This descriptive study sought to understand the instructional potential of a new course design for teaching adults in higher education. Increasingly referred to as a hybrid course format, it entails dividing a course into both online and face-to-face sessions that are separately calendared. A primary focus of the study was to identify teaching principles that are recommended by established adult education models and to describe how they have been incorporated by hybrid course designers. Also studied was how combining the online and face-to-face instructional modes provides structural opportunities for improving communication and teacher/learner dynamics. The adult education models analyzed were the andragogy model, the self-directed learning model, the transformative learning model, and the experiential learning model. The structural opportunities investigated included content delivery choices such as the use of lecture- and learner-centered activities and the best practices recommendations previously published for hybrid instruction. An online survey was administered to 267 hybrid course instructors at Utah Valley University, where 20,667 students have participated in a hybrid course. This university was actively engaged in developing the hybrid course design into a quality instructional option. The online survey provided descriptive data about how hybrid course instructors at the university perceive their understanding and use of adult education theories and how they utilize the online and face-to-face modes.

This Diploma thesis is based on the teaching practice done online. It looks at the possibilities of online teaching of Mathematics and its concepts, and at how to teach Mathematics online well. The aim of the thesis is to compare distance learning in the Czech Republic and chosen countries in the European Union. The current situation changed in the European schooling and teaching was done remotely since Spring 2020. This thesis takes this situation and looks at three main areas: literature search, where theoretical background is described, summarized data for distance learning in the World, which I got from the internet, and lastly a part where I observed teaching in the given context, both as an observing student and as a teacher. The teaching practice was done in the first year of the lower secondary school, during a focus on the topic of solving equations. The analysis and the reflection of the class are put into the context with the analysis of the topic of solving equations as presented in chosen textbooks both at primary and lower secondary school level. The thesis also includes a summary of all the reports published during the pandemic by CSI that examined the impact of the pandemic on the teachers, the students, and the parents. The final part of the thesis presents a summary of gained...

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Online education is popular from a consumer perspective, but there are elements of face-to-face instruction and assessment that are difficult to reproduce online (Bassoppo-Moyo 2006). The difficulty of reproducing valued elements of a face-to-face setting leads to concerns regarding the overall quality of the online learning experience. Videoconferencing is one technology that has been used to incorporate elements of a face-to-face environment. However, videoconferencing over the Internet is fraught with technical difficulties and live discussions remove one of the main benefits of distance education: time flexibility. A more recent development has been to use asynchronous video as a communications method in online courses. Griffiths and Graham (2009) described several pilots using asynchronous video in online courses at Brigham Young University. Asynchronous video conveys the verbal and nonverbal signals necessary for immediacy and social presence and retains the time flexibility benefit of distance education. Following the pilot studies, a prototype design theory titled the Asynchronous Video Learning Model (AVLM) was created for the use of asynchronous video in online courses. A study was designed to study a practical implementation of AVLM. The major purpose of the study was to observe and analyze the practical experiences of participants and improve the AVLM model. A class named IPT286 (Using Instructional Technology in Teaching) taught by the department of IP&T at BYU was redesigned to be an online class using AVLM. Data were gathered during the semester and then analyzed according to the methods described in this study. Results showed that many of the principles of the AVLM model were successfully implemented and led to positive experiences. Some elements of the model were not adequately implemented which led to some negative experiences. In addition, experiences led to new elements being added to the model. The study also revealed some interesting principles related to general learning theory. The data consistently revealed the importance of relationships in the learning process. Relationships between students and the instructor were shown to influence the student learning experience, and therefore the personality and style of the instructor impacted overall student learning to some degree.

Using mixed methods, this study examined the nature of teacher-student interaction in an asynchronous, statewide, self-paced virtual high school. Eight teachers were interviewed to understand their perceptions on the nature of interactions and their role as a virtual school teacher. Interactions were primarily instructional in nature, taking the form of feedback on student assignments. There were few procedural and social interactions. In general, teachers felt disconnected from their students due to the large class sizes and limited interactions. They also felt disconnected from their peers and the role of a teacher as they traditionally defined it. To understand the relationship between perceived interaction and academic performance, 46,089 students were surveyed using an 18-item instrument designed to assess the types and frequency of interaction. Hierarchical linear modeling and hierarchical logistic regression on the 2,269 responses indicated significant differences between completers' and non-completers' perceptions of teacher-student interaction. However, there were minimal differences between students based on grade awarded and teacher-student interaction. The results of this study were discussed as well as implications for practitioners and researchers. The full text of this dissertation may be downloaded for free from http://etd.byu.edu/

Although K-12 online learning has experienced exceptional growth, research in the area has lagged behind. This dissertation addressed this gap in the literature using a multiple article dissertation format. The first article used survey data from two online English courses at the Open High School of Utah (OHSU) to examine students' reported interactions with content, peers, and instructors. The large majority of students viewed all investigated types of interaction as educational and motivational. Students perceived learner--instructor and learner--content interactions to have significantly higher educational value than learner--learner interactions, and viewed learner--instructor interaction to be significantly more motivational than learner--content interaction. Furthermore, nine significant correlations were found between the time students spent on human interaction and course outcomes. The second article examined learner-parent and parent-instructor interactions within the same context. Similar to the first article, survey data was used to measure parents' and students' perceived quantity and quality of parental interactions with students and teachers. It was found that generally students and parents viewed parent--instructor and learner--parent interactions as motivational. Students viewed learner--parent interaction as significantly more motivational than did their parents. The quantity of reported parental interactions tended to negatively correlate with course outcomes. These negative correlations may be the result of parents' tendency to increase interaction levels following poor student performance and may not reflect the actual impact of parental interactions on individual student learning. When discussing the results in the second article, the claim was made that future research should look beyond the quantity of interactions and develop a theoretical framework that identifies and categorizes the roles of individuals in improving student outcomes. The third article of this dissertation presents such a framework that can help guide K-12 online research and design. The Adolescent Community of Engagement (ACE) framework consists of four main constructs that make up a K-12 online learning community. The first three (student engagement, teacher engagement, and peer engagement) build on previously established online frameworks that originally emerged from higher education contexts. In addition, the ACE framework recognizes the role of parents in their child's learning and introduces a fourth construct, parent engagement, which builds on two previously established face-to-face frameworks.