The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to examine the interaction effect of nonverbal immediacy and expected instructional technology use on students perceptions of learner empowerment and student involvement, and (2) to test learner empowerment as a potential mediator of perceived instructional technology use and nonverbal immediacy on student involvement. Participants included 264 college students who were randomly assigned to one of eight scenarios depicting first-day class sessions manipulating expected technology use across four levels (none, minimal, moderate, and complete use) and instructor nonverbal immediacy across two levels (high vs. low). Contrary to what was hypothesized, the results failed to replicate the interaction effects of expected technology use and nonverbal immediacy cues found in previous research. Instead, the results revealed only significant main effects for nonverbal immediacy cues on students perceptions of learner empowerment and student involvement. The results of an analysis of covariance, however, revealed that learner empowerment fully mediates the association between an instructors nonverbal immediacy cues and student involvement. A significant two-way interaction effect of perceived technology use and nonverbal immediacy on student involvement after controlling for the effect of learner empowerment also emerged, revealing a pattern of moderated mediation. Collectively, the results extend instructional communication theory by identifying learner empowerment as a key construct that facilitates the association between teacher nonverbal immediacy and student involvement in the course.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TCU/oai:etd.tcu.edu:etd-05092008-142217 |
| Date | 09 May 2008 |
| Creators | Jernberg, Kodiane Alia |
| Contributors | Paul Schrodt |
| Publisher | Texas Christian University |
| Source Sets | Texas Christian University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf, application/msword |
| Source | http://etd.tcu.edu/etdfiles/available/etd-05092008-142217/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to TCU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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