<p>Despite the growth of online education and its seemingly fixed place in higher education, online education is still opposed, or at least viewed with suspicion by many faculty (Allen &amp; Seaman, 2013). Faculty opposition of online education can be expressed in myriad ways, most prominently through shared governance, which can directly limit or completely block online education from occurring at an institution. This case study revolved around a non-profit, Faith-Based university (FBU) that is a newcomer to the inclusion of online coursework. This study sought to investigate the rationale faculty may have towards their support or opposition to online education by using mixed methods to bring to light the beliefs faculty have about online education. In examining the beliefs faculty at FBU have towards online education, this study also prompted faculty to reflect on whether their beliefs about online education have changed since the inclusion of online coursework at FBU, and if so, what factors may have contributed to the evolving beliefs. Data collected from 54 survey respondents and 12 faculty interviews helped to capture these beliefs. </p><p> The findings showed that faculty, on average, felt that the impact of online education on the quality of educational experience would be slightly diminished at the undergraduate level but slightly enhanced at the graduate level. </p><p> Faculty who indicated evolving beliefs or opinions about online education cited various catalysts. These catalysts fell into 3 categories: <i> external factors</i>&mdash;related to economic viability, changes in the higher education environment, and access; <i>information and opinions gather from trusted sources</i>&mdash;which would include literature, colleagues, and professional organizations; and <i>personal experience </i>&mdash;which stemmed from a direct personal involvement in teaching and/or learning experiences within the online environment. </p><p> Findings were examined through the theoretical framework of Rokeach&rsquo;s (1989) model of belief systems. This model may suggest that beliefs about teaching and learning are closely connected to one&rsquo;s identity and are thus highly resistant to change. Accepting and implementing new or different methods of teaching and learning, such as the teaching and learning occurring in online education, might require a major reorganization of beliefs about oneself. </p>

<p> In Fall 2014 over 460,000 students enrolled in the 23-campus California State University system; unfortunately, more than 20,000 qualified applicants were denied admission due to capacity and budgetary constraints. In response to continued overcrowding, the Chancellor's Office and Board of Trustees are investigating "bottlenecks," defined as anything limiting students' ability to graduate in a timely manner. Blended learning, a pedagogy combining face-to-face and computer-mediated instruction, presents a potential solution to alleviate overcrowding and bottleneck problems. </p><p> In an effort to investigate the extent to which student demographics and performance analytics explain student success outcomes in a popular blended learning psychology course, an explanatory sequential design was used to study 18,254 students enrolled in the course between 2006 and 2014. In the initial quantitative part of the design, logistic regression and traditional regression analysis were used to determine the predictors of those who chose to drop the course, those who ultimately passed the course, and then to investigate why some students received higher grades than others. Results revealed that race, gender, age, socioeconomic status, and early course participation were key predictors of success.</p><p> Some of the most significant findings &ndash; which included the fact that Mexican American, African American, and Filipino students were less successful in the course than their White counterparts &ndash; were examined in more detail in the qualitative part of the study that followed. Specifically, students who self-identified within these race/ethnicities provided a nuanced look at their own course experiences by completing questionnaires and interviews for the study. Thematic findings revealed socioeconomic status, time management, parents' education, and students' campus community as factors contributing to course performance. </p><p> This study represents one of few large-scale analyses of a blended learning environment focused upon learner outcomes, and it serves to inform the evaluative work surrounding student success interventions, including the ability to predict and understand student risk characteristics for dropping, failing, or performing poorly within a blended learning environment. Understanding the many reasons students engage in less successful behavior may inform student success strategies and alleviate bottlenecks, especially as the prevalence of blended learning courses increases within the California State University system.</p>

<p> The need to belong and connect with others is universal among human beings. Technological advances make connecting and belonging possible via technologies, without face to face interaction. This new ubiquitous way of belonging and connecting is seen in all areas of communication, including work, schools and social environments. Online learning programs pose new challenges and questions. The purpose of this study was to learn more about the importance of sense of community within blended online programs and to determine whether there are specific learning activities that either enhance or detract from a sense of community. This information will inform course developers as to how to build community enhancing learning activities into blended online courses. </p><p> Forty-three graduate students enrolled in three different blended online programs from one University participated in an online survey process. The Classroom Community Scale (CCS) was used to assess an overall sense of community as well as 2 subscales; connectedness and learning. Overall, 86% of the subjects reported a sense of community within their educational program. Specific learning activities were assessed for use as well as student perceptions regarding whether the activity enhanced or detracted from the sense of community. Learning activities that were both collaborative in nature and synchronous were those rated by students as enhancing the sense of community. The most utilized learning activities were reading, synchronous discussions, collaborative assignments, writing and asynchronous discussions. Enhancing activities included face to face orientation pre-program start, collaborative projects, synchronous virtual sessions and group presentations.</p><p> To enhance community in online programs, it is recommended that an initial pre-program face to face session can best serve to build the initial community and support more effective learning. Additionally, course developers should incorporate synchronous and collaborative learning activities as much as possible within the structure of the course. Finally, faculty could use the CCS to measure connectedness and learning as a way to understand the learning and community preferences of the students in order to determine options and alternatives for learning and assignment completion.</p>

<p> The objectives of this study were to gain an understanding of how practicing teachers believe they are prepared to meaningfully and critically integrate technology into their classroom practices; and to understand how practicing teachers recruited those beliefs into their teaching practices. This included gaining an understanding of what they believed led to their engagement in the critical dimensions of technology use in their teaching practices. This mixed-methods study contained two phases. In Phase 1, 58 graduate students in a College of Education completed a newly developed Critical Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (C-TPACK) survey containing likert-scale and open-ended questions. A subset of four graduate students, who were also practicing teachers, participated in Phase 2 of this study where lesson plans, observations, and interviews were analyzed. The findings indicated that limited training in and exposure to C-TPACK during teacher education coursework and professional development (PD), uncertainty about students&rsquo; critical digital literacies (CDL), the teachers&rsquo; varying understandings of CDL, resource limitations and restrictive school policies posed barriers for the teachers&rsquo; recruitment of CTPACK to their practices. These findings showed the importance of tying critical theory to technology in education coursework and PD programs. This study proposes the use of a theoretical framework that prioritizes critical theory, namely the C-TPACK framework, when analyzing teachers&rsquo; technology integration practices. KEYWORDS: TPACK, C-TPACK, critical digital literacy, digital literacy, teacher education, professional development </p><p>

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

<p> Much research has been done in regards to student programming errors, online education and studio-based learning (SBL) in computer science education. This study furthers this area by bringing together this knowledge and applying it to proactively help students overcome impasses caused by common student programming errors.</p><p> This project proposes a pedagogy for proactive online teaching. Studio-Based Learning Online (SBL-Online) consists of three components, the SBL pedagogy, the strategic timing and content of the SBL sessions and the online nature of the implementation environment. The implementation of SBL-Online aims to provide a better quality of online computer programming courses promoting student-student interaction focused on the discussion of problematic curriculum issues.</p><p> Data collected prior to the application of SBL-Online provided counts of common student programming errors. This information was used to create the assignments that were later used during the SBL-Online sessions. In regards to its implementation, this project is two-fold; on the one hand it compares online vs. SBL incarnations of the same course. On the other hand it observes and analyzes what goes on during the SBL-Online sessions.</p><p> The data collection includes an end-of-semester questionnaire, a modified version of the motivated strategies for learning questionnaire (MSLQ), as well as thick data collection extracted from the course management system, student emails and SBL-Online session video recordings. Recordings&rsquo; analyses of student interaction during SBL sessions play a very important role within this study.</p><p> The SBL-Online just as its face-to-face counterpart SBL, has shown the potential to help novice programmers overcome the limitations unique to introduction to programming courses. In most cases there is evidence on students&rsquo; optimistic state of mind before, during and after SBL sessions highlighting the effects of this treatment. On the other hand there is evidence of renouncing and defeatist thoughts from the control group.</p><p> This research provides a unique insight into the inner workings and effects of SBL, including the identification of &ldquo;learning moments,&rdquo; student-student interaction and the building of camaraderie. SBL-Online impacted student&rsquo;s behavior, in different areas of the course, such as, attitude towards peers and attitude towards the course.</p>

<p> This study was designed to document the discourse of faculty in regards to the integration of massive open online courses (MOOCs) among the community college sector. The study examined what presuppositions faculty held about MOOCs and the significance of these notions for higher education. Additionally, the study reviewed the ways in which community college faculty made references to MOOCs in their everyday discourse.</p><p> Participants were selected from two Maryland institutions of higher education known for referencing MOOCs through their websites and publications. Participants comprised full-time and part-time instructional faculty who had worked at least two consecutive semesters in the community college sector in the three academic years prior to the focus group. Previous participation in a MOOC was not required for eligibility, but a basic understanding was recommended. Between the two institutions, four focus group interviews were held. Each focus group had four participants, for a total of 16 participants. Following each focus group interview, participants were contacted to participate in a one-on-one semistructured interview. Gee's tenets of discourse analysis were used to document the conversational discourse surrounding MOOCs as a way to understand where the discussions started, where they currently are, and what will be discussed in the future.</p><p> Faculty viewed characteristics of MOOCs with polarizing perceptions: they either agreed or disagreed with various aspects of MOOCs and rarely discussed middle ground options. Most faculty members had a basic awareness of MOOCs, but few (6 of the 16) participants reported first-hand experience. Participants reported a need to learn more about MOOCs in order to move the conversation into the direction of acceptance and acknowledgment among the community college sector. As the result of participants' limited experiences with MOOCs, most of their presuppositions and everyday discourse was based on their teaching experiences and comparisons to current traditional teaching models. MOOCs were viewed as more of a supplement to higher education than a standalone learning forum.</p>

<p> As mobile devices become more and more ubiquitous among teens, such devices have also been fighting their way into the educational landscape. In this digital world where people are constantly entertained, educators have found it difficult to capture their students' attention and motivate them to stay engaged in formal class. Rather than focus specifically on types of devices as education has historically done, this study focused on ways in which those tool could be used. Using a TPACK framework (technological, pedagogical, content knowledge) allows educators to pull the attention from specific types of devices and focus on how those devices could be used academically. This exploratory study surveyed how undergraduate students and higher education instructors at two small faith-based universities in Southern California used mobile devices in and outside of the class for academic purposes. The researcher cross-referenced the results from the 2 groups to make correlations. The results of this study showed that nearly all instructor participants had multiple devices and almost half of the student participants had 2 or more devices as well. Those devices are being used in and outside of formal class for academics in very basic and emerging way that are just touching the surface of their capabilities. This study found that students use their devices in class to read, reference, or search materials. Faculty reported using their devices as presentation devices most often. Both groups, students and teachers, reported a few unique mobile devices using special purpose applications. Those special purpose uses are beginning to move in the direction progressive mobile learning and beginning to touch the surface of TPACK integration. This study aimed to integrate the current uses of mobile devices by students and faculty with the TPACK educational framework. It connected current mobile device usage to advanced device usage to integrate TPACK teaching strategies for educators to integrate those devices into their future instruction.</p><p> <i>Key words:</i> mobile devices, TPACK, formal learning, informal learning.</p>

<p>A study was conducted at an urban Title I high school in Southern California to explore the effects of clickers on student learning in a chemistry classroom. The study used a teaching strategy that placed students into groups of four to give them the opportunity to participate in active learning. While participating in active learning, the teacher used a 4&ndash;5 item multiple-choice assessment that utilized the question-cycle approach which required students to discuss the question, review and revisit the content before entering responses into individual clickers. Quantitative data was analyzed via an ANCOVA. Results suggest that there is not a relationship between students learning and the use of clickers, per end of unit test. However, when looking at a subgroup of lower performing students (those who had not yet passed the high school exit exam), results suggest that students in the treatment group who used clickers in the question-cycle strategy scored significantly higher on the end of unit test. </p>

<p> Remote access technologies enable students to investigate science by utilizing scientific tools and communicating in real-time with scientists and researchers with only a computer and an Internet connection. Because remote access technologies offer students unique learning experiences, for the first time in history students can become virtual researchers and collect and share scientific data. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that contribute to successful remote learning investigations, document students&rsquo; perceptions of ownership of data, science motivation, science identity, learning outcomes in conjunction with a remote investigation, and to document students&rsquo; perceptions of virtual presence during a remote investigation.</p><p> This study, conducted with high school students (<i>n</i> = 72), explored the impact of students&rsquo; perception of <i>ownership </i> of data during a remote investigation. A pretest-posttest control group design was used and students were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: students able to collect their own insect to use during the remote investigation (<i>n</i> = 36) and students that did not collect their own insects to view during the remote investigation (<i>n</i> = 36).</p><p> The results of this study showed that students&rsquo; perception of <i> ownership of data</i> does not significantly change their perceptions of motivation to do science, science identity, and learning outcomes during a remote investigation. Students&rsquo; in the experimental group reported being less distracted during the remote investigation than students in the control group, whereas students in the control group reported controlling the technology was easier than the experimental group. The remote investigation positively influenced students&rsquo; learning outcomes and students&rsquo; perception of science identity. Exploratory factor analysis of all identified constructs in the remote investigation indicated that <i>Science Learning Drive</i> (students&rsquo; perception of their competence and performance in science and intrinsic motivation to do science), Environmental Presence (students&rsquo; perception of control of the remote technology, sensory and distraction factors in the learning environment, and relatedness to scientists), and <i>Inner Realism Presence</i> (students&rsquo; perceptions of how real is the remote program and being recognized as a science-oriented individual) are factors that contribute to a successful remote investigation. This study provided valuable information of students&rsquo; perceptions of motivation, science identity, and virtual presence during a remote investigation that can provide insight into remote learning environments.</p>