This current study examined the job satisfaction and turnover intention of teachers working in a drop out recovery program using online curriculum. The subjects of the study were from one charter school district in north Texas that is designated as a drop out recovery program. This qualitative case study used interviews and focus groups to examine eight different areas of teacher job satisfaction to examine factors that influence a teacher's intent to quit or remain at a school. Previous research showed a connection between job satisfaction levels and the intent of a teacher to terminate employment or not. Previous research had not looked into this specific school environment. Results showed that compensation was the largest factor in job satisfaction but negative feelings could be overcome if other areas of importance for teachers brought positive job satisfaction. Overall, teachers in this environment were more likely to have high job satisfaction and less likely to terminate employment.

This thesis reports a longitudinal study that investigated the factors affecting at-risk students' use of an online curriculum delivery mode for some Year 11 subjects. The study examined the skills and attitudes of the students during their online learning experience, and followed the teachers while they developed suitable teaching methods to be able to deliver their subject via online learning. Importantly, the students in the study were at risk of not completing subjects in the South Australian Certificate of Education (SALE) if some kind of curriculum intervention was not applied. Access to the school curriculum can be problematic for some young people for a variety of reasons, including a limited subject choice, an inability to attend programmed classes and exhibiting behaviour that is deemed to be inappropriate by school authorities. Students in this study were not able to study the subjects they wished because of timetable clashes, were not able to attend school regularly for personal reasons or had exhibited negative behaviour to their teachers and peers preventing them from attending certain classes. At the time of the study, all the students wished to complete their SALE, but limited access to the curriculum was likely to prevent this from occurring. The study used qualitative methods of data collection including interviews with students and teachers, analysis of students' work, electronic communications and other documents, and records of meetings. These were used to prepare case studies for each of the seven students involved. While the student sample was small, the varied personal experiences of the students in the study enabled the examination of many of the characteristics documented in the literature as those being associated with at-risk youth. / All the students involved in the study completed the NetLearning Project (NLP) unit(s) they had enrolled in, but each encountered different challenges. The case studies provided data that enabled identification of the characteristics students required to be successful online learners. Three clusters of factors relating to personal situations (reason for entry to the program, access to a home computer and continuity of schooling), skill factors (level of ICT and English literacy skills), and attitude to learning (willingness to persist and level of self-directedness) were identified as major contributors to students' ability to complete their units. The teacher case studies revealed that the characteristics required for teachers to operate effectively within the online learning environment include an ability to promote positive teacher-student relationships, a high level of ICT skills, good subject knowledge and curriculum understanding. In addition, teachers required initiative, persistence and collaborative skills. The findings of the study highlight the importance of attitudinal factors in determining the students and teachers success in the online environment and suggest that teacher-student relationships have a major impact on student learning outcomes, just as they do in the traditional classroom.

The purpose of this study was to explore how university department chairs, or equivalent, perceive leadership as it relates to the context of online curriculum delivery in higher education. Three research areas guided the study: (a) nature and context of online environment and how it impacts the leadership, (b) the ways in which leaders conceptualize leadership, and (c) challenges and tensions for leadership. The sample included four participants (chair, director, coordinator, and associate dean) from three Western-Canadian universities. Findings in this study revealed four salient themes and sub-themes: (a) Context The Setting (technology, model of learning, faculty categories, cost-recovery versus cost-sharing); (b) Leadership Preparation (removing barriers and improving leadership preparation); (c) Leadership in General (relational-oriented, vision and direction setting, organizational culture and cultural diversity, ethics); and (d) Challenges and Tensions (past, present, future, organizational realities). The study concludes with a discussion of the implications for practice that include: balance between administrator and scholar, leadership preparation, and degree proposals. Implications for theory include: leadership in the context of online curriculum delivery, cost-recovery, technology, cultural diversity, ethics and equity, as well as organizational change. Finally, based on the findings, conclusions, and implications, several questions that warrant future research into the phenomenon of leadership in higher education are shared. / Educational Administration and Leadership

A distributed online curriculum and courseware (DONC2) development model is proposed in this study. Collaborative courseware development teams which may work in distributed academic or private institutions who need to develop higher quality, reduced cost, on time products are the users of DONC2 development model. The related features from the disciplines of instructional design and software engineering were combined and concepts like usability, especially in terms of formative and summative evaluation, interoperability and reusability were integrated into the model. The research is conducted as a collective case study, including four cases with distinctive characteristics to reveal the several practices in online curriculum and courseware development work. The DONC2 development model was proposed using the results gathered from the investigated cases and a literature survey. The model uses the iterative incremental and agile software development approaches in order to overcome the disadvantages of other linear system development approaches. This enables building releasable products in short time periods with increased quality. Furthermore, continuous communication, evaluation and feedback as well as good project management and readiness to adapt to changes are integrated as the essential characteristics. DONC2 development model is different than previous linear and non-adaptive models in all of these aspects.

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