This study is positioned in the context of the South African higher education landscape, which is currently grappling with issues of access and inequality. Online education is one of the potential approaches to expand access to South African students, but has often been met with skepticism as to its pedagogical quality, and has been perceived as an inferior alternative to traditional contact education. A comparative research design is followed in which two courses within a postgraduate marketing management qualification at a South African public university are compared. This qualification is offered in both contact and online format. The same courses within different modes of education are compared, as well as different courses within the same mode of education. A coding system was created based on Basil Bernstein’s concepts of framing and classification, and the courses were compared based on various dimensions of framing and classification. The study aimed to explore the affordances and limitations of both contact and online education. It was found that the ‘sequence’ and ‘pace’ aspects of framing are impacted by mode of education, with the online learning environment allowing students more agency in determining the pace and sequence of their learning. The ‘hierarchical rules’ aspect of framing is also impacted by mode, with the online courses offering an inherently non-hierarchical learning environment. It was found that weaker framing over these elements can present either an affordance or limitation, depending on the subject matter, with some types of subject matter being well suited to weaker framing over sequence, pace, and hierarchical rules, and others being constrained by it.

The educational industry has evolved with the development of computer technology. The online education system (OES) provides a more effective and efficient educational strategy for students benefiting from computer science technologies. There is a need for a mapping of knowledge definition from the traditional education system to the data gathered from the non-traditional OES. This would make the measurement of knowledge possible for OES. The study aims to (a) find an appropriate knowledge definition through a literature review process, and (b) based on the definition measure students’ knowledge in OES, such as Hypocampus, by using machine learning techniques. Experiments were conducted using a well-known Bayesian KnowledgeTracing (BKT) model. The evaluation was performed on 3300 students studying medicine in France using Hypocampus OES. As a result, the student’s knowledge was measured in skills, performance, and achievement per subject with 81% average accuracy. The obtained results suggest the potential of the presented approach for measuring students’ knowledge in OES.

A challenge faced by higher education is whether online orientation that is offered before the start of class can impact academic performance for online students. The purpose of this quantitative research study was to determine if there are significant differences in retention, academic success, and persistence between first time online students who have participated in an online orientation and those who did not participate and if there was a significant difference in retention, academic success, and persistence by gender of first-time online students. The sample for this study was extracted from archived data originating from 433 first-time online undergraduate students at a 2-year technical college in South Carolina. Student retention was measured by midterm grades, academic success as measured by final course grades, and persistence as measured by enrollment in at least 1 online class in subsequent semester. The results of this study indicated a high level of statistical significance in male and female first-time online students with academic success as well as overall persistence in students who successfully completed online orientation with a grade of 80 or better. Additionally, statistical significance was found in relation to male and female first-time online students and retention. These results can support a shared purpose among educational leaders to transform online education into a collaborative learning environment that promotes growth, competence, and a thriving learning community. The results of this study reinforced awareness and understanding among educational leaders at colleges and universities about online orientation and its impact to online students' success.

High school coaches play a huge role in establishing a healthy environment for their athletes and often students. The coach-°©‐athlete relationship has proven to be a strong and useful bond in prevention of adverse behaviors of athletes or in prevention of health problems such as concussions. The female athlete triad (triad) is a common health problem among female athletes. Many high school coaches are unaware of the triad or the serious health and performance consequences for their athletes. The triad is a syndrome marked by 3 interrelated adverse effects: decreased energy availability, menstrual dysfunction, and decreased bone mineral density. The Purpose of this study was to develop an online educational resource aimed at educating coaches about the triad. After the online education materials were created and reviewed by small panel groups, the materials were launched online and available to the public with the aim to target high school coaches. We collected online surveys from 90 participants including coaches and parents of high school female athletes and found a lack of knowledge, attitudes, and confidence in preventing the triad. By educating coaches and providing the tools for prevention, we hypothesize that coaches can play a large role in the prevention of the triad among high school athletes and help to keep our student athletes healthy and performing well in school and sports.

This study focused on opinions of diagnostic medical sonography program directors concerning online education within an allied health field that is clinically based. Although the study is centered around sonography, the findings can be applied to many online programs with clinical aspects. There was limited information concerning online education within a clinically based healthcare field, therefore the literature review focused on distance or online education in general. The participating program directors used online/distance learning terms interchangeably. The objective of this study was to identify factors that attributed to or hindered the progress of an online program in diagnostic medical sonography. The question that guided this research was: What are the program directors’ perception of face-to-face versus online program delivery in a clinically based subject? Individual interviews were conducted with three directors of online sonography programs. The responses showed that these directors saw improved overall outcomes in their online programs. This was ultimately attributed to a supportive staff and ease of access to resources. Resources and communication are easily accessed due to the improved technology seen in today’s online classroom.

No description available.

Modern education has to take on various roles and contingencies over the last decade – both for good and worse. Public school systems are competing with private and now charter schools for student enrollment and virtual or online learning schools. A question many parents and educators struggle with – how do we grow and develop children and young adults' academic needs through the use of technology? The question may be simple; however, the answer is far complicated. Technology provides help in various ways a human being cannot, including instant gratification of Google searches, video education, synchronous education game formats, distant learning from different ends of the country, and so on. Virtual education has seen a growing demand in the last decade. Many institutions worldwide are implementing online classes as academic needs are switching from traditional to non-traditional. Professional development in virtual settings is rapidly increasing along with education budgets to support these technological mammoths' databases and software programs. However, is one ‘one-size-fits-all' model adequate for all learning styles? Despite the rapid growth of online education, many challenges and dispositions exist with the design and delivery to students on all academia levels. Software engineers and lack of developmental acquisitions for user-friendly formatting to students with exceptional learning styles differ from the norm. This paper addresses the question of virtual learning opportunities missed in online programs' software development compared to their physical alternatives in ‘brink and mortar' or face-to-face instruction. The three research questions behind this study were as follows: Are there areas and functions of virtual education that need to be fixed within the public-school setting platforms? If, so what? Are the platforms/software's used ‘one size fits all' or individually programmed to grade level, age of user(s), and/or academic needs (Gifted/IEP, mental/physical disabilities, learning disabilities, language)? Areas of recommendation to positively change missing or unsuccessful platforms to accommodate research questions one and two. Observations, documents and records, and open-ended structured interviews were the data collection methods used in this study to understand virtual education in midst of a pandemic. The researcher is interested know how children are significantly challenged – internet connectivity, socioeconomic and support systems of both social and emotional needs, gifted children were equally compared to their non-gifted peers in the wake of a global pandemic. Schools districts overlooked many areas causing significant concern for both teachers and parents of student academic needs. To justify a ‘one-size-fits-all' approach given lack of planning, cannot justify a substitute for education, through resource limitations and declining success tools to students who need it most. Teachers were split in seeing the progressive advances in fully virtual education which were favorited by younger, tech-savvy educators, compared to their older colleagues who preferred traditional methods of paper and {pen}cils. Public and Charter Schools have the option to continue fully virtual, hybrid education and traditional methods of education based on students adaptation, chronological age, maturity, including teachers opting in for lower class size, ability to work from home and providing more resources to students who are significantly handicapped based on socioeconomic, disabilities, and/or parents reliance as first/active responders.

Purpose To assess radiography faculty perceptions of the effectiveness of online courses. Methods An original survey instrument was created by selecting items from 3 instruments used in prior research and adding unique questions designed to elicit demographic data from faculty. The sample included a national dataset of radiography faculty members employed in Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology–accredited programs in the United States. Results Findings showed that faculty perceptions of online course effectiveness are not affected significantly by faculty position, type of institution, faculty age, or years of teaching experience. Positive perceptions of the effectiveness of online courses moderately increased with years of teaching online courses, number of online courses taught in the past 5 years, and perceived competence with the use of technology. Faculty satisfaction with interaction in online courses moderately increased as the years of teaching online courses increased. However, the number of years of teaching online courses was not related to faculty satisfaction with teaching online courses or faculty satisfaction with institutional support. Online technology acceptance had a moderately positive relationship with perceived ease of use and a strong positive relationship with perceived usefulness of online technology. In addition, the use of technology-enhanced learning methods had a strong positive relationship with technological self-efficacy. Conclusion Radiography faculty perceptions of the effectiveness of online courses improved with experience in teaching online courses and competence with use of technology. Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of online technology were related directly to online technology acceptance. Furthermore, faculty members with technological self-efficacy were more likely to use technology-enhanced learning methods in the online environment.

The purpose of this study was to identify significant differences in academic achievement among virtual students of various backgrounds, demographics, and virtual learning environments. The study also sought to identify factors that may predict the academic achievement, as defined by final course grade, of virtual students. This study examined those relationships for the 476 students enrolled in virtual courses between January 2010 and January 2013 in Sullivan County Schools, TN. These students were in grades 7-12 during the time the courses were taken. Independent variables in Phase I of the study included gender, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, prior number of virtual courses completed, and existing student grade point average. Independent variables in Phase II of the study included instructional dialogue in the virtual course, structure of the virtual course, and autonomy of the learner allowed in the virtual course. The researcher investigated the relationships between these independent variables and the dependent variable, academic achievement, as determined by final virtual course grade. The statistical methods used to answer the research questions included bivariate correlations, independent samples t-tests, and bivariate regression analysis. Two of the independent variables in Phase I of the study were found to be significant. Students identified as being economically disadvantaged tended to perform better academically in virtual courses than students identified as non-economically disadvantaged, as determined by final virtual course grade. A statistical significance was also found between existing student GPA and academic achievement in virtual environments. Students with a higher GPA prior to taking a virtual course tended to receive higher grades than those with lower existing GPAs. Using bivariate regression, existing GPA accounted for 25% of the variance in student academic achievement in virtual courses. All three of the independent variables in Phase II of the study were found to have a significant relationship with student academic achievement as determined by final virtual course grade. Students who reported high levels of instructional dialogue (frequency of teacher-student interactions, teaching presence, content interactions) tended to perform significantly higher than those reporting lower levels of instructional dialogue. Students who reported high levels of structure (instructional support, navigation, course design) tended to perform significantly higher than those reporting lower levels of structure in the course. Students who reported higher levels of autonomy (student ability to determine goals, learning experiences, and evaluation decisions) tended to perform significantly better academically than those who reported lower levels of autonomy.

Schools in the United States have struggled with graduation rates for nearly 140 years. School divisions are continuously searching for new and creative curriculums to address changing student needs. From the U.S. Department of Education to local school board members, educators are working to discover creative and accountable alternatives to address these issues. Development of online programs continues to offer students some of the curriculum resources they need for success and provides an alternative way to approach instruction for school systems. Educators in Lee County are researching new policies and programs to assist students in obtaining their high school diplomas. Understanding perceptions of the administrative staff plays a key role in program development and implementation of programs for students. This qualitative case study addresses the particular issue of perception in relation to the implementation of a new form of instruction. By understanding staff perceptions education leaders can develop plans and procedures to address issues related to staff development and program implementation. The following set of policies and procedures were necessary for the online program: Each individual school needed the opportunity to use the program as they deemed necessary for student needs.The online program would be used as a secondary curriculum to assist students in the areas of dropout prevention, alternative education and credit recovery.Administrators provide consistency of the implementation to all students in the county.