This thesis asserts that faculty are the critical resource for the integration of distance education by postsecondary institutions. The major barriers to the participation and adoption of distance education center around faculty. This manuscript thesis incorporates a series of articles to develop applied frameworks and strategies that place faculty at the core of the institutional adoption process. An advocacy approach that integrates organizational culture and diffusion of innovation theories provides a conceptual framework for addressing the complex issues inducing faculty resistance to distance teaching. What issues impact faculty receptivity to distance teaching? At the institutional level, altered faculty roles for distance teaching, academic quality, inload vs overload teaching assignments, promotion and tenure, quality of instructional and student support services, and traditionally embedded academic norms affect faculty receptivity to distance teaching. Moreover, this thesis asserts that institutional and interinstitutional extended degree programs utilizing telecommunications must resolve issues related to curricular approval, accreditation, program prioritization, academic residency, fee structures, and articulation. Integrated instructional delivery frameworks are presented that fuse traditional instructional systems with new learning systems. These frameworks advocate the gradual integration of telecommunications-based coursework in extended degree programs to promote greater faculty participation, expand curricular offerings for students, and balance the introduction of new learning systems with traditional campus-based systems. A faculty support model for integrating distance education in postsecondary institutions delineates the key organizations and professionals essential to faculty and institutional adoption. This model asserts that the centrality of faculty to distance teaching adoption requires mutual support from presidents, deans, departmental chairpersons, the faculty senate, media services, and continuing education. In conclusion, distance education compels postsecondary institutions to reduce existing barriers to faculty participation by compensating, rewarding and training faculty at levels commensurate with traditional instructional activities and to provide instructional and administrative support services designed to ensure student access to high quality programs. Without well trained and equitably rewarded distance teaching faculty, the potential of distance education will be seriously diminished. Within the mainstream academic culture, failure to ameliorate these human resource needs reduces faculty receptivity to, and participation in, postsecondary distance teaching. Institutions that satisfy these needs will simultaneously create a balanced equilibrium between the application of advanced technologies and human resource development necessary for ensuring instructional quality and student access to extended educational programs delivered via distance education. / Graduation date: 1995

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 320-333). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (sites viewed on Feb. 21, 2006). PDF text of dissertation: 227 p. : ill. Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-190).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 192 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Education is the best investment for human capital. The demand for higher education has created a complex milieu with interesting players. One of the most interesting developments is the growth of the for-profit postsecondary sector. A perennial misfit beside the established non-profit institutions, it has become one of the dominate forces in the world of higher education.

Brain injury has become a more topical issue over the past decade, however limited research has been done on experiences of university students and few are specific to female students. The research question became: “How has having an acquired brain injury impacted the experience of female students within postsecondary education?” Narrative and auto-ethnographic methodologies were employed; semi-structured interviews with five participants were conducted, and text boxes were utilized to weave the researcher’s voice as a student with a brain injury into the narrative. Findings indicate brain injury has diverse implications depending on severity. Some participants spoke of accessing (dis)Ability resource centres, while others did not utilize formal accommodations. Findings revealed that participants navigate the academy in isolation yet wanted to connect with fellow students who have acquired brain injuries. Social workers can facilitate this process and provide counselling, challenge negative social implications and work toward building an inclusive educational environment.

Thesis (Ph. D., Education)--University of Idaho, April 2009. / Major professor: Russell Joki. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 275-291). Also available online (PDF file) by subscription or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 295-304). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Open-ended interview questions were asked to ten college freshmen with learning disabilities (LD) to provide the primary source of data in this qualitative study that was done to explore personal experiences of these students in transitioning from high school to a large university. Student participants were chosen based on meeting the criteria of having a diagnosed specific learning disability, having qualified and received special education services in high school, and at the time of the study were receiving accommodations through the Disability Resource Center (DRC) at the University of Arizona (UA). Students were further identified as members of a "successful" group with a first semester grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or higher, or members of a "jeopardy" group with a first semester GPA of below 2.0 and the academic status of probation. This was done in order to ensure that I included the perceptions of students at the high and low range of academic status levels in this sample, not to compare or contrast the two groups. Interviews yielded information about student perceptions of barriers, attitudes, resources and assistive factors in the transition process. Data were analyzed to determine themes related to student success and difficulties. Suggestions for further research and information for future practice are offered.