Browsing by Subject "Communities of Practice"
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Item A Delphi Study Assessing Effective Peer Faculty E-Mentoring to Support Scaling Distance Education Programs(2014-04-02) Lewis, Judith HolbrookThis research addressed a gap in the literature regarding the use of e-mentoring as a successful infrastructure mechanism to support educators in delivery of higher education and metrics for its use in scaling online education programs. The methodology applied to this research was a Delphi Study. The Delphi Technique is a qualitative methodology to build a consensus opinion from a panel of experts. This Delphi was based on a series of rounds in which a panel of experts responded to survey questions, each survey item presented as an essentiality statement ranked by a Likert-type scale index from Very Important down to Unimportant. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each survey statement to determine consensus. This study addressed five research questions in the areas of support for distance education faculty: what attributes of an e-mentoring program for faculty engaged in teaching distance education classes lead to perceived effectiveness by coaches and practitioners (terms introduced to describe the mentoring relationship between peers in a community of practice), what formal and informal activities or processes provide for preparation for teaching online, collegiality, and professional development (previously published operationalized factors) (Velez, 2010), and what metrics can be used to determine that e-mentoring has led to increased spread, depth, sustainability, and sense of ownership in distance education, previously published factors for scaling (Coburn, 2003). Based on the Delphi results, the highest consensus means concerned the importance of faculty and administrative support of distance education. For example, the study found high consensus that e-mentoring should be encouraged with release time, coaching should be considered in tenure and promotion decisions, and provision for communication allowances and technical support should be provided for e-mentoring sessions. Training topics of greatest interest included accessibility training, content delivery and teaching modalities, and copyright law and intellectual property expectations. Important metrics included the number of ?formerly coached? practitioners acting as e-mentoring coaches in the future, the number of semester-hours taught, the number of faculty initiating new practices, and faculty acceptance of delivering education online. This study is significant because it researched the use of e-mentoring as a support for faculty in scaling online learning programs in higher education and provided expert evaluation of processes and procedures recommended by faculty to support their effort. It also evaluated metrics to assess the scaling of distance education programs.Item Embodied Leadership Beyond the Mat: Integrating the Body with Leadership Practice(2014-04-29) Hansen, ClaireEmbodiment is not a commonly studied topic in the communication discipline as most scholarship has rather focused on discursivity. Despite multiple calls to take up this area of research, still very little exists; even studies of materialism often overlook the body. This project is premised on the belief that all communicative processes are embodied and particularly focuses on the practice and process of leadership. With the goal of furthering conceptualizations of a embodied leadership, this project uses the inherently embodied practice of modern postural yoga as its site for study. Operating from an interpretive paradigm, this project seeks to answer two research questions: (a) How is leadership practiced in yoga studios, investigated through complete participant observation, and (b) How does the embodied practice of modern postural yoga transfer to leadership experiences outside of the yogic practice, investigated through semi-structured interviews with yoga practitioners who hold leadership positions in professional contexts. Thematic analyses of each data set paint a picture of yoga instructors and interview participants as learning leaders who are dedicated to self-empowerment and the empowerment of their followers. Through the comparison of data sets and drawing from current communication literature, five key discussion points were drawn from this study. This study furthers conceptualizations of embodied leadership as a learning process that involves empowerment of the self and others as the two parties co-create value and meaning in their practices, offering powerful insights into future theory and practice.Item K-12 Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in a Rural School District on the High Plains of Texas: Mechanism for Teacher Support of Innovative Formative Assessment and Instruction with Technology (iFAIT)(2013-05-06) Talkmitt, Marcia J.The purpose of this study was to explore the evolution of collaborative practices of PLCs as they emerge when using technology based formative assessment via iFAIT or innovative Formative Assessment with Instruction and Technology developed by the researcher using audience response systems and the online data compiler, Eduphoria!. This study used sequential explanatory mixed methods to address the problems that schools face when implementing technology based formative assessments to improve instruction and student achievement. A survey administered in September 2012 and again in December 2012 provided a measure of teacher use of formative assessments, technology use in formative assessments, and perceptions of teachers using the PLC as a mechanism of support for technology based formative assessment. Training was facilitated by the researcher as PLCs worked together to develop, administer, and interpret formative assessments. Teacher interviews were conducted, and the study ended with the administration of the December 2012 survey and open-response questions for further qualitative analysis. Quantitative data analysis was completed using ANOVAs to determine if there were significant differences of teacher groups (subject taught, grade level taught, and years of teaching experience) use of iFAIT. This data analysis also included measures of frequency and paired sample t tests between the September and December 2012 responses. Qualitative data was analyzed using hand coding, word clouds, and WordSmith Tools. The triangulation of qualitative data in the quantitative data provided a narrative to document what collaborative factors affected the use of iFAIT. For school improvement and implementation of iFAIT, the study revealed that (1) with the right technology infrastructure, on-going professional development must be offered by administrators or sought after by teachers; (2) teachers must have strong beliefs in formative assessment and the technology that supports it; (3) open lines of communication must be supported through the PLC and administration; (4) teachers must see purpose in using revealing student data to drive instruction; and (5) PLCs must have common beliefs and believe that student achievement is connected to school improvement. PLCs should discuss data, share successes, and plan instruction through extended involvement in face-to-face and online venues as communities of practice.