Despite the availability of technological resources, the number of teachers integrating and using technology innovatively in the classroom is unknown. This qualitative investigation explored teachers' perceptions of proficiency in the use of computer technology in the classroom. Self-determination theory assisted the examination of motivation as decisions are made to integrate technology into the classroom curriculum. The research questions addressed the self-determination of teachers, decision making processes to integrate technology, and perceived technology competence. A qualitative, multiple case study design was used to explore the views of 10 technology-using elementary teachers in the use of technology in the classroom. These participants were interviewed, participated in a focus group, and submitted an integrated technology lesson plan. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. The results showed that teachers were found to be efficacious when incorporating technology into the curriculum and believed their actions could produce the desired results despite their technological skill level. Teachers were found to be self-determined and motivated to integrate technology; however, innovative practice was not evident while existing practice conformed to the instructional norms of the school. Implications for positive social change include allowing teachers to study current beliefs and practice, reflecting on best practices when integrating technology, and identifying technological innovation to enhance the learning of their own students. Recommendations include providing opportunities through professional development initiatives in which teachers and administrators alike study practice in collaborative ways, take ownership of instructional decisions, and take risks while integrating technology.

Distance learning has experienced a noteworthy increase in both the number of institutions offering alternatives to traditional classroom instruction, and the number of students participating in the various distant modalities. Accompanying the increase of students utilizing distance learning is the subsequent increase in students leaving their studies before completion. These two opposing increases have elevated the need to address retention in distance learning and specifically, online distance learning. This study utilizes the results of a Transfer Student Survey administered to criminal justice and nursing online students between 2006 and 2008. Survey results were used to determine if specific traits of persisters and non-persisters could be identified, in an effort to shine light on potential services that could be utilized to reverse attrition.;This quasi-qualitative study of online distance learners revealed some characteristic differences between persisters and non-persisters as well as between the majors of study. Outcomes of the survey were subdivided by nursing persisters and non-persisters, criminal justice persisters and non-persisters, and aggregate persisters and non-persisters. This data was further scrutinized by frequency of response as well as by mean and median scores. From that point, differences that might not have been evident through quantitative review were able to be brought to the forefront. Consequential conclusions were then utilized to provide recommendations to the institution regarding services that could be beneficial to overcome areas of deficiency with the ultimate goal of improving retention among distance learners. Additionally, suggestions were made pertaining to the challenges experienced by the limitations of the Transfer Student Survey.;Further study of distance learners, particularly in varying majors, is needed to ascertain whether there is a connection between field of study and attrition. Furthermore, results of this study alluded to time constraints and lack of priority being placed on studies as potential causes of departure. Additional research of distance learners should be done that supports or disputes these findings.

Game-based learning environments (GBLEs) can offer students with engaging interactive instructional materials while also providing a research platform to investigate the dynamics and intricacies of effective self-regulated learning (SRL). Past research has indicated learners are often unable to monitor and regulate their cognitive and metacognitive processes within GBLEs accurately and effectively on their own due mostly to the open-ended nature of these environments. The future design and development of GBLEs and embedded scaffolds, therefore, require a better understanding of the discrepancies between the affordances of GBLEs and the required use of SRL. Specifically, how to incorporate interdisciplinary theories and concepts outside of traditional educational, learning, and psychological sciences literature, how to utilize process data to measure SRL processes during interactions with instructional materials accounting for the dynamics of leaners' SRL, and how to improve SRL-driven scaffolds to be individualized and adaptive based on the level of agency GBLEs provide. Across four studies, this dissertation investigates learners' SRL while they learn about microbiology using CRYSTAL ISLAND, a GBLE, building upon each other by enhancing the type of data collected, analytical methodologies used, and applied theoretical models and theories. Specifically, this dissertation utilizes a combination of traditional statistical approaches (i.e., linear regression models), non-linear statistical approaches (i.e., growth modeling), and non-linear dynamical theory (NDST) approaches (aRQA) with process trace data to contribute to the field's current understanding of the dynamics and complexities of SRL. Furthermore, this dissertation examines how limited agency can act as an implicit scaffold during game-based learning to promote the use of SRL processes and increase learning outcomes.

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As institutions of higher education seek to meet the demands of a changing technological environment, they are compelled to push for increased faculty use of technology in their instructional and scholarly pursuits. as more faculties adopt these innovations, universities find themselves unable to provide the necessary technological support required. Filling this support gap are the techno-profs, faculty members who are technologically proficient, have a network of technological resources, reside at the department level, and are willing to assist most everyone who asks for help.;The purpose of this study was to determine if the techno-profs within various university administrative units have common social and personal characteristics, provide similar technological contributions to their units, exhibit characteristic organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), and experience positive or negative effects on their careers as a result of these discretionary behaviors.;Social network analysis of the results of a World Wide Web based survey of two academic departments at two universities in the southeastern United States revealed three techno-profs to whom other faculty went for assistance. Semi-directed interviews of the three techno-profs, their deans, and the information technology administrators at both institutions were conducted using a conceptual framework of the university as a social organization based upon the works of Goran Ahrne (1994) and Shirley, Peters, & El-Ansary (1976).;It was concluded that by relying so heavily on techno-profs to provide technological expertise and by providing them the most advanced technological resources, organizations, in essence maintain these faculty in a position that benefits the institution, but is often detrimental to the individual. Techno-profs can easily attribute an exaggerated worth to their technological abilities and importance to the organization as the university pays little heed to their contributions at promotion and tenure time.;Further research is needed to evaluate the effects of OCB on faculty in disciplines other than Humanities, and at different points along the faculty career path. A study of the financial impact of OCB is also needed.

Current and aspiring medical school students are inundated by curriculum resources. To optimize the curriculum resources that are offered in medical education, the present work examines both institutionally and commercially developed resources from the lens of various stakeholders through three separate, yet related, studies. The first study, a scoping review, synthesizes and recognizes gaps in scholarship regarding obstacles that underrepresented, pre-medical students encounter in applying to medical school, specifically focusing on the impact of access to commercial test preparation resources. A review of existing literature regarding this population's medical school admission difficulties yielded a majority of non-empirical, deficit-focused articles that repeated previous findings. The second study describes a pedagogical analysis of medical education commercial resources, to identify their alignment with evidence-based design and facilitate future improvement. The analysis found that nearly half of the investigated resources failed to mention guidance by a specific theory or theoretical movement; yet all resources mentioned similar functions, instructional strategies, and features. Lastly, this dissertation reports a mixed-methods study that examines undergraduate medical students' perceptions and use of formal and informal resources, to optimize the design of formal resources and integrate informal resources. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses revealed that students have more positive perceptions and frequent use of informal curriculum resources, which is largely explained by greater confidence in conducting their related educational activities.

Despite some ongoing debates over the positive or negative impact of digital games, educational games are powerful tools to increase engagement and improve learning outcomes. Scientific concepts about the weather are complicated for younger learners and deep learning often requires long-term cultivation. This thesis presents a novel interactive educational simulation called the Science of Meteorology with Interactive Learning Experience (SMILE). In it, students interact with a touchscreen monitor to change weather conditions and learn about clouds and weather science. The relationship between engagement and learning outcomes and the effectiveness of the experience is evaluated using a formal user study. Online data collection was completed after IRB approval during the summer of 2020 with 23 students between the ages of 8 and 12. Student knowledge of clouds and weather science was tested via 12 related questions before playing with SMILE. Furthermore, the impacts of the designed simulation on engagement level were evaluated by the Game Engagement Questionnaire (GEQ), including 19 questions developed by Brockmyer et al. (2009). This study showed a significant improvement in student knowledge where the average of test scores increased 57% for the post-test. The findings show that GEQ needs some modification to measure engagement in different game genres and for different age ranges.

School often has low engagement and frustrating or absent options for the kind of agency the Federal Government's 2016 National Education Technology Plan now recommends educators include in their curriculum. Video games offer opportunities for people to participate in critical problem solving through creative projects. From balancing character statistics, to collaborating with other players, to making ethical and tactical decisions that can change the outcome of the story, successful games draw on the player's interest in learning and analyzing numbers, locations, visual clues, narrative elements, people, and more. One useful example may be found in visual novels (VNs), a medium that pulls from narrative structures found in Choose Your Own Adventure Novels. These interactive narratives are a largely untapped resource (for educational uses) of guided critical thinking. My ongoing research explores the efficacy of implementing VNs into digital pedagogies to encourage the development of "creatigational skills." This term is a response to the problematic wording already in use for skills such as creative thinking and collaborative abilities, skills encouraged by and developed through interactive activities, such as gaming and many of the arts. Current terminology labels them "soft" or "non-cognitive" skills, which are clear misnomers that passively diminish the importance of creative thought. This research explores how gaming, specifically so-called "narrative" gaming, of which VNs are one example, might contribute to the development of creatigational skills in students. Through the creation of VNs for this study, I examine both the ability of this genre to engage and encourage imaginative thought, as well as the practicality of designing and developing VNs for classroom use.

The purpose of this dissertation in practice was to develop and implement a new training program for designers of military intelligence simulation scenarios used to train soldiers. The use of education and design instructional strategies assisted in the ability for designers to gain mastery skills in creating realistic, high-fidelity scenarios that are applied in the training process. The use of simulation scenarios to train adult learners has increased significantly with improvements in technology and its fidelity to engage learners in a realistic way. Despite these advances, the lack of effective design, implementation and analysis of military simulation training programs in the military intelligence community has led to a decrease in simulation utilization, as in the case of the organization examined in this problem of practice. The current training program's increasing difficulties with consistent use by military intelligence simulation scenario designers were discovered in the results of a gap analysis conducted in 2014, prompting this design. This simulation design aimed to examine: (1) a research-based design methodology to match training requirements for the designers, (2) formative assessment of performance and (3) a research-based evaluation framework to determine the effectiveness of the new training program. For the organization's training program, a Simulation-Based Embedded Training (SBET) solution using scenarios was conceived based on research grounded in cognitive theory and instructional design considerations for simulations. As a structured framework for how to design and implement an effective and sustained training program, the educational instructional design model, ADDIE, was used. This model allowed for continual flexibility in each phase to evaluate and implement changes iteratively. The instructional model and its techniques were used with fidelity, specifically for training the designers of the simulation system. Industries will continue to increase the use of simulation as advances in technologies offer more realistic, safe, and complex training environments. A detailed strategy was provided specific to the organization using a research-based instructional approach integrated into program requirements set forth by the government. This proposed solution, supported by research in the application of instructional strategies, is specific to this organization; however, the training program design differs from other high-fidelity military simulator training programs through its use of dispersed training to the simulation scenario designers using realistic scenarios to mimic the tasks that the designers themselves must create. The difference in the solution in this dissertation in practice is: 1) that the simulation scenarios are designed without the help of subject matter experts by using the embedded instructional strategies and 2) the design is to the fidelity of realism required for military intelligence training exercises.

This study investigated mean group differences in composite subjective task values, ability beliefs, and gameplay behaviors between low promotion and high promotion English as a Second Language (ESL) postsecondary students while playing two versions of a grammar-editing computer game. First, students were categorized according to their scores on the General Regulatory Focus Measure. Next, students played two identical versions of the grammar-editing game; in the second game version, an independent variable was added in the form of an in-game punishment. In the middle of each game version, students completed a modified version of the Expectancy-value Questionnaire. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to determine any statistically significant group differences between groups in terms of subjective task values, ability beliefs, and gameplay behaviors. Results indicated no statistically significant differences between groups for any of the composite dependent variables tested. However, two individual items measuring utility and attainment value indicated significant group differences. The findings of this study both supported and contradicted aspects of regulatory orientation theory and previous regulatory orientation research. This research contributed to the need for motivation studies in the field of digital game-based learning utilizing well-established theoretical frameworks. In addition, this study offered researchers, teachers, instructional designers, and video game designers insights into the effects of regulatory orientations in the digital game-based learning context.