The purpose of this qualitative case study was to discover how an institution accredited by the Higher Learning Commission provided follow-up and continual training to develop faculty designers (designers-by-assignment; DBAs) for the instructional design process. A gap to fill in the literature regarded evidence-based data that report on the range…

Research and data show that developmental education has been a stumbling block for the majority of community college students in pursuing their higher education degree. Students can spend several semesters to complete developmental math requirements in order to take a first college-level credit-bearing math course for their degree. Many colleges…

This doctoral study explores the preferences for professional development of community college faculty to understand and learn how to use the technology available for online classrooms. To understand and learn how to use the technology available for online classrooms, college faculty must learn how to use Web 2.0 tools properly to instruct…

Online education is fast growing due to its accessibility and scalability, but engineering has fallen behind other fields in adopting and researching the online educational format. Student course-level attrition is a significant issue in online courses. The goal of this dissertation is to better understand the factors that impact course level…

Along with the inclusion of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) into the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) World Readiness standards, there has been recent interest in the field of Chinese foreign language teaching towards integrating ICC into the course curriculum. However, many Chinese teachers still display…

Evolution is one of the most important concepts in biology, but it is rejected by a substantial percentage of religious students due to a perceived conflict with their religious beliefs. The use of religious cultural competence in evolution education (ReCCEE) has been shown to effectively increase evolution acceptance among religious students…

Teacher professional development (PD) is seen as best ways to ensure teacher quality and guarantee positive student achievement outcomes; however, there is a lack of appropriate and effective PD. This quantitative study examined teachers' preferences in PD content and delivery. Teachers from a K-12 public school district in Northwest Arkansas were…

The validity and specifically the convergent validity of a course's online assessments (i.e. the extent to which the online assessments really measure what is measured by other assessments meant to measure the constructs of the course's learning outcomes) so far receive little attention, especially for business mathematics courses. Based on a…

Due to COVID-19, all classes in schools have been converted to distance learning using online platforms. However, various problems were raised when converting face-to-face classes to online distance learning. In particular, the difficulties were more pronounced for practical design courses because they include practical experience. In this…

The purpose of this study was to contextualize how the communication modes I used, and my presence shape the experiences of students within a single online course. I conducted a qualitative case study in which I collected data from three sources: in-depth qualitative interviews with nine former students of the online course GBA 300, fifteen…

This dissertation aimed to advance the field of biology education in several ways. First, we aimed to demonstrate if, and to what extent, student-generated conceptual models can be used on summative assessments to accurately assess student understanding of gene expression. Next, we described patterns of changes students make to conceptual models…

Librarianship as a profession in America is 88% white, according to the Diversity Counts survey conducted by the American Library Association in 2009 (ALA, 2012). The United States' White and not Hispanic/Latinx population is 60.7% according to 2017 Census estimates (United States Census Bureau). The fundamental unfairness of this power dynamic…

Anatomy and Physiology (ANP) courses are a standard requirement for effectively all undergraduate healthcare programs in the country. A large majority of students enrolled in these courses are attending 2-year colleges and pursuing nursing certifications and recertifications. Traditionally, the instructional method and content of Anatomy and…

Engagement in active learning and learning communities is important for persistence of STEM students early in their academic programs. Colleges and universities have an ongoing call to facilitate active learning techniques, yet large group, lecture-based instruction is still the prominent method of instruction. This qualitative case study examines…

During the 2020 spring semester, as COVID-19 infection rates increased, universities and colleges closed campuses and moved courses online. All of these responses occurred as the Center for Disease Control (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), and other national and global health organizations attempted to understand this new and deadly illness.…