There is a need to explore ways to better motivate students in instruction, as student motivation is an issue confronting teachers at all levels of education. Instructor-student rapport (ISR), a multidimensional concept comprised of students’ enjoyable interaction and personal connection with instructors, has potential to offer educators a tool for increasing these important student outcomes. Further, self-determination theory (SDT) may have utility for illustrating the psychological mechanisms through which instructors influence students by building rapport. First, this study explored what behaviors instructors should employ to build ISR with students. Specifically, prosocial humor (related and unrelated) and confirmation (responding to questions, demonstrating interest, ad teaching style) were investigated as instructor rapport-building behaviors. Results showed that instructors’ use of related humor, demonstration of interest, and teaching style were significant predictors of both dimensions of ISR; mixed results were found for both responding to questions and unrelated humor. Second, this study considered whether ISR was a significant predictor of student outcomes: intrinsic motivation, perceived cognitive learning, and academic performance. While enjoyable interaction was a significant, positive predictor of all three outcomes, personal connection was not a significant, positive predictor of any student outcomes. In fact, personal connection was a significant, negative predictor of perceived cognitive learning. Third, this study explored whether ISR served as a mediator between these rapport-building behaviors and student outcomes as posited by SDT. Enjoyable interaction was a significant mediator in a majority of the models. However, personal connection was not a positive mediator in any models and served as a negative mediator when predicting perceived cognitive learning. Theoretical implications for this study’s findings, along with practical tips for instructors hoping to build ISR with students, are forwarded. In addition, future directions and limitations are discussed.

At least one third of college students enrolled in a given year take at least one course that is 80%+ online delivery (Allen & Seaman, 2015). This number has increased from 10% of students just within the last decade. Given this increase, the need for instructional communication research in this context has also grown. One construct that has had little attention in online settings is that of perceived instructor caring. Caring instructors are perceived as concerned, sensitive, not self-centered, and having students’ best interests at heart (McCroskey & Teven, 1999). Caring has the potential to impact various aspects of student success, but has seen limited application in online learning research. Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) uses the term relatedness, and assess the impact on motivation; however, this has also been applied very little in online settings. Guided by self-determination theory, the purpose of this dissertation is to explore perceptions of instructor caring in online education environments, to compare student and faculty views of instructor caring, explore the measurement of mediated instructor caring, and to test a mediation model proposing that perceived instructor caring, autonomy, and competence impacts perceived cognitive learning with motivation and affect as mediators. To do this, the author conducted two mixed-methods studies to compare instructor and student perceptions of caring, validate the measurement of caring, and test the model. Findings seek to improve understanding of how these constructs operate in online learning contexts and to assess self-determination theory for use in online settings, as well as to guide future research in various contexts of instructional communication.

Problem background: There has been an extensive amount of research done within the field of learning among children. Research regarding the teaching and the context of which this research is aimed to be performed on, is on the other hand scarcer. Costa Rica is one of the countries that has focused on human rights, and with this background, this thesis intends to study how the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is communicated to children in Costa Rica. We will preform our study on two types of schools; both private and public. We will also examine the impact the context has on communication for teachers when instructing about children’s rights. Purpose: We aim to study the development communication and contexts of which the principles of the CRC are communicated and taught to school children in Costa Rica.  Method: This thesis contains qualitative research. We have relied upon conversational interviews with a hermeneutical approach. Conclusion: This thesis clearly indicates that choice of communication channel has an impact on the interaction between teachers and pupils. Digitized channels are effective in the sense of speed and quantity of information regarding the CRC. However, the context in which the pupils receive and the teachers teach about the CRC is of great importance. The teachers experience many difficulties when teaching since the context not only builds barriers but also challenges them to find more creative ways of teaching. The material used when communicating the CRC varied depending on the economic status of the school. The children wanted and expected technology and digitalization to be a fundamental part of their education.

Master of Arts / Department of Speech Communication, Theatre, and Dance / LeAnn Brazeal / Though communication and learning theory suggest that human interaction is a key component that could enhance both processes, little has been done to incorporate these findings into the basic public speaking course. This study is an attempt to develop a dialogic approach for teaching the introductory college public speaking course. Through the incorporation of standardized analytic grading rubrics, instructor feedback prior to the public speaking performance, peer workshops, and peer evaluations of performances, a process-centered teaching approach is developed that has the potential to increase cognitive learning, improve the quality of student speeches, and increase the consistency between public speaking sections. After implementing this teaching approach for one semester, the results showed an increase in cognitive learning but no improvement in the quality of student speeches or grading consistency. However, a review of other research and the qualitative data collected in this study suggest that there might be greater impacts than could be seen here and that this approach needs to be developed and implemented over a longer period of time for its effects to be fully seen.

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The creation of a hybrid/blended basic course aligns with university goals and may increase viable curricular options for student success. If universities offer hybrid courses, they ought to do so based on data-driven evidence confirming that face-to-face (F2F) and hybrid courses are comparable. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the learning outcome achievement of students enrolled in a blended (hybrid) version of the basic course. More specifically, a comparative analysis of student affective, cognitive, and behavioral learning outcome achievement in face-to-face sections and hybrid sections was conducted. This study also examined affect for course delivery format for students enrolled in traditional F2F compared to hybrid sections. Ultimately, two important conclusions were drawn from this analysis. First, hybrid courses are a viable instructional modality for delivering the basic communication course. Second, students are satisfied with aspects of both F2F and blended course modalities. More specifically, each course delivery format has strengths and weaknesses and instructors, students, and university administrators share responsibility for course and student success.

Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 42-47).

Combined with advancements in technology, prior research investigating the teacher-student relationship has radically changed the way we teach and learn in online education. This study examined the way teacher self-disclosure (TSD) influenced student motivation to enroll in an online course and altered their affect, or feelings, toward the teacher when applied within a purely online learning setting. The experiment took place online and was built within a Boston University’s learning management system (LMS), Blackboard Learn. In the online environment, TSD was controlled to provide high levels of male and female TSD in two treatment groups and a complete absence of TSD in two control groups. Out of the 336 Master of Social Work (MSW) students that responded to the recruitment email, 84 students were placed in one of four online settings led by fictional male and female teachers. Students in the treatment groups were granted access to male or female TSD via a Meet the Professor tab within the online learning environment. This tab provided students with access to content collected from social media websites, such as LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter on a single web page. The social media content displayed personal and professional information about these fictional instructors and were used to create TSD in the sample online course. The study participants were instructed to explore their assigned sample course not including (control) or including (treatment) TSD. Before and after exploring the sample course, participants completed pre- and post-surveys measuring their motivation to engage in the online course materials, their affect toward the teacher (ATT), and their perceptions of TSD within the online learning environment. Hypothesis testing using ANCOVA, correlation, t-test, and Chi-squared procedures revealed no statistical significance. Findings include recommendations for methodological requirement need to explore the complexities of the teacher-student relationship within a purely online learning environment.

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