual education lies the appeal of flexibility in each student's individual learning path. The rigid nature of secure assessments conflict with the intentions of a K-12 virtual school. Natale and Cook (2012) identified this as a problem of practice as well, stating, "Digital learning de-standardizes and decentralizes educational delivery, so it presents challenges in applying quality control systems and metrics that were developed for more traditional school structures" (p. 541). A formal evaluation included an electronic survey and one-on-one phone interviews. The sample population for this study included 6th-12th grade students (n = 27) who were enrolled in Hurricane County Virtual School during the 2014-2015 school year. The HCVS population was 165 at the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year, therefore the population for this study was N=165. The WTPP evaluated for this study took place over two test sessions, the first in October of 2014 and the second in January 2015. Students were asked to complete the electronic survey and to volunteer to complete phone interviews to provide feedback about their experience completing their benchmark assessments. In this mixed-methods study, an electronic survey created by the evaluator and research chair gathered quantitative data that were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. In order to determine if there was any relationship between specific demographic sub-groups and their experiences and preferences regarding Webcam proctoring, the researcher used the Kruskal-Walis and Mann-Whitney inferential statistics. Additionally, qualitative data were collected through one-on-one phone interviews with six students who participated in the WTPP. Data from these interviews yielded supporting statements for the quantitative data analyzed. Results yielded from this study indicated that the majority of students who participated in the WTPP were satisfied or very satisfied with this method of proctoring for secure testing overall. Future studies should further evaluate the effectiveness of Webcam proctoring for secure testing and determine the impact of allowing students more flexibility (which Webcam proctoring inherently does) while testing has on their test scores.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to ascertain what has been written about feedback in Distance Education: An International Journal. Distance education has been dramatically developed in domestic and international education. It is a kind of education that concentrates on teaching methods and technologies, intending to deliver teaching to students who are not physically present in the traditional education setting such as the classroom. In distance education, students have fewer chances to get immediate responses from their teachers. Hence, in order to make sure that students have really learned and made progress, students and instructors should interact or communicate with each other frequently. The definition of feedback is that it is a reinforcer information given by different kinds of sources to help feedback receivers to make progress. Feedback serves as a useful learning tool with which to interact and communicate. In many cases, feedback may be the only learning communication between students and teacher in distance education courses. Content analysis methodology had been chosen for this research project in order to get a systematic and deep understanding of feedback in distance education. A coding form was utilized to support the objective observation. Predetermined themes were used to categorize the articles from the Distance Education: An International Journal. Six hundred and twenty peer reviewed articles were searched, and three hundred and fifty eight articles include the term feedback. The researcher read all these three hundred and fifty eight articles. One hundred and twenty four articles were about sources, sixty-two were about types of feedback, fifty-seven were about technology, and nineteen of them were about quality. There were also some other kinds of topics appeared in the articles of this journal. In order to make the analysis much more clear, the researcher categorized topics into four specific themes: feedback types, feedback providers, ways to deliver feedback and feedback quality. Results and discussion were provided. / Ph. D.

Thesis (MEd (Distance Ed))--University of South Australia, 1996

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 70-77).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-77). Also available in print.

Globally, as distance education has become firmly embedded as a part of the higher education landscape, governments and institutions are calling for meaningful research on distance education. This study involved designing, developing and validating a learning environment survey instrument for use in distance education-delivered courses in post-secondary education. Specifically it involved merging two distinctive areas of study: psychosocial learning environments research and distance education research. The unique social structure of asynchronous distance education learning environments requires a unique and economical instrument for measuring the perceptions of distance education course participants. The research followed a three-stage instrument-development process of identifying salient scales, developing survey items, and field testing and analysing data using item analysis and validation procedures. This was followed by an investigation into the associations between the psychosocial learning environment and students enjoyment of distance education. The results yielded a new six-scale, 34-item Web-based learning environment instrument suitable for use in a number of asynchronous post-secondary distance education environments. The new instrument, the Distance Education Learning Environment Survey (DELES) assesses Instructor Support, Student Interaction and Collaboration, Personal Relevance, Authentic Learning, Active Learning, and Student Autonomy. Analyses of data obtained from 680 subjects supported the factorial validity and internal consistency reliability. The results also indicated statistically significant associations between the distance education learning environment and student enjoyment of distance education.

Thesis (M. Ed.(Educational psychology))-University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 133 p. : map. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-100).