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This thesis presents Scoreboard for Excel, a pedagogical tool designed to improve student engagement in large undergraduate classes. Addressing the challenge of individualized learning in large settings, the study examines how Scoreboard for Excel integrates technology into education to foster engagement. The research highlights the limitations of current approaches and the unique benefits offered by Scoreboard for Excel, including real-time feedback, gamification, automated grading, and honesty controls. The methodology presents how Scoreboard was designed to be user-centered and aligned with pedagogical theory. The findings suggest that Scoreboard for Excel significantly enhances student motivation and learning outcomes by providing a more engaging, personalized, and interactive educational experience.

This research introduces an Origami-inspired dynamic spacecraft radiator,capable of adjusting heat rejection in response to orbital variations and extremetemperature fluctuations in lunar environments. The research centers around thesquare twist origami tessellation, an adaptable geometric structure withsignificant potential for revolutionizing radiative heat control in space.The investigative involves simulations of square twist origami tessellation panelsusing vector math and algebra. This study examines both a two-dimensional (2-D), infinitely thin tessellation, and a three-dimensional (3-D), rigidly-foldabletessellation, each characterized by an adjustable closure or actuation angle “φ”.Meticulously analyzed the heat loss characteristics of both the 2D and 3Dradiators over a 180-degree range of actuation.Utilizing Monte Carlo Ray Tracing and the concept of “view factors”, the studyquantifies radiative heat loss, exploring the interplay of emitted, interrupted, andescaped rays as the geometry adapts to various positions. This method allowedfor an in-depth understanding of the changing radiative heat loss behavior asthe tessellation actuates from fully closed to fully deployed. The findings reveal asignificant divergence between the 2D and 3D square twist origami radiators.With an emissivity of 1, the 3D model demonstrated a slower decrease in theratio of escaped to emitted rays (Ψ) as the closure/actuation angle increased,while the 2D model exhibited a more linear decline. This divergence underscoresthe superior radiative heat loss control capabilities of the 2D square twist origamigeometry, offering a promising turndown ratio of 4.42, validating the model’sefficiency and practicality for radiative heat loss control.Further exploration involved both non-rigidly and rigidly foldable radiator models.The non-rigidly foldable geometry, initially a theoretical concept, is realizedthrough 3D modeling and physical prototyping, demonstrating effective foldabilityand radiative heat loss control. The rigidly foldable model, enhanced withsophisticated techniques for increasing 3D height, showed full actuationcapabilities in a physical prototype, confirming its practical application potential.The research also extends to derivative geometries such as “Star Twist”,“Sloped-Edge Twist”, “Octa Twist”, and “Min-core Square Twist”. Extensivesimulations for these geometries are conducted, exploring their potential foradvanced thermal management systems.In conclusion, this research significantly advances the understanding of squaretwist origami geometry in radiative heat loss control. The study highlights thedistinct behavior and advantages of origami-based designs over conventionalradiators, demonstrating efficient thermal management capabilities andadaptability for space exploration. These findings illuminate the path towarddynamic heat rejection in future space missions, powered by origami radiatortechnology, and open avenues for further optimization and enhanced thermalefficiency.

This dissertation examines the effectiveness of blogging to improve student writing fluency and writing self-efficacy in ninth-grade English courses at Mount St. Mary Academy. Utilizing a case study approach with convergent mixed methods, a paired samples t-test found no statistically significant changes in pre- and post-assessments of general and writing self-efficacy over an eight-week period. A bivariate correlation revealed a moderately positive linear and statistically significant relationship between SESAW (pre- and post-assessment) and WCVALUER scores—indicating a strong association between initial self-efficacy and writing fluency development. Furthermore, specific blogging activities, such as reflective pieces following a communal class retreat, showed significant correlations with the SESAW and WCVALUER. The qualitative analysis revealed both positive and negative perceptions of writing among students, highlighting areas of stress and anxiety alongside opportunities for engagement and growth. Implications for practice include program refinements and tailored interventions to meet student needs, supported by ongoing faculty development programs. Future research could explore unique correlations observed in this study, particularly relating to communal experiences like the class retreat. While this study adds to the understanding of blogging as a tool for enhancing student writing outcomes, continued research and refinement of instructional practices are essential for maximizing its effectiveness in educational contexts.

AbstractQuantitative methods have been frequently used in engineering education research to investigate generalizable patterns and causal relationships in phenomena of interest to the field. With the proliferation of educational data and growing computational power, researchers are more empowered than ever to wrestle with enduring research questions using machine learning or Big Data methods. However, these techniques can create bias by depressing the voices of individuals belonging to smaller subgroups compared to the majority group in engineering, i.e., White men. Accordingly, I examined how engineering education researchers make analytical decisions when they employ data-driven methods. More specifically, I explored how researchers adopted person-centered approaches to offset the inherent issues with data-driven methods. I conducted a systematic literature review of the data-driven methods used in quantitative and mixed-method studies published in leading engineering education journals from 2011 to 2021. I used the concepts of person- and variable-centered approaches as a guiding framework to categorize the researchers' analytical decision-making and supplemented the review with a critical perspective using the lens of QuantCrit. Twenty-four articles qualified for the full-text review. Cluster analysis and decision tree models emerged as the sample's two most popular data-driven methods. Cluster analysis has been viewed as a data-driven method with intrinsic person-centered attributes because it allows researchers to identify latent groupings. On the other hand, decision tree models are considered more likely to be used in a variable-centered fashion because they classify individuals into pre-determined categories. However, based on this review, these two methods were used in ways that transcend their typical applications, such as using branches in a decision tree to identify subgroups and using cluster analysis to provide the evidence of the validity for an instrument. The findings demonstrated how engineering education researchers adopted person-centered approaches to humanize their chosen data-driven method. This involved finding latent diversity in the sample and understanding the groups formed using the constructs comprising that latent diversity. The coexistence of person- and variable-centeredness in a single study showcased the nuance of leveraging data-driven methods while ensuring the experiences of minoritized populations was not washed out in the noise.

A series of studies is described in which a hypermedia system was introduced into an undergraduate biology curriculum. The aim of these studies was to investigate the patterns of students' interaction with and attitudes to the system, both to develop the interface of the system itself, and to provide objective means of describing its use in a realistic learning situation. A novel set of performance descriptors was developed to enable the second of these objectives. These descriptors are based on quantitative data easily obtainable by automatically logging student interactions with the system, and are applicable to any data set and any system, not just those described here. Using these descriptors, a number of different factors - the task being performed, interface characteristics and individual differences - were demonstrated to have an effect on the students' patterns of interaction with the system. In addition, qualitative data are presented, demonstrating that the reaction to the system was extremely positive. The development of StackMaker, the hypermedia system used to create the biology materials, is also described. StackMaker was intended to encourage subject specialists to become involved directly in the authoring of hypermedia learning materials. A number of case studies of authors using Stackmaker are presented, and initial authoring strategies are discussed.

As mobile learning (m-learning) becomes increasingly prevalent in education, it is recognized for its potential to enhance the overall quality of teaching and learning. Despite the many benefits, m-learning apps often experience low retention rates, which directly impede learners’ benefit from using them and cause a waste of resources in app design, development, and maintenance. To investigate the critical factors influencing learners’ acceptance of m-learning outside the classroom, this study introduced a novel model, the Mobile Learning Acceptance Determination (mLAD) Model, based on the Technology Acceptance Model and the updated DeLone and McLean Information System Success Model. Through the mLAD model, the study identified the critical app quality factors that influence learners’ acceptance of m-learning. The moderating effects of the type of m-learning apps on learners’ acceptance of m-learning were also revealed.An online questionnaire named the m-Learning Acceptance Questionnaire (mLAQ) was developed and disseminated through Amazon Mechanical Turk. A total of seven hundred forty-seven adult learners in the U.S. participated in the study. The descriptive statistical results of the examined factors revealed that m-learning apps available in the market demonstrate high mobility and content quality. Still, their interactivity and service quality could be improved.Furthermore, the results of the structural equation modeling analysis indicated that learners’ two beliefs, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use, are the two essential determinants of learners’ intention to use m-learning apps outside the classroom. Quality factors, such as content quality, interface design, mobility, and service quality, are the antecedents of learners’ m-learning acceptance, given that they significantly and directly influence perceived usefulness and ease of use and indirectly impact learners’ intention to use m-learning apps through learners’ two beliefs. Through multigroup analysis, this study also confirmed the moderating effect of the type of m-learning apps on the relationship between app quality and learners’ acceptance of m-learning.The results of this study have both significant practical and theoretical implications. For practical implications, the study results provide valuable insights into designing and developing m-learning apps with high quality and acceptability. By identifying and prioritizing the quality factors that are most important to learners and employing differentiated design, app developers can optimize resources to design more effective m-learning apps that cater to the needs of learners from different groups and address the barriers to m-learning acceptance. Ultimately, this can improve the quality of m-learning education and learning outcomes.For theoretical implications, this study contributes to the research on m-learning acceptance and m-learning app design and evaluation. The mLAD model highlights the significance of app quality factors and the moderator role of app types in learners’ acceptance of m-learning. The identified factors and the developed mLAQ contribute to the design and evaluation of m-learning apps. This study is the first to examine app quality on a large scale and explore the moderator role of app types, providing valuable resources, a theoretical foundation, and future research directions for m-learning and emerging technology adoption.

Computational technology is prevalent in K-12 education. Understanding computational technology from the viewpoint of teachers is important for informing teaching methods and determining the appropriate timing of instructional support. This dissertation examined educators’ perspectives on the relationship between computational technology in the classroom and the development of their students’ cognitive skills. The study leveraged qualitative, semi-structured interviews with K-12 educators. Interview data were analyzed using principle component analysis to thematically group perceptions of technology in relationship to learning. Thematic groupings were interpreted in relation to previous literature focusing on the role of computational skills in student learning at various stages of development. Data analysis further examined perceptions about the use of computational technology in early education, particularly how such technology impacts the ability of learners to solve real-life problems. This study found that K-12 educators perceived that technology positively impacted their students’ learning. This study suggests a systematic approach to computational technology in the classroom, especially one that introduces K-12 learners to early problem-solving, is an effective means to awaken students’ cognitive abilities. This research is significant because it would inform education policymakers on the perspectives to consider when honing cognitive abilities in grade school, focusing on technology’s role in enhancing learners’ computational ability.

This mixed methods research study explores the university student learning experience of IP subnetting. Using a constructivist perspective, VR software was designed, written, and utilized in a learning process to gather both quantitative and qualitative data about the experience of learning IP subnetting. Participants underwent pre-test and post-test scoring to gather data about the depth of learning. NASA-TLX survey was implemented with all participants to gather quantitative data about situational learning factors. In addition, several participants were selected for interviews based on their scores.Overall, the pre-test to post-test Change Scores revealed that both Control and Experimental groups had significant learning gains from the learning process. However, the Experimental NASA-TLX scores showed significantly less cognitive load and stress when compared to Control groups. Interview data details provided a rich description and a more detailed perspective regarding the NASA-TLX results. Overall results from the research process indicate that learning using a VR application for IP subnetting allows for more rapid creation of mental schema for the subject matter.

Child media use with young children has become a more common occurrence in daily life, with parents overseeing the child’s media use. During the 2020-22 COVID-19 pandemic, as parents experienced higher levels of stress, child media use increased (Hartshorne et al., 2021). To frame parents’ experience of managing children’s media use during the pandemic, this study interviewed eight parents of children, ages 2-5 years, during the 2020-22 COVID-19 pandemic. Data was collected using semi-structured questions, and photo submissions from participants as prompts for in-depth exploration of the topic. Findings revealed parents engaged in three major parenting practices of evaluation, management, and observation in an iterative cycle to encourage healthy media habits. Within the practice of evaluation, they decided what media to encourage, restrict, and tolerate. To manage the media use, they set expectations, controlled content, and modeled media behaviors. Parents made changes to improve their child’s media experiences by observing the child’s reactions to the content, amounts of media, and devices used. Through the lens of Parent Development Theory (Mowder, 2005), it was noted that child media use supported the parent role of providing child safety, behavioral regulation, bonding experiences, and educational experiences. During the pandemic, child media use increased in part as a response to the reduction in resources such as childcare, playdates, and child-centered activities outside the home. In addition, parents found creative ways to adapt child media use to support their own needs for self-care and social support during the pandemic to avoid burnout and be resilient parents to their young children.

The pivotal role Ed-Tech facilitates as an industry is increasing in education. As education evolves, the emergence of Ed-Tech in the classroom, data collection, curriculum, assessment, and student information continues to drive new initiatives, projects, and solutions in the school. The cross-sectional relationship between education and organizational culture during the COVID pandemic identified emerging themes of the increasing reliance on education and the emphasis society and education place on technology. This study analyzes and developed an action plan to address the disconnect between educational stakeholders and client organizational engagement. This qualitative study focuses on the role of the organizational culture of Ed-Tech organizations in improving practices of engagement, user experience, and internal client success practices.

This dissertation explored the systemic factors influencing learners’ technology outcomesin a teacher preparation program, specifically addressing technology fluency and theability to integrate technology into instruction. Using a combination of grounded theoryand qualitative program evaluation, this study identified the scope, contexts, and systemsof influence and control that have an impact on technology skills development for teachercandidates. Using backward design, this study mapped the learning experiences ofteacher candidates, identifying key contributors of technology skills development withinthe program. Using this analysis, a conceptual framework outlining the flow of systemicinfluences was created, and a data collection tool was developed to quantify thetechnology fluency and disposition of program faculty. These tools can be used toidentify and evaluate a teacher preparation program’s technology outcomes, and evaluatethe technology abilities of program staff. Through qualitative interviews, this tool wasused to identify the overall temperament toward technology within the program andidentify areas in which improvements could be made. Recommendations were made forthe specific program in the final chapter.

Healthcare organizations attract a diversity of caregivers and patients by providing essential care. While interacting with people of various races, ethnicity, and economical background, caregivers need to be empathetic and compassionate. Proper training and exposure are needed to understand the patient’s background and handle different situations and provide the best care for the patient. With social determinants of health (SDOH) as the basis, the thesis focuses on providing exposure through “Wright LIFE (Lifelike Immersion for Equity) - A simulation-based training tool” to two such scenarios covering patients from the LGBTQIA+ community & autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This interactive tool helps to create mindfulness about the social and economic disparities faced by the patients through realistic and captivating gameplay.Though the primary focus of the “Wright LIFE” application is “Digital Learning”, it would help to understand how effective the application is in terms of improving the provider's abilities. Through statistical evidence, the tool can be improved, which in turn will improve the user experience. For this analysis, during the simulation, we also focus on collecting the data gathered from the participants through surveys. The simulation includes different questionnaires where participants can provide feedback at various stages within the simulation. This then allows for a comparison between the participants’ responses to see the rate of improvement as a result of the simulation. To analyze the data from the participant's responses, data analysis, and visualization tools help to represent the data using charts, infographics, animations, and many more to assist this in this analytic process.The analysis of the data can help to understand the trend of the participants’ responses to the questionnaire. The goal of the questionnaire is to collect participants’ responses to assess anxiety, frustration, and compassion levels pre- and post-simulation. A comparative analysis is then performed. This analysis shows that the provider’s anxiety and frustration decreased after the simulation whereas the compassion increased. This is an indication that the simulation can improve the provider’s experience while working with patients with biases. The data also helped to identify the users who actively participated in the survey based on demographic data like gender, profession, experience, and age.“A picture is worth a thousand words”. Through visualization, we can bring the data to life and provide a clear idea of what the data represents by giving visual context. Tableau is used for visualizing the survey data collected from the “SDOH” simulation consisting of responses from the providers before and after the interaction with the patients. The visualizations transform the raw data into simple and informative graphs to understand the behavioral trends and to check how the providers respond to the stories in the simulations. This allows us to determine the effectiveness of the simulation more efficiently.

Promoting awareness of social determinants of health (SDoH) among healthcare providers is important to improve the patient care experience and outcome as it helps providers understand their patients in a better way which can facilitate more efficient and effective communication about health conditions.Healthcare professionals are typically educated about SDoH through lectures, questionaries, or role-play-based approaches; but in today’s world, it is becoming increasingly possible to leverage modern technology to create more impactful and accessible tools for SDoH education. Wright LIFE (Lifelike Immersion for Equity) is a simulation-based training tool especially created for this purpose. It is a mobile app that would be available on both Google Play and Apple Store for easy access to the providers. This highly realistic, interactive, and captivating app is essential for creating mindfulness about SDoH and generating long-lasting compassion and empathy in health care workers for their real patients and helping them to build a good clinician-patient relationship.An important aspect of this simulation is the realism of the characters and their behavior. This thesis specifically focuses on the strategy and experience of designing and developing realistic human character models and animations so that the players connect naturally and deeply with the virtual characters. This contributes to the generation of a greater level of empathy in the providers and decreases the level of biases. In addition to its contribution to creating efficient design methodologies, this effort also resulted in a portfolio of high-quality, low-memory multi-modal avatars resembling diverse people of various ethnicities, ages, body types, and gender.

The Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic posed challenges for laboratory-based courses. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore students’ experiences, as related to engagement, in a HyFlex laboratory course that was designed for on-campus and online students to learn together. The research questions were: 1. What are the students’ perceptions of their experiences in a HyFlex laboratory course? 2. How do students describe their engagement in those experiences? 3.What are the instructor’s perceptions of students’ engagement during the laboratory component? In total, 41 out of 43 students in the course participated in the study. Students’ written reflections and instructor notes were analyzed using inductive and deductive thematic analysis and a three-phase approach including concept coding, frequency counts, and categories. Results demonstrated all students perceived their laboratory experience to be enjoyable; they liked choosing their participation mode, learning environment, learning, hands-on cooking, and interactions. Most notably, students enjoyed the freedom to choose their participation mode. Despite limited collaboration due to social distancing and/or working individually at home, students still experienced enjoyment through their interactions. The majority of students described they were engaged behaviorally; the instructor perceived the same. These findings are remarkable during a global pandemic because many students across the country did not enjoy the shift to online learning and reported lower levels of engagement. Expressing enjoyment despite limited collaboration may contribute to the body of literature on enjoyment in constructivist learning environments.

This study evaluates whether academic performance differs when physician assistant (PA) students learn gross anatomy using a mixed-reality (MR) program versus cadaveric dissection. First-year PA student volunteers at Case Western Reserve University enrolled in an anatomy course were divided into two cohorts. During a given unit, each cohort spent laboratory sessions learning through either dissection or MR.At the end of each unit, participants were given a laboratory practical exam on each modality. Differences in exam scores were compared between modalities within the same cohort and between cohorts on the same modality. While students who performed cadaveric dissection within a given unit had less difference between lab exam scores, positive Pearson’s correlation coefficients (r>0.80) and Spearman’s rho (rs=0.78) indicate that individual students perform equivalently across both exams. Additionally, no difference was found between cohorts on lecture exams (p>0.05), suggesting that MR holds value in a PA gross anatomy curriculum.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) need to stay abreast of advances in communication technologies to be student centric, but institutional adoption of Short Messaging Service (SMS) text varies widely and research on incorporation for advising is limited (Arnold et al., 2020; IPEDS 2020; Santos et al., 2018). This quantitative study explored advisor use and perceptions on values, motives, and institutional support of SMS texting as a communication channel with students and the possible variables impacting those factors. Theoretical concepts in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and adaptive leadership guided the study as well as existing survey research on Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) in higher education (Duran et al., 2005). Survey responses from 402 advisors nationwide were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. SMS use was reported among all genders, experience levels, and programmatic formats and advisors overall had a positive view of the communication channel. Motives for use varied between subgroups within the sample and SMS was predominantly used to gain access to richer mediums. A statistically significant association between learning environment and SMS incorporation indicated that online advisors were more likely to use SMS texting for student communication. A statistically significant difference was also identified between median institutional support scores for SMS users and non-users with the directionality indicating users were more likely from SMS supportive institutions. Furthermore, advisors reported using SMS texting for both transactional and relational communication, even when their institution did not support the channel with training, policies, or technology. The study sheds light on the prevalence of SMS use and calls for leadership to gain greater awareness of their local-level policies, industry-wide practices, and system integrated options in managing the university-to-student connection. For HEIs to enable adaptive advising to experiment with interventions at scale and relationship building in student-centric mediums, it may help to provide the framework conducive to SMS text for supplementing communication. Failing to integrate CMC approaches into an institution’s structural approach to relationship management prevents leaders from evaluating how, or even if, it is improving outcomes (Joslin, 2018). The current study emphasizes how aligning strategy and software with end user needs can help ensure university communication is within the purview of those measuring advisor impact on intended business outcomes like engagement and retention.

Inadequate professional training and practices related to health care may result in severe complications to care experiences and outcomes. Moreover, healthcare professionals are as susceptible to the possibility of implicit biases as any other group. Importantly, the health care training is critical and challenging as minor prejudicial beliefs have an adverse influence or serious consequences on patients' health outcomes. Thus, facilitating serious role-playing virtual care practices along with raising awareness of healthcare professionals about the enduring impact of implicit/explicit biases and Social Determinants of Health (SDH) on health outcomes assist to advance the patient-provider relation, care experiences (e.g., healthcare experience and patient care experience), and promote health equity. In addition, employing the “learning by doing” approach for health care practices directly in real-life is less preferred wherein high-risk care is essential. Thus, there is a high scope and demand for the utilization of alternative ways which can facilitate a self-driven and self-motivational digital experiential learning approach with the integration of innovative computer technology that encourages learners to acquire professional development skills.The primary focus of this research is to deliver Computer-Supported Experiential Learning (CSEL) and Computer-Supported Expert-Guided Experiential Learning (CSEGEL) approaches to deliver professional development skills (e.g., healthcare skills). Specifically, this research and development deliver CSEL and CSEGEL approaches-based serious role-playing games or mobile applications as digital experiential learning tools by integrating first-person virtual role-playing scenarios to enhance healthcare skills (e.g., cultural humility, professional communication, awareness of the enduring impact of both social determinants of health and implicit/explicit biases on health outcomes, and compassionate and empathetic attitude) of healthcare professionals and for public awareness.The CSEGEL approach is an extended version of the CSEL approach which integrates the virtual expert guide or instructor that assists to deliver an additional layer of knowledge-based information and evaluation for augmenting the learning outcomes of learners or application users. Moreover, this research and development facilitate the virtual reality-based serious role-playing games or mobile applications by utilizing the CSEL and CSEGEL approaches which help to develop compassionate and empathetic attitudes while reducing the barrier of prejudicial biases that may be present in healthcare professionals towards certain groups of patients. Furthermore, this research demonstrates that the CSEGEL approach (i.e., integration of the expert guidance and evaluation mechanism in the CSEL approach), can be not only utilized for the professional development of healthcare professionals but also for other individuals or public awareness to comprehend and develop proficiency with communication skills. To exemplify, this research illustrates the utilization of the CSEGEL approach in enhancing professional communication skills to efficiently interact with autistic people.In addition, this research delivers the analysis of the learners’ or participants’ experiential data which authenticate that the CSEL approach, CSEGEL approach, and the described mobile applications or serious role-playing games are effective in the enhancement of learners’ learning outcomes. Finally, in this research, a few developmental challenges, optimization strategies, and technical concepts are discussed to deliver insights and learning about the development of this research.

As higher education institutions in the United States face challenging trends such as declining enrollments and competition among a growing number of online degree programs, there is a renewed focus on strategically investing in technology infrastructure, online program development, and alternative degree plans to attract new student markets and enhance revenue generation. To this end, understanding factors that influence faculty members’ acceptance and adoption of technology are key to successful implementation and continued operationalization of these initiatives. Of the body of research involving technology acceptance and adoption in the past few decades, two constructs – perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use – have proven to be heavily influential of decisions involving technology uptake by users. However, a considerable number of these studies were conducted in voluntary settings – meaning, users have a choice to use a tool or not. Given that most institutions of higher education do not clearly fall under voluntary or mandatory settings by definition, results of these studies lack ecological validity. Recent research indicates that some users in predominantly mandatory settings view imposed technologies as a stressor that they must cope with. Therefore, coping may be a more appropriate lens to explore technology uptake among faculty members, where even when mandatoriness is not explicit, other factors such as pressure from peers, administrators, or students may compel faculty members to use certain enterprise-wide solutions.Building on the work of coping theory and theories of planned behavior, the current study explores potential influencing factors on faculty members’ perceived ratings of their institution’s learning management system as a means to determine whether different dimensions of coping, along with external pressure such as subjective norm from students or administrators (representing implicit mandatoriness) influence their perceptions. Seventy-eight faculty members at a large midwestern university completed an online survey designed to capture: (a) individual measures of user experience, (b) subjective norm for students, (c) subjective norm for administration, and (d) four different dimensions of coping, including proactive coping, instrumental support seeking, strategic planning, and avoidance coping. Separate stepwise regressions with no stopping criteria were conducted for perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use, respectively. For perceived usefulness, a final model that included subjective norm for students and avoidance coping was generated. For perceived ease-of-use, a final model that included subjective norm for students, strategic planning, and proactive coping was generated. Among subjective measures of the learning management system, the subjective norm for students proved to be the most correlated predictor for both perceived usefulness and perceived ease-of-use. Results indicate that in the absence of top-down mandates, faculty evaluation of enterprise-wide technology solutions can be most closely predicted by whether faculty think students think they should be using the technologies to teach their classes. Given the smaller sample, the removal of Cook’s distance influential cases indicates that there may be subsets of faculty underrepresented in the sample that have distinct, different relationships among the variables explored in the models, opening new avenues for additional research. Over the course of this study, the declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic in March 2020 changed the landscape of higher education, thus warranting a new examination of whether instructional technology usage in higher education settings will become more explicitly mandatory in years to come.

The growing demands for communication and complex network infrastructure relay on overcoming the network measurement and management challenges. Lately, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms have considered to improve the network system, e.g., AI-based network traffic classification, traffic prediction, intrusion detection system, etc. Most of the development of networking AI models require abundant traffic data samples to have a proper measuring or managing. However, such databases are rare to be found publicly. To counter this issue, we develop a real-time network traffic generator to be used by network AI models. This network traffic generator has a data enabler that reads data from real applications and establishes packet payload database and a traffic pattern database. The packet payload database has the data packets of real application, where network traffic generator locates the payload in the capture file (PCAP). The other database is traffic pattern database that contains the traffic patterns of a real application. This database depends on the timestamp in each packet and the number of packets in the traffic sample to form a traffic database. The network traffic generator has a built-in network simulator that allows to mimic the real application network traffic flows using these databases to simulate the real-traffic application. The simulator provides a configurable network environment as an interface. To assess our work, we tested the network traffic generator on two network AI models based on simulated traffic, i.e., AI classification model, and AI traffic prediction. The simulation performance and the evaluation result showed improvement in networking AI models using the proposed network traffic generator, which reduce time consuming and data efficiency challenges.

People in today's world seek things that are simple to use. Learning is one of the most crucial aspects of the ongoing digital transformation. Everything is now accessible with a single click on mobile devices, making access to instructional materials faster, easier, and more comfortable. It takes time and effort to build abilities and become an expert in the fields of learning, training, and teaching; and music learning demands a great deal of both practice and mentoring. Initially, music teachers and band directors must maintain a steady attention and devote a significant amount of time to manually teaching materials. This has prompted the question of how to make accessing the expert's information easier and less time consuming. Dr. Shelley Jagow’ s book "Tuning for Wind Instruments: A Roadmap to Successful Intonation" has evolved into a series of iOS/Android Apps "Fingering and Tuning Charts" to make the learning process easy and convenient.The purpose of this thesis project is to integrate and test various new user interface components into iOS Apps for a better user experience by adapting textbook content to various mobile devices for a more interactive, colorful, and detailed representation of how to play the note correctly.Swift 5.0 was utilized to construct these additional additions, which were finalized in XCode. The code for all iOS apps has been upgraded from Swift 4.0 to Swift 5.0, allowing for future enhancements and upgrades. If someone wants to refer to thecode in the future, extra effort has been made to make it easy to grasp. TestFlight, an iOS App testing tool built and administered through Apple App Store Connect, was used to deploy the improved version for testing and feedback collection. The App Store has since been updated with the finalized version of the app, which is now available for download and use.

A proliferation of introductory visual programming language raises the question of how to introduce VPLs to more creators and how to improve the usability and learnability of the VPL platform. This paper compares two different teaching methods and visual programming paradigm software to observe the influence of different factors on the use of visual programming software by adult learners in the designer group.A more constructive teaching style using gamification between participants and a more behaviorist teaching style using small lecture and interaction were exposed to participants in different instruction group. Different visual programming platforms were also tested in each group. User experience scores based on performance score and self-reported scores were collected during and after participants operating on the visual programming software. The independent-sample t-tests were used to answer the research question that: is there a mean difference in scores for operating and self-rating between different instruction groups and different visual programming platform.The test result shows that there is a mean difference in the efficiency (performance score) between the behaviorist instruction approach and the constructivism instruction approach for using visual programming software. The performing scores in the constructive teaching group are statistically significantly higher than the performing scores in the behaviorist teaching group. In addition, designers who exposed to the imperative visual programming software also perform better than those exposed to declarative visual programming software. The study of constructive education in teaching visual programming language worth further exploration, in fact, under the trend of digital learning, constructive learning mechanism and the auxiliary of visual programming, a combination of both to learn programming, especially for programming beginners’ introductory courses, has a positive effect.

Interest in using virtual reality technologies as a means to provide therapeutic and educational platforms for individuals with ASD has been growing for decades. The contents of this article-based dissertation are related to the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of a virtual reality intervention called Virtuoso. Virtuoso is a suite of virtual reality technologies designed to promote the acquisition of adaptive skills related to catching public transportation for individuals with autism in an adult day program. This article-based dissertation addresses both pragmatic research to practice gaps, and the advancement of theory that underpins design considerations of the intervention. The first article presents a design and development case study that describes how interdisciplinary processes were utilized to create a multi-user virtual environment for adults with autism. While research points to the difficulty of developing virtual environments, few studies have articulated the process in detail which leaves a gap in the literature. The second article presents findings from a user-centric evaluation of the first prototype of Virtuoso. Evaluation focused on the users' perceptions of acceptance, feasibility, ease-of-use, user experience, and relevance of the system. The third article examines the character of cybersickness symptoms that participants experienced while undergoing three virtual reality research sessions that evolved in visual fidelity and task complexity. The nature of learner experiences while using commercial head-mounted displays including the Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard are also reported.The fourth article presents findings from a systematic review of the literature that was conducted in the spring of 2020. This review of the literature examines how virtual reality interventions for individuals with autism have been designed from the early work in the field to the present day. Six scholarly databases were queried to synthesize relevant literature around virtual reality and autism spectrum disorders. Data extracted includes technological descriptions, hardware and software design, target audience, and system goals.

Asynchronous online discussions (AOD) can be designed to promote knowledge construction among learners and encourage active use of thought (Luhrs & McAnally-Salas, 2016). Unfortunately, little is known about the theoretical underpinnings of specific design factors: social connection and positive academic outcomes have been demonstrated for individual factors including project-based learning (Koh, Herring, & Hew, 2010), scaffolded learning (Liu & Yang, 2014), facilitation of discussion (Evans, Ward, & Reeves, 2017), and critical thinking (Topcu, 2010). Given these shortcomings, understanding of effective AOD designs driven by theory could promote greater professional development opportunities for future online educators and increase effectiveness of AOD for student learning outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate student perceptions of community in a four-factor AOD design, and to understand the dynamic relationships between discussion quality, community, participation, and motivation. The community of inquiry ([CoI] Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) framework provides the foundation for understanding online community as it promotes co-constructed knowledge. CoI recognizes three factors that contribute to meaningful educational experiences and knowledge construction (social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence). The self-determination theory ([SDT] Ryan & Deci, 2000a) and engagement theory (Kearsley & Schneiderman, 1998) provide the groundwork for motivation as online students must be properly incentivized and authentically engaged for optimal success. SDT recognizes the importance of intrinsic motivation in achievement and the interaction of three basic human needs that drive behavior (autonomy, competence, and relatedness). Engagement refers to activity that supports intrinsic motivation and promotes higher cognitive skills. Kearsley and Schneiderman (1998) applied engagement to professional practice where work with an authentic focus led to greater knowledge achievement as well as gains in teamwork and social interaction skills. The study context was a convenience sampling of four online, undergraduate courses with 85 total participants. A quantitative methods study was employed using data from student surveys and participation quality ratings of student AOD posts. Multivariate analysis of variance between the four courses on measures of CoI found no significant differences between the groups. Correlational analyses found a weak relationship between externally rated discussion quality and student perceptions of their own discussion participation. Correlational analyses of discussion quality and measures of motivation revealed a weak correlation to perceived competence for needs satisfaction and a weak relationship to behavioral engagement. Results indicated the CoI survey correlated strongly with measures of perceived participation, intrinsic motivation, needs satisfaction, and discussion engagement, confirming a connection between online community, SDT, and engagement within the sample AODs. The quantitative methods approach illuminated a nuanced picture of a four-factor AOD design and student perceptions of community, participation, and motivation. Implications for online educators were provided, including potential for professional development opportunities and a call for further research into the effects of individual AOD design factors on learning within a more complex theoretical framework.

The purpose of this non-experimental study was to examine the concerns of preservice teachers in reference to the Amazon Echo, powered by Alexa, as measured by the Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ) (George, Hall, & Stiegelbauer, 2006). The study participants were preservice teachers at a Midwestern University enrolled in a technology course (n = 124). This researcher utilized a pair of two-way multivariate analysis of variance MANOVA which were conducted to determine if there was a statistically significant difference in means between the dependent variables of the preservice teachers’ Stages of Concern (stages 0-6), and the independent variables of gender, projected grade to teach, and teaching geographical area. Results from the SoC Questionnaire are as follows: Preservice teachers would like to receive more information regarding the Amazon Alexa as a tool for teaching in formal and informal settings. The two-way MANOVA models did not reveal conclusive results. Contributing factors for these results may be low statistical power and small effect size which may have affected the overall models results. Implications for preservice teachers’ training, suggestions for further research, and the limitations of this study are discussed.

We introduce a virtual patient question-answering dialogue system, used for training medical students to interview real patients, which presents many unique opportunities for research in linguistics, speech, and dialogue. Among the most challenging research topics at this point in the system’s development are issues relating to scarcity of training data. We address three main problems.The first challenge is that many questions are very rarely asked of the virtual patient, which leaves little data to learn adequate models of these questions. We validate one approach to this problem, which is to combine a statistical question classification model with a rule-based system, by deploying it in an experiment with live users. Additional work further improves rare question performance by utilizing a recurrent neural network model with a multi-headed self-attention mechanism. We contribute an analysis of the reasons for this improved performance, highlighting specialization and overlapping concerns in independent components of the model.Another data scarcity problem for the virtual patient project is the challenge of adequately characterizing questions that are deemed out-of-scope. By definition, these types of questions are infinite, so this problem is particularly challenging. We contribute a characterization of the problem as it manifests in our domain, as well as a baseline approach to handling the issue, and an analysis of the corresponding improvement in performance.Finally, we contribute a method for improving performance of domain-specific tasks such as ours, which use off-the-shelf speech recognition as inputs, when no in-domain speech data is available. This method augments text training data for the downstream task with inferred phonetic representations, to make the downstream task tolerant of speech recognition errors. We also see performance improvements from sampling simulated errors to replace the text inputs during training. Future enhancements to the spoken dialogue capabilities of the virtual patient are also considered.

Goodyear unveiled its Eagle 360 concept tires in 2017 and believes that these smart spherical tires, being equipped with sensors and artificial intelligence, will replace the typical cylindrical tires for driverless vehicles. The aerodynamic performance of these tires was not evaluated yet. By understanding the aerodynamic performance of spherical tires, one can improve the fuel consumption and performance of vehicles. The purpose of this research is to study the drag of the smooth and grooved spherical tires and compare their performance to the conventional tires. Using a k-transition turbulence model, the airflow around the spherical tire is analyzed at Re=5.3x105 for numerous setups including isolated stationary tire, isolated rotating tire and moving rotating tire in the presence of rigid ground. Equations of conservation of mass and momentum and turbulence model are discretized using the finite-volume method and solved using second order upwind discretization scheme and SIMPLEC algorithm. All simulations involved in the present study are conducted using ANSYS Fluent software. To validate the approach, the 2-D and 3-D computations for conventional cylindrical tires are conducted and the drag coefficient is compared to prior experimental and computational literature results. The 2-D simulations are conducted for Reynolds numbers ranging from 105 to 106 for several representative configurations, for instance, isolated stationary tire, isolated rotating tire and moving rotating tire with and without wheelhouses (curved and flat) in the presence of road. The2-D simulations for Reynolds number ranging from 105 to 5x105 are conducted using the k-transition turbulence model and for Reynolds number ranging from 6x105 to 106 with k-ε realizable turbulence model. To avoid numerical divergence, the k-transition turbulence model is solved using SIMPLEC algorithm and k-ε realizable turbulence model with coupled algorithm. 3-D simulations of airflow around conventional tires are conducted for an isolated stationary tire at Reynolds numbers of 105 and 2x105 and for the stationary tire and moving rotating tire in the presence of rigid ground for Re=5.3x105 using the k-transition turbulence model. For 2-D and 3-D simulations, an optimum numerical grid that captures the separation of boundary layer and formation of the low-pressure zone behind tire is selected. The simulation results of the spherical tires indicate a 107.9% increase in the aerodynamic drag for the isolated stationary tire after introducing threads. Nevertheless, for an isolated rotating spherical tire, only a 22% increase in drag is obtained due to tire threads. The drag increases by 36% for the moving rotating threaded spherical tire in the presence of ground, compared to the slick tire. The drag coefficient for the spherical tire is determined to be less than one half of the drag coefficient for conventional cylindrical tires of the same diameter (0.2158 m) with the tire length to diameter ratio of 0.37. Therefore, the drag force for spherical tire is comparable to passenger vehicle tires.

The purpose of this study was to explore students’ mathematical practices while working on modeling problems using 3 interactive computer simulations. Three fifth grade students’ interactions with computer-based modeling simulation were examined to identify how children defined and prioritized and coordinated variables and parameters in dynamically simulated environments to focus their work on modeling activities. I traced what students noticed at the point of entry into each simulation, key factors they considered to determine, explain, and predict the potential changes in the results of a simulation with altered parameters. Results of the study showed that students benefited from exposure to simulations to gain a better perception of a problem with interacting variables. In particular, animated graphics of the simulations helped the participants to visualize the problem, learn about the effect of different variables on the outcomes of the task situations hence, effecting the participants’ modeling process across activities. Interactions with simulations increased the participants’ ability to manage the scope of obstacles they had encountered when working on modeling tasks prior by serving as a visualization tool, a discovery tool, a virtual lab, a hypothesis tester, a solution tracker, and a calculator.

The reading and study habits of students is of great interest to educators and those whostudy education. Additionally, e-book usage is becoming more prevalent in theclassroom. We have conducted a study on the usage and integration of a social annotatione-book reader, Perusall, in introductory physics classes. Perusall allows annotating andcommenting in a social environment on an assigned reading from a text. Theseannotations are based on predefined settings and proprietary algorithms. We haveimplemented Perusall in introductory level, calculus-based physics courses for twoacademic years. The classes met three times a week and each class included a readingassignment due before the next class. We obtained data that included time information,the number of annotations made, and data on how the class as a whole used the textbookon a page-by-page basis, in terms of number of page views and time on the page. Alongwith this data we also have information on how the students’ final grades. Lastly, wehave surveyed students on their experience using Perusall and collected demographicdata. Here we examine the results of this two-year study on using Perusall in these classesand the students involved.

For over 20 years, researchers and state boards of education have been emphasizing the importance of incorporating digital literacies into instruction. Based on the perceived potential of digital technologies to create greater educational opportunities, and the push from state governments to empower students to fully participate in our knowledge-based economy, proponents have advocated for the incorporation of increasingly computer dependent, blended learning experiences in the classroom, presenting them as fundamental to academic achievement and career success. As public K-12 school districts in Ohio increase their investment in classroom technology through blended learning initiatives, it is important to understand how students and teachers from varied geographic and socioeconomic settings conceptualize the utility and value of blended learning as a platform for learning and literacy. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain insight into the conceptualizations of middle level students and teachers from three socioeconomically and geographically diverse public school settings regarding their experiences with blended learning in order to understand the factors that influence the teaching and learning transaction. To better understand these influences, the study employed metaphor analysis (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), as well as the critical lenses of Brandt’s (2001) theoretical framework of literacy sponsorship and the theory of multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996). Analysis of the transcripts suggests that blended learning initiatives would benefit from enhanced blended learning curricula, emphasizing multimodality, choice, facilitation, and social context in digitally integrative instruction.

Instructional designers are often discouraged from testing their learning products due to the challenges faced when attempting to apply the traditional approaches of usability testing. As a result, scholars have been trying new methods to overcome those challenges. Remote usability testing, often operated by crowdsourcing websites, is one of those methods. However, crowdsourced usability testing websites are usually restricted to adult users. Consequently, the instructional designers of children’s learning products do not have the advantage of harnessing the potentials of remote usability testing.As a first step for the instructional designers of children’s products to overcome the challenges of the existing usability testing methods, this study was intended to create a set of guidelines for the design of remote usability testing websites for children’s interactive products. Following a design and development research methodology, the researcher has used the literature’s guidelines of usability testing with children and the principles of cognitive load theory in designing a remote usability testing tool to answer the following research questions: What can be learned about the remote usability testing guidelines in terms of the features and characteristics of the usability testing tool that are related to the children nine to ten years old? What can be learned from iterative design process to inform remote usability testing guidelines in terms of improving the role of parents in such a way that can reduce their workload while maintaining a good quality of usability testing results? And what concerns do parents have regarding their children’s participation in crowdsourced usability testing?Observations, interviews, and fieldnotes were used to collect data in three iterations from 18 participants, nine parents and nine children. The results cover the specifications in the remote usability testing tool that worked with the children and the parents, and it covers the guidelines that are derived from the parents’ concerns regarding their children’s participation in remote usability testing. The results were summarized in a list of tentative guidelines for practitioners who are interested in designing crowdsourced or remote usability testing websites for children’s interactive products.

The rapid advancement in information technology and the ubiquitous penetration of the Internet are heralding an experience in the world where every physical device is interconnect-able to other devices and the Internet. IoT forms the core of this new wave of ubiquitous technologies. This nascent technology is opening new and virtually inexhaustible sources of innovation in various sectors. As the education sector transitions to technologically augmented learning, IoT offers a great potential in the realm of higher education where some principles of IoT are already in use.The purpose of this study was to explore how IoT can enhance data-driven decision- making (D3M) in the teaching and learning process in higher education. Six faculty, seven students, and four administrators participated in this study.A qualitative case study was used to explore how IoT can be used to enhance D3M. Individual interviews and document analysis approach was used in data collection. Multiple techniques facilitated the data analysis. Provision coding was applied in the first cycle coding to organize the data into categories. Pattern coding was implemented in the second cycle coding to condense code summaries from first cycle coding into precise themes. Unified framework of construct validity was applied to enhance the credibility and dependability of the study.Findings revealed that participants engaged with IoT to enhance the learning experience, improve collaboration on projects, augment student-centered teaching, support customized teaching, and learning, facilitate seamless learning, and parity for diverse learners. Participants had mixed concerns about the issue of individual privacy, data security and connectivity challenges. The constructs of UTAUT2 framework was used to explore the beliefs and perceptions that influence the adoption of IoT amongst the participants in higher education.The conclusion drawn from this study elucidated that if correctly implemented, IoT can support the development of strategies that could be used to enhance the reaching and learning process.

Interactive tutoring systems are software applications that help individuals to learndifficult concepts. They can allow students to interact with ideas from essentialmathematics to more complicated subjects like software engineering. This thesisconcentrates on one such interactive tutoring system (ITS) designed for teaching conceptsrelated to operating system virtual memory.Operating system concepts can be troublesome to learn without having someoneor something to explain them. Even when an instructor is able to provide detailedexplanations, it is still exceptionally difficult for students without a computer sciencefoundation to comprehend these concepts. Students require a sophisticated set of mentalmodels to comprehend how various components of the operating system work together.In a lecture, students may find it hard to imagine the various operating system processesor how they work. A tutoring system that visually shows these concepts to students andlets them interact with models of the various components can make learning much easier.This thesis discusses such an ITS called Virtuo-ITS. The aim of this ITS is to aidindividuals in learning virtual memory concepts like paging and virtual address tophysical address translation. Virtuo-ITS visually explains concepts of virtual memory andprovides tasks for learners to test their understanding of the concepts. An individual caninteract with the system and control the virtual memory processes that are happening todevelop a better mental model of each of the concepts. This fulfills the principle point ofan ITS, which is to teach difficult concepts simply.

The purpose of this research is to help the beginners of software reverse engineering, the process of extracting knowledge or design information from a product and reproducing it on basis of extracted information. Beginner users often find it difficult to use, as the task may be found daunting at first sight due to a lack of existing learning resources. We need a better way to present information to the novice reverse engineer about how to understand low-level sequences of assembly instructions. This is akin to how the key to learning a foreign language is based upon a fundamental knowledge of the word sequences (grammar).With this in mind, a web model named WATSRE (web-delivered assembly language training for software reverse engineers) is developed to analyze the common patterns of sequences in assembly language. The term assembly language is referred as the low-level programming language for a computer, or microprocessors and other programmable devices. One of the prime reasons to inquire assembly language is that the executable files from the debugger are all in binary instruction format. Moreover, common sequences are identified from the executable files of real world C programs. These sequences identified are translated into meaningful words, which will then be useful for beginners as it is easy to memorize it. Such features developed in this program will assist a beginner in understanding and comprehending these instructions easily. In addition to this, we focus on the working of assembly instructions and their effect on memory and registers. Hence, the finding of this research will be useful in helping the software reverse engineers and people related to this field.

Piaget's classic work on cognitive development showed that engaging learners in critical discussions with peers about ideas that are different than theirs leads to deep conceptual understanding. Implementing such an approach in college-level STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) courses has some specific challenges: (a) Short meeting times and large class sizes; (b) Competitive nature of the courses and single answer questions on assignments and exams; and (c) Overall lack of collaborative learning culture where students are unsure of how to seek help and many faculty members tend to think that engaging in collaborative activities may affect content coverage; etc. Based on Piaget's theory, I have developed a highly innovative collaborative-learning approach that exploits specific affordances of web technologies to address these challenges. This approach, named CONSIDER, short for CONflicting Student Ideas Discussed Evaluated and Resolved, allows creation of small groups of students with different ideas about the topic in question, engages them in a highly-structured rounds-based discussion so that the group progresses at an equitable pace, and makes their submissions anonymous to others so that students can receive the comments without any preconceived notions they may have about the poster. While a number of researchers have explored approaches to collaborative-learning, a key difference with this work is that my focus is helping individual students develop their own understanding, whereas the focus of much of this other work is on developing students' team skills, effective communication abilities, and the like.While a discussion in CONSIDER is always among small groups of students, typically 4 students in each group, with each group consisting of students with distinct conceptions of the topic being discussed, the discussion may be organized as either a rounds-based discussion or a forum-based discussion. In a rounds-based discussion, the discussion takes place in a series of rounds, each of specified duration with each student in the group making exactly one post in each round; the student's post is not available to the other students in the group until the end of round; indeed, each student will be able to freely edit her post until the end of the round. The other possibility is to have the discussion organized in a forum-based manner where each student makes as many or as few posts as she chooses and each post becomes visible to all the students in the group as soon as it is made. In addition, the discussion may be either anonymous with the students in the group being known to the others in the group as simply S1, S2, etc., or they may know each other's identities. Since the default setting in the CONSIDER system is rounds-based and anonymous, I will use the term "CONSIDER-approach" to refer to this type of discussion.A platform independent responsive web application was developed to implement this approach and to compare it with the forum-based approach. This app was used in three offerings of two junior/senior level undergraduate Computer Science and Engineering courses at The Ohio State University, where one discussion was conducted using the forum-based approach and the other using the CONSIDER approach in each class. Students performance on the pre- and post-discussion question and participation of individual students was measured. In two of the studies, a significant difference was found in the discussion that used the CONSIDER approach, compared to the forum-based approach on both these measures: improvement in learning (Study 1: N=37, r=-.63, p

Treestands are the lesser known contributors to hunting related injuries. Falling from a treestand is a life-altering incident that can potentially disable hunters for life. Although the law regulates communication of safety procedures requiring individuals to be trained, several loopholes exist in the system and many hunters do not receive the proper training. The purpose of this research was to develop a useful mobile phone application that would make the information more accessible to hunters and then test this application for usability, effectiveness, and receptiveness. This research analyzed the usability and training effectiveness of the app using a brief pre-and post-testing method, usability questionnaire, and predicted use evaluation when used by two age groups of hunters and non-hunters, ages 21 – 39 and 40 plus. Results indicated that all groups of participants improved their pre and post test scores by 25% on average (p-value of 0.00, T-value of -6.69). All groups of participants indicated that the app was highly usable and hunters reported that they would be very likely to use the app in the future.

Reflective journaling is frequently a part of nursing education; these journals provide a student’s reflection-on-experience to instructors after required clinical experiences, and the instructor’s assessment of the reflective journals is both objective and subjective. A small pilot study of nursing students (n = 17) compared the comfort levels and preferences of groups of students who either audio-recorded their journals or wrote them in text. This study showed the audio-recording (“voice-journaling”) students felt comfortable with the technology and process, and these same students showed a slight preference for using the audio-recording method. Voice-journals were additionally found to be greater in comparative word count than text journals. Later, in the first part of a two-phase study, a small cross-sectional survey (n=9) of nursing instructors identified 15 unique factors falling within four broader categories to be used for assessment of voice-journals. In the second phase of this study, a larger online survey of nursing instructors (n = 60) from several Midwestern colleges of nursing were able to identify and note the presence, or lack of presence, of these earlier named factors when listening to voice-journal excerpts. These same instructors rated each of the unique factors above a neutral level of importance to voice-journal assessment, and additionally provided qualitative data to help formulate guidance for future voice-journaling students.

Advancements in technology over the last two decades, have extended its reach beyond the educational and work sphere to the social, cultural, legal, and ethical aspects of our lives, creating a powerful impact on how we live, work, and connect with one another. But there are still groups where the penetration of technology is low: adults with little exposure to technology during their traditional learning years, users from lower SES, lower education levels, resulting in a digital divide between the digital haves and have-nots. This research project endeavored to study the phenomenon of digital divide through a set of theoretical frameworks: Rawls’ principles of justice as fairness provided the overall social justice umbrella, Sen’s capability approach grounded the study in the specificities of learners’ lives and acknowledged learner diversity, and Horton’s cultural education, Freire’s critical consciousness, and Eubanks’ critical technology education provided the pedagogical lens to understand the importance of the critical learning process in digital education. The phenomenon of digital divide was examined through the perspective of a group of non-traditional adult digital learners at a community-based technology learning center in order to illuminate what digital learning means to them in terms of their empowerment and agency, and how they might perceive conscientizacao in their learning process. The research project also examined obstacles to digital learning perceived by the learners and the actions to overcome these obstacles as identified by the participants.

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the nexus of video games, mobile devices, and augmented reality in an educational light. This is accomplished in part by studying the self-reported demographics, attitudes, habits, and motivations of players of Google’s commercial augmented reality mobile game Ingress. An application of a review of the literature informs how games like Ingress can be leveraged for educational means. Presented is a review of relevant literature, including the historical development of the nature of play and learning, the history and educational usage of massively multiplayer online games and simulations, the use of mobile devices in games and learning, how augmented reality is developing and being used in educational and noneducational settings, and what effects playing video games may have on the player, including problematic gameplay and addiction, gendered concerns, aggressive thoughts and actions, and physical changes identified in gamers or promoted using games. Also included is an examination of a theoretical framework of discovery learning that ties instructional design, learning, and games to Ingress.Data is gathered with an online survey of Ingress players worldwide. A total of 2,276 cases from 59 countries were analyzed. The instrument used has been modified from an original aimed at other massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). The results presented here showed significant demographic and motivational differences between players and between games. Principle component and multiple regression analyses revealed a number of components that describe the motivations of players and related predictors. By comparing these components to scores on an addiction scale, self-reports on interpersonal skills and learning items, valid and reliable predictors emerged. The components identified differ from those found when surveying players of other massively multiplayer online games. Reliable scales for components, an addiction measure, an interpersonal skill measure, and a learning measure were identified. Implications for future studies and research in the field are provided, as well as suggestions for the use of Ingress and other commercial ARGs within the realm of education.

Wudian, which is the realization of the wisdom of ancient architects characterized by a complex combination of components without using a single nail in the assembly process, is considered to be the noblest building category in ancient China. Based on the Gongcheng Zuofa, which is the only official construction document from the Qing dynasty, this thesis presents a systematical study of the construction simulation of Wudian using 3-D graphics and animation techniques. In the modeling process, all major structural timber components and connection types are presented step by step, and all the construction processes are simulated level by level. Then, a decision tree system (WDTS), a database of engineering drawings and illustrations of all the components and connections, and the animations of the construction process of Wudian are compiled into a Microsoft Visual Studio program. WDTS provides the user with detailed and comprehensive overall views of the construction simulation and a systematic understanding of how each component of Wudian was pre-fabricated and assembled. In conclusion, this thesis presents a new, effective method to simulate the construction of ancient structures such as the Wudian and to understand the beauty and wisdom of outstanding ancient Chinese architects.

This participatory action research (PAR) dissertation examines the experiences of five experienced faculty transitioning from teaching in a traditional classroom to a virtual learning environment. The research participants used technology to deliver course material and reflected on the changes in their pedagogical practice. Data were collected using four phased sessions, including the completion of interview questions, individual interview video sessions, and group video sessions and the review of participant video validation postings. Research participants used journaling to reflect on their values, beliefs, assumptions, and experiences associated with teaching and learning. Research participants teaching in virtual learning environments were provided an avenue to develop an understanding of previous encounters with technology, attitudes toward technology, and the relationship they envisioned for the use of technology in their classrooms. The study concluded with the development of an “Introduction to Online Teaching for Experienced Faculty Workshop.” The results of this dissertation substantiated that faculty experience various disorienting dilemmas that correlate with a progressive transformation, resulting in at least one case in a paradigm shift. The study also highlights the faculty participants’ concerns, issues, and perspectives of positivist versus constructivist teaching styles as a function of their participation. This dissertation is accompanied by 22 MP4 videos of the participants in this study (see List of Supplemental Files). This dissertation is available in open access in AURA http:/aura.antioch.edu and OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd

This dissertation contains three stand-alone papers on the topic of using video prompting and self-directed video prompting to teach individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The literature review examined the current body of literature to better understand if and how video prompting was being utilized with individuals with moderate to profound disabilities. Additionally, maintenance and generalization measures were examined to determine the extent to which each was being utilized and measured. Overall, there were positive results for the use of video prompting as a stand-alone procedure and as a packaged intervention. Additionally, there were positive results for the studies that included maintenance and/or generalization measures. Using the information from the literature review, the research paper presents a study that taught two individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities vocational and daily living skills using self-directed video prompting. Following task mastery, maintenance probes were conducted for 2 weeks starting 1-week post-mastery. Results showed that both students acquired novel skills across all three tiers, indicating that individuals can acquire novel tasks with minimal prompting with self-directed video prompting. The third paper is a practitioner paper that teachers and other practitioners can use to teach their students how to independently provide their own video prompts and how they can promote generalization after students have learned self-directed video prompting.

This study examined the effects of a novel computer software program on the oral reading fluency and comprehension of urban second-grade students. The students scored at the “at-risk” level on the DIBELS oral reading fluency fall benchmark assessment. A multiple baseline probe across participants design was used to determine if the repeated reading strategy using culturally relevant materials delivered through the computer software would increase participant oral reading fluency and comprehension. Oral reading fluency was measured by correct words per minute and comprehension was measured by responses to maze passages on both treatment and generalization probes. Seven second-grade students from two different schools were participants in the study and three students were tested as comparison peers. Participants were separated into four tiers and scheduled treatment according to skill level. Students in Tier 1, who showed the most deficits in correct words per minute as measured by AIMSweb, received treatment first and the remaining tiers were assigned accordingly. There were five participants (Tiers 1–3) and two comparison peers in one school and two participants (Tier 4) and one comparison peer in the other school. Comparison peers, who were closer to grade level, remained in extended baseline. Tier 1 entered into intervention when the participants’ baseline data were stable. After analysis of Tier 1 responding to the CR timed readings, and analysis of baseline of the next tier, intervention began for Tier 2, and so on until all tiers were in intervention. Pre-and post-test measures were administered to all students and consisted of Woodcock Reading Mastery Test –Revised subtests of word attack, word identification, and passage comprehension. DIBELS oral reading fluency benchmark assessment data was provided by the teachers for beginning of the year and middle of the year and administered by researchers for end of the year. During baseline, treatment, and maintenance conditions, data were collected on the following dependent variables: correct words per minute on culturally relevant stories; correct responses to mazes on CR stories; number of timed readings needed to reach criteria on each culturally relevant story; correct words per minute on AIMSweb stories; and correct responses to mazes on AIMSweb stories. Treatment probes were given after each story sequence was successfully completed and generalization probes were given approximately every two to three treatment probes except when participants consistently took 2–3 sessions to finish a story, in which case they were given a generalization probe every five stories (i.e., after each set). There were a total of 24 culturally relevant stories/treatment probes and 25 generalization passages were available (between 14–20 were used for participants; 7 were used for comparison peers).Results indicate that after 7–13 weeks the packaged intervention was effective on increasing the oral reading fluency and comprehension of practiced culturally relevant passages for all participants. The intervention was also effective on increasing the oral reading fluency and comprehension on six of the participants on novel AIMSweb passages. These findings extend the research base supporting the use of repeated readings for second-grade students via computer-assisted instruction to supplement instruction. Further, the findings suggest that skill acquisition and generalization might be promoted by the use of culturally relevant materials. Limitations, directions for future research, and implications for practice are offered.

One difficulty in game design is that the criteria that determine whether a certain game feature (e.g., ability to jump, theme type, inclusion of certain types of weapons) would improve enjoyment of a game are often unclear, and can differ greatly for different players. This thesis investigates a method by which game configuration and creation might be automated in such a way that a numerical rating could be assigned to any given game feature, thereby allowing the enjoyability of a game feature to be gauged in a more objective way. This automated game design method involves:1) Creation of a series of candidate games.2) A player playing the games.3) The player rating the games.4) A best and a worst game for each player being made based on this feedback.A tool using this method is used in an experiment to determine if game features can successfully be rated in this way by having subjects use the tool and then checking if the games the tool produces are rated, on average, significantly more highly than the candidate games. By allowing the aspects of a game to vary and by rating user enjoyment of games created using those aspects, it may be numerically determined what sorts of game will most appeal to certain users or groups of users, and better games can be created. By including in this process a tool that can automatically generate a game based on these aspects, this process can be automated and expedited, which would be beneficial for game prototyping or for making games whose configuration automatically responds to the user. The results showed support for the usefulness of the proposed method; the average rating difference between the "worst" and "best" game was 23%, with the "worst" game being rated on average worse than randomly selected games, and the "best" game being rated on average better than randomly selected games.

There has been a growing interest among researchers and second or foreign language educators in harnessing the motivational power of video games to improve learning outcomes and motivation. Little is known in terms of the design of educational video games for language learning and their integration into the teaching and learning process. The present study aimed to gain in-depth insights into high school students' and teachers' perceptions of Trace Effects (United States Department of State, 2012) in improving English as a Foreign Language (EFL) acquisition in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Furthermore, the study sought to understand the pedagogical integration of Trace Effects into the EFL classroom. The participants in the study were 113 12th grade students, four EFL teachers and four principals from four high schools in Ouagadougou the capital of Burkina Faso. The students and their teachers interacted with Trace Effects, a game designed to improve EFL acquisition for a few weeks. After gameplay, each one of the four English teachers integrated the game into a lesson. Data was collected from the participants using interviews, participant observations and document analyses. The findings of the study indicated that the students and teachers perceived Trace Effects to be motivating in terms of design. In terms of EFL acquisition, the participants believed that Trace Effects contributed to improving their EFL listening, speaking, vocabulary and pragmatic skills as well as their motivation to learn the language. It was also found that the integration of Trace Effects into the EFL classroom was associated with a change in foreign language pedagogical approach. The EFL teachers who participated in the study tended to rely heavily on the reading and audio-lingual approaches when no game was used, but shifted towards the communicative language teaching approach when Trace Effects was integrated in a lesson.

The purpose of this study was to understand how the amount of time students spend playing math skills games online affects their engagement and automaticity with adding integers. This study sought to develop a deeper understanding of how playing online math skills games on the Internet against peers influenced the automatic recall of basic integer facts among high school students, how students’ prior knowledge of basic addition and subtraction facts influenced their automaticity adding basic integers, and how playing math skills games on the Internet influenced student engagement to practice.Three Algebra 1 classes with 39 ninth grade students at an urban high school in the Midwest were assigned to one of two practice groups; traditional flashcard practice using the computer, and integer addition practice using an integer addition game on the Arcademics website against other students in the class. This study measured student engagement practicing basic integer addition facts with an eGameFlow survey. Achievement was measured using a gain score calculated from pre and posttests of student knowledge of basic integer addition facts. Student scores on basic addition and subtraction facts were compared in order to determine if student recall of basic integer facts was mediated by whether or not students previously mastered their basic addition and subtraction facts. Mann-Whitney U and linear regression were used to analyze the various research questions proposed in this study. Results demonstrate the rates of correct responses and engagement increases with use of online skills games as compared to students using the skill building technique of flashcards on the computer.

This study sought to understand the perception of community college students on utilizing social media as represented by Facebook as a tool in their community college courses. A demographic survey was administered to students in the researcher's courses and a group of six students were selected based on their survey responses to be interviewed. Transcripts of the interview dialogue were coded and responses were compared with each other as well as the demographic characteristics of the interviewees. The study found that the majority of community college students interviewed held positive preconceptions of using Facebook for purposes related to their college coursework. Five out of the six students interviewed reported that they would be open to the notion of using Facebook for educational purposes relating to their college coursework in the future. Their reasons for holding this positive preconception revolved around two notions: that Facebook is convenient because they are already using it compared to having to learn the Blackboard application for college use, contrasted with a mild disdain for Blackboard and utilization of the LMS being constrained to only when necessary. Further study recommendations include using larger sample sizes, studying across broader class rank and majors and analyzing student desires for different software.

In a climate of assessment and accountability, school districts are constantly on the search for product solutions to the pressing issue of student reading performance, as assessed by annual state standardized accountability testing. In an attempt to increase student reading growth rates, some districts are turning to formative assessment systems, such as the formative online reading assessment Diagnostic Online Reading Assessment, or DORA (commercially available from Let’s Go Learn, Inc.), in order to encourage more differentiated classroom instruction and as a growth monitoring tool for instruction. The implementation of DORA, while top-down in nature, is being done in collaboration with the product developers, whose professional development model utilizes a Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) framework, providing for extensive administrator support, modeling of usage, using a teacher cohort model, and allowing for teacher concerns to be address during the professional development cycle. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects in student reading growth of the teacher-level implementation decisions and in the top-down, district wide implementation of a formative online reading assessment, as part of district-wide measures to improve student reading performance, and subsequently, student reading test scores. Data was collected from a large, urban school district in Southern California, with a large minority population, many of whom speak English as a second language. Existing student DORA data was collected, while a survey was administered to teachers to collect teacher-level professional development implementation data. Student data and teacher data were analyzed using regression analysis and Hierarchical Linear Modeling to determine 1) the relationship between teacher-level professional development implementation decisions and the overall teacher use of DORA, and 2) the relationship between teacher-level professional development implementation decisions and student DORA growth over time.For the first research question, it was determined that none of the study variables pertaining to teacher professional development and implementation decisions were statistically significant predictors of overall teacher usage of the DORA formative assessment program. For the second and third research questions, while it was found that student DORA growth curves did vary by teacher in grades two, three, and five. Few of the study variables pertaining to teacher professional development and program implementation accounted for variance in student growth curves at the teacher level, and none consistently across grade level. Although many of the study variables pertaining to professional development were not found to be significant in this study, future study regarding the implementation of large-scale formative assessment programs should examine how the effects of this professional development vary as the time of the implementation vary. Further research should also examine the effects of a Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) on the implementation of district-wide formative assessment programs. Within a climate of assessment and accountability, more emphasis is being placed on formative assessment use in the classroom, and further study of these formative assessments is warranted.

Serious games — games that are designed and developed for the primary purpose of education rather than pure entertainment, have been used widely as an active learning platform. However, these games can do more than just teach. Serious games can be used to change attitudes and beliefs of players. Such serious games, called 'persuasive games', can engender significant long-term changes in players. This thesis presents a web based, multiplayer, persuasive game called GeoGame, that teaches the complex, real-world semantics of the Green Revolution to Geography students. GeoGame is developed with a purpose of changing the attitudes of students towards farming in developing countries. In this thesis, we review the architecture of the game and present results of the user testing conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the game. The architecture consists of three components — namely a game component, an assessment system and persuasion system. The game component consists of a lightweight web platform that merges multiplayer online gaming technology with online geographic information systems (GIS) technology, to allow players to experiment and interact with the geospatial data. The assessment system is a flexible and easily configurable system, which is used to make rigorous assessment of the benefits of the developed platform. The persuasion system implements features to increase the motivation of students and analyzes how the engagement of students with and their attitudes toward a subject may change as a result of using the GeoGame platform.