Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Doris W. Carroll / On-campus college students are enrolling in online courses at a greater rate than ever before for a variety of reasons, from needing a more flexible schedule for work to keeping their degree progress on track when on-campus sections fill before they can enroll to utilizing a modern modality for coursework. In order for online courses to help students successfully meet learning outcomes, the courses need to be well-designed for all students, including on-campus students who may be more comfortable in on-campus classrooms and less skilled in how to learn and engage academically in online courses. The purpose of this case study was to explore the experiences of multiple participants who all participated in an online communications course, either as students earning on-campus degrees at the same institution, as teaching assistants, or as the faculty member at a mid-sized land grant institution in the midwestern United States. The participants were selected with both criterion- and purposeful-based sampling. The participants’ experiences were viewed using the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism. Individuals’ worlds are made of objects that may be physical, social, or abstract. The objects in this study are the elements within an online communications course; the participants shared about the elements that they perceived as most engaging. The data collected from this study is useful in building more engagement into courses that have high on-campus student enrollments, which the literature indicates will continue to grow. Participants specifically shared the importance of course organization, strategic course relationships, and relevancy of content in creating the necessary engagement that helps students learn to not just endure but to embrace the subjects they are studying online.

The retention curve of an incompletely learned avoidance response was investigated, employing rats in a shuttlebox situation. Subjects were given a 15 trial re-learning session 0, 1/2, 1 or 24 hours after original acquisition. Three treatment groups were tested at these intervals: a not-handled group which remained in the shuttlebox during the intersession interval, a handled group which remained in the shuttlebox during the intersession interval, and a group which was returned to a living cage. All treatment groups produced a monotonically decreasing curve as a function of intersession interval. Handling produced a decrement on performance at 0-hour intersession interval; location showed no effect. Results were interpreted in terms of the warm-up decrement and the effects of handling on the arousal of fear. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The purpose of this study was to explore how counselling teams draw on narrative therapy during intersession break consultations in walk-in counselling. Walk-in counselling is a form of single-session therapy (SST) that allows an individual, couple, or family to meet with a counsellor on a drop-in basis. Walk-in counselling clinics are becoming increasingly popular in Canada and globally, with a particularly high number operating in Ontario. Sessions in walk-in counselling typically involve a break partway through, during which the counsellor meets with a team of colleagues for a brief consultation; this is referred to as the “intersession break”. Narrative therapy is a postmodern therapeutic approach commonly used in walk-in counselling. Data collection occurred at two Ontarian walk-in counselling clinics and involved recording and transcribing a total of six intersession break consultations. Transcripts were examined using discourse analysis as a methodological approach. My analysis process identified four conversational practices counselling teams engaged in that drew on various aspects of narrative therapy theory. These practices are as follows: (a) counsellors engaging in externalization, (b) counsellors orienting to possible alternative narratives, (c) counsellors centring the person visiting the clinic, and (d) counsellors demonstrating tentativeness. This research is most directly relevant to counsellors working in walk-in counselling clinics and agencies offering SST involving intersession breaks. For mental health practitioners interested in postmodern therapeutic approaches, it provides a detailed account of how narrative therapy is being applied within a particular context. Finally, it may be of interest to people accessing walk-in counselling services who are curious about intersession break processes.