Debates over the promising change Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) might offer to traditional online learning now produce significant attention and discourse among the media and higher education. Ample articles discuss the potential benefits of MOOCs from the perspectives of faculty and administration. However, little is known about students’ perceptions of MOOCs. Given the lack of relevant literature and the reality that MOOCs are created to benefit students, it is important to elicit current college students’ perceptions of MOOCs since it is well documented learning mathematics online has its problems (Ashby, Sadera, & McNary, 2011; Frame, 2012; Ho et al., 2010; Hughes et al., 2005; Jameson & Fusco, 2014). In this descriptive exploratory case study, I explored the perceptions of eight adult college students enrolled in a developmental mathematical xMOOC. I utilized constant comparative methods (open, axial, and selective coding) to analyze the data and identified overarching themes related to student perceptions of learning developmental mathematics via an xMOOC. XMOOCs are structured like large online lecture courses, usually with auto grading features for tests and quizzes and video-recorded lectures. I also employed post structural tenets to scrutinize the data through different lenses. My goals were to explore college students’ perceptions of learning via developmental mathematical xMOOCs, the reasons students chose to learn developmental mathematics via an xMOOC, students’ beliefs of personal characteristics needed to successfully complete a developmental mathematical xMOOC and their ideas about how to improve developmental mathematical xMOOCs. The study provides insights about college students’ learning and success via developmental mathematical xMOOCs and adds needed information to the literature on higher education distance learning.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a game-based app (Motion Math: Fraction) to help students with Mathematics Learning Disabilities (MLD) to gain fraction skills including comparison, estimation, and word problem solving in an after school program. The researcher used multiple baseline design by extending with follow-up phase to determine whether students retained the knowledge they learned while engaging with the app. Even though six students participated to the study, the researcher withdrew two of them and analyzed data came from four students. The result o the study showed that all of the students improved their fractions skills after engaging with Motion Math: Fraction and maintained the knowledge after no longer playing. The researcher presented recommendations for further studies, for implementation into classroom, and recommend for app developers to increase app efficiency for students who have different learning profiles, and needs variety learning materials while learning the content matters.

This research examined how four different animated pedagogical agent implementations, which focus on perceptual and inquiry arousal conditions of attention as defined in Keller’s ARCS model of motivational design (Keller, 2009), impact English language learners' situational interest, cognitive load, and reading comprehension in online readings tasks. Animated pedagogical agents (APA) are computer characters embodied with speech, gestures, or movement (Sweller, Ayres, & Kalyuga, 2011), which according to cognitive-affective theory of learning with media (CATLM; Moreno, 2005; Moreno & Mayer, 2007), can provide a mechanism for triggering situational interest in reading materials through different arousal conditions. In this study, perceptual arousal and inquiry arousal were implemented in two different levels within four APA conditions: high perceptual arousal and high inquiry arousal condition, high perceptual and low inquiry condition, low perceptual and high inquiry condition, and low perceptual and low inquiry condition. Study outcome variables included situational interest, cognitive load, and reading comprehension. Situational interest is a psychological construct defined as a specific person-to-topic relationship, which is triggered by the instructional environment during the first stage of a 4-phase model of interest development (Hidi & Renninger, 2006; Krapp, 2002). In this study, situational interest was operationally defined as a self-reported degree of attention and an affective reaction to environmental stimuli; situational interest was measured using a 6-item, 5-point Likert-scale instrument adopted from Rotgans and Schmidt’s (2011b) experiment. Cognitive load is defined in cognitive load theory as a mental effort in working memory, part of which may contribute to formation of mental schemas in long-vi term memory structures (Sweller et al., 1998, p. 259). In this study, three types of cognitive load were examined, including extraneous cognitive load, intrinsic cognitive load, and germane cognitive load. The three types of cognitive load were operationally defined as self-reported complexity, clarity and effectiveness of the presentation, and increase in knowledge and understanding of a topic. The three types of cognitive load were measured using a 10-item, 11-point Likert-scale questionnaire, which was validated in prior studies (Leppink et al., 2013). The last outcome variable, reading comprehension, was measured using multiple-choice recall and understanding questions included with each original text passage. This study did not find any evidence of perceptual or inquiry arousal effects on situational interest, however, disordinal interaction between perceptual and inquiry arousal levels on germane cognitive load was found. Also, a main effect of inquiry arousal levels on reading comprehension was discovered.

The goal of this project is to create a piece of educational software that most anyone can use without prior instruction. The intended audience is secondary level students and up. The content of the software is in the form of a data bank on vertebrates and invertebrates of the Caribbean ocean.

This project, entitled HyperReport, is a computer based program that helps students by guiding them through the HC development process. With it, students learn to create a storyboard, design a project map, and create a hypercompositon stack using HyperStudio. They learn to organize their media and use an established sequence for incorporating graphic, sound, text, and animation elements to their stacks.

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This project develops a collaborative telecommunications project called Habitats Online. Review of the literature indicates that collaborative telecomunication projects, like Habitats Online, engage students in rich learning experiences and establish a network of future citizens who have a greater understanding of our environment and global communications. This master's project specifically addresses these issues.