The purpose of this research was to investigate the preferences of online students for technology-based learning environments (TBLEs) as influenced by the level of social presence in the online courses the participating students have taken. This investigation was centered around utilizing TBLEs and methods for establishing social presence in online classes (MESPOC) survey instruments to obtain the preferences of current online students at public university in the state of Texas. This study assumed a qualitative research structure comprising analysis of the data obtained on the TBLE and MESPOC instruments followed by semi-structured interviews with some of the survey participants. The results of the studies indicated that an individual’s preferred online learning environments impacted satisfaction in an online course. Moreover, the study, also explored the students’ preferences when it comes to the organization and facilitation of online courses.

Online education is the fastest growing form of course delivery of higher education in the United States. It has revolutionized how students and instructors interact in the educational process. Yet students in online courses continue to experience higher attrition rates than their counterparts in traditional face-to-face classes despite the advantages offered by the technology. This study examined the impact that institutional policies and practices at community colleges in the state of Texas have had on student persistence in online courses. It also examined how institutions collect and use data in addressing students' attrition. The findings were used to identify the most effective institutional practices to share with community college systems in Texas in an effort to improve student persistence in online courses across the state. The population for the study consisted of the 50 public two-year community college and the technical college systems in the state of Texas. The study used a mixed method. A theoretical model of institutional impact on online persistence was drawn from the literature review. This model's five categories were then used to construct a survey to collect data on institutional practices and measure the effectiveness in addressing student persistence. Four college systems were identified using the survey data that best met the five categories. Interviews were then conducted at these four college systems to produce case studies of these institutions' practices and experiences with online persistence. The results highlighted the roles that institutions play in promoting student persistence in online programs. They revealed differences in the ways institutions define and track student success in online programs and the difficulty these differences pose in comparatively evaluating various institutions' programs. Results lent support to the theoretical model of institutional impact on online persistence that was developed for this study, and results yielded a proposed list of promising practices to enhance student persistence in online programs in public two-year community and technical colleges.

Colleges and universities throughout the world are offering many of their courses via the Internet. Some institutions offer entire degrees online. This has ushered in a renewed interest in the debate on the effectiveness of non-traditional course delivery method. Numerous educational research studies have been conducted in an attempt to quantify that effectiveness. In any form of experimental research, control of variables is paramount. The rich multimedia capabilities of the World Wide Web give educators a wide variety of delivery media. However, with the exception of advice from artisans on design factors of the media, little research has been conducted with regard to the aesthetics of Web page design as viewed by the student. This study was conducted in an effort to establish student preferences with regard to two factors of Web page design as they might be used on those Web pages, background color and typeface used for text. In addition, it contains an analysis of whether or not there is an interaction between the two factors. Use of the results of this study should prove beneficial to both educators and educational researchers in their future endeavors.

This report describes the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of a web-based tutorial designed to teach graduate students about the statistical concept of power. It contains a literature review of techniques used to teach statistics, similar computer-based programs for representing the concept of power, and instructional theories that pertain to web-based tutorials. It describes the process of designing and developing this tutorial in detail. The results section contains a description of the product implementation with three different groups and discusses the qualitative and quantitative findings from each of these implementations. Finally, there is a discussion of the tutorial's strengths and weaknesses.

<p>High-school-aged youths have limited food safety knowledge and lack safe food-handling skills. However, these youths will prepare food for themselves and are frequently employed in the food service industry, where their food-handling practices can directly impact public health. Youths’ beliefs about safe food-handling behaviors are affected by Key Influencers in their lives such as peers, classroom instructors, parents, and celebrities including popular web-content authors or video hosts. Societal changes have prompted the elimination of Family and Consumer Science courses from many schools and the reduction of food-handler role models at home, while increasing access to unregulated sources of food-handling information such as information published on web-based platforms. These societal changes largely remove peers, classroom instructors, and parents from influencing youths’ food-handling behaviors. </p> <p>The purpose of this study was to (1) evaluate the effectiveness of a researcher-developed food safety educational intervention at changing students’ food-handling behaviors specifically focusing on the role of subjective norms in generating behavior change and (2) conduct an exploratory content analysis of food safety messages delivered by blog authors and video hosts of popular web-content. </p> <p>The researcher-developed curriculum was evaluated for adherence to academic standards and overall usability in the classroom using the Delphi Technique by a panel of secondary educators who were considered experts in the education field. The curriculum was evaluated for effectiveness at changing high school students’ food-handling behaviors through self-reported surveys and observation using GoPro head mounted and stationary cameras. Finally, content analysis was performed on food safety messages disseminated by authors and video hosts of popular blogs and YouTube videos, respectively. </p> Findings from the study demonstrated that youths’ food-handling behaviors are affected by Key Influencers including their peers and classroom instructor. However, post-intervention, a role-reversal was observed and reported as students became influencers who sought to improve their Key Influencers’ food-handling behaviors. Differences in influencing power within these relationships could impact the sustainability of youths’ safe food-handling behaviors. In particular, imbalances in influencing power of celebrities in the absence of other Key Influencers could leave students vulnerable to adopting unsafe food-handling practices.

Today, we are seeing an increasing number of software applications that users want to use anywhere, anytime. Such mobile applications often deliver their user interfaces (UIs) to client devices over the World Wide Web. However, Web-based UIs cannot provide the same level of usability as window-based UIs on mobile devices with their small screens and occasional network dropouts. To address this challenge, we present a UI framework that combines the usability of a full-featured UI with the flexibility of a thin presentation logic: We exchange interface specifications and events between the application logic on the server and a generic UI rendering engine on the client device using an instant messaging infrastructure. The paper gives an overview of the framework architecture and the features of the communication protocol, and discusses performance measurements obtained on a public network.

We present a dialog-driven process model for the development of web-based applications that uses a graphical notation to model and iteratively refine the application’s dialog flow, and communicate with non-technical stakeholders in the development process. This way, the user interface can drive the design and implementation of the application logic and data model instead of being dictated by it. After an introduction of the underlying notation and dialog control framework, we present how these tools can support the phases of the development process and discuss experiences gained from the implementation of a web application that was built using this approach.

In web-based applications, the dialog control logic is often hidden in or entwined with the presentation and/or application logic, even if the latter tiers are well-separated. This makes it difficult to control complex dialog structures like nested dialogs, and to reconcile the device-independent business logic with the device-specific interaction patterns required by different clients’ I/O capabilities. To avoid continuous re-implementation of the dialog control logic, we present a Dialog Control Framework that is separate from the presentation and business tiers, and manages arbitrarily nested dialog flows on different presentation channels. The framework relies on dialog specifications developed using the Dialog Flow Notation, which are translated into an object-oriented dialog flow model for efficient run-time lookups. This way, the framework automates the dialog control aspect of web-based application development and leaves only the tasks of implementing the business logic, designing the hypertext pages, and specifying the dialog flow to the developer.

As distance learning evolved, course designers and teachers quickly recognized the value of integrating online features into the classroom. The result was blended learning, a combination of online and face-to-face components. This complex and dynamic new form of education has raised many questions about the role of computer-mediated communication in education and has provided new opportunities for extending research in learning and communication. The purpose of the study was to determine whether a blended class will produce different (and possibly better) results in terms of student perceptions of the overall learning experience and student satisfaction than traditional lecture-based face-to-face instruction or learning that is delivered entirely online. The main goals of this study were to compare the effectiveness of face-to-face, online, and blended instruction, and to examine the role of interactions in the effectiveness of each educational method. While each form of instruction received very positive feedback from both students and instructors and the newly introduced blended courses proved very successful in terms of overall satisfaction with the learning experience, the traditional lecture-based courses produced more positive attitudes toward the subject matter. The possible causes of these discrepancies between some of the quantitative and qualitative results point toward the role of previous experience with online learning, cognitive development, and learning styles.

This study investigates the integration of lecture recordings to support flexible learning and responsive pedagogical approaches in an undergraduate LLB degree presented in a dual mode (face-to-face and online) by the University of the Free State’s Faculty of Law. In this faculty, lecture recording is observed by compulsory integration in all classes; the only options pertain to three basic software tools. According to literature, integrating lecture recording can bring about flexibility in student learning, and flexibility can have both positive and negative implications for student learning. This study uses Puentedura’s (2006) SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition) model as a theoretical lens to analyse different levels or types of integration of lecture recording by students and lecturers. The SAMR categories assisted the study to identify whether Substitution, Augmentation, Modification or Redefinition were present when students and lecturers integrated lecture recording in teaching and learning. The study implements a mixed-method research approach that included student and lecturer surveys, lecturer interviews, and telephonic interviews and focus group discussions with students. Findings indicate that students’ overall experience of lecture recording was that it enhanced their learning and gave them flexibility regarding how, where, when they could learn. Some lecturers claimed that lecture recording enhances their teaching methodology, and that it can have an impact on their students’ learning. Lecturers agreed that lecture recording can be applied and integrated to transform the way they teach. Lecturers also indicated that lecture recording, in the form of audio recordings of lectures, in some instances caused students to hold lecturers accountable, not always fairly, for their utterances in class. Both staff and students indicated that they had concerns about class attendance when lecture recording was used, regardless of whether lectures were recorded when presented online or face-to-face. The study found that campus-based and online students integrated lecture recordings as part of their learning experiences in a variety of ways. The majority of campus-based students reported using lecture recordings to augment their learning experiences, especially in relation to how and whether they attended faceto-face lectures. Modification strategies for online students included making use of lecture recordings as a substitute for their presence at face-to-face lectures. Some online students reported that engaging with lecture recordings made them feel part of the course and its community of students. Lecturers’ specific approaches to teaching play a considerable role in the way they experience lecture recording and the way they integrate it in their courses. In addition to survey findings, the study also presents lecturer views, to illustrate some of these variations and interplays. While some lecturers reported that using lecture recordings has completely transformed the way they teach, others admitted that if they had a choice, they would not use lecture recordings in their teaching. The study offers a contextual account of lecture recording integration and contributes to global debates around lecture recording. Student and lecturer experiences with lecture recording, as observed through various SAMR levels of integration, depend on the type of lecture recording tool and software used, beliefs relating to the purpose of a lecture, regardless of its mode of delivery, and the reason for recording it in the first place. The study contributes to a local understanding of lecture recording integration and stimulates new dialogue that could guide future integration of lecture recording technologies, locally and internationally.