Critical thinking is one of the most desired skills in the workplace, as it assists an individual in solving complex problems and making informed decisions, resulting in their workplace success. Argumentation is one instructional approach that provides students an opportunity to engage in higher-order thinking and improve their communication…

Using self-efficacy (SE), andragogical, and pedagogical frameworks, the goal for this study was to explore instructional designer (IDer) narratives in response to questions focused on their perceptions of instructional design (ID) practices for creation of workplace education and training assets, specifically intentionality in the use of transfer…

This study sought to address the gap in knowledge about the effect of UDL features on asynchronous online postsecondary learners' achievement, engagement, and self-efficacy. The study also described a process for redesigning an online course to incorporate UDL components and provided specific examples of the implemented UDL guidelines. The study…

Recent studies suggest that preservice music teacher educators (MTEs) had more experience in assessment preparation at the graduate level than during their undergraduate experience. Although music standards and assessments emphasize providing information about student learning, research investigating what assessment strategies music faculty are…

This capstone is an exploration of an online learning environment for teachers to receive professional learning at any time, anywhere. The focus of this capstone was to design a series of self-paced, asynchronous learning courses to help teachers implement one-to-one Chromebooks in the Fayette County Public School District. Additionally, the…

We live in an attention economy where many of our interactions are mediated by technologies incentivized to exploit our attention. The consequences of this exploitation, so far as they are known, affect how we spend our time, and also our capacity for reflection and self-awareness, which can have lasting effects across our life and relationships.…

The field of computer science has long been plagued by issues of diversity - in particular, attracting and retaining those historically marginalized in computing contexts. This is a great loss to the field, to the future of innovation, and to society. Perhaps most importantly, it is an incalculable loss to those populations excluded from pursuing…

One way to bring about change in higher education is to introduce professional development programs for higher education, however these programs have been found to be ineffective at promoting positive change for individuals and departments. To address the need for better programs, I worked on two projects: one project attempts to identify a way to…

An online curriculum intervention focusing on electronic interactions structure and percent composition was developed using a modified Knowledge Integration design framework. A study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the design and student perceptions of their experiences. A sample of 58 students enrolled in an introductory chemistry…

The present project is a research-based and practice-tested online synchronous curriculum for English language learners with the Russian language mother tongue. The curriculum's theoretical component is grounded in Vygotsky's, Leont'ev', and Engestrom's "Cultural Historical Activity Theory" as well as in scholarly papers on the influence…

This dissertation presents various machine learning applications for predicting different cognitive states of students while they are using a vocabulary tutoring system, DSCoVAR. We conduct four studies, each of which includes a comprehensive analysis of behavioral and linguistic data and provides data-driven evidence for designing personalized…

This dissertation consisted of three different, but conceptually related manuscripts. The series of manuscripts examined psychosocial factors of learning including attitude towards mathematics, motivation to learn mathematics, and satisfaction from the mathematics instruction in both redesigned and traditionally- taught college algebra courses at…

This interactional ethnographic study addresses an emerging problem in higher education: the lack of research tracing the developing processes and principles for instructional design in global education programs. Curriculum design in higher education is often situated within a particular course within a discipline within an ongoing program.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of Document Based Questioning (DBQ) with third, fourth, and fifth grade students during their 120-minute literacy block. Standardized test scores in the areas of reading and writing during the 2013-2014 school year dropped significantly (Florida Department of Education, 2013). As a result,…

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how instructional technology impacts teaching and learning. Specifically, in this study I show how learning analytics could be implemented to encourage student responsibility for learning and identify effective faculty course designs that help. Typically, learning analytics focuses on data mining student…