Browsing by Subject "distance education"
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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 Development of a culturally appropriate process for assessing distance learning readiness in Latin America(2009-05-15) Villalobos Pe?alosa, PatriciaThe purpose of this study was to develop an instrument for assessing distance learning readiness of institutions in Latin America for international projects of food and agriculture with higher education institutions in the U.S. The data collection followed two approaches: a quantitative, which was processed statistically, including mean (percentage), mode and cross-tabulation, and a qualitative, through semi-structured interviews. The population of this research was animal biotechnology institutions in Latin American countries, Spanish speaking, partners with the major funding organizations in the U.S., with Web pages on the Internet. Population included 17 countries with N=150, a random sample of n=83 for the quantitative analysis and n=20 for the qualitative approach. The instrument was developed by the researcher. Items were based on readiness surveys used widely in the U.S., and founded in two culture theories: Bank?s (2001) cultural elements and Hosfstede?s (1984) cultural dimensions. Using Bank?s theory it was concluded that English proficiency was considered an essential tool for research. Interviews exposed that researchers were aware of nonverbal communication differences between Latinos and Americans. Cultural cognitiveness showed to be exposed when researchers were confronted with another culture. The perspective of distance education showed to be considered different from face to face education. There was an appropriate perception of the need, ownership, and use of computer technologies and Internet accessibility with fast connections. Researchers perceived computer technology equipment as a measurement of the quality of their institution. Using Hofstede?s (1984) dimensions it was concluded that Latin American countries were considered to have high power distance on four of the six items assessed; had strong uncertainty avoidance with four of the six items assessed, where a collectivist society, with five items out of six. Interviews determined that a masculine dimension was predominant in the study. Assessment of technology involved: Internet, technological resources, computer proficiency, distance education and instructional design experience. Results of this assessment showed that technology must be measured through a cultural perspective to achieve accurate responses because people express and understand through their mental constructs which are tainted with their cultural experiences and their perception of life, work, academics, and society.Item Human resource development of Hispanic students in a large Hispanic-majority community college in south Texas: student entry characteristics as predictors of successful course completion and retention in face-to-face and distance education(2009-06-02) Cole, Brenda S.Hispanic student success within community colleges is critical to our future national economy and as such, was pertinent to this Human Resource Development (HRD) research. In this ex-post-facto study, the researcher examined the student entry characteristics of 2,523 Hispanic entering freshmen enrolled anytime between Fall 2000 and Fall 2005 who attempted History, English Composition, or College Algebra for the first time in either face-to-face or distance education courses at South Texas College. The following student entry characteristics of the Hispanic students in the study population were examined for their impact on successful course completion and retention: age, country of elementary education, custody of minors, disabilities, English as a second language, gender, high school diploma type, high school GPA, hours of employment, income level indicators, intent to continue employment, intent to transfer, intended length of enrollment, marital status, number of credit hours, parents? education, participation in workforce programs in high school, reason for attending, recent migrant work, resident status, and veteran status. The resulting profile of Hispanic distance education student characteristics was found to be similar to common characteristics noted in the literature for other distance education non-Hispanic populations. Furthermore, the researcher identified significant student entry characteristics for predicting the risk of failing to successfully complete courses or to re-enroll. Finally, the researcher provided suggestions for further research regarding Hispanic student performance and success in higher education as a responsibility of the work of Hispanic human resource development within community colleges. This study provides empirical findings related to the student entry characteristics construct found in current theoretical models of retention in commuter institutions of higher education. The researcher recommends expanding this research to other elements of theoretical models of student departure such as the external environment and the internal campus environment. Doing this will support the further refinement and development of the theory and confirm its applicability to local institutional populations.Item Perceptions of Administrators on the Use of Distance Education in Texas Public Schools(2012-02-14) Rabroker, Raymond Bernard Jr.The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of school administrators about the use of distance education in Texas public schools. A mixed-method research design was used to determine if these administrators' perceptions were barriers to the implementation of distance education. The study included a series of 17 interviews with school principals and superintendents. Based on these interviews, a survey instrument was developed and sent to a larger sample of administrators. The sample population for the survey comprised administrators from three Education Service Centers in Texas. Results of the qualitative interviews and of the quantitative survey indicated that distance education has the potential to provide greater flexibility in offering high quality coursework and activities. However, administrators perceived that they lack control of these programs, and that the number of students who excelled in distance education was limited. Additionally, administrators perceived that distance education courses were not as good as traditional courses while admitting to a lack of knowledge about distance education. Overall, administrators who believed they had the support of their local school boards were most likely to implement distance education in their districts.Item Predictors of High School Student Success in Online Courses(2012-04-19) Grubb, Mark; Busch, Steven D.; MacNeil, Angus J.; Emerson, Wayne; Robin, Bernard R.As the use of online learning in high schools continues to increase, more research needs to be conducted on how students with different skills, abilities, and attributes perform in online courses. Not all students are successful at online learning, and they should be reviewed on an individual basis to see what strengths and weaknesses these students possess before enrolling them into online courses. This study identifies critical characteristics shared by successful online high school students using quantitative historical data collected from a large urban district’s summer school program in 2010. Student responses to an online pre-course evaluation instrument were compared to their course grades at the end of the semester. A multiple linear regression model using the stepwise method was calculated using 119 responses to predict the students’ final grades in their online courses based on their Individual Attributes, Learning Styles, Technical Competency, Technical Knowledge, Reading Rate, Reading Recall, Typing Speed, and Typing Accuracy as reported by the constructs of an online evaluation instrument. Based on the results, Typing Speed and Reading Recall were found to contribute with statistical significance as predictive constructs to the final grade earned by the students. A significant regression equation was found (F (2,116) = 14.039, p < .001), with an adjusted R² of .181. Research suggests that high school students given pre-course evaluative instruments before taking online courses can tell us more about online learning predictors, and how to better improve implementation of online learning for all high school students.Item The Development and Validation of a Pre-Evaluation Instrument for the Virtual College of Texas to Measure Quality in Distance Education Courses(2010-07-14) Claus, Edna Q.The purpose of this study was to 1) provide a detailed examination of the criteria for preevaluation utilized to measure quality in a distance education course for the Virtual College of Texas (VCT) and consortium members, 2) examine the process of each VCT consortium member in order to determine the criterion for the quality of distance education courses being provided by a host or provider college, and 3) develop and validate a pre-evaluation instrument to pre-determine quality in distance education courses for the Virtual College of Texas and consortium members. This was a qualitative research study that utilized document analysis, semi-structured interviews questions and incorporated a modified use of the research and development cycle. The data was gathered from the member colleges that are part of the Virtual College of Texas Consortium. The entire 43 member college?s websites were searched for documents containing the criteria that they used to evaluate the quality of on-line courses. These documents were also used to formulate the questions used in the semi-structured telephone interview questions. During the course of this study it became evident that an educational research and development strategy would be utilized due to the development of a pre-evaluation instrument to pre-determine quality in distance education courses for the Virtual College of Texas. There are 10 major steps in the educational research and design (R and D) process however in this study it was modified since not all of the major steps were applicable. It is clear that determining quality criteria is not easily accomplished due to the differences in and of the decision makers, however the participants in this agreed on the final development of a pre-evaluation instrument to pre-determine quality in a distance education course. The use of a pre-evaluation instrument to pre-determine quality in a distance education course may aid distance education in promotion of its foundational purpose of connecting the instructor with the student for learning and in promoting the value of connecting human beings in a meaningful way through the use of distance education for human resource development (Swanson and Holton, 2001).Item The development of an instrument to assess student opinions of the quality of distance education(2009-05-15) Chaney, Elizabeth HensleighIn the past decade, there has been an enormous growth of distance education courses and programs in higher education. However, the potential of distance education is tempered by one overriding question: How do you ensure that distance education coursework and degrees are of high quality? The purpose of this study is threefold: (1) to identify quality indicators of distance education; (2) to provide implications of the identified quality indicators for health education researchers and practitioners; and, (3) to develop an instrument to assess student opinions of the quality of distance education. Dillman's (2000) steps of pretesting and the instrument development framework in the Standards (1999) were used, and data were collected from students enrolled in four health education on-line courses during the Spring 2006 semester at Texas A&M University. MPlus (Muthen & Muthen, 2002) was used to conduct reliability and validity analyses of the instrument. The results of the study revealed common benchmarks and quality indicators that all parties deem important in designing, implementing and evaluating distance education courses and programs. Additionally, an instrument was produced that resulted in both valid and reliable scores.