Abstract

This evaluation research study investigated the impact of differences in independent and collaborative teaching models in a blended graduate teacher education program. Using the Community of Inquiry model as a framework to evaluate the student experience in this program, data were collected over a two-year period regarding student perceptions of cognitive, social, and teaching presence. One unique aspect of this study is the Rasch measurement techniques that produced scaled measurements of cognitive, social, and teaching presence. These measurements were subsequently used to compare courses in which both independent (single instructor) and collaborative teaching models were present. A discussion of the results of these analyses is provided that highlight models that are promising when examined across the entire program. Also, specific forms of collaborative teaching are discussed that were found to impact student ratings of their experience in online courses throughout the academic program.

Abstract

The purpose of this post-intentional phenomenological research study was to better understand connectedness in personal learning networks. The study was situated within the context of the field of learning design and technologies, and more specifically in distance learning. The conceptual framework comprised of theories of motivation, learning, and identity. The philosophical commitments of this study adhered to a phenomenological philosophy of technology and a post-intentional phenomenological philosophy and methodology. The aim of this interpretivist inquiry was to explore the question, how might connectedness take shape in personal learning networks? Six doctoral students participated in three phases of data gathering that included written lived experience descriptions, think-aloud observations, and in-depth interviews. A post-intentional methodology that included a whole-parts-whole process, a post-reflexive journal, and a post-intentional data analysis technique of chasing lines of flight was used to analyze and interpret the data, as well as interrogate the tentative manifestations. The findings included connectedness as motivation, learning, and identity.

Abstract

We needed to provide options and to create space for first-year writing courses at a growing tier-one, four-year, public university. Therefore, three faculty members—the program director, the associate director, and a full-time teaching fellow—collaborated to create, pilot, and assess a hybrid version of our writing course. The teaching fellow taught four face-to-face sections of the course and then shifted her curriculum design to teach four hybrid sections the following semester. After both semesters, she provided blinded data to the other two faculty for collaborative assessment of three data sets: the student performances per assignment-specific and final grades, the instructor’s journal, and the students’ survey responses.

Students in the face-to-face and hybrid sections performed equally, with mean final grades differing by only 10.74 points on a 1000-point scale (means of 815.54 points in face-to-face and 804.80 in hybrid—a difference of 1.07%, which is not statistically significant). We discovered the value of journaling for the instructor to reflect, note questions, revisit design decisions, and document solutions for future courses. We identified issues in the course design and found that inconsistencies in assignment-specific grades were paralleled with concerns in the instructor’s journal and students’ survey responses. We also noted that collaborative design and assessment benefits our students, our faculty, our program, and our university.

Abstract

This paper compares the perceptions of two groups of students who participated in the first cohort of the WebIT online Master of Science Degree in Instructional Technology at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville over a two-year period. The program completers (n=11) are the students who completed and graduated from the WebIT program. The dropper-respondents (n=5) are those students who dropped out of the WebIT program prior to completion. Both groups volunteered to complete an electronically-administered survey about their WebIT experiences. Each survey contained 46 comparable items. The WebIT students’ expectations and preferences for an online program are discussed. Group responses to several questions on a program exit survey illustrate several possible differences between the members of the two groups that may provide insight into a possible relationship between the question topics and the high rate of attrition observed during the first cohort of the WebIT program.

Abstract

As Twitter became a popular platform for social networking, educators gravitated to the platform for professional networking. Educators began to utilize the hashtag #edchat to denote their ongoing and growing conversations on education subjects. Educational institutions began to require teachers to participate in the platform or would grant continuing education credits for their participation. To determine if such sanction is merited, a qualitative exploration of the network of educators on the Twitter platform was performed. Posts to Twitter containing the #edchat hashtag were collected and a survey instrument was disseminated with the #edchat hashtag. Collected posts and their linked content were coded according to their content. Demographic qualities of the participants in the #edchat community were addressed as well as questions arising from coding, such as the nature of retweeting and the role of commercial entities in the community. From these codes a set of distinct categories of #edchat Twitter posts were analyzed and discussed. The themes of these posts were determined and related to the literature. The survey instrument allowed exploration of motives and perceptions of the impact of #edchat participation, and how these perceptions related to the themes of the collected posts. Participants in the #edchat conversations were found to be generating social capital and binding a community together through the weak ties of brief interactions. A community of practice was found to exist in the collected #edchat posts and survey responses.