Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a massive shift in higher education to emergency remote teaching occurred in March 2020. This sudden shift required faculty to move their courses to an online remote format with little time and training in online pedagogy. Students faced completing their semesters online without much of a choice. As we continue to…

This dissertation explored how senior faculty members (tenured associate professors and full professors) who work in Education, Engineering, Architecture & Design, Arts, and Pharmacy academic disciplines at the University of Kansas transitioned from in-person to online when the COVID-19 Pandemic started in March of 2020. This dissertation…

A nurse faculty shortage has been identified by the American Nurses Association (ANA, n.d.a) and the National League for Nursing (NLN, n.d.). Research has identified factors which negatively impact a nurse's successful transition to the faculty role, including lower compensation, uncertainty as a novice nurse faculty, lack of pedagogy skills, and…

While student retention has always been the focus of the asynchronous online classroom improvements, the aspect of Technology Readiness of the instructor has not been explored. The integration of technology into the online instructors' classroom pedagogy fits into the mainstream online education model of Community of Inquiry (CoI), by which…

Reflective practice is an important component of preservice teacher education programs and is frequently used during field experiences; however, less is known about reflective practice in microteaching. This qualitative case study examined preservice secondary STEM teachers' reflective practices after their microteaching experience in a STEM…

Classroom evaluations are implemented with the best of intentions -- to measure student satisfaction in the classroom. However, survey questions do not always apply to the learning environment, especially in nontraditional classrooms. We want to improve our craft as teachers and as facilitators, but we lose the chance to critically reflect on our…

Online learning is increasingly prevalent in higher education. The current study explores how learning takes place in online discussions; an activity often found in online courses. Activity Theory is used to understand the contributions of individuals to the process of socially constructing knowledge within small groups. The Community of Inquiry…

COVID-19 posed new challenges to undergraduate medical biochemistry instructors, providing an opportunity of exploring novel approaches online through methods such as case-based learning curriculum. In this study, an entire curriculum was created for medical biochemistry teaching online using case-based learning including the standards, time for…

With the shift to remote teaching, many instructors used Zoom for synchronous work. However, this presented issues (fatigue, turning cameras off, inequitable technical hurdles) that motivated quantitative reasoning (QR) instructors to look for asynchronous alternatives. A common technique has been textbased online discussions, which can be…

Mental health challenges have been rising across college campuses. To destigmatize wellness practices and promote student mental health, we present a novel technical project in an introductory bioengineering course that explores stress management techniques through physiology, biosensors, and design. We hypothesize that if students measure…

While there is research in the online environment on women's experiences (Muller, 2008), and African American/Black students more generally, (Kuo, 2014; Okwumabua, 2011), there is a critical gap with regards to the experiences of African American/Black women (Young, 2020; Ashong & Commander, 2012; Okwumabua, 2011). To address this gap, this…

The diversity of higher education institutions is changing, and more post-traditional students, including those associated with the military, are engaging in higher education. Almost every post-secondary institution in the United States has military students. In 2020, $11.5 billion was spent on over 875,000 eligible military students. Military…

Accelerated baccalaureate nursing programs (ABSN) have grown to meet the needs of the health care industry. These short-term programs attract unique groups of learners that have achieved baccalaureate degrees in other disciplines and are recruited to an intense, fast-paced program that differs from a traditional baccalaureate nursing program. The…

As diversity of student enrollment increases, postsecondary institutions must address the inclusiveness of physical and virtual learning environments. Doing so requires engaging faculty in a conversation about their online pedagogy and course design. This study employs Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a means for faculty to reflect on and…

This report is a compilation and review of research results and publications on the evolution of online learning in U.S. higher education. This research represents a unique historical record of online learning enrollments and trends from 2002-2015. The project was the only resource tracking and publishing the number of students taking online…