Online Graduate Course Research Articles

Happy hours, not office hours: Socially engaging cybersecurity students in a large online graduate course

Happy hours, not office hours: Socially engaging cybersecurity students in a large online graduate course

Strength-Based Learning: An Autoethnography of an Introductory Instructional Design Graduate Course

The purpose of this article is to investigate how to use a strengths-based lens that is highly contextualized, in an ecology (i.e., online graduate course) that shows the value of the socio-emotional interactions or climate. I used an autoethnographic approach to problematize myself so that I could ask contemplative questions as a result of reflection. My data collection process drew upon personal narrative, reflection, and anecdotes, which I analyzed in a graduate-level online learning context with a strengths-based lens to shed light on broader U.S. higher education online learning cultural and theoretical concepts such as organizational justice theory, connectivism, digital learning ecosystems, inclusive design, design justice, and strengths-based learning approaches. Three key cultural phenomena are revealed in this autoethnography. Finally, I discuss this study’s limitations, some implications for faculty, IDs, and SMEs, and suggest areas for further research.

Relational Approach Towards Decolonizing Curriculum Development within the Colonial Postsecondary Institution

The Canadian academy is dominated by Western epistemologies that devalue Indigenous ways of knowing and marginalize Indigenous communities, cultures, and histories (Louie et al., 2017). This paper draws on a cross-disciplinary, interprofessional collaboration between a School of Public Health Sciences and School of Social Work to develop an online graduate course that sought to advance knowledge and practice in Indigenous wellbeing and health through a social justice lens. We explore key considerations, strategies, and challenges undertaken by an interdisciplinary group of non-Indigenous professors to create a learning experience for students that challenges colonial ways of seeing, being, knowing, and doing in the professional practice fields of public health and social work and that serves to elevate and sustain Indigenous voices, knowledges, sciences, and practices within the academy. In doing so, we centre the process of course development, including working with an Indigenous Advisory Circle and Indigenous contributors of content, guest lecture videos, and artwork. The paper describes the creation of a relational teaching and learning community, while raising concerns about the institutionalization of this approach to Indigenous-focused course development in the absence of the structural changes needed to enhance the presence of Indigenous faculty and Elders in academic institutions.

Marking group projects in a large classroom: a case study in the Introduction to Project Management course

The "Introduction to Project Management" is a core online graduate course in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Calgary. During the Fall 2022 semester, 373 students enrolled in this course, and the course grade mainly depended on a group project report. The marking task was split between two Teaching Assistants (TAs), which could affect the marking consistency and fairness of grades. This study presents an approach for grade consistency in such large classrooms with multiple markers. For this, TAs and an instructor marked the same 10% of the submissions using a pre-defined rubric and discussed any differences in their marks. If there was a significant mark discrepancy, markers marked an additional few submissions and reconvened. Afterwards, the TAs marked the remaining submissions, and the final marks were validated for any remaining bias. Discussion on the implementation issues of this marking scheme can provide lessons learned for other instructors.

Through the Lens of Community of Inquiry: Scaffolding Chinese ESL Oral Participation in a US Online Graduate Course

Through the Lens of Community of Inquiry: Scaffolding Chinese ESL Oral Participation in a US Online Graduate Course

An Innovative Course on Involving Patients in Health Professions Education.

Patients can be actively involved in various aspects of health professions education (HPE). However, learners in HPE graduate programs have minimal opportunities to learn how to involve patients in HPE. We designed, implemented, and evaluated a 12-week asynchronous, online graduate course that provides learners such opportunities. We established an advisory committee of patients, clinician-educators, and professors to guide course development. Using Thomas et al.'s framework, we established the general and targeted need for the course, identified the learning outcomes, determined the learning activities, and implemented and evaluated the course. It is offered within the asynchronous, online Diploma and Master in HPE at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Forty learners participated in the course between 2020 and 2022. Using a survey with closed- and open-ended items, learners reported satisfaction with all course components, and they valued the patient narrative videos created for the course. After course completion, learners reported that the course is relevant to their professional practice. They also reported confidence in their abilities to actively involve patients in HPE. Based on the culminating assignment assessment data, learners attained course expectations. Although patients who participated in the narrative videos represented diverse age ranges, health conditions, and experiences in HPE, they were often Caucasian, educated, and from a higher socio-economic background. Also, the level of engagement between patients and learners in the course was limited. We are committed to improving our own patient involvement efforts.

Online Graduate Social Work Education and Critical Feminist Perspectives: An Educational Framework

ABSTRACT Studies highlight online education’s effectiveness; however, few examine theoretical frameworks for guiding pedagogy in online MSW programs. Patriarchal systems create policy and program inequities in higher education, hindering student achievement. Confronting these inequities is essential in designing successful online MSW programs. This conceptual paper asserts that utilizing a critical feminist perspective promotes nontraditional and minoritized students’ unique needs. Educators can prioritize student success by examining systems of oppression and the intersectionality of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, and disabilities in online environments. Utilizing critical feminist perspectives enhances student experiences by operationalizing inclusivity and and should be measured as student success and engagement in an online graduate course.

Strategically Inclusive E-Learning Design

Modeling strategic flexibility and experiential learning approaches, this module focuses on foundational concepts for designing accessible educational materials and applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines. The module was implemented during two weeks of a 16-week asynchronous online graduate course on e-learning pedagogy and design. Content is represented in varied forms, including video presentations and readings. A structured discussion offers asynchronous and synchronous options and utilizes a five-step scaffold to consider UDL-related prompts applied to provided lesson scenarios. Students complete a hands-on activity to better understand accessible document design.

A Comparison of Cognitive and Social Presence in Online Graduate Courses: Asynchronous vs. Synchronous Modalities

Over the last decade, online courses have continued to expand, and students in higher education are being offered increased access to technology and communication tools in online learning programs. This action research study analyzed the impact of two distinct types of online course instruction (100% asynchronous and weekly online synchronous meetings) on learning outcomes, including cognitive and social presence, knowledge gained, and student perceptions. Study participants consisted of graduate students enrolled in online sections of a course on program evaluation. Four sections of the course were available: two included a synchronous meeting using web-conferencing, and two used an asynchronous format. A quasi-experimental design was used and included a pre-post test knowledge assessment, a modified version of the Community of Inquiry questionnaire (CoI), and end-of-course student evaluations. The mean ratings of the CoI in this study ranged from 3.75–4.60 out of 5. There was a significant difference in the cognitive presence scores for synchronous (M=4.26, SD=.529 asynchronous (M=4.47, SD=.454) conditions; t(97)=-2.07, p =.041. Our results suggest when students learn in an asynchronous format, they have a higher cognitive presence. The average scores on the knowledge pre-test were the same for both sections but post-test scores were slightly higher in the asynchronous section. Instructor ratings were high for all courses. These findings may offer valuable implications to higher education programs that have recently transitioned to online teaching modalities.

Implementing Collaborative Project and E-Portfolio in an Online Graduate Course: A Case Study

The ability to work in teams is an imperative competency in today’s complex healthcare delivery system. Collaborative learning allows students to cultivate teamwork, communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. Collaborative learning activity is an essential pedagogical approach to prepare students to meet the need of the healthcare workforce. This paper presents a research study in which a collaborative project was implemented in a redesigned healthcare administration course in an online graduate program. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of this revised course and uncover solutions to improve the implementation of the collaborative project and the usefulness of this course. Students’ perceptions of completing a collaborative project and other learning activities such as ePortfolio were explored. Even though some students enjoyed collaborating with their teammates, other students did not like the collaborative project. The barriers to a successful collaborative project discovered in this study were also revealed in prior empirical studies. Limitations of this research were also presented. The recommendation was proposed for better integration of collaborative projects into the curricula of a program.

Implementing Collaborative Project and E-Portfolio in an Online Graduate Course: A Case Study

Implementing Collaborative Project and E-Portfolio in an Online Graduate Course: A Case Study

Rhizo-Creation of Second-Language Teachers’ Capacity for Technological Integration

This article puts to use the work of Deleuze and Guattari to build new knowledge and understanding associated with the circumstantial nature of becoming a technology-capable language teacher through experimentations with/in the agencements of an ongoing research project associated with the design and delivery of a 12-week online graduate course in computer-assisted language learning (CALL). Methodologically, data collection encompassed participants’ assignments, semi-structured interviews, course materials, and researcher’s journal. Moreover, rhizoanalysis was deployed to map change and potentialities in teachers’ becoming. Scholarly contributions to the fields of technology, learning, and teacher education relate to re-theorizing the role and effect of human, expressive, and material elements in teacher education in CALL, as well as developing new methodologies to research micro-level singularities and emergent potentialities for teaching and learning with/in teacher education.

How am i doing? Using self-mentoring practices to improve a tenure-track faculty’s online instructional strategies

ABSTRACT Junior faculty members face pressure to excel in the threefold mission of their assignment (teaching, research, and service) because the tenure process is complex and requires one to balance many diverse and competing demands. This qualitative study analyzed the self-mentoring practices of a tenure-track faculty who strove to improve his instructional practices in online courses. The study used online surveys and collected data from 363 graduate students. The findings indicated that students appreciated the instructor’s instructional techniques for connecting with learners, creating classroom interaction, providing constructive feedback, and remaining approachable and caring. Given the stressful nature of untenured faculty’s challenges inherent to online graduate courses, this study suggests self-mentoring is an effective reflective practice for new faculty to enhance their instructional practices. The study further recommends the development of faculty social-emotional competencies, the promotion of faculty self-reflective practices, and the use of faculty self-designed mid-term evaluation for instructional improvement.

SEVEN YEARS OF ONLINE PROJECT-BASED LEARNING AT SCALE

Adequate literature has commended the effectiveness and benefits of well-implemented project-based learning (PjBL), yet its success can significantly vary based on contextual factors and approaches. Thus, design guidelines generated from the research need to be adapted and evaluated in various learning environments. Prevailing guidelines predominantly cater to PjBL in traditional residential education. Research into online PjBL remains limited, often involving one-off and noniterative experiments in small classes. This study addresses these gaps by implementing a comprehensive PjBL model in a large online graduate course in computer science. This model integrates project-phase curriculum, online self-directed learning, online communities of inquiry, and online feedback at scale, supported by scaffolding, modeling, and mentoring. The effectiveness of this model is assessed through student surveys spanning seven years. Survey results (n = 2179) revealed consistently positive perceptions of the course's efficacy among students. Notably, older adults and female students, as well as those who identified project topics earlier in the course, reported higher ratings on course effectiveness. This paper shares the detailed implementation of the model, survey findings, and student perspectives on how to succeed in online PjBL. The implications of the study for future research and practice is also discussed.

Developing Unbiased Teacher Identity in Pluri-Accent Reality: Research-Based Classroom Activities

In the current pilot report, we draw on and further develop our previous research examining pre-service teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about accents, in which we proposed a pedagogical intervention reflecting certain aspects of our research outcomes, mainly the positive trend of embracing one’s non-nativeness. A set of four classroom activities, namely Nativeness perception test, Four corners, Bank of experiences and Sociodynamic teacher, were incorporated into three different online graduate courses in the winter and summer semesters 2020/2021 at the Department of the English Language and Literature, Faculty of Education in Prague. The piloting process was partly replicated in face-to-face classes of the following academic year. The overarching goal was to raise awareness of accent variation, especially in such a linguistically homogenous country as the Czech Republic and cultivate future teachers’ ability to address accent-related issues confidently, objectively and sensitively. The subsequent scrutiny of participants’ recorded discussions, written and/or oral feedback, submitted tasks as well as teachers’ observations indicated increased awareness of accent variability and a raised level of pedagogical confidence in approaching accent in the classroom context. Particularly, the respondents proved to be highly creative when devising adequate and supportive reactions to imagined negative comments related to accents or preventing them by specifically designing their lesson plans. Furthermore, the pedagogical intervention was appraised by the participating graduate students in their reflective assessment one year later.

Blending Active Student Responding with Online Instruction to Evaluate Response Accuracy and Student Engagement.

High rates of active student responding and opportunities to respond are considered best-practice instructional strategies for learning. Many educators in higher education have shifted from teaching primarily in-person to either a hybrid or an online format over the past decade. The global pandemic hastened further shifts from in-person to online learning for many institutions of higher education. Given this rapid shift to online instruction, it is critical to evaluate evidence-based teaching practices in online formats. Although there is a robust body of literature that supports the effectiveness of embedding opportunities to respond and active student responding during in-person instruction, to date, there is limited research that evaluates the effects of increased opportunities to respond during synchronous online courses in post-secondary settings. Using an alternating treatments design, this study evaluated the effects of two active student response modalities on response accuracy for seventeen students enrolled in a synchronous online graduate course. The results suggest that students performed more accurately on post-lecture queries following conditions that required written active student responses compared to responds cards. Moreover, the accuracy of correct responding maintained across the exams and the cumulative final exam. Limitations and future implications are discussed.

SHL Teacher Development and Critical Language Awareness: From Engaño to Understanding

This paper offers insights from a study of 17 high school Spanish teachers enrolled in an online graduate course on Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) Pedagogy. The study analyzed the semester-long transformation of teacher attitudes as expressed in discussion board posts following a content analysis approach. Findings show an initial lack of respect for student dialects and knowledge of US varieties of Spanish coupled with a desire to help students improve via the teaching of “academic Spanish”. Many participants expressed a feeling of engaño (disillusionment) toward their previous training, wondering why they had not studied the aforementioned topics sooner (Russell and Kuriscak 2015). By creating a context where teachers themselves became more critically language aware, they also became “…cognizant of the naturalness of language variation and its loading of social, political, and economic power structures…” (Beaudrie et al. 2021, p. 587). This paper underscores the transformation that can occur when teachers investigate bilingual ideologies and practices and linguistic characteristics of US varieties of Spanish. The concrete suggestions offered here aim to answer Leeman’s (2015) call for “destabilizing teachers’ ideologies” (p. 114) in the hopes of creating a more equitable learning environment for future language students.

Slack, Social Justice, and Online Technical Communication Pedagogy

ABSTRACT This Methodologies and Approaches piece interfaces conversations about social justice pedagogies in technical and professional communication (TPC), Black TPC, and online TPC instruction to discuss the social justice affordances of Slack in online instruction. Drawing on our experiences using Slack within an online graduate course during the COVID-19 pandemic, we consider how Slack supports pedagogical community building and accessibility in online instruction before presenting a framework for assessing instructional technologies in terms of social justice.

Hands-on, Minds-on, Hearts-on, Social-on: A Collaborative Maker Project Integrating Arts in a Synchronous Online Environment for Teachers

This article presents a collaborative maker project integrating the arts in a synchronous online environment. Based on the Thinkering, Making, Sharing, and Reflecting (TMSR) model, the four components of hands-on, minds-on, hearts-on, and social-on learning were integrated into an online collaborative maker project involving arts, music, and coding. The authors first describe the theoretical framework of the TMSR model and the design and implementation of the maker project, and then report on the experiences and reflections of the participating teachers, who were enrolled in an online graduate course. Survey results showed that the project fostered the teachers’ connectedness, positive emotions, and satisfaction toward the online learning environment. In addition, qualitative data from their reflective essays revealed that the teacher participants experienced all aspects of hands-on, social-on, hearts-on, and minds-on learning in the online environment both as learners and as teachers. Finally, the qualitative themes showed that the teachers acknowledged supportive maker project components that can be applied in their own teaching context. Implications of the findings for art-integrated maker projects in public school settings were also addressed.

Perceived and Actual Cognitive Presence: A Case Study of an Intentionally-Designed Asynchronous Online Course

Online instructional design and how to engage students cognitively in online asynchronous courses have been an ongoing question. This case study presents an intentional design of an asynchronous online graduate course to foster cognitive presence. The research questions investigate students’ cognitive presence (CP) captured by two measures: Community of Inquiry (CoI) survey (for self-report) and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software (for actual behaviors) in this online course. Additionally, it also addresses how cognitive presence is related to other presences and how the online course design elements were perceived by students. Results showed that students perceived high levels of cognitive presence and they showed high cognitive presence in their discussion board acts. There was a relationship between three presences; and findings showed that teacher and social presence were strong predictors of perceived cognitive presence. Although students in the study rated themselves high on the CoI instrument and scored high on the LIWC for cognitive presence, self-presentation bias still emerged. Strategies that helped students to stay cognitively present in this asynchronous online course included: instructor responsiveness in discussion posts and creating dialogue, creating course assignments as online hands-on project, interviewing guest speakers on specific course topics, weekly recap and orientation videos, feedback, case-based discussions, and other elements.