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Situated cognition and engagement in a community of practice in online education has been difficult to attain through the information and communication technologies deployed throughout higher education. Effective real-time collaboration is a key component to the development of a community of practice and what has been missing in online business education. This study examined the integration of web conferencing tools and discussion boards to determine whether a community of practice formed in the Fox Online MBA program at Temple University. The investigation examined 13 students' interactions throughout a compressed five-week online marketing course delivered primarily through WebEx and Blackboard. Results show that the students were consistently actively engaged in the course throughout the real-time classes as well as the discussion board. Further, students' active participation focused primarily on how the course content related to personal and professional experiences. Evidence suggests that the students developed strong social bonds and a community of practice was present. / CITE/Mathematics and Science Education

The increasing enrollment of nontraditional students in online degree programs has underscored the importance of effective academic advising practices. These students, often over the age of 25 and juggling full-time employment and family responsibilities, encounter unique challenges in navigating the asynchronous, online learning environment. Academic advisors play a pivotal role in mitigating these obstacles by fostering trust and delivering comprehensive support systems tailored to the needs of online learners. While previous studies have explored various advising models and approaches in connection with student satisfaction, inadequate attention has been given to assessing the quality of advising specifically tailored to nontraditional, online students and their persistence. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if advising quality impacts persistence among nontraditional, online students enrolled in a baccalaureate degree program as to what extent specific dimensions of advising quality (reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy) impact their persistence. Data were collected using an anonymous online survey that was shared with potential participants via email. Data were analyzed through SPSS software using a multiple linear regression model to determine significance between the independent variables, the dimensions of advising quality, and the dependent variable, self-report impact on persistence. Results indicated that three dimensions of advising quality were highly significant; reliability, empathy, and assurance. These findings indicate that higher education administrators should focus efforts on implementing advisor training programs tailored to the needs of online learners, creating a centralized advising structure which offers a streamlined approach to student services, and executing advisor evaluations to collect student feedback and inform practice. Future research should be conducted to confirm the findings of this study and to explore other institutional factors that impact the persistence of nontraditional students enrolled in online baccalaureate degree programs.

An estimated 15 million people in the US have had a near‐death experience (NDE), an experience of usually lucid consciousness during a close brush with death. Following an NDE, experiencers (NDErs) sometimes feel challenged and seek counseling to integrate the experience into their subsequent lives. They have reported psychologically harmful experiences disclosing their NDEs to healthcare professionals, including counselors. Counselors' knowledge and attitude about NDEs appear to be critical variables in their ability to uphold the ethical imperative to do no harm to clients. The recent development of a psychometrically sound instrument to assess these variables, coupled with online availability of a three-part NDE educational program for health professionals, made possible for the first time a large‐scale pre‐post study of the effect of the program on counselors' knowledge and attitude about NDEs. Participants were 212 licensed professional counselors (LPCs) aged 23 to 71 years old (M = 44.93, SD = 12.69); sex self-identified as 12.3% male, 87.3% female, and .5% other; racially/ethnically self-identified as 84% White and 17% non-White and as 6.6% Latino-Hispanic and 92.5% non-Latino/Hispanic; and representing four regions of the US. Results revealed that, compared to control group, composed of LPCs who completed topically unrelated online programs (n = 112), those who completed the NDE program (n = 100) showed significantly more accurate knowledge and more positive attitude about NDEs. Participants also overwhelmingly expressed enjoyment of the programs. These results support the use of online training to increase counselors' knowledge and improve their attitude about NDEs so they can provide clinically and ethically sound treatment to NDErs. Limitations of the study and future research are addressed.

This study investigated the perceptions of quality held by undergraduate students enrolled in an online degree program, and examined the connections between these perceptions and retention in an online learning environment. Three main research questions guided this study: (1) What are the characteristics of quality that are desirable for academic success in online distance education? (2) How well does the university manage selection and retention of students and control dropout rates in online learning environment? and; (3) How well does the university foster learning based on information about (a) student engagement, (b) the time and effort students devote to educationally sound activities (within and outside the classroom), (c) policies and practices the institution uses to induce students to take part in those activities, and (d) policies and practices at their institution, even if unintended, that hinder students' full participation? What are the connections between student perception of quality and retention in an online learning environment? A group of students at a medium-sized state university in central California composed of sophomores, juniors and seniors enrolled in a psychology course participated in interviews. The study employed a qualitative method to collect opinions and data from students who chose to learn in an online environment, examined students' experiences, determined those efforts that promote or hinder learning and higher student retention as perceived by the students, and presented from three main domains; (a) administration, (b) faculty, and (c) students. The findings of the study indicate that some of the characteristics of quality perceived by students as desirable include individual discipline and instructors that are more understanding and encourage students to learn. Administrative and technical support was also rated high on the list. Overall, students desired programs that were convenient and provided sufficient flexibility to accommodate other of life's challenges. The study confirmed expert opinions that when a student has positive personal experiences, possesses positive individual motivation, in an environment with positive attrition factors, it is predictable that the student could attain completion of course or program. The connections between the student's perception of quality and retention then are those personal experiences, individual motivation and positive attrition factors within the distance education learning culture. The quality of these connection variables determines a student's commitment to complete online education and commitment to the university.

Class of 2017 Abstract / Objectives: The aim of this project was to assess community-dwelling older adults’ knowledge of prescription and Over-the-Counter (OTC) medications associated with fall risk, then provide an online educational intervention tailored to older adults on the topics they answer incorrectly. The knowledge assessment of the missed questions will be repeated after the online education to detect the effectiveness of the online intervention in increasing the knowledge of community-dwelling older adults. Methods: This study used an interventional design with pre-test, post-test survey method to quantitatively analyze community-dwelling older adults’ knowledge on medication-related fall risk. The persons taking the survey were community dwelling older adults, 65 years of age and older, living in the greater Tucson and Phoenix areas. Data was obtained through an online Qualtrics questionnaire between February 1, 2016 and February 1, 2017. The survey respondents answered questions regarding prescription and OTC medications associated with fall risk. For the questions they answered incorrectly, an online educational intervention tailored to older adults was provided immediately. The knowledge assessment of the missed questions was repeated after the online education to detect the effectiveness of the intervention. Results: Questionnaires were completed by 302 community-dwelling older adults. The mean age of the participants was 79 (range 65 to > 96), and majority were women (61.2%). A majority of respondents (53.87%) reported falling once in the last 5 years. Of the total participants, 50% were taking between 5 and 9 prescribed medications and 56% taking 0 to 4 OTC medications. The primary outcome of this study is that online education was effective in educating community dwelling older adults on medication-related fall risk. Patients whose pharmacist had previously educated them did not directly correlate with better performance on the pretest than those who did not receive counseling. Participants that received online education during the survey improved their score from 69% before education to 84% post education. Conclusions: The online educational intervention on medication-related fall among older adults was effective and informative. Such educational strategy may be used by pharmacists to educate older patients using medications that may increase fall risks.

Supporting retention, student success, and online enrollments are some of the most significant and challenging topics in higher education today. Students who fail to succeed early in their studies are less likely to be retained, and students in the online environment are more likely to fail than their campus counterparts. Motivational techniques have been shown to support course retention and success, but studies of online motivational course support methods are limited. Some evidence exists that motivational messages can affect student performance in online courses, but the message format that is most effective has yet to be definitively established. A survey research design was employed and quantitative and qualitative data were collected to determine how motivational messages and message type affect student performance and retention in an introductory online community college course. The population consisted of students in three sections of an introductory online IT course. The data included student course grades, final course scores, responses to three surveys, and the researcher's reflexive journal of motivational message design decisions made throughout the course. Due to low course participation levels and low survey return rates, only the descriptive data were reported. Additional exploration of the literature to explain low participation was sought. Potential causes for low survey return rates included low course participation, survey length, the number of survey contacts, inaccurate estimates of survey completion time, and the number of surveys deployed. To explain the low course participation, best practices with regard to online course design were identified in the literature and compared to the design of the course used in this study. Qualitative survey results and a reflexive journal of the researcher's design decisions are also presented. The results suggest that students liked the motivational messages. The reaction was stronger for the personalized messages than for the general, but this was not a conclusive finding. To the contrary the findings suggest that motivational messages (regardless of type) are not by themselves effective at engaging and retaining students and should not be used as a stand-alone motivational technique.

In the past decade Higher Education Institutions have experienced tremendous growth in enrollments. To meet this demand, many higher education institutions have embraced online education and its requisite technologies. Online education has matured, and studies focusing on the cognitive domain indicate that distance education is as effective as the traditional face-to-face instructional modality. However, there is a scarcity of affective domain studies due to: a) the need for the institutions of higher education to perform quantitative studies to establish the quality of online education b) the affective domain's inherent subjective nature, and c) the educational research environment has slow recognition of the validity and value of qualitative research. This scarcity of research has created a reluctance to engage in online education on the part of a large number of private and public mission-driven educational institutions. Historically these institutions place great emphasis on the affective domain and currently believe that the affective domain cannot be effectively promoted in the online environment. Therefore, the conclusion is drawn that if online education cannot provide the affective component, then it is counterproductive to the mission of the institution desiring to provide a transformative education. This reluctance threatens the existence of many mission-driven institutions by falling behind in the distance education market place. Quality research is needed in the area of the affective domain in distance education to convince these institutions that the affective domain can effectively be taught in the online environment. This grounded theory study of an established online Bachelors of Radiography Program has developed a theory as to why students report a strong sense of mission when compared with other like institutions in the Mission Engagement Consortium for Independent Colleges (MECIC). Through a series of interviews with eight students, two alumni, four faculty, and the requisite coding, six contributing pedagogical phenomena and three central categories emerged. The three central categories, Instructor Persistence, Synchronous Encounters, and Integrated Institutional Mission, when working together, were found to have created continued and significant impact on the affective domain for the students of the Radiography program. Further research will be needed to quantitatively test the theory developed in this study and establish a baseline of best practices in promoting the affective domain in the online learning environment.

<div>Circulation studies, as the theory of ecological spread of information, impacts public perception of knowledge-making, and digital circulation (i.e. online information sharing) impacts what people expect online knowledge-making and online education is or should be. Online education is becoming a new norm for students and universities at a time when economic pressure is pushing both to be more austere and expedient; at the same time, circulation collapses together the complex ways we communicate, making them harder to differentiate. This dissertation responds to these conditions by focusing on the labor behind circulation and Online Writing Instruction (OWI) in order to study knowledge-making online. Through focus groups with instructors, case studies, and surveys of students in online classes, this dissertation identifies strategies that benefit both teachers and students and improve Online Writing Classes. This work intersects with recent considerations of how mis- and dis-information spread online, the impact of Data Science and Information Theory on communication and knowledge-making, and how to make universities accessible to more people.</div><div><br></div><div>Chapter 1 overviews the history of Distance Education (DE) and Online Education (OE) as well as the relevant disciplinary distinctions OWI makes for itself. Chapter 1 also identifies theoretical and practical challenges OE finds for itself and overviews recent shifts in OE student populations. Chapter 2 contextualizes the challenges OE and OWI face in a larger ecology of Information Theory, Rhetoric and Composition theory and practice, Technical Communication theory and practice, and Neoliberal economics, positing ecological links between modern data science, digital circulation, and economics. In doing so, Chapter 2 offers a rhetorical interpretation of the DIKW pyramid and definitions of data, information, knowledge, and wisdom (D, I, W, and W respectively) for rhetorical practitioners. Chapter 3 follows up on Chapter 2’s arguments to respond with research on teacher and student labor in online classes with methods for such inquiry, through focus groups, case studies, and surveys. Chapter 4 presents data from all stages of that inquiry, and Chapter 5 connects together observations from the data with theory from Chapters 1 and 2 to draw more concrete conclusions.</div><div><br></div>

The advent of the internet has resulted in the development from mail, radio and telephonic modes of delivery to electronic mode of delivery in distance education. It has been predicted that the impact of the internet on distance and online education will result in benefits such as wider reach of learners who might be disadvantaged by geographical locations and distance, greater flexibility and increased convenience for distance and online learners. However, the envisaged benefits seem to be elusive as a result of a range of impediments, including issues related to the digital divide. In this case study, focused on on-line students at a college of distance and open education in Botswana, students perceptions’ of both the benefits of and the impediments to their study are described, together with their perceptions of support strategies. Findings indicate the need for support strategies consistent with the nature of online learning in the 21st century. In particular, the findings of this study suggest that Web 2.0 technologies have the potential to enhance learner support, and that there is a need for careful exploration of the ways in which such technologies can be exploited and applied in support of on-line learners.