As technology advances, the educational landscape continually evolves to integrate innovative technologies into teaching and learning strategies. Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology with potential for inclusion in educational systems. This dissertation delves into the role of AR in education, structured around three connected studies, each…

There have been few, if any, metacognitive studies conducted on what community college students think about their learning when augmented reality technology is introduced to the learning environment. This qualitative collective case study looked at how emerging technologies, specifically augmented reality, within a community college classroom…

Nurse education uses an apprenticeship model to teach students clinical skills. However, lack of faculty, clinical preceptors, early hospital discharges, and lack of clinical practice areas limits nursing students' exposure to patients which could impact patient care. The use of virtual simulation may bridge the theory-practice gap in nurse…

This qualitative study utilized video games and virtual reality in an eighth-grade public middle school media literacy elective classroom in which the head researcher was also the official teacher for the students in the study. The nineteen students and their teacher used video games in small groups for five consecutive weeks. The teacher and…

This study was conducted to examine the perceptions of potential college students after participating in a recruitment presentation of a university. The focus was to conduct user research to establish some causal relationship between the design of a university marketing tool and a behavior such as the interest of potential students in the…

Traditional teacher education programs focus on pedagogy and, to a lesser extent, assessments of knowledge (Siedlecki, 2012). Pedagogy and assessments should be fundamental components of any secondary teacher's curriculum planning (Knight, Shum, & Littleton, 2014). This study sought to consider the possible effects of three pedagogical…

This qualitative case study examined participants' perceptions of research-based goal setting in the writing process. Specifically, the five participants learned how to generate and then used implementation intentions to set goals and state how they would reach those goals in a simulated classroom setting. In addition, this study examined how…

Caring is considered a paradigm embodied by the profession of nursing. Caring behaviors of nurses therefore, becomes a fundamental component of everyday nursing practice. Despite this accepted reality of caring in nursing, little research has focused on how to teach caring behaviors to nursing students. The purpose of this quasi-experimental…

As a subset of distance education, online learning takes place primarily in learning management systems through asynchronous interaction, that can cause transactional distance between instructor and learners. This study investigated how transactional distance may be affected by the use of Second Life, a 3-D virtual world, as a learning environment…

Communication is a key component in learning a second language (L2). As important as the "ability" to communicate in the L2 is the willingness to use the L2 or, what has been identified in the literature as "Willingness to Communicate" (WTC). Language is best learned when situated in, and based on, real-life experiences.…

While there is evidence in the literature measuring effective clinical teacher characteristics in traditional experiences, little is known of effective characteristics expected from clinical teachers during simulated clinical experiences. This study examined which clinical teaching behaviors and characteristics are perceived by nursing students'…

The research question of this study was: to what degree do nursing students perceive using the High Fidelity Simulation (HFS) learning environment to be helpful in their ability to achieve clinical competency. The research sub-questions (7) explored the students' demographics as an influence on rating of reality and helpfulness and the…

Review of literature revealed a shortage of research describing the development of K-12 virtual communities and the absence of a tool to measure sense of virtual community in K-12 virtual education students. The purpose of this descriptive, quantitative study was to examine the perception of a sense of virtual community from the perspective of…

Even as higher education institutions offer more distance education courses, the attrition rate in these courses remains higher than face-to-face courses. One of the most cited reason by students who drop out of distance education classes is the lack of social interaction. Educational technology researchers have studied this problem from a sense…

Current educational initiatives encourage the use of authentic learning environments to realistically prepare students for jobs in a constantly changing world. Many students of the Millennial generation may be social media savvy. However, what can be said about learning conditions and student readiness for active, reflective and collaborative…