In den letzten Jahren hat die Flüchtlingssituation erhebliche Beratungsbedarfe zu Studienangeboten und Bewerbungsverfahren für die Beratungsstellen und vor allem International Offices an Hochschulen generiert. Diese sprengten phasenweise die Kapazitäten der entsprechenden Beratungsstellen. Zudem stellt die Vielfalt der verschiedenen Studienangebote Hochschultypen, Bewerbungsverfahren und Zulassungsbedingungen Personen mit Fluchthintergrund, die Interesse an der Aufnahme oder Fortsetzung eines Studiums in Deutschland, vor massive Herausforderungen. Auch können bei Aufnahme oder Fortsetzung eines Studiums die stark heterogenen Vorkenntnisse, Lernvoraussetzungen und lernkulturellen Vorerfahrungen dieser Zielgruppe mit den vorhandenen Angeboten oft nicht ausreichend aufgefangen werden. Vor diesem Hintergrund hat die Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) 2015 die Entwicklung und Umsetzung eines online Kurses in Auftrag gegeben, der genau diesen Anforderungen begegnen soll. [... aus der Einleitung]

Undergraduate pre-business students who had taken an introductory business statistics course three years ago were sent a questionnaire that, among several other questions, asked them about their views on the usefulness of the course. Students rated the introductory business statistics course as "moderately important" for their business education. They favored an integrated approach that covers both the statistical concepts and the computer software necessary to carry out the statistical analysis, and they had a strong preference for the Microsoft EXCEL software. Students thought that projects played an important role in introducing them to real-world applications of statistics, but they also mentioned several problems that arose with group-based work. Factors mentioned as having had an impact on teaching effectiveness are discussed in the last part of the paper. (author's abstract) / Series: Forschungsberichte / Institut für Statistik

In den letzten Jahren hat die Flüchtlingssituation erhebliche Beratungsbedarfe zu Studienangeboten und Bewerbungsverfahren für die Beratungsstellen und vor allem International Offices an Hochschulen generiert. Diese sprengten phasenweise die Kapazitäten der entsprechenden Beratungsstellen. Zudem stellt die Vielfalt der verschiedenen Studienangebote Hochschultypen, Bewerbungsverfahren und Zulassungsbedingungen Personen mit Fluchthintergrund, die Interesse an der Aufnahme oder Fortsetzung eines Studiums in Deutschland, vor massive Herausforderungen. Auch können bei Aufnahme oder Fortsetzung eines Studiums die stark heterogenen Vorkenntnisse, Lernvoraussetzungen und lernkulturellen Vorerfahrungen dieser Zielgruppe mit den vorhandenen Angeboten oft nicht ausreichend aufgefangen werden. Vor diesem Hintergrund hat die Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) 2015 die Entwicklung und Umsetzung eines online Kurses in Auftrag gegeben, der genau diesen Anforderungen begegnen soll. [... aus der Einleitung]

This two-article dissertation examined the impact of enhanced educational dialogue, in terms of periodic email feedback on course progress and an invitation to participate in a discussion board, on student achievement and course satisfaction in an introductory statistics course offered in an independent study setting. Participants in the study were students enrolled in the year-long online course. They were randomly assigned to different types and levels of educational dialogue and their completion status, final exam scores, average quiz scores, and course satisfaction ratings were compared after controlling for the following covariates of interest: age, gender, high school GPA, Math ACT, learner autonomy, attitude on the usefulness of statistics, and confidence in learning statistics. The different types and levels of educational dialogue used in this study were: email reminders only, discussion board only, email and discussion board, and no email or discussion board. Successful completion of introductory statistics courses in online learning environments can be predicted by student's attitude toward statistics and learner autonomy, in addition to the conventional measures of mathematics aptitude (ACT Math score) and effort as measured by High School GPA; however, there is a scarcity of psychometrically sound and brief measures of these constructs. The first article developed and validated the following scales as measures of attitude toward statistics and learner autonomy: perceived value of statistics (4 items), confidence in learning statistics (4 items), and learner autonomy (3 items). These abbreviated scales are shown to have content and discriminant validity. They can be used by statistics education researchers with confidence. The second article used MANCOVA and logistic regression to analyze the data collected from the randomized controlled experiment. The MANCOVA results show that students who have higher confidence in learning statistics have higher final exam scores and higher course satisfaction at the 5% level of significance. In addition, students assigned to the email group have the highest average quiz scores. Logistic regression results show that older students and those who have high confidence in learning statistics are more likely to complete the course. Overall, the completion rate for this study is significantly higher than the previous sections of the course. One of the implications of this study is that basic course progress feedback to students with minimal teacher-student interaction may have a beneficial impact on student achievement in online courses.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第23319号 / 情博第755号 / 新制||情||129(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科社会情報学専攻 / (主査)教授 吉川 正俊, 教授 田島 敬史, 教授 緒方 広明 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM

Family caregivers of cancer patients may enter a predeath grief cycle when their loved one is diagnosed with cancer. The emotional upheaval and accompanying stress that define predeath grief may lead to health problems for the caregiver, and also interfere with their ability to provide care for their loved one. The purpose of the present research was to examine the relationship between coping styles of family caregivers and the tendency of those caregivers to seek social support during active caregiving. This study employed a quantitative approach based on the revised coping theory and the process of bereavement, which is grounded in the transactional theory of stress and coping, to examine coping styles of family members who care for cancer patients. Family caregivers of current cancer patients (n=103) were recruited through e-mails, flyers, the Walden Participant Pool, public social networking sites, and websites to complete the Ways of Coping Questionnaire. A preliminary analysis indicated a normal data distribution and confirmed homoscedasticity and linearity. Through the use of multiple regression, correlations, and t tests, relationships between 7 coping styles and the tendency to seek support were explored. Results indicated that coping styles of confrontive coping, problem solving, and positive reappraisal were positive and significant predictors of the tendency to seek social support during active caregiving. However, coping styles of distancing, self-control, escape/avoidance, and taking responsibility were not significant predictors of seeking social support. Findings from this study can influence social change by promoting appropriate support interventions that appeal to family caregivers, regardless of their coping styles, in order to effectively support the physical and mental health of the caregiver population.

This descriptive study sought to understand the instructional potential of a new course design for teaching adults in higher education. Increasingly referred to as a hybrid course format, it entails dividing a course into both online and face-to-face sessions that are separately calendared. A primary focus of the study was to identify teaching principles that are recommended by established adult education models and to describe how they have been incorporated by hybrid course designers. Also studied was how combining the online and face-to-face instructional modes provides structural opportunities for improving communication and teacher/learner dynamics. The adult education models analyzed were the andragogy model, the self-directed learning model, the transformative learning model, and the experiential learning model. The structural opportunities investigated included content delivery choices such as the use of lecture- and learner-centered activities and the best practices recommendations previously published for hybrid instruction. An online survey was administered to 267 hybrid course instructors at Utah Valley University, where 20,667 students have participated in a hybrid course. This university was actively engaged in developing the hybrid course design into a quality instructional option. The online survey provided descriptive data about how hybrid course instructors at the university perceive their understanding and use of adult education theories and how they utilize the online and face-to-face modes.

No description available.

Online education is continually growing and becoming more widely accepted as an instructional delivery option. Student success, student retention, and course quality continue to be issues in distance education. In order to adequately address the issues of student retention, student success, and course quality, evaluation standards must exist. This study was designed to review evaluation standards for online-course quality in the community college and to explore the results of the usage of the evaluation standards as they related to student retention and success at a local community college. The purpose of this study was to (a) review evaluation standards capable of rating instructional quality of an online course, (b) validate the evaluation standards to be included in the evaluation instrument, and (c) determine if relationships exist between faculty evaluation scores and student success and retention in online courses. The evaluation instrument used in this study was a researcher-developed instrument that was validated from previous literature and a panel of experts in the field of distance learning. The instrument was used to measure the quality of the online classroom from the fall 2014 online courses at a local community college. A pilot test of 12 courses used the test–retest method to determine the reliability of the instrument. The remaining online courses were then evaluated using the Online Faculty Course Evaluation Instrument. Division Chairs and the Dean of Instruction acted as the supervisors of the faculty teaching online. There are 5 Division Chairs and 1 Dean of Instruction. These supervisors completed the evaluation instrument. Positive weak relationships were found and included: (a) correlation between course student-retention and the Assessment and Feedback Item #1, “course assessments are distributed equally and appropriately throughout the semester, (b) correlation between course student-success rates and the overall Course Information scores, (c) correlation between course student-success rates and Assessment and Feedback Items #1, “course assessments are distributed equally and appropriately throughout the semester, and (d) correlation between course student-success rates and Assessment and Feedback Items #6, “assessments align with the course objectives.”

Previous literature has identified parental death as having a negative impact on the physical and mental health of the surviving adult child. In addition, research suggests that the marital satisfaction of a male or female adult child is negatively impacted after either a father or mother has died. The purpose of this research is to further study this topic by examining longitudinal dyadic data to determine how the death of a parent or death of an in-law impacts marital interaction when certain mediating variables are taken into account. Some of the mediating variables included quality of the parent-child relationship, caregiving, and gender. Data from 98 couples, with an average age of 47, from the USC Longitudinal Study of Generations, were examined using stepwise regression. During the 3 year interval between 1997 and 2000, 45 couples in the sample experienced the death of at least one of their parents. The main finding of the study was that marital satisfaction appears to remain fairly stable following the death of a parent. In other words, there were very few significant changes in positive or negative marital interactions for grieving sons and daughters. However, the few significant results indicated that sons who had a mother die experienced a significant decline in negative interaction with their wife. The death of a spouse's parent also did not impact perceived marital satisfaction in a significant way. Clinical implications are discussed, as well as recommendations for future research.