<p> There is very little research about the use of virtual reality (VR) technology within special education environments, in particular Emotional and Behavioral Disorder (EBD) classrooms. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the experiences of students with EBD as they use a VR learning platform as their primary learning environment. The study was focused on four participants as they told their stories about their experience with the virtual learning world of <i>Quest Atlantis.</i> Three main themes related to the participants&rsquo; experiences emerged: emergence of self-confidence; play and learning within a virtual learning environment; and fostering positive social interactions. Their experiences within the <i>QA</i> environment showed how they found learning to be a &ldquo;fun&rdquo; and meaningful process, which was much different from their experiences in non-virtual learning environments. For these participants, this medium helped them to begin to develop a greater sense of self-confidence, which led to more self-control and management of their lives. In addition, they had begun to learn how to increase their understanding of working in collaborative learning environments, a much-needed skill for the years to come. The benefits of this study may help educators add to their understanding of how the use of VR can help to create a positive learning environment for a group of students with EBD that tend to be in the highly restrictive learning setting.</p>

<p> This study was initially planned to be a single study using the Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS) by Conti (1978), surveying students and alumni of a four-year university. These plans were redirected to conducting a meta-analysis, utilizing 30 years of dissertations that utilized the PALS instrument.</p><p> The motivation for this study was to determine if educators might be a collaborative resource to aid corporate trainers in developing a learner-centered training program. College instructors could become corporate consultants if they reinforced the learner-center approach. A learner-centered instructor would inquire and recognize the inconsistencies in the trainer&rsquo;s teacher-centered training materials. This motive was based on first-hand experience with Acme Corporation.</p><p> There were 108 dissertations identified. Eighteen were not retrieved, and 35 dissertations did not meet the inclusion criteria. Fifty-five dissertations were used with nearly 5,300 subjects. A complete list was provided by name and ProQuest number with exclusion reasons.</p><p> The retrieved dissertations were grouped: (a) four-year colleges; (b) two-year colleges; (c) other educators. The third group consists of educators with a Masters or a Doctorate degree and teaches adult students outside of the traditional college environment.</p><p> The results showed that PALS composite mean was statistically significant for each group, and within one standard deviation of the norm mean (<i> M</i> = 146). Conti and Welborn (1986) categorized these as intermediate teacher-centered. The seven factors were analyzed, and the mean was less than one standard deviation and teacher-centered and several factors were not significantly different from the factor&rsquo;s norm mean. No scores were found to be learner-centered. Linear regression analysis was performed over three decades of dissertations to determine if there was a trend towards learner-centered style. The results indicate no correlation exists.</p>

<p>Although all organizations and institutions should consider accessibility when developing online content, inaccessibility is a recurring issue in recent literature pertaining to online learning environments (OLEs) and faculty accessibility awareness. The goal was to describe how online faculty gain knowledge regarding accessibility, to explore the lived experiences of online faculty who have worked with students who have disabilities, and to gain a better understanding of how faculty experience the process of accessibility implementation. The following research questions guided this study: How do faculty in OLEs experience encounters regarding accessibility for students who have print related disabilities? How do faculty in OLEs experience the journey of developing the skills needed to provide accessibility for students with print related disabilities? What aspects of accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) do faculty members practice in OLEs and what meaning do they ascribe to the lived experience of providing these accommodations? An interview guide was used to address the research questions. Participants were recruited from the Online Learning Consortium and Assistive Technology Industry Association for participation in phenomenological interviews, which were recorded and then transcribed verbatim. The transcripts of these interviews were analyzed to determine eight super-ordinate themes: Accessibility and usability awareness of online faculty; interactions and relationships between faculty, students, various departments, and outside organizations relating to SWDs and accessibility; different perspectives and experiences of faculty who teach courses within programs that have an emphasis on accessibility, AT, or working with people with disabilities; faculty experiences and perspectives of working with SWDs and providing accessible materials in OLEs; faculty training and experience with accessibility and people with disabilities; faculty autonomy within OLEs as it relates to creating accessible content; accommodations and accessibility features used in OLEs; as well as LMS accessibility and usability. The results of this study led to several implications regarding training and support services for faculty, students, other staff, and administration within online programs, best practices for implementing accessibility, as well as recommendations for future studies.

<p> The purpose of this ethnographic research study was to investigate the effect of a Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) policy on student engagement in a high school setting through classroom observations, cross-sectional surveys, and a focus group of technology teacher leaders. The qualitative and quantitative data gleaned from this study indicated no significant difference in student engagement levels when student-owned technology was used for instructional purposes, but student engagement increased with teacher support and efficacy with technology, student-directed learning, and utilization of Web 2.0 applications. The findings of this study will inform future decision making by school districts considering BYOT policies, assist teachers with technology-based instructional design, and contribute to the literature on student engagement with instructional technology.</p>

This research is mainly concerned with establishing the vocabulary learning needs and goals of the Engineering students from Southeast Asia studying at British universities. The research was motivated by the needs to enhance the reading skills of these students. Subtechnical and technical vocabulary are the focus of this investigation. The research is based on data derived from a 536,051 word corpus of text from recommended Engineering textbooks. The relative frequency and range of lexis within the corpus was found to be a good criterion for identifying subtechnical and technical vocabulary. The students proved to have a better receptive knowledge of subtechnical than technical vocabulary. The research suggests that there is a need for collaborative work between ESP teachers and subject teachers to help the students with technical vocabulary. The thesis is divided into nine chapters. Chapter One is a review of literature to the research. It clarifies various definitions and concepts, describes the research approach, and provides a framework of the thesis. Chapter Two investigates my subjects overall vocabulary knowledge. Chapter Three introduces some preliminary data that contrasts the received opinions in ESP regarding technical and subtechnical vocabulary. For further investigation of these two types of vocabulary, Chapter Four describes the data on which empirical studies are based. Chapter Five analyses the data. Chapter Six presents the empirical studies and concludes that students receptive knowledge of subtechnical vocabulary is better than their technical vocabulary. Chapter Seven examines the reasons why technical vocabulary was problematic. Chapter Eight summarises the research findings and proposes pedagogical implications in the teaching of subtechnical and technical vocabulary to the specified group of learners. And Chapter Nine draws conclusions, discusses limitations of the research and makes recommendations for future research.

This dissertation presents an in-depth, qualitative case study that documents the efforts of two UK universities to integrate on-line learning technologies into their teaching practices and course design. It has been claimed that on-line learning technologies have the capacity to transform the provision of higher education. In order to address such claims, participant / observer research was conducted at two institutions, simultaneously, over a period of 18 months. Using ideas from the sociology of association, the organisational, pedagogic and technological activities surrounding the case study institutions' purchase and integration of two leading on-line learning technologies are described. Distinctions between different areas of activity both in and around the university are represented as they emerged 'in practice', allowing ostentive divisions between, for example, 'the education', 'the technological' and 'the organisation' to be temporarily, placed to one side. Building on these empirically grounded findings, this thesis considers the question of 'educational values'. Powerful discourses relating to knowledge, learning and the 'market for education' currently compete for primacy over pedagogic, epistemic and educational interests. By rejecting normative ascriptions of value, in either economic or moral terms, this thesis considers 'values-in-practice', or 'valence' as the enacted priorities that are set as part of organisational work. Through this analysis, values are understood as the basis upon which lines of reason or 'ways of reckoning' are constructed. This analytical approach is shown to be particularly relevant to the study of complex, integration work, where totalising or dichotomous conceptions of knowledge prove insufficient to capture or inform processes of negotiation. Together, the concepts of valence and ways of reckoning serve to support critical reflection on how educational values are constructed in the case of on-line learning. It is argued that only by understanding education as a collective endeavour, capable of promoting and supporting substantive diversity, can educational priorities be properly assessed and asserted.

Thesis (M. of Bus. by Research) - Swinburne University of Technology, 2001. / "A thesis submitted of the requirement for the award of the degree Masters of Business by Research, Swinburne University of Technology, 2001. Typescript. Includes index. Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-177).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007. / Title from title screen (site viewed Oct. 21, 2008). PDF text: ix, 145 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 3 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3321124. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 178-202).