This article demonstrates how an adaptive instructional design for a physics module can be realized in a standard learning management system. We implemented a didactic design with physics-specific online exercises that were accompanied by either detailed or non-detailed instructions, depending on the results of the previous task (or a prior…

This dissertation consists of four micro-case studies of intersectional feminist college students' experiences with writing across digital extracurricular and academic domains. These micro-case studies were selected from a longitudinal study of eight students' experiences. In response to ongoing questions about writing knowledge transfer generally…

Prior work has found benefits of interpersonal closeness, or rapport, on student learning, but has primarily investigated its impact on learning outcomes, not learning processes. Moreover, such work often analyzes the direct impact of dyadic features like rapport on learning, without considering the role played by individual factors, such as…

E-learning strategies for the teaching unit Structure and States of Matter were developed. Students' achievements and the percentages of misconceptions were compared between experimental groups taught using web-based learning material (WBLM) used as homework after conventional teaching at school (EG1), and at school settings (EG2) with the control…

This study explores the effect of prior discipline-related knowledge in reading comprehension for two groups of students of Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL). The first group (G1), had 22 students enrolled in a general Spanish course and the second (G2), had 18 students enrolled in a course of Spanish for medical professions. The aim was to…

The educational opportunities, experiences, and outcomes of immigrant students are shaped in critical ways by the districts and schools they attend. Using the framework of immigrant contexts of reception to guide our analysis, and drawing on administrative data from two states, we examine contexts of reception for newcomers as a whole and for…

The educational opportunities, experiences, and outcomes of immigrant students are shaped in critical ways by the districts and schools they attend. Using a context of reception framework, we draw on administrative data from two states to examine several features of contexts of reception for newcomers as a whole and for newcomer subgroups.…

Some institutions' prior learning assessment (PLA) programs are far more successful than others. As with any strategic initiative, the best-intentioned policy is only as good as the implementation, operations, and people behind it. Beyond progressing through the change management process, ensuring sustainability is critical to long-term PLA…

This grounded theory study explored the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of experienced agriculture teachers in the plant sciences. The most emergent phenomenon to surface from the data was the influence of beliefs on participants' PCK. This central phenomenon became the cornerstone for the model of what was shaping experienced agriculture…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how associationism mistakenly assumes that direct experience is possible; that is, there is expectation-free observation and association without prior expectation. Thus, associationism assumes that learning involves the absorption of information from the environment itself. However, contrary…

Current research points to Personal Meaning Mapping (PMM) as a method useful in investigating students' prior and current science knowledge. However, studies investigating PMM as a method for exploring specific knowledge dimensions are lacking. Ensuring that students are able to access specific knowledge dimensions is important, especially in…

In July 2014, the U.S. Department of Education announced a new round of experimental sites focusing on competency-based education. Capella University was selected to participate in three of the Department of Education's competency-based education (CBE) experiments and began by implementing the prior learning assessment experiment, which allows…

Possession of prior knowledge has been shown to critically influence students' learning in major courses. Yet the topic remains unexplored in the realm of general education in higher education. The study aims at investigating whether students lacking relevant high school knowledge background could benefit in the two courses, one inclined to…

This study investigated the effect of cloze item practice on reading comprehension, where cloze items were either created by humans, by machine using natural language processing techniques, or randomly. Participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 302) took a pre-test, read a text, and took part in one of five conditions, Do-Nothing, Re-Read,…

This 50-State Comparison focuses on Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) policies, which refer to a process to award academic credit for prior learning. This process involves assessing the learning and workforce skills a student has acquired through life and employment experience. Assessments can be performed using a variety of tools such as a…