The study of job satisfaction for professors in the work place has been prevalent in the research for decades (COACHE, 2007). As online education grows exponentially each year (Allen & Seaman, 2006), this aspect of professorial teaching is emerging as an increasingly critical factor. Many professors that teach in the online sector have taught or are currently teaching in a face-to-face setting as well (Preziosi & Gooden, 2003). Also, many of the professors teaching online courses in the higher education arena are being hired as adjunct instructors. There is a lack of literature dealing with the satisfaction of the educator in online teaching. Therefore, the goal of this study is to fill that gap pertaining to job satisfaction for online adjunct instructors. A phenomenological study using Herzberg‘s two factor theory was undertaken to examine the job satisfaction of a group of online adjunct instructors at a medium sized private university in the southeastern United States. Participants noted that they experienced issues with barriers in communication due to the lack of face-to-face interactions with students, found it more difficult to ensure student success, noted a lack of student readiness and it was difficult to form meaningful relationships with students online. Overall the participants noted that they would continue to teach online despite the overwhelming mention of job dissatifiers. The major conclusion of the findings yielded that flexibility was the number one reason that these participants taught online.

With the rapid and exponential growth of Internet use worldwide, online learning has become one of the most widely used learning paradigms in the education environment. Yet despite the rapidly increasing cultural diversity of online learners, few studies have investigated the effectiveness of cross-cultural Online Learning Systems (OLS) using a suitable measurement to answer the question, "Do culturally different learners perceive OLS effectiveness differently?" In this study, Hofstede's theory on cultural dimensions and Levy's Learners' Value Index of Satisfaction (LeVIS) framework are applied as a foundation for studying how culturally different learners perceive OLS effectiveness. The aim of this comparative study was to gain a better understanding of OLS effectiveness in a non-western culture by comparing cultural dimensions and learners' perceived effectiveness of OLS (across the four pillars: technology/support, course, professor, & learner) among American and Malaysian learners. Learners from American and Malaysian universities were surveyed and a factorial analysis of variance (factorial ANOVA) was used to determine any significant differences among participants regarding perceived OLS effectiveness across the four pillars of OLS based upon Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Results indicated significant differences in perceived OLS effectiveness between American and Malaysian learners in the course and professor pillars based on Hofstede's five cultural dimensions. However, the technology/support and learner pillars showed no significant differences between American and Malaysian learners' perceived OLS effectiveness. The main contribution of this study is its findings regarding the effect of culture on perceived OLS effectiveness. This study examined American and Malaysian learners' perceived effectiveness of the technology/support, course, professor, and learner pillars of OLS based on Hofstede's five cultural dimensions. Based upon analysis of the survey results, it was determined that American learners perceived a slightly higher OLS effectiveness in terms of the course and professor pillars than Malaysian learners. In other words, the survey indicated that the cultural dimensions distinguishing American and Malaysian learners influenced those two groups' perceived effectiveness of the course and professor pillars of the OLS. Another contribution of this study is its recommendation, based upon the survey results, that Malaysian OLS course designers develop and implement course content and activities in the online learning environment to alleviate the apparent conflict between current online learning and Malaysian cultural characteristics. It is further recommended that Malaysian professors using OLS also strive to develop an instructional method more suitable to the cultural norms of Malaysian society. On a general level, it is hoped that this study will also contribute to a better awareness and understanding of the important and unresolved issues surrounding cultural attributes and learners' perceived OLS effectiveness. Based on this study, recommendations were made for future research in order to broaden, reenforce or adjust its findings. These included, 1) replicating this study in another setting, such as in the collaborative environment of international organizations; 2) including additional independent variables, such as academic major, enrollment status (full or part time), first language, graduate student status, and grade point average; 3) replicating the current study using a larger sample with multiple locations and cultures, and 4) replicating this study at a future date to reflect potential changes in culture, technology, and OLS design.

Online learning appeals to busy professionals and project managers (PMs) since demands from work, family, and personal interests compete with the desire to engage learning and finish courses. The thesis critically analyzes adult learning literature, then develops models, and tests the approaches at a commercial university. The professional learning model overcomes the gap in applied online learning design and delivery theories through a perspective transformation of the fundamental educational psychology principles, to shift the philosophy towards an integrated humanistic-constructivist paradigm. The key principles emphasized in this new approach are andragogical motivation, self-schema, self-efficacy, and self-regulation. A repeated-measures quasi-experiment was designed and conducted in a university online MBA program (n=48), using a scientific research methodology (that controlled confounding factors) to empirically test the professional learning factor model. Paired-treatment tests, factor covariances, coefficient of multiple determinations, and cause/effect multiple regression findings were statistically significant at the 95% confidence level (most tests exceeded 99%). A linear mathematical predictor and systemic model was substantiated from the concept testing, to quantitatively explain 66%(r²) of cause-effect variance between the contextual factors and dependent variables. These findings were compared to, and were in agreement with similar studies. The limitations of the quasi-experiments are small sample size, natural selection (as opposed to pure randomization), and generalizability to other contexts (models not yet replicated). The research makes a theoretical and empirical contribution to four stakeholder domains - Project Management (PM) professionals, adult educators, academic research community, and the PM body of knowledge. The first value claim consists of empirically proven online learning design and delivery guidelines, that can be applied and/or replicated. Secondly, the research multi-methods to decrease time-to-market for these multi-year experiments. Lastly the research evidence might promote the development of more 'soft-skills' content in PM

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / This thesis argues that it is only through understanding the multiple facets of technology that we are able to determine whether any particular manifestation of technology is educational. The reconstruction of educational technology in this thesis begins by building an understanding of the concept of experiential technology from the work of Heidegger, Dewey and Popper. This provides the conceptual architecture required to research the influence of educational technology in universities, which is interpreted in light of the wider theory of modernisation of society developed by Jürgen Habermas. The critical theory of technology formulated by Feenberg provides the methodological basis for reconstructing an understanding of technology and its impact on student learning. A reconstructive analysis requires a number of situational critiques, which in this thesis review the advice given to academic staff about the use of educational technology. It is through a synthesis of these critiques that this thesis examines whether higher education is undergoing a process of colonisation that has reduced its potential to discuss the values of university teaching and learning. Online learning is taken as a case example that has been embraced by academics for dealing with increasing student numbers and the increasing importance of work-based learning. By shifting from the theory of technology to the practice of the Australian Technology University, this thesis demonstrates that one approach to coping with change in the higher education context is to incorporate business values, have increasingly flexible curricula and focus on workplace skills. This thesis concludes that universities could go a lot further to incorporate the values of higher education into educational technology. In the case of the online learner this would support those distinctive characteristics that encourage a deep approach to learning. Following arguments put forward by Feenberg, it is argued that it is through student participation in technical design that we have the greatest chance of influencing technology’s development to emphasize the values of higher education. As long as academics continue to control the technological decision-making, the delivery and management of information is likely to remain the most common use of online technology. The legitimacy of the academic’s decision to use technology in their teaching increases where there is only a narrow gap between the values of the participants and the reality of their practice. Thus, to be morally just and provide students with the developmental opportunities that will serve them in their later professional and citizenship roles, the online classroom needs to ensure that it provides an autonomy-supporting environment.

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As a result of personal computers and broadband Internet connections become very popular, online learning converts asynchronous learning into synchronous learning or blended learning. This implies that synchronous communication becomes an essential part of online learning and learners now are able to see others face-to-face online just like in traditional classrooms. In the past, the major difference between cyber classroom and traditional classroom is that cyber classroom cannot provide face to face interaction. However, a synchronous cyber classroom features real-time and multiple video communication channels can overcome this shortage and even promoted better attention and engagement for learners. Social presence is an indicator to measure the degree of social interaction, determined by the perception of an individual to environments and other individuals. The prior researches have indicated that increasing social presence is helpful to enhancing learning participation and satisfaction in a synchronous cyber classroom. Hence, we argue that promoting social presence in a synchronous cyber classroom would have a positive effect on learners¡¦ learning participation and satisfaction. The aim of this study is to explore the factors affecting social presence in a synchronous cyber classroom. We will apply social learning theory as a basis to verify if social presence does have a positive effect on learning outcome and what factors affect social presence in a synchronous cyber classroom learning environment. Because the perception about social presence is accumulated as time goes by, a questionnaire survey is used in this study. The target population is drawn upon the learners who have had real experiences of participations in learning with synchronous cyber classrooms. The questionnaires were carried out on the Web. The subjects were learners from the National Sun Yan-Sen Cyber University, the K12 digital school and some others from the PTT BBS. The total number of valid questionnaires is 252. The research result indicates that the factors affecting social presence in a synchronous cyber classroom are intimacy, user friendliness, responsiveness, extraversion, and cue richness. Moreover, social presence does have a positive effect on learning participation and satisfaction. The contribution of this study is finding out the factors affecting social presence from the social learning theory perspective. If teachers could pay attention to these factors and try to apply them for enhancing learners¡¦ social presence, learners¡¦ learning outcome is greatly improved in a synchronous cyber classroom environment. This study is concluded by pointing out some suggestions for practice and future research.

This study investigated why and how students, who enrolled in fully-online distance course, participated in online activities external to the formal online course (OAEOC) at any point during or after the online course. For this research, OAEOC is defined as any activity pursued by students within an online environment during or after the course that does not take place within their teacher-sponsored online course “home” (such as a Moodle or Blackboard). This research occurred within a fully-online, five-week course that trained journalists in digital tools. Data included: (a) 144 researcher-generated interpretive memos based on activities within the course’s online discussion forums and student chats and (b) 11 student interviews. Results showed that student interactions in course discussion forums were critically important for developing connections between students, which in turn, supported the initiation of online activities external to the online course. During the course, students posted information about their online identities and created a Facebook group and Twitter list, which facilitated online activities external to the course. Data from interviews showed that those students participating in OAEOC did so for social reasons and to continue conversing with classmates. Students who did not participate in OAEOCs indicated work schedule conflicts, lack of interest, and unawareness of the OAEOCs prevented their participation. During the course, OAEOC participants discussed topics related to the course content. However, once the course concluded, OAEOC participants started discussing more personal and professional topics. The phenomenon studied is new to online distance education and holds the potential to extend the online course experience and support lifelong learning. / text

I Sverige idag är det många som kompletterar sin gymnasieutbildning via kurser inom denkommunala vuxenutbildningen (komvux); och många gör det också på distans. För att synliggöradetta växande utbildningsområde som distansundervisningen utgör, fokuserar denna undersökning påde undervisande lärarnas tankar kring denna form av undervisning vid den kommunalavuxenutbildningen.Frågeställningen tar alltså upp vilka subjektiva teorier lärare inom distansundervisning (vid denkommunala vuxenutbildningen) har om sin distansundervisning; samt hur dessa subjektiva teorierförhåller sig till andra lärteorier. Som teori handlar Forskningsprogrammet ”Subjektive Theorien”om hur man vetenskapligt kan undersöka de teorier som människor har och uttrycker i vardagen.Teorins forskningsansats är inte att undersöka hur människor gör (handlingar), utan hur människortänker om sina handlingar, dvs. om deras kognitiva strukturer.För att undersöka detta valdes sex lärare ut vid en distansskola inom den kommunalavuxenutbildningen. Med dessa sex lärare genomfördes sedan semi-strukturerade narrativa intervjuer.Områden som behandlades var bland annat betygens reliabilitet – plagiat och fusk, elever i klassrumkontra på distans samt mer specifikt om hur lärarna såg på de elever som läser på distans. Ävenlärarnas syn på diskussion/grupparbete togs upp.Det som framkom var subjektiva teorier där lärarna var mycket utförliga, detaljerade ochnyancerade, samtidigt som det också framgick att lärarnas teoretiska kännedom om de olikaformerna av distansundervisning och om kopplingar till lärteorier var svagt utpräglad.

The purpose of this study was to describe how assessing interactions in a distance course impact the quality of instruction, student leaning, and satisfaction with the course. This study, further describes how interactions can be enhanced with certain technologies. The population for this research was both undergraduate and graduate students of the college of Agriculture and Natural Resources in National Chung-Hsing University (NCHU), in Taiwan. There are twelve departments under the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources including eleven departments and one graduate institute. Data was collected from students at NCHU (Taiwan) by using Qualtrics (an online survey platform) through the Internet. All data of this research collected via Internet and used SPSS 20.0 to analysis data results. It is an anonymous survey that participants just receive the survey web address from email or academic platforms of each department. There is no any identification information for each participant. According to the findings, there are some relationships between transactional distance theory, technology, and online education. The results of the regression model point out that the learner to the course content interaction is a significant predictor for satisfaction toward online classes. Learner to the course content interaction and learner to the instructor interaction are significant predictors for quality toward online classes. Learner to the course technology interaction and learner to the instructor interaction are significant predictors for learning toward online classes. Learner to the course content interaction and learner to the instructor interaction are significant predictors of enhanced interactions in online classes. However, there is no interaction effect in learner to leaner interaction to enhance the satisfaction, quality, and learning. From the above data, the learner to the instructor interaction and the learner to the course content interaction are two important factors that influence learners’ satisfaction, quality, and learning of online courses. More participants involving in this research recommended increasing the reliability and the diversity of opinions. Besides, using the same instrument for diverse populations such as differences of culture, background, and majors may find more relationships in interactions and technologies in online education. Also, do more researches for enhancing the interaction between learner to learner and learner to the course technology. It is important to find more effective technologies and media for instructors to enhance learners’ satisfaction, quality, and learning of online education.

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