In an effort to improve instruction and better accommodate the needs of students, community colleges are offering courses delivered in a variety of delivery formats that require students to have some level of technology fluency to be successful in the course. This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between student socioeconomic status (SES), course delivery method, and course type on enrollment, final course grades, course completion status, and course passing status at a state college. A dataset for 20,456 students of low and not low SES enrolled in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) course types delivered using traditional, online, blended, and web enhanced course delivery formats at Miami Dade College, a large open access 4-year state college located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, was analyzed. A factorial ANOVA using course type, course delivery method, and student SES found no significant differences in final course grades when used to determine if course delivery methods were equally effective for students of low and not low SES taking STEM course types. Additionally, three chi-square goodness-of-fit tests were used to investigate for differences in enrollment, course completion and course passing status by SES, course type, and course delivery method. The findings of the chi-square tests indicated that: (a) there were significant differences in enrollment by SES and course delivery methods for the Engineering/Technology, Math, and overall course types but not for the Natural Science course type and (b) there were no significant differences in course completion status and course passing status by SES and course types overall and SES and course delivery methods overall. However, there were statistically significant but weak relationships between course passing status, SES and the math course type as well as between course passing status, SES, and online and traditional course delivery methods. The mixed findings in the study indicate that strides have been made in closing the theoretical gap in education and technology skills that may exist for students of different SES levels. MDC’s course delivery and student support models may assist other institutions address student success in courses that necessitate students having some level of technology fluency.

The delivery method of a math course may affect the math scores of nursing students, which relates to rates of medication errors that could be fatal. The purpose of this study was to discover the relative effectiveness of a delivery method of a math course. Benner's novice-to-expert theory guided the study. A sequential explanatory, mixed-methods, nonexperimental pre-/posttest alternative treatment design was used. Phase 1 answered which delivery methods-online self-directed, face-to-face, or a mix of online self-directed with instructor lead-were associated with the best Medication Administration Competency exam results. Phase 2 included students' assessment of each learning method. The sample size was 148 students who were admitted to 1 nursing school between 2011 and 2013. The data were collected from 4 sources: (a) archival standardized entrance exam math scores, (b) archival standardized exit exam math scores, (c) a qualitative survey regarding student perceptions of the delivery method, and (d) a qualitative section of the same survey with math questions. The ANCOVA analysis showed no statistically significant difference in the delivery method used. Students with lower pretest exam scores took the posttest exam more times and also had lower posttest grades. The content analysis showed that students from all 3 groups did not see an advantage in the delivery method, but in certain teaching strategies that support learning. Therefore, the nursing school should continue to allow students to select their preferred delivery method, or offer fewer methods as they were equivalent. Positive change could come from using teaching strategies that students valued, improving their ability to provide correct dosages and increasing patient safety in the healthcare environment.

In 1990, two-year colleges nationwide reported that approximately 38% of their faculty were part-time. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics' (NCES) 1999 National Study of Post-Secondary Faculty (NSOPF), this percentage continues to rise, and currently exists at 40% or more in some two-year and four-year institutions. To retain competent, qualified, and successful teachers, it is critical for higher education administrators to determine factors that may contribute to part-time faculty's job satisfaction. This study investigated whether the use of instructional technology for curriculum delivery affected part-time faculty job satisfaction by investigating four specific areas that may be affected. The first component explored whether the use of a technology-based educational delivery system in higher education contributed to overall part-time faculty job satisfaction in and four- year institutions. The second examined whether the use of a technology-based educational delivery system in higher education contributed to the overall job satisfaction of part-time faculty in their first year of teaching. Third, it was the intent of the researcher to determine whether the use of a technology-based educational delivery system in higher education contributed to the overall job satisfaction of part-time male and female faculty. In the fourth component, by applying an adaptation of the Center for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) curriculum classification scheme to group teaching fields, the researcher observed whether the use of a technology-based educational delivery system in higher education influenced the overall job satisfaction of part-time faculty in each teaching discipline. The results of this study confirmed in eight of the research questions the notion that the use of instructional technology when teaching had no effect on the overall job satisfaction of part-time faculty. Two areas of statistical significance evolve around the Computer Science and Social Sciences disciplines. Although both null hypotheses were statistically rejected, a closer look at both of these areas demonstrates the need for further understanding of their statistical significance. The results of this study demonstrate that during the moment in time when the 1999 NSOPF survey was conducted, instructional technology may not have been a large enough component in the total package of teaching deliverables to make a measurable difference in job satisfaction (NCES, 2005). This observation applies to most liberal arts teaching disciplines and affects the variables of gender, years of teaching experience, and type of institution equally with little exception.

The credibility of unsupervised exams, one of the biggest challenges of e-learning, is currently maintained by proctoring. However, little has been done to determine whether expensive and inconvenient proctoring is necessary. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether the use of security mechanisms, based on the taxonomy of cheating reduction techniques rooted in the fraud triangle theory, can be an effective alternative to proctoring. A quasi-experimental 1 group sequential design was used to answer the research questions whether the format, proctored versus unproctored, order in which the exams are administered, course delivery mode, and instructor make a difference in student performance. The archival scores of 850 Californian community college students on 2 sets of equivalent proctored and unproctored web-based exams in face-to-face, hybrid, and online introductory statistics courses taught by 7 instructors were compared. The format effect was tested with repeated-measures ANOVA; the order, course delivery mode and instructor effects were tested with mixed ANOVA. No significant difference in scores in Set 1, and significantly lower scores on unproctored exams in Set 2 indicated that the used security mechanisms allowed for maintaining the credibility of the exams without proctoring. There was no significant difference in scores across the course delivery modes in both sets and instructors in Set 2, but significant order effect was observed. Further research on order effect was recommended. With the use of the utilized security mechanisms education will get an inexpensive and convenient way to increase the credibility of unsupervised web-based exams, and the society will gain more online college graduates with credentials that reflect their knowledge.

The creation of a hybrid/blended basic course aligns with university goals and may increase viable curricular options for student success. If universities offer hybrid courses, they ought to do so based on data-driven evidence confirming that face-to-face (F2F) and hybrid courses are comparable. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the learning outcome achievement of students enrolled in a blended (hybrid) version of the basic course. More specifically, a comparative analysis of student affective, cognitive, and behavioral learning outcome achievement in face-to-face sections and hybrid sections was conducted. This study also examined affect for course delivery format for students enrolled in traditional F2F compared to hybrid sections. Ultimately, two important conclusions were drawn from this analysis. First, hybrid courses are a viable instructional modality for delivering the basic communication course. Second, students are satisfied with aspects of both F2F and blended course modalities. More specifically, each course delivery format has strengths and weaknesses and instructors, students, and university administrators share responsibility for course and student success.

There are many challenges associated with student retention. Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) has focused on determining the factors affecting student retention across its campus and distance course delivery formats in order to improve student retention. The purpose in this study was to explore the extent to which age, course delivery, technical ability, and financial background determine retention at SMWC. Retention and attrition models of Tinto and Walleri laid the foundation of this study. Qualitative data on technical ability were collected from 69 students who responded to the survey instrument on Survey Monkey. Quantitative data on retention, age, course delivery, and financial background on students who had graduated over the past 10 years were gathered from the offices of financial aid and the registrar. For quantitative data analysis, the influences of age and financial background on student retention were examined through multiple regression; the influence of course delivery on student retention was examined through 2-tailed t tests for comparing the 2 population means. Qualitative data were analyzed through a narrative approach. The findings of quantitative data analysis were that student age and financial standing were not significant predictors of student retention and that retention for distance course delivery was significantly lower than that of online delivery. The finding for qualitative analysis was that students with higher technical ability showed higher retention across both course deliveries. The social change implications include a better understanding by SMWC's administrators and faculty of course delivery and design in order to improve student retention, thus benefitting the local economy and community by creating a more skilled and employable workforce and a stronger reputation for SMWC.

As previous research has suggested, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought implications for different fields, in which higher education is not an exception (Blankenberger & Williams, 2020; Bidwell et al., 2020; Dhawan, 2020). The social distancing restrictions adopted by several governments including the Swedish one to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have implied that most higher education institutions temporarily closed and/or transitioned face-to-face designed courses into online environments in a matter of weeks, or even days, forcing the teaching staff to increasingly adopt digital technologies to continue the course delivery (Rad et al., 2021; Bidwell et al., 2020; Hodges et al., 2020; Dhawan, 2020). Through collecting data at a Swedish university, this inductive and pragmatic study utilized a convergent mixed methods approach to study teachers ́ lived experiences during the COVID- 19 period, and explore the implications of change brought on by the pandemic to the design of courses at the higher education level, with the aim of contributing to future action in the field.  The temporal component (Sweeting, 2014) was utilized as a unit of comparison for analyzing the results of the interview and questionnaire data to deepen the understanding of the COVID-19 implications of change on course design through time, especially looking towards the future. The study’s findings suggest that the main changes brought on by the pandemic to higher education course design relate to the alteration of teaching format, the increased presence of course design as a topic in the teaching agenda, and the increased digitalization of course design, with associated challenges such as the technical and the communication, interaction, and engagement aspects of course design, and opportunities such as the highlighted digital possibilities for course design. Furthermore, the main implication brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic to the future of course design is expected to be associated with the advanced digitalization of higher education course design. This future implication has been problematized by the study through utilizing the conceptual framework provided by Selwyn’s (2011) understanding of the relationship between education and digital technologies, inviting higher education teachers and institutions to question the role of digital technologies in the present and future moments of higher education course design, and learn from the present for improving the future.

In the recent years, the internet has been developed rapidly. By this convenient medium, the information can be spread easily all over the world. Using the convenience and variety of internet, e-learning has become a burgeoning and efficient way for learning. The main idea of e-learning is applying the concept of Asynchronous Course Delivery, and establishing a learning environment on the internet. With the connection between computer and the internet, user can learn more in a convenient environment. In order to apply the concept of e-learning to the course of statistics, we use the Java programming language to establish an on-line interactive environment. In addition to learn some fundamental concepts of statistics, learner can also strengthen the abilities of researching and surfing by themselves. In this paper we developed six interactive examples. Not only interpreting and illustrating, we also introduce the motive, goal, relative concepts and applications in detail for each example. Finally, we hope that user can easily learn more knowledge of statistics by this learning environment, then our e-learning to statistical education, can be achieved.

Distance education is, by its very nature, a response to the development of communications technology in the Industrial Era, coupled with the societal changes initiated by these developments (Garrison and Cleveland-Innes, 2010: 14). The current distance learning landscape is thus shaped by changing social needs brought about by the impact of advancements in technology. This case study investigates the effectiveness of new aspects of digital learning tools as additional resources in the TEFLA course, a Short Learning Programme (SLP), offered by UNISA. These aspects of digital course delivery introduce e-learning by incorporating synchronous and asynchronous digital teaching and learning tools, in the shape of MOOCs (asynchronous learning), as well as webinars (synchronous learning). This study reviews the effectiveness of these online tools in enhancing the learning experience of TEFLA students. The theoretical framework that informs this study is based on the connectivism and socio-cultural theories of knowledge acquisition. / English Studies / M.A. (English)