This descriptive study was designed to assess college instructors? perceptions of the usefulness of WebCT features designed to enhance course management and instruction. Also assessed were college instructors? perceptions of instructional incentives and instructional challenges encountered when using WebCT as an instructional delivery system and their perceptions of the quality of WebCT training and institutional support. A web-based survey questionnaire was sent to 181 college instructors at two southern universities who used WebCT for instructional delivery. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations, and one-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs). All significant analyses of variance were followed by Tukey?s post hoc procedure. The findings revealed that the majority of respondents had positive perceptions of WebCT features designed to enhance course management and instruction. In addition, respondents showed positive perceptions of the instructional incentives listed on the survey questionnaire. On the other hand, the majority of respondents showed ambivalent perceptions of the quality of WebCT training, quality of institutional support and instructional challenges encountered as a result of using WebCT. Also, the analysis of data identified significant differences in respondents perceptions based on age, faculty rank and years of teaching experience.

As the education field further embraces technology and the classroom develops a distance component, more and more colleges and universities are delivering classes via two-way video. Research has established that nonverbal cues exist and play a significant role in classroom instruction (Arnold & Roach, 1989; Cyrs, Conway, Shonk, & Jones, 1997; Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968). The growing popularity of two-way video and the fundamental concepts of communication, establishes a parallel between traditional classroom and two-way video instruction delivery. This parallel and the established effect that nonverbal cues have on instructional delivery support the need to study nonverbal communication in a two-way video classroom. Descriptive observation of six instructors, each teaching five 50-minute lectures, produced the data for this preliminary study. The nonverbal cues were recorded using the Two-way Video Nonverbal Cue Observation Instrument (TV-NCOI). The TV-NCOI consisted of seven nonverbal communication categories and 22 variables used to identify and quantify professor's nonverbal cue use in two-way video instructional delivery. Frequency response, common themes, and nonverbal cue delivery observations, collected by the TV-NCOI, were used to answer the research questions; what nonverbal cues are used by university professors when delivering instruction in a two-way video classroom? The results suggest that professors in engineering and chemistry, the two focused disciplines, heavily used nonverbal cues when delivering instruction in a two-way video classroom. However, the majority of these cues have a technical delivery base. The traditional classroom nonverbal cues of board pointing, material pointing, and accent gestures are delivered via computer cursor, two-way video camera, and software applications in the two-way video classroom. More specifically, 87% on the nonverbal cues used in instructional delivery had a technological connection and only 13% of the nonverbal cues used were without a technical delivery base. / Ph. D.

The XDRIVE engine is a runtime solution for the coordination and display of web-based multimedia presentations that feature three-dimensional content. This 3D content is rendered in real-time, which facilitates user-defined navigation and interaction with objects contained within the 3D virtual environment. These presentations can run independently, or they can be synchronized with audio and video files. As web browsers interpret HTML formatted files, XDRIVE presentations are authored in and interpreted from XML formatted files, which are loaded and interpreted by the engine to display the defined content. Just as web browsers can load and display external files as guided and linked by the HTML tags, XDRIVE presentations rely on links to external files that are imported and displayed as guided by the XML tags. Developed using Macromedia Director MX - a multimedia development software package - the XDRIVE engine itself is a Shockwave file that is embedded in a web page. Shockwave, a format whose browser plug-in is free to install and is loaded on a variety of systems, allows for the coordination of multiple media and data types, and features a powerful set of tools for the use of 3D content through the Shockwave3D format. XDRIVE is designed to open the functionality of web-based 3D to a wider audience - allowing for custom presentations to be authored without a prerequisite knowledge of complicated programming languages, and 3D scripting. The XDRIVE engine is a series of scripted systems that utilize and connect various components of Director, and provide additional capabilities above those that already exist. / Master of Science

Increased institutional accountability and fiscal constraints coupled with most community college students being required to take at least one remedial/developmental course indicates a need to find the best way to deliver these classes. Institutions are expanding alternate delivery formats to meet student expectations. Is using technology best for students in remedial/developmental courses? This study investigated effectiveness of technology-assisted instruction for remedial/developmental math in Florida community colleges. Technology has emerged as potentially enhancing student success; however, it is expensive. If research shows that students benefit from technology in remedial/developmental courses, then funds spent to provide instruction through technology are validated. However, if research does not show remedial/developmental courses with a technology component are more effective than courses delivered traditionally, then spending funds for technology in those courses becomes questionable. The research questions for this study asked whether the delivery format of gatekeeper remedial/developmental math courses varied by institutional size. Was there a relationship between student success and technology-assisted delivery of "gatekeeper" remedial/developmental math classes? The study asked if such a relationship existed when controlling for placement test scores. To answer these questions, the research compared student success rates in three delivery formats--traditional, hybrid, and computer-based. Results showed that small institutions favored traditional delivery of remedial/ developmental math. Medium institutions offered traditional and hybrid delivery in similar proportions while larger institutions favored hybrid delivery. Results also showed that students in traditional delivery sections were likely to be just as successful, or slightly more successful, than students in hybrid and computer-based delivery courses, Students with higher placement test scores in remedial/developmental math were clearly more successful in courses delivered via traditional instruction. Implications from this study suggest that the introduction of a technology component to remedial/developmental math courses does not seem to be more effective in helping students successfully pass remedial/developmental math classes. If an institution does not have funds to invest in technology for remedial/developmental math students, which may be especially true for smaller institutions, no harm is done in delivering instruction in remedial/developmental math via traditional methods. Students may actually benefit from the traditional delivery format in remedial/developmental math courses.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine teacher perception of changes in the instructional delivery and learning opportunities via technology during and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 until May 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected educational organizations. School closures in March 2020 forced teachers to change their instructional delivery from an in-person platform to a virtual platform. This disruption to the delivery of instruction with the use of technology changed the way teachers plan for learning, delivery content, present learning activities, and assessment. The urgency required teachers to develop new strategies and experiment with adaptations to their traditional instructional delivery. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of teachers as they adapted their instruction to a new platform. The theoretical framework used was change theory. The research was accomplished by interviewing 11 core-content classroom teachers from different school systems. Participants described their experiences and approach to the challenges faced while teaching during the uncertainty of the pandemic. The participants in the study described factors that influenced changes in their use of technology and how the different platforms changed the way they used technology for instructional delivery. The researcher used the Change Theory Framework to code responses and identify the internal and external factors that influenced the changes.

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In addition to the ever-changing demands of the workforce and student demands, the community college must address how performance and withdrawal are affected by traditional classroom instructional delivery and the inclusion of alternate instructional delivery settings such as internet-based approaches in courses. This quantitative study was conducted to provide evidence-based research to a community college in Northeast Tennessee. Specifically, this research study focused on an important aspect of instructional course delivery methods: What are the relationships between traditional classroom and internet-based course instructional delivery methods in relation to withdrawal and grade-distribution patterns for specified courses (English 1010, Math 1710, Biology 2010, and Business CSCI 1100) at a community college in Northeast Tennessee? Course instructional delivery practice is expensive, regardless of the course delivery method. The community college officials wish to best use their resources and instructional delivery practices. Student withdrawals have a significant effect on the fiscal stability of an institution of higher education. Reducing the number of students who withdraw from a course is instrumental to positive financial health and educational program practices. In this quantitative study, data were gathered through a method of secondary analysis by a community college in Northeast Tennessee and distributed to the researcher for compilation and statistical analysis. Independent samples t tests were used to evaluate whether the mean grade point average and percentage of students withdrawing in English 1010, Math 1710, Biology 2010, and Business CSCI 1100 differed between traditional classroom course sections and internet-based course sections taught in the same academic period. Findings from this study indicated that instructional delivery method does not significantly influence mean grade point averages, and students tend to perform consistently regardless of the instructional delivery setting; however, percentage of student withdrawals vary between instructional delivery methods with the analysis of Biology 2010 finding that traditional classroom course sections had higher withdrawals than did the internet-based course sections.

The problem that guided this study was a socio-constructivist view of education via online learning. Based in the extant literature, a deficiency existed that directly correlated online learning closing the academic achievement gap between student populations. In other words, schools invested in technology; however, few empirical data sets existed that established a connection between technology integration and the academic achievement of different student groups. The purpose of this pooled regression analysis study was to determine whether the method of class instruction effected academic achievement gaps between three subpopulations based on gender, race, and SES. Specifically, this study examined whether gender, race, and SES could predict semester grades within and across traditional, blended, and online course instructional methods. The dependent variable for this study was student success in the form of an end-of-unit test grade designed to evaluate student understanding of the curriculum. The independent variables included student gender, ethnicity, and SES. Quantitative data were collected through an analysis of Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) data and student end-of-unit exam grades. The research suggests one combined interaction, [gender x race] in the traditional learning environment, is statistically significant while several independent interactions are significant. Those independent interactions are TAKS scores, gender, and Socio-economic status. According to the trends in this research, no significant differences exists in academic achievement between African American males and White males enrolled in traditional, blended or online classes. This non-significance is important. As suggested, when all other external factors, in this research, are held constant and the academic playing field is level, male students perform equally within the classroom, also, because no significant differences exists in academic achievement, the quality of instruction from well-trained, highly qualified educators can be an integral factor in closing the achievement gap between African American, low-SES male students.