This study compared graduate student attitudes toward different instructional approaches within online, blended, and face-to-face courses in a public institution of higher learning. The participants completed an online survey questionnaire that was designed by the researcher using 4 learning theories in education: behavioral, cognitive, constructivism, and humanistic (Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007) approaches toward teaching and learning. There were 210 total responses from graduate students enrolled during 2013 spring semester. There were more female (71.4%) than male (28.6%) students who responded. Previous studies have compared face-to-face (F2F) and online methods of instructions and have shown mixed results. Whereas some studies have shown F2F instructional methods as favorable to students, others found no differences between F2F and online methods. This study was guided by 4 research questions. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t test statistical procedures were used to analyze the data. The findings of this study showed significant differences in students’ preference in instructional methods and in instructional approaches (behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, and constructivist). The study found that full-time graduate students tended to prefer F2F instructional methods, while part-time students preferred online methods. Additionally younger students (< 35 years) reported stronger preference for F2F methods of instruction than older students (> 36 years) in cognitive and constructivist instructional approaches with no significant differences by age for behavioral and humanistic instructional approaches.

Although a mandate was given in an urban southern university for instructors in the Adult Professional Studies Program (APS) to begin transitioning their face-to-face courses to online curricula, few courses have been converted. The purpose of this case study was to determine APS instructors' perceptions of developing and transitioning face-to-face courses to an online format. Lewin's change theory and force field analysis provided the conceptual framework for this study. The research questions concerned the faculty's perceptions of developing and transitioning courses to an online format. A purposeful sample of fulltime and adjunct faculty, with different levels of expertise in online courses within the APS department was invited to participate. Semistructured interview data from these faculty (n = 9) - were analyzed manually using color coding to determine the needs and barriers for instructors transitioning their face-to-face courses to online curricula. According to the study findings, the APS faculty saw value in online education, but perceived many obstacles that keep them from fully investing into this type of instruction. 10 themes were identified through data analysis in this study. These themes were used to create a 3-day professional development (PD) project for faculty members in the APS to assist educators in creating appropriate innovations for teaching and learning in an online setting. Creating a comprehensive, 3-day PD training for APS staff and faculty that address barriers noted in the findings of the study and diverse learning opportunities created learning opportunities for nontraditional students in the APS.

Books and paper prints are the most common learning medium we used to have. However, content knowledge represented in books and paper prints is static, which limits the manifestation of complex and abstract concepts. Integrating smartphone with books makes it possible to incorporate varieties of digital materials fetched from the Internet to complement the content of books and paper prints and enrich the learning activities. Collaborative learning has been recognized as an effective instructional strategy. Individual learners learn through continuous conversation with group peers for knowledge sharing and knowledge construction. However, it has also been reported that the lack of proper procedural facilitation may undermine the learning performance of collaboration. To ensure that every learner in a group can best contribute to peer collaboration, a procedural scaffold was designed and implemented. The scaffolded procedure consists of four stages in peer collaboration, including individual learning, individual problem solving, group discussion, and group decision-making, in which the stage of individual problem solving was a critical step but was often ignored. In this study, a new paper-based learning system integrated with digital materials was designed and implemented for enhancing face-to-face collaborative learning. The procedural scaffold was implemented using a smartphone. The results showed that the facilitation of the procedural scaffolding enabled groups to perform significantly better in resolving ill-structured problems, promoted higher-level discourse in group discussions, and fostered individuals¡¦ deep understanding. Relevant issues about student learning using the new system were discussed, and future research to improve this study was suggested.

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Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-01-10T11:26:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre Santos.pdf: 664590 bytes, checksum: e1be3898431dc1079b103d240badbd0a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-10T11:26:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre Santos.pdf: 664590 bytes, checksum: e1be3898431dc1079b103d240badbd0a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-06 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Distance education (DE) is a topic that has been successfully growing on a national level, and because of that, it offers the opportunity to most people entering higher education by flexibility and mobility that this model provides. The objective of this study was to analyze some insights about Educational Designer in implementing the 20% of presentials disciplines to distance mode. In addition to addressing the theoretical aspects of the Educational Design, because in this new educational context arises the importance of the Educational Design, whose main characteristic is to be articulator between the direction of the institution, faculty and student body and being involved with the planning, development and use of educational resources, methods, techniques and activities to promote the teaching and learning according to the guidelines of the education program. The Financial Mathematics in FAMOPS It is the focus of the implementation of the online course, presenting the tools used by the Educational Designer applied within the Moodle, being synchronous and asynchronous, helps to monitor learning and encourage participation in individual and group activities / Como a EAD tem crescido muito no âmbito nacional, oferece-se a oportunidade de diversas pessoas ingressarem no ensino superior, pela flexibilidade e mobilidade que esse modelo proporciona. Esta dissertação relata o trabalho do Designer Educacional na implementação dos 20% das disciplinas na modalidade a distância. Além de abordar os aspectos teóricos sobre o Design Educacional, descreve o processo de implementação de conteúdo disciplinar, por meio do uso de recursos de designer. Além disso, neste novo contexto educacional o trabalho ressalta a importância da gestão do designer, cuja principal finalidade é articular com a direção da instituição, corpo docente e o corpo discente, além de estar envolvido com o planejamento, o desenvolvimento e a utilização de recursos educacionais, métodos, técnicas e atividades a fim de promover o processo de ensino e aprendizagem de acordo com as diretrizes do projeto pedagógico. A disciplina de Matemática Financeira na FAMOSP é o foco da implementação do curso online. A pesquisa descreve as ferramentas utilizadas pelo Designer Educacional aplicadas dentro do Moodle, ou seja, do ambiente virtual de aprendizagem para planejar e construir atividades síncronas e assíncronas, permitindo o auxilio e acompanhamento da aprendizagem. Em conclusão, o trabalho pode evidenciar a necessidade de revisão do modelo a distância e dos procedimentos de planejamento adotados, tendo em vista as descobertas que emergiram na análise da narrativa do autor

Distance education (DE) is now recognised as an education system independent from conventional face-to-face education. It has self-governing theories and pedagogies. It attracts students with unique characteristics different from those of on-campus students. The present distance learning student differs from the past ones by characteristics, needs and contexts. Not all students registering for distance learning conform to the characteristics of distance students described in theory. It is now acknowledged that DE systems demand special skills including time management, self-regulation and independent learning skills. Yet, few of these students enter into distance learning with prior experiences on its demands. The new student is compelled to learn to deal with challenges that come with DE i.e. the impact of ‘distance’, isolation and time management. ‘The net generation’ and ‘digital natives’ are now in college but with skills not automatically transferable to learning technologies. Information and communication technologies (ICT) providers are mostly focused on the ‘use’ rather than the ‘user’. Universities are continuously adopting new technologies leaving the student bewildered as to the focus; learning or technology training. The internet has ‘everything’; open course ware (OCW), open education resources (OERS), wikis and all web information. Students cannot simply find things for themselves. Furthermore distance learning has no policy on how to engage with the internet and students are left to decide what, which and how much is required for any level of study. Most universities in Africa moving from single to dual mode have not integrated distance learning pedagogy which requires restructuring in the organisation, policy and course development. DE, though spanning over two centuries has been mutually dependent on technology. The present technology demands a paradigm shift from that of correspondence days. These issues have created the need for support strategies that can literally accompany the DE student throughout his/her academic journey. Universities have established DE units, campuses and schools for a variety of reasons. It is required that such universities provide learner support systems for their students. The purpose of this study was to assess the learner support services available for distance learning undergraduate students in two universities in Kenya i.e. Northern University (NU) and Western University (WU). A Learner support system can comprise of numerous components. In this study, nine (9) components/indices were tested as the indices for providing support services. These are:- registration procedures, orientation programme and skills training, technology and learning materials, counselling and mentorship, interactions and communication, feedback, regional centres and library, students association and representation and course progression and satisfaction. This study employed an evaluation research design utilising both quantitative and qualitative methods. Online questionnaires were used for quantitative data collection. For qualitative data collection two (2) instruments were used; an interview schedule for key programme implementers and a documentary analysis tool for documents and websites. The findings indicated that the main indices that distinguished the two universities were registration process, technology and learning materials, counselling/mentorship and regional centres where the t-test showed significant differences. The p values were 0.008, 0.012, 0.036 and 0.015 respectively at 0.05 significance level. In all of them, Northern University (NU) had a relatively high mean score than Western University (WU) except for the index on counselling and mentorship. / Educational Foundations / D. Ed. (Socio-Education)

L’intégration des nouvelles technologies en enseignement supérieur ne devrait pas être vue comme un simple effet de mode, mais plutôt comme un cadre de réflexion sur les orientations nouvelles à donner à l’Université du 21ème siècle, en termes de culture institutionnelle, de ressources organisationnelles et d’opérationnalisation d’objectifs de recherche et d’enseignement (Duderstadt et al, 2002 ; Guri-Rosenblit, 2005). En effet, l’émergence d’une nouvelle tendance de formation post-secondaire, qu’est l’intégration des solutions virtuelles au présentiel, n’est pas sans incidences sur les pratiques enseignantes. Or, la littérature n’offre pas de modèles descriptifs satisfaisants permettant de mieux saisir la pertinence des liens entre l’enseignement en contexte d’apprentissage hybride et le développement professionnel des enseignants universitaires. Aussi avons-nous procédé par des observations participantes de deux cours en sciences de la gestion à HEC Montréal, dans les programmes de certificat de premier cycle ainsi que par des entretiens d’explicitation et d’autoconfrontation, pendant toute la session d’automne 2014, pour respectivement recueillir des données sur les pratiques réelles d’un maître d’enseignement, en sociologie du travail, et d’une chargée de cours, en gestion de projets. Notre analyse du corpus, par catégorisations conceptualisantes, a permis la production d’énoncés nomologiques rendant compte de la dynamique de relations entre ces deux phénomènes. Sur le plan scientifique, elle a apporté un éclairage nouveau sur les processus de construction identitaire professionnelle en pédagogie universitaire, en regard des mutations technologiques, socioculturelles et économiques que subissent l’Université, en général, et les pratiques enseignantes et étudiantes, en particulier. L’approche inductive utilisée a donc permis de définir la structure des interactions des deux phénomènes, selon la perspective des deux enseignants, et d’élaborer des modèles d’intervention enracinés dans leurs pratiques quotidiennes. Aussi sur le plan social, ces modèles sont-ils l’expression d’une grammaire de la pensée et de l’action, ancrée dans les valeurs des enseignants eux-mêmes. Nous avons pris en compte le paradigme de la tâche réelle, versus celui de la tâche prescrite, en termes de mise en œuvre concrète des processus pédagogiques, pour rendre les résultats de cette recherche signifiants pour la pratique. Les modèles, qui ont émergé de notre configuration de la pensée dialogique des participants, peuvent être intégrés à la formation des enseignants universitaires en contexte de bimodalisation de l’Université. / The integration of new technologies in higher education should not be seen as a mere fad, but rather a framework for redesigning the new orientations to be given to the University of the 21st century, in terms of institutional culture, organizational resources and achieving the objectives of research and teaching programs. Indeed, the emergence of a new trend of higher education, that is blended learning, has impacts on the pedagogical practices. Yet, there are no satisfactory models in the literature that describes the link pertaining to the relationship between teaching in the context of blended learning and faculty development. Throughout the whole semester of fall 2014, we collected data, by the means of participant observations and self-confrontation interviews, on the teaching activities of one full-time lecturer, in sociology of work, and one part-time lecturer, in project management, with one undergraduate class of each lecturer in the programs of certificate at HEC Montreal. The data analysis, using the conceptual categorizations, brought about theoretical statements underpinning the dynamics of the relationships between the phenomena of blended learning and faculty development. Scientifically, our research has shed a new light on the processes of professional identity construction in faculty development, regarding the technological, sociocultural and economic changes that the University, in general, and, especially, the teaching and learning practices undergo. Our inductive approach has helped to elucidate the structure of the interactions of the two phenomena, from the point of view of the two lecturers, and to construct models of pedagogical practices rooted in their daily teachings. Therefore, socially, these models translate a grammar of thought and action, anchored in the very values of the lecturers. We took into consideration the paradigm of the actual task, versus that of the prescribed task, in terms of implementation of the pedagogical processes, so that the results of this study be meaningful to the practice. The emerging models, from our redesign of the dialogical thinking processes of the two lecturers, can be used for the training of the faculty integrating online solutions to face-face instructions.

Distance education (DE) is now recognised as an education system independent from conventional face-to-face education. It has self-governing theories and pedagogies. It attracts students with unique characteristics different from those of on-campus students. The present distance learning student differs from the past ones by characteristics, needs and contexts. Not all students registering for distance learning conform to the characteristics of distance students described in theory. It is now acknowledged that DE systems demand special skills including time management, self-regulation and independent learning skills. Yet, few of these students enter into distance learning with prior experiences on its demands. The new student is compelled to learn to deal with challenges that come with DE i.e. the impact of ‘distance’, isolation and time management. ‘The net generation’ and ‘digital natives’ are now in college but with skills not automatically transferable to learning technologies. Information and communication technologies (ICT) providers are mostly focused on the ‘use’ rather than the ‘user’. Universities are continuously adopting new technologies leaving the student bewildered as to the focus; learning or technology training. The internet has ‘everything’; open course ware (OCW), open education resources (OERS), wikis and all web information. Students cannot simply find things for themselves. Furthermore distance learning has no policy on how to engage with the internet and students are left to decide what, which and how much is required for any level of study. Most universities in Africa moving from single to dual mode have not integrated distance learning pedagogy which requires restructuring in the organisation, policy and course development. DE, though spanning over two centuries has been mutually dependent on technology. The present technology demands a paradigm shift from that of correspondence days. These issues have created the need for support strategies that can literally accompany the DE student throughout his/her academic journey. Universities have established DE units, campuses and schools for a variety of reasons. It is required that such universities provide learner support systems for their students. The purpose of this study was to assess the learner support services available for distance learning undergraduate students in two universities in Kenya i.e. Northern University (NU) and Western University (WU). A Learner support system can comprise of numerous components. In this study, nine (9) components/indices were tested as the indices for providing support services. These are:- registration procedures, orientation programme and skills training, technology and learning materials, counselling and mentorship, interactions and communication, feedback, regional centres and library, students association and representation and course progression and satisfaction. This study employed an evaluation research design utilising both quantitative and qualitative methods. Online questionnaires were used for quantitative data collection. For qualitative data collection two (2) instruments were used; an interview schedule for key programme implementers and a documentary analysis tool for documents and websites. The findings indicated that the main indices that distinguished the two universities were registration process, technology and learning materials, counselling/mentorship and regional centres where the t-test showed significant differences. The p values were 0.008, 0.012, 0.036 and 0.015 respectively at 0.05 significance level. In all of them, Northern University (NU) had a relatively high mean score than Western University (WU) except for the index on counselling and mentorship. / Educational Foundations / D. Ed. (Socio-Education)