ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Instructor Leadership and the Community of Inquiry Framework: Applying Leadership Theory to Higher Education Online Learning
Author: Meech, Sally
Date: 2023-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Instructional Leadership,Communities of Practice,Inquiry,Higher Education,Electronic Learning,Teacher Attitudes,Self Concept,Student Satisfaction,College Students,Online Courses,Leadership Styles

Higher education institutions continue to invest in online learning, yet research indicates instructors often lack experience, preparation, and guidance for teaching online. While instructor leadership is essential for meaningful online learning, few studies have investigated online instructors' leadership behaviors. This study offers new insights into the conceptual and empirical alignment between instructor leadership, as interpreted through the dual lenses of organizational leadership theory and the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, proposing instructor leadership as foundational to the teaching and learning experience in a CoI. Specifically, the convergent mixed methods study investigated students' (N = 87) and instructors' (N = 7) perceptions of instructor servant leadership (SL) behaviors in an online graduate-level course designed to facilitate a CoI. Results demonstrate instructor SL behaviors were perceived differently by students and instructors, instructors' self-perceptions were generally higher than students' perceptions, and students' perceptions of instructor SL were positively correlated with their satisfaction with the course and instructor. Implications offer insights into instructor leadership behaviors important for developing instructor leadership presence to facilitate meaningful learning and student satisfaction in higher education online learning.
Assessing the Value of Integrating Writing and Writing Instruction into a Research Methods Course
Author: Baker, Jayne
Date: 2023-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Writing (Composition),Writing Instruction,Research Methodology,Courses,Writing Skills,Writing Improvement,Social Science Research,Writing Assignments,Tutorial Programs,Feedback (Response),Writing Across the Curriculum,Foreign Countries,Sociology,Undergraduate Students

Universities across Canada and elsewhere have a longstanding focus on improving students' writing skills, including for the purpose of fostering better learning. In this paper, we present findings from two sources of data--a discursive analysis and student survey--exploring the impact of writing instruction and support in the context of a required social science research methods course. The course is situated in an institutional context whereby specific courses are targeted for writing support through the provision of additional funds. The results indicate that the structure of the course-- featuring components like tutorials and scaffolded assignment design--facilitates gains in student writing. The discursive analysis shows improvements across the three assignments submitted throughout the term and a positive impact of tutorial attendance. The survey indicates that students have an overall positive impression of the supports designed specifically with the learning of writing and research skills in mind.
Critical Issues in Open and Distance Education Research
Author: Xiao, Junhong
Date: 2023-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Open Education,Distance Education,Educational History,Research Reports,Research Needs,Educational Practices,Teaching Methods,Evidence Based Practice

Despite its mainstreaming into the broader educational ecology, open and distance education (ODE) still leaves much to be desired in terms of both practice and research. Inspired and informed by the author's 35 years of experience as an ODE practitioner, researcher, reviewer, and editor, this article concentrates on 10 critical issues of ODE research that have long existed but may have a consequential impact on its healthy growth. The issues discussed cover scarcity of longitudinal research, paucity of scaling-up and generalization research, preference for success over failure presented in research, the need for a systems approach, lack of sociocultural sensitivity, technologization of research, scant attention to ODE for the underprivileged and disadvantaged, insufficient research on ODE policy, negligence of historical research, and disinterest in revisiting ODE theories. The causes of these problems are critically interpreted and their possible negative impacts on the field of ODE are explored in a concise manner. The purpose of this article is to encourage further discussion and debate on ODE research to sustain its presence and acceptance as a legitimate mode of education in the wider educational community.
Developing an Undergraduate Career Conference: Leveraging Mentorship to Promote Career Discovery
Author: Norris, Meghan E.
Date: 2023-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Undergraduate Students,Career Readiness,Career Exploration,Psychology,Conferences (Gatherings),Mentors,Professional Development,Employment Services,Career Development,Career Pathways,Networks,Foreign Countries

Are students ready for jobs when it comes time to graduation? This is a common question, and one that is often addressed in the media (e.g., Collie, 2019). Despite psychology being one of the most popular degree plans for undergraduate students (e.g., Higher Education Research Institute, 2008), many students in undergraduate psychology programs fail to see the relevance and value of their degree (Borden and Rajecki, 2000). In this work, we designed, delivered, and assessed a career &quot;conference&quot; for students in psychology. Intentionally different from a career fair where students seek jobs, this event applied a mentorship-based conference model. In this conference model, in addition to professional development training, industry mentors who work in professional fields related to psychology were invited to provide personal insight on their careers in a small-group format. Critical to this model, students were encouraged and able to ask questions that may not be appropriate for a job fair where hiring is happening. Further, this career model involved intentional connections with our Career Services office, allowing for programmatic delivery of career-based content within the domain-specific event. We provide early empirical evidence that this method of career development supports students in learning about career paths that psychology can lead to, identifying skills that will assist them in finding a career, feeling confident in their ability to network effectively, and feeling more connected with professionals in careers related to psychology. We suggest that this model may be beneficial across disciplines.
Predicting Online Learning Success Based on Learners&apos; Perceptions: The Integration of the Information System Success Model and the Security Triangle Framework
Author: Al-Azawei, Ahmed
Date: 2023-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Online Courses,Electronic Learning,Success,Prediction,Models,Information Security,College Students,Student Behavior,Intention,Student Satisfaction,Educational Quality,Educational Technology

Although online learning has become ubiquitous worldwide, earlier research has neglected the relationship between its actual use and security concerns. Learners' lack of security awareness while using learning technologies remains rarely studied. This paper integrates Delone and McLean's information system success (D&amp;M-ISS) model with the security triangle framework. Data from 2,451 higher education students at different universities and a wide variety of disciplines in Iraq were collected. In addition to the effectiveness of the D&amp;M-ISS factors, the research findings based on the structural equation model suggest that the three constructs of the security triangle framework--namely, confidentiality, integrity, and availability--were significant predictors of students' use of online learning. This research can thus help academic organizations understand factors that can lead to the successful implementation of online learning and learners' security awareness.
Concept Mapping in a Flipped Clinical Environment: A Basic Qualitative Study
Author: Onabadejo, Juliet
Date: 2023-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Concept Mapping,Flipped Classroom,Clinical Experience,Critical Thinking,Nursing Education,Nursing Students,Undergraduate Students,Decision Making,Active Learning,Self Efficacy,Recall (Psychology),Nontraditional Education,Patients,Barriers,Foreign Countries

The need to encourage critical thinking and academically engage nursing students in a clinical environment compels faculty use of assorted teaching strategies, including concept mapping and flipped learning. Though nurse educators encourage both strategies, concurrent use of both methods in clinical teaching is rare. Thus, this study examined the use of concept mapping in a flipped clinical course to encourage students' engagement and critical thinking. Twelve baccalaureate nursing students in a second-year medical-surgical clinical course provided the data for this basic qualitative study by completing journals or diaries throughout the course and through individual semi-structured interviews at course exit. Open coding of interview transcripts and journals in conjunction with constant comparative analysis helped develop categories and themes. Several overlapping themes emerged from interview and journal data. Nursing students indicated that they developed different ways of thinking, learned from many people, became actively involved in learning and expanded their thinking, connected information, determined clinical priorities and made decisions, became confident and knowledgeable in their ability to recall information and transfer knowledge, and experienced increased critical thinking and higher level thinking skills. The results of the study showed the participants derived positive meaning from their learning in a nontraditional flipped clinical with concept mapping. Students were actively engaged in their learning and were able to expand their thinking while working collaboratively with their instructor, patients, and staff.
Evaluating and Improving the Formative Use of Student Evaluations of Teaching
Author: Omer, Kamel
Date: 2023-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Formative Evaluation,Student Evaluation of Teacher Performance,College Faculty,Teacher Attitudes,Tenure,Teacher Improvement,Foreign Countries,Intellectual Disciplines,Adjunct Faculty

Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) are a ubiquitous tool in higher education. Though they are not effective means of evaluating teaching ability, they are useful in formative teaching development of a teaching career. We characterise the current formative use of and attitudes towards SETs by instructors across all disciplines (STEM and non-STEM). We found that tenured instructors used SETs for formative development more than untenured, and that non-STEM instructors had more negative associations with SETs than STEM instructors. Based upon these data, we make recommendations to redesign the SET instrument and change the way in which the data are used to support formative teaching development.
Facilitated Study Groups for Undergraduate Organic Chemistry: Experience from a Large Public Canadian University
Author: Hamidzada, Homaira
Date: 2023-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Undergraduate Study,College Science,Organic Chemistry,Science Instruction,Intervention,Small Group Instruction,Program Effectiveness,Peer Teaching,Grades (Scholastic),Academic Persistence,Student Diversity,Inclusion,Student Motivation,Student Participation,Cooperative Learning,Group Discussion,Feedback (Response),Facilitators (Individuals)

Undergraduate organic chemistry courses have a reputation for being difficult among students in biological and physical sciences programs. Due to the extensive problem-solving, visualization, and depiction of chemical structures/reactions required, students may perceive learning such content as similar to learning a new language. Several interventions such as course-integrated tutorials or discussion sessions have aimed to assist students. Another effective approach that chemistry educators might consider is Supplemental Instruction (SI), a well-established program that emphasizes student-driven learning whereby student SI leaders facilitate discussions to help students arrive at solutions while also developing effective communication and study skills. A type of SI, Facilitated Study Groups (FSG), established by the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) in 2009, were introduced regularly into organic chemistry courses in 2012. This program provides semester-long optional small-group peer learning sessions, each of which corresponds to a course lecture. The aim of this paper is to provide comprehensive coverage detailing the structure of the organic chemistry FSG program, peer facilitation strategies employed, quantitative/qualitative synthesis of student outcomes indicating program uptake. We consistently find significantly higher grades and significantly lower attrition rates for students who regularly attend FSG sessions in comparison to those who do not (n=16 semesters). Given the growing diversity of undergraduate classes in terms of approaches to learning, language, and cultural barriers (international students, English second-language learners, learning and psychosocial disabilities), our FSG sessions seek to foster inclusion amongst our heterogeneous pool of attendees. Here, we describe strategies that tailored FSG sessions to a diverse group of undergraduate students as suggested by a sizable percentage of the class availing themselves of this resource and by a narrative synthesis of end-of-term surveys. Together, we demonstrate successful adoption of an SI-based model for organic chemistry and present a practical framework that includes pedagogically informed session strategies and cost estimates to guide design of similar programs for post-secondary students at other institutions.
Growth and Goals Module: A Course-Integrated Open Education Resource to Help Students Increase Their Learning Skills
Author: O'Connor, Emily
Date: 2023-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Online Courses,Units of Study,Learning Strategies,Skill Development,Evidence Based Practice,Study Skills,Independent Study,Goal Orientation,Metacognition,College Students,Reading Materials,Video Technology,Learning Activities,Program Evaluation,Program Effectiveness,Open Educational Resources,Self Management

We developed and launched an online, course-integrated module called Growth &amp; Goals aimed to help students better develop evidence-based learning skills. The module focuses on five main concepts: self-regulated learning, goal-setting, metacognition, mindfulness, and mindsets (growth and fixed continuum). Growth &amp; Goals is an open education resource available for download at no cost to any educator through FlynnResearchGroup.com/GrowthGoals. The module is available in both French and English and can be customized to any university course. The module addresses the aforementioned concepts through a combination of text and videos, with interspersed interactive activities that students use to develop their learning skills. Growth &amp; Goals is intended to help students effectively manage the challenges they may encounter as they progress through their postsecondary academic career and beyond and become more proficient learners. Since 2017, the module has been implemented in more than 15 university courses and has been used by over 8000 students. The preliminary evaluation of Growth &amp; Goals has been largely positive, indicating that the module has been well received by both students and educators and that it successfully guides students in learning the module's concepts.
It&apos;s Time to Bring Mental Health Literacy Education into the Postsecondary Curriculum
Author: Zaza, Christine
Date: 2023-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Mental Health,Foreign Countries,Higher Education,College Students,Well Being,Undergraduate Students,Knowledge Level,Social Bias,Help Seeking,Program Effectiveness,Student Attitudes,Health Behavior

In the last twenty years, research on post-secondary students' mental health and well-being has grown substantially, with a dramatic increase in publications over the past decade. Likewise, concerns about declining mental health on our campuses have risen; the mental well-being of postsecondary students is now widely recognized as a major public health issue. Over the last two decades, Canadian higher education has largely addressed these concerns by promoting mental health &quot;awareness&quot; through extracurricular means. Critically, a new movement towards mental health &quot;literacy&quot; has emerged across the nation: not just supplementary outreach, but education embedded into the curriculum. To put recommendations into practice, in 2020, one of the authors [CZ] developed and taught an undergraduate course on mental health literacy with a class of 106 students. In the first offering, we conducted a pre-post study to examine if this new course would be associated with changes in mental health knowledge, stigma, and help-seeking. Of the forty students who participated in the study, ten completed measures at both the start (T1) and the end of the course (T2). Within-subjects analyses showed that students made significant gains from T1 to T2, with a large effect size, in terms of attitudes toward seeking mental health services. Feedback on the course was very positive, both in students' ratings and their comments. Looking ahead, student well-being will depend on how institutions approach and engage with mental health literacy. We recommend firmly integrating mental health literacy education into the post-secondary curriculum.
Impact of the Preparation for Academic Success in Science (PASS) High School to University Transition Program
Author: Houser, Chris
Date: 2023-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,High School Graduates,College Freshmen,Transitional Programs,College Preparation,Study Habits,Notetaking,Test Preparation,Study Abroad,Service Learning,Internship Programs,Student Organizations,Wellness,Academic Achievement,Grade Point Average,Program Effectiveness

The transition from high school to university can be difficult and stressful for many students who are not sure of how to be successful in their courses and become engaged in extracurricular activities beyond the classroom. This paper describes the design and outcomes of the Preparation for Academic Success in Science (PASS) transition program in the Faculty of Science at the University of Windsor, a mid-sized university in Ontario, Canada. The two-day PASS program, offered in the week before fall classes begin, is designed to introduce incoming students to effective study habits, note taking, and preparation for examinations. Moreover, students are advised on how to get involved in undergraduate research, study abroad, service learning, internships, and student organizations, while balancing their time, health and wellness. Results from PASS cohorts between 2017 and 2019 suggest that students who participated in the PASS program had higher major and overall averages in their first and subsequent years, and significantly greater engagement in extracurricular activities compared to the (control group) students who did not participate in the transition program. PASS is presented as an effective transition program, but it is argued that further study is required to determine how academic performance and engagement are related to the intentionality of the student when they start university, and the importance of the program to building community and a sense of belonging.
Education of Incarcerated Young People in Malawi: Strategic Plan versus Reality
Author: Kajawo, Samson C. R.
Date: 2023-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Strategic Planning,Institutionalized Persons,Correctional Institutions,Foreign Countries,Correctional Education,Access to Education,Content Analysis,Teacher Attitudes,Juvenile Justice,Correctional Rehabilitation,Punishment,Educational Quality,Models

Education must be accessible to all citizens, including those incarcerated in penitentiaries, to contribute to the socio-economic development of the countries. In Malawi, to enhance incarcerated people's access to quality education in correctional facilities, the Malawi Prisons Service (MPS) included education as a strategic objective in its five-year strategic plan covering the period between 2016 and 2021. This article analysed and compared this strategic education objective against reality to ascertain its implementation and relevance during the implementation period. Guided by Bunning's model of strategic planning, the study employed a qualitative content analysis research method using the 'hybrid approach'. The study mainly used data from the semi-structured interviews involving purposively selected 25 educators and officials from five young offenders' rehabilitation centres in Malawi. Findings revealed a mismatch between the contents of the strategic education objective and the actual reality. The study identified characteristics of Bunning's ritual approach since it was revealed that the strategic plan was developed to please the government and development partners. From the education objective viewpoint, the strategic plan was hardly used during the five years since the educational activities remained the same (even worse) after the implementation period. The young offenders' facilities were still stuck in the punitive philosophy, as evidenced by limited resources in the education section and the management's priority on coerced farming instead of education. It was recommended that the correctional administrations needed to prioritise the provision of quality education for school-aged offenders in correctional policies.
Mapping the Journey from the Head to the Heart: Actualizing Indigenization in Health and Human Services Education
Author: Docherty, Marcia A.
Date: 2023-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Higher Education,Minority Group Students,Indigenous Populations,Cultural Awareness,Culturally Relevant Education,College Faculty,Faculty Development,Teaching Methods,Racism,Foreign Countries,Canada Natives,Knowledge Level,Consciousness Raising

Camosun College's commitment to Truth and Reconciliation includes Indigenization. At the College, Indigenization means the world views of Indigenous students are reflected in curriculum practices and non-Indigenous students are prepared to build better relationships with Indigenous peoples. The College uses a number of models to support Indigenization including an Indigenized Quadrant Model based on Wilber's (1997) Integral theory. This Model is used in this research study to inventory the Indigenization interventions and activities internal and external to the College and examine participation rates by non-Indigenous faculty. At the time of the study, respondents viewed the College as midway on its progress of Indigenization. The results suggest that developing a few activities across the four quadrants of the Model and leveraging relevant activities in the larger community may be sufficient to build an Indigenization program within a post-secondary institute. We also identified a need for more advanced training to support non-Indigenous faculty to fully Indigenize their teaching practices. The focus of this advanced training includes developing skills to address racism and confront privilege not only in their students but also their professions. For administrators wanting to actualize Indigenization, we recommend the continued alignment, monitoring, and measurement of the impacts of Indigenization activities and programs.