<p>  </p> <p>The engineering education community in the United States has witnessed a tremendous increase in broadening participation initiatives as they wrestle with issues regarding inclusion. To date, these initiatives have targeted several goals, including access, belonging, and retention of students from underrepresented backgrounds. However, these initiatives have generally focused on the experiences of individual students, while systemic barriers, such as the cultural ideologies sustaining a "chilly climate" of engineering, have received less attention.</p> <p>Engineering instructors play a critical role in maintaining the professional culture of engineering through the socialization of undergraduate engineers embedded in the requirements of degree attainment. As engineering students transition through the plan of study, they are socialized to knowledge, skills, and values deemed necessary by instructors and administrators for entry into the engineering profession. The knowledge, skills, and values reinforced by instructors across the socialization process become taken-for-granted as cultural norms reproduced through engineering courses. As a result of these cultural reproductions, engineering instructors shape the boundaries of what it means to be an engineer. The study aimed to investigate how instructor's agency plays a role in establishing cultural norms in their undergraduate engineering courses. Furthermore, the study examined how these norms subsequently influence engineering students' perceptions of the professional culture of engineering. The goal was to understand the mechanisms that maintain and replicate cultural norms in engineering's "chilly climate" and engineering students' perceptions of inclusion (or lack thereof). </p> <p><br></p> <p>This dissertation employed an ethnographic case study approach to investigate the following research questions: (1) What culture did engineering instructors (re)produce in their undergraduate engineering courses?; (2) How were engineering instructors' cultural (re)productions communicated to undergraduate engineering students in their courses?; and (3) How did engineering instructors' agency (or lack thereof) influence their (re)production of ideologies in the professional engineering culture? The research questions examined how instructors' cultural (re)productions in engineering shape the professional culture of engineering. The study included an analysis of instructors' interviews, my classroom observations, course documents, and student focus groups for two sequential mechanical engineering courses in the plan of study.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The engineering instructors expressed agency as the three dimensions referred by Emirbayer and Mische (1998) of "chordal triad" (p. 970)—iterational, projective, and practical-evaluative. As the instructors negotiated their agency through their perspectives and actions, they exhibited the iterational through invocations of their experiences, the projective through their course intentions, and the practical-evaluative in their teaching practices and content. In these cases, I identified four cultural ideologies currently at the foundation of the engineering courses: technocratic, depoliticization, meritocratic, and care. Instructors' experiences, departmental priorities, and teaching practices all played a role in the prevalence of a technocratic culture. Omitting sociopolitical considerations perpetuated a depoliticized environment, while instructors showed a dual agentic orientation by navigating between meritocratic values and care for students. The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the importance of critical policy and advocacy, instructor empathy, and individual actions in driving collective momentum for transformative social change in engineering settings. A conscientious understanding of the impact of our actions as instructors on the socialization of engineering students is essential. This understanding needs to take up both individual's agency and the context in which agency is enacted to create a space in the profession that authentically reflects and embraces differences among students as integral members of the profession. The research findings serve as an invitation for growth for the engineering education community to "walk the walk". An invitation to be courageous leaders, who try, test, and refine our practices through critical reflections, aligned intentions and agentic actions that engage and support all engineering students, especially students from historically marginalized communities.</p>

The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is a statistically significant difference in quality of instruction as delivered by full-time and part-time adjunct faculty in community colleges by utilizing data obtained from the Kentucky Community and Technical College (KCTCS) student evaluation of instruction instrument at Southeast Kentucky and Hazard community and technical colleges. The evaluation instrument is used to rate the instructor in the following areas: (a) clarity of course goals; (b) clarity of attendance policy; (c) examinations being a fair measure of progress; (d) clear standards of grading; (e) presentation of course material; (f) clear and to the point explanations of concepts; (g) instructor?s enthusiasm towards subject material; (h) instructor?s concern for student progress in the course; (i) instructor availability before and after class; (j) the instructor?s teaching methods promote interest in the subject area; (k) how much the course has taught the student about the subject; (l) syllabus detailing course requirements and policies was provided and explained; (m) class starts on time and as scheduled; (n) instructor meets the class for the full-time scheduled. SPSS version 14.0 was used in this project. Cross tabulations were performed for each question in the evaluation. Group statistics were computed for the data providing the means, standard deviation, and standard error of the mean for each question. Independent sample tests were also performed, including Levene?s test for equality of variances and T tests for equality of means. The findings of the study indicate that there was no statistically significant difference in student satisfaction in classes taught by adjunct (part-time) instructors and full-time instructors. Discussion of the findings and theoretical and policy implications were offered.

A review of certification domains and study materials for four national group fitness or aerobics instructor certifying organizations found them to be deficient in preparation of candidates in exercise psychology skills, An exercise psychology workshop was developed to address these deficiencies and was specifically designed for certified group fitness or aerobics instructors. The workshop was an overview of exercise psychology as it related to basic motivation techniques, goal setting, use of imagery, exercise anxiety, concentration, injury recovery, barriers to exercise, exercise behavior, and recognizing negative issues associated with exercise. The six-hour workshop was designed to prepare group fitness or aerobics instructors to be able to recognize and utilize exercise psychology skills when interacting with beginners to experienced exercisers to help participants achieve their fitness goals. The aerobics instructors have direct contact with more individuals engaging in exercise than any other fitness professionals in the fitness centers. The group fitness or aerobics instructors were provided with an introduction in how to use exercise psychology skills training techniques. The workshop was presented at Temple University on three separate dates, February 8th, February 22nd, and March 9th, 2014. The workshop was not approved for continuing education credits but was able to be submitted by the attendee, on a case by case basis, through each unique organization's petition process to receive educational credits toward the renewal of the certification. The certified group fitness or aerobics instructors received a booklet containing the workshop slides and handouts. They were asked to take a short Psychological Skills Assessment for Group Fitness Instructors Questionnaire prior to and at the completion of the workshop. A randomized group was selected to participate in a phone interview one month post workshop to determine the extent to which the knowledge gained was utilized and beneficial in the execution of the group exercise instruction. A total of 91 certified group fitness instructors attended the workshop and 84 participated in the study. It was found that the participants significantly increased their knowledge of exercise psychology and group fitness instruction by 52.5% by the end of the workshop. There was no overall significant difference between the three workshop groups. The feedback obtained from the evaluation of the workshop question was generally positive and offered some suggestions for future use of the workshop material. The post workshop phone interview indicated that the certified aerobics instructors who participated in the workshop were able to utilize the exercise psychology techniques covered in the workshop in conjunction with their job as a group fitness or aerobics instructor. / Kinesiology

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of a qualified e-learning instructor from e-learners&rsquo / perspectives by submitting a questionnaire to e-learners of &ldquo / CSIT444-Online Web Design&rdquo / course offered through the means of distance learning at the Eastern Mediterranean University. The study explored on-line instructor&rsquo / s administrative support, instructional competency, proficiency in applying the systems used in the course, in other words, technical knowledge and skills and on-line instructor&rsquo / s evaluation criteria of the on-line course. The study used the data obtained from 45 students, the instructor and an assistant of Eastern Mediterranean University. For this research, descriptive study was carried out and qualitative results were given at the end of the study. The results investigated students&rsquo / perceptions about the on-line course they were introduced prior to the application of the questionnaire. The results of the questionnaire demonstrated that the course was found effective, interesting and motivating for students with the animations, free lecture notes, forums, chat rooms, links to e-sources, chance for interaction and immediate feedback that enhance student creativity and self study. The findings included the recommendations for teachers in on-line learning environment. The study also provides the framework of the on-line instructors&rsquo / role by means of on-line learning environment. The results were demonstrated at the end of the study.

Bivariate correlation was used to examine possible relationships between instructor immediacy and instructor presence, and a statistically significant correlation was found. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine whether the linear combination of instructor immediacy and presence caused significant variance in student affective learning, cognition, and motivation. For all three of the latter dependent variables, the linear combination of instructor immediacy and presence was found to cause statistically significant variance. However, although the overall regression models were significant in all three tests, instructor immediacy was not found to be a significant individual predictor for causing variance in affective learning, cognition, or motivation, whereas instructor presence was found to be a significant individual predictor of all three. Finally, factorial ANOVA revealed that, for perceptions of instructor immediacy, only classification and course type were found to explain significant variance, with undergraduate students in asynchronous courses reporting significantly lower instructor immediacy. For perceptions of instructor presence, graduate students tended to rate their instructors as having higher presence than did undergraduate students, and students in synchronous courses tended to rate their instructors as having higher presence than did students in asynchronous courses.

Our society is becoming more and more digital and the outbreak of COVID-19 has stressed this process even more. Thus, the need for online teaching and learning has increased and many new advancements in technology have been made. These advancements have enabled the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and recent years have consequently witnessed increased attention to the use of AI for educational experiences, not least in K-12 schools. However, today little is known about how students perceive AI-based teaching which makes this area interesting to explore further. This study investigated childrens’ perception and learning experience of videos of a human-looking AI instructor, in comparison to videos of a human instructor. If there would appear to be no negative effects on childrens’ learning experience of an AI instructor, this could be used as a basis for developing the growing field of online education applications for children. The study has undertaken a case study approach. Data were collected through user tests and interviews with six children. The respondents were given video instructions by an AI generated instructor and a human instructor in order to evaluate how their perceived learning experience differs between these two. Primary findings indicate that the respondents notice only small differences between the two instructors. However, the answers from the respondents were very diverse, indicating that some respondents preferred the AI instructor while some preferred the human instructor. A lot of interesting findings, such as that children do not seem to be very observant with small malfunctions, are being discussed, indicating that children's learning experience might at least not be negatively affected by an human-looking AI instructor instead of a human instructor. / Vårt samhälle blir allt mer digitaliserat och utbrottet av COVID-19 har påskyndat denna utveckling ännu mer. Således har behovet av onlineundervisning ökat, och likaså har många nya framsteg inom tekniken gjorts. Dessa framsteg har sedan möjliggjort användningen av artificiell intelligens (AI), och följaktligen har man på senare år sett en ökad uppmärksamhet kring användningen av AI inom utbildning, särskilt i grundskolor. Idag är det dock relativt outforskat hur elever uppfattar AI-baserad undervisning vilket gör detta område intressant att utforska vidare I denna studie undersöks barns uppfattning och lärandeupplevelse av videor med en AI-instruktör med mänskligt utseende i jämförelse med videor med en riktig mänsklig instruktör. Om det inte verkar finnas några negativa effekter på barns lärandeupplevelse av en AI-instruktör kan detta användas som en grund för att utveckla det växande området för onlineutbildning applikationer för barn. Studien genomfördes genom en fallstudie. Data samlades in genom användartester och intervjuer med sex barn. Respondenterna fick videoinstruktioner av en AI-genererad instruktör och en mänsklig instruktör för att utvärdera hur deras upplevda lärandeupplevelse skiljer sig mellan dessa två. Resultatet visade på att deltagarna märkte även små skillnader mellan de två instruktörerna. Svaren från deltagarna varierade dock mycket och antyder att vissa deltagare föredrog AI-instruktören medan andra föredrog mänskliga instruktören. Många intressanta insikter diskuteras i denna studie, t.ex., att barn tenderar att inte vara så observanta på små felfunktioner, vilket indikerar på att barns lärandeupplevelse åtminstone inte verkar påverkas negativt av en AI-instruktör med mänskligt utseende istället för en människa.

El propósito de este proyecto es presentar un nuevo e innovador modelo de negocio para lograr escalabilidad en el tiempo. Debido a la pandemia del Covid-19, casi todos los aspectos de la educación han cambiado a la vez. Hoy en día, el concepto de aula está sentado detrás de una pantalla de computadora en casa, sin embargo, muchas personas vieron esto como una oportunidad para tomar cursos en línea y aumentar sus conocimientos profesionales. Por lo tanto, el modelo de negocio propuesto es una escuela de idiomas en línea, donde los estudiantes mejorarían sus habilidades de comunicación oral en inglés, alemán, portugués o español a través de cursos flexibles de conversación con hablantes nativos o altamente avanzados. Nuestro principal público objetivo son hombres y mujeres de 18 a 35 años, que quieran mejorar sus habilidades para hablar en un segundo idioma previamente aprendido. Para llegar al público objetivo de manera más eficaz, las estrategias se centrarán en plataformas de redes sociales como Instagram y Facebook, y en el sitio web del proyecto. Además, se validó el potencial del proyecto a través de diferentes experimentos con usuarios potenciales. Los resultados obtenidos muestran una respuesta positiva del mercado objetivo debido a la flexibilidad del servicio y el método de enseñanza. / The purpose of this project is to present a new and innovative business model to achieve scalability through time. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic almost every aspect of education has changed at once. Nowadays the concept of classroom is sitting behind a computer screen at home. However many people saw this as an opportunity to take online courses to increase their profesional knowledge. Therefore the proposed business model is an online language school, where the students would improve their oral communication skills at english, german, portuguese or spanish through flexible courses of speaking with native or highly advanced speakers. Our main target audience are men and women from 18 to 35 years old, who want to improve their speaking skills in a second language previously learned. To reach the target audience more effectively the strategies will be focus on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, and on the website of the project. In addition, the potencial of the project was validated through different experiments with potencial users. The obtained results shows a positive response of the target market due to the flexibility of the service and the teaching method. / Trabajo de investigación

No description available.

A critical factor of e-learning success is the e-learning readiness of the online user. However, there is a scarcity of studies on online instructors' e-learning readiness (E-Readiness) in an online learning environment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether there were correlations among online instructor E-Readiness dimensions and factors at the design and delivery stages that affect system outcomes. In this study, the DeLone and McLean model was used as a framework for research to test E-Readiness with the System Design stage (comprising System Quality, Information Quality, and Service Quality), System Delivery stage (comprising System Use, and User Satisfaction) and Net Benefits stage (comprising Net Benefits). A total of 113 online instructors at a Caribbean university system completed a Web-based questionnaire containing previously validated and adapted items. The questions were answered using a five-point Likert scale and the survey results were analyzed using aggregates and linear regression statistical methods. The results revealed that the e-learning systems success score of the university was 4.07 out of 5 or 81.4%, while the E-Readiness score of online instructors was 4.53 out of 5, or 90.6%. Linear regression analysis showed that E-Readiness was a significant and positive predictor of the System Design, System Delivery, and System Outcome stages and their associated dimensions. The results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that the constructs together accounted for 42.2% of the variance in Net Benefits. Of the six predictors in the model, User Satisfaction provided the largest unique contribution when the other predictors in the model were held constant. The other predictors in the model (System Quality, Service Quality, Information Quality, System Use and E-Readiness) were not statistically significant and provided no significant or unique contribution to Net Benefits. Further information is provided regarding factors affecting net benefits among online instructors using online learning environments. This information can be used to address online instructors' barriers to technology use.

This study concerns the relationship between student evaluation of instruction and student achievement in the field of management at the community college level. Purposes of the study were to determine the subjective student evaluation of instructor performance in introductory classes of management, student achievement in the class upon completion of the course, and the relationship between the student evaluation of instructor performance and student achievement in knowledge of the course. The population studied was all 10 sections of the Principles of Management course taught by 8 instructors at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas during the fall semester of 1988. A pretest-posttest design was used to determine student achievement scores. The College Board provided sufficient copies of two versions of the College Level Examination Program (CLEP) tests for Introduction to Management for the pretest and posttest. A special statistical technique using multiple regression was used to calculate an achievement score for each student that was adjusted for entry level knowledge. Student evaluations of instructor performance were paired with the achievement scores and grades students received from the instructor. Additional confidential demographic data was obtained about the students and the instructors. Major findings of the study concluded there is no significant relationship between the student achievement scores and student evaluation of instructor performance. There was a wide variance in correlation of student grades and student achievement scores when individual sections or individual instructors were examined. The overall correlation of grades and achievement scores was statistically significant and was the highest of any of the factors studied. The study recommends using more objective measures of student achievement in evaluating faculty performance.