The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions of educators with respect to student experiences between March 2020 and February 2021 related to academics, social-emotional health, and safety and security. Data collection strategies included one-on-one interviews with 12 educators in one East Tennessee school district. To qualify for the study, participants had to have taught during COVID-19 schooling disruptions and have taught either 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade in the 2022-23 school year. Data analysis was based on Systems Theory (Laszlo & Krippner, 1998) and Change Theory (Fullan, 2020). The results revealed 5 key themes that were consistent among educators participating in the interviews and their perceptions of student experiences: (a) technology, (b) uncertainty, (c) engagement, (d) isolation, and (e) gratitude.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka klassiska sångpedagogers upplevelser av distansundervisning i enskilda lektioner i klassisk sång. Fyra pedagoger som är verksamma vid gymnasieskolor i Stockholm har intervjuats. Den sociokulturella teorin har använts i studien som teoretiskt perspektiv. Studiens resultat visar att undervisningen på distans inte kan bedrivas på samma sätt som traditionell undervisning i klassrum. Musikaliskt samspel mellan pedagog och elev är svårt med de verktyg som används i dag vid distansundervisning. Den kontinuitet som undervisningen på distans har möjliggjort under Covid-19-pandemin har varit en positiv aspekt då pedagogerna utforskat andra sätt att arbeta med eleverna under distansundervisningen. Andra studier visar också på svårigheter med samspel mellan pedagog och elev och belyser vikten av fortsatt forskning inom området. Det behövs mer forskning inom området för att utveckla de arbetssätt och verktyg som används vid musikundervisning på distans. / The purpose of this study is to explore classical singing teacher’s experiences of remote teaching in one-to-one lessons in classical singing. Four singing teachers who are active pedagogues at high schools in Stockholm have been interviewed. The sociocultural theory has been applied to this study as the theoretic perspective. The result of the study shows that teaching classical singing in remote cannot be taught as it’s taught on location. This is due to the difficulty for musical interaction during distance teaching when using today’s technology. The continuity which remote teaching has allowed during the Covid-19 pandemic is seen as a positive aspect due to teachers exploring other ways of teaching their students remotely. More research on this subject is needed to develop the work procedure and the tools that are used in remote teaching. Other studies also highlight the difficulties of musical interaction between teachers and students during remote teaching and stress the need of further research within the field.

Between 1994 and 2003, two related concerns were in the educational spotlight. The first concern was participation rates of low income students in higher education. The second was the apparent disparity in Internet usage by low income and other disadvantaged individuals, highlighted in the report Falling Through The Net (United States Department of Commerce, 2000). The purpose of this study is to identify the economic factors and demographic attributes that influence participation of low income students in online distance learning courses offered by a Mississippi community college. This study centers on the hypothesis that there is no statistically significant difference between low income and non low income student participation rates in online distance education courses and that the economic factors, other than income, between low income participates and non low income participants will be statistically similar. Survey data collected from analyzed through the use of logistical regression to determine the relationship of demographic and economic factors to the decision to enroll in future online courses. It was found that students who are older and married are less likely to choose to enroll in future online distance learning courses. Students with higher numbers of courses completed and who paid for college with personal funds are more likely to enroll in future online distance learning courses than those with fewer numbers of distance learning hours completed and those who experience less difficulty traveling to campus are less likely to choose to enroll in future distance learning courses.

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Recently, distance education has become popular and has gotten much attention. Information and Communication Technology advances fostered distance learning creation and enabled individuals to participate in the education process via various web-based platforms and study entirely online. Thus, the notion of e-learning and distance learning emerged. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) appeared as part of e-learning in 2008 and attracted great interest, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was anticipated that this kind of study also could be integrated into higher education and revolutionize the learning approach. However, several issues related to MOOCs limit their full potential. One of the most significant problems is substantial rate of learners’ attrition. It was discovered that only 5-10 percent of MOOC learners complete a course. This thesis aims to examine what influences individuals’ decision to leave MOOCs and how learners perceive various course components to get ideas regarding how MOOCs could be enhanced. To do this, the mixed-method study was undertaken where quantitative data analysis of learners’ reviews from discussion forums and qualitative interviews were adopted. It allowed to get two perspectives and broaden the thesis out- come. For the current research, data was collected from six courses in three different subjects-«Health», «Art and Humanity/Design» and «Computer/Data Science». In the first part of the work, sentiment analysis and topic modeling using Python packages were carried out, and then the results were used to construct an interview questionnaire. Lexicon-based sentiment analysis technique and LDA topic modeling algorithm were utilized and proved to be robust methods to extract texts’ polarity and peoples’ opinions. In the qualitative part, 19 topics of discussion were identified, which were consolidated into eight topics with higher abstraction – materials, instructor, content, time, assignment, feedback, program(course), and algorithms. Then during the qualitative part, participants expressed their opinions regarding these topics, and analysis codes were predefined, and new topics did not emerge. The results showed learners’ perceptions related to presented topics and how these aspects influence experience with MOOCs. The outcome also showed a slight disparity between different subject learners, in both qualitative and quantitative studies identified topics of discussion were not exactly the same, showing that learners from different educational domains tend to discuss different themes.

This development design research dissertation used Richey and Klein's (1996) Type 2 model to create guidelines that inform instructional designers when designing authentic tasks in the online environment. Herrington and Oliver (2000) state that designing authentic tasks for online learning can be captured using nine characteristics. Bonk and Dennen's (2003) research empirically demonstrated a Framework for Online Instruction. Combining these two research frameworks, guidelines to inform the decisions to of instructional designers when for authentic in the online environment are designed, developed, and validated with expert reviewers in authentic learning. / Ed. D.

This study investigated the perceptions of Chief Financial Officers and primary Distance Education Administrators on economic and institutional decision-making factors influencing institutional involvement in distance education, and the economic readiness criteria and business plan components necessary for institutions to be strategically successful in distance education. Data were collected via an online questionnaire from a sample of 151 Carnegie Foundation Classified Doctoral/Research Institutions–Extensive. Responses from 80 institutions (31 Chief Financial Officers and 72 Distance Learning Administrators) indicated that 78.6% of all institutions planned to increase their institutional involvement in distance education and 19.4% planned to maintain their current involvement in distance education. This study indicated that administrators should consider the role that economic and other institution-related decision-making factors play in distance education, particularly in assessing reasons for institutional involvement and plans to not start, maintain or increase distance education activities. Statistically significant relationships were found to exist between an institution's plans for not starting, maintaining or increasing distance education activities and institutional demographics, institutional engagement, specific core values, and distance education business plans. Economic factors were also found to impact institutional involvement in distance education. Specifically, addressed were institutional readiness criteria for successful involvement in distance education, components of a business plan, and institutional assumptions about distance and higher education. The predominant markets for Research I institutions are graduate (43.1%) and undergraduate students (27.3%), and markets are selected primarily in accordance with institution mission, support of the strategic plan, and to address a specific market niche. Findings indicated that traditional core values are either not influenced by distance education or positively influenced. With respect to business plans, 25.2% indicated that no business plans were present for distance education, 19.4% were not certain, with the remaining reporting that business plans existed for university-wide and/or individual initiative levels. / Ph. D.