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- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
- Creators: Arizona State University
Description
Research suggests there is no significant difference in outcomes for online learners and on-campus learners. Several decades of online learning have also consistently demonstrated online students are less likely to persist than those students attending on campus. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework describes social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence as components of a quality online learning experience, and research links these three constructs to student retention. Using the lens of the CoI framework, this mixed methods action research study sought to increase social presence and teaching presence in asynchronous online courses at Davenport University using embedded video feedback mechanisms, in support of student persistence and retention. The Community of Inquiry survey instrument was used to quantitatively measure the changes in social presence and teaching presence between courses with and without the video feedback mechanisms. Qualitative research interviews were conducted to probe for meaning and a greater understanding of both student and instructor experiences in the courses. Results of the study indicated small but significant gains in teaching presence, but other quantitative measures showed no changes with the introduction of the videos. Qualitative analysis suggests that students who watched the instructor videos reported higher levels of teaching presence for several subconstructs of teaching presence and social presence. However, the qualitative analysis also suggested that many students did not watch the instructor videos, and thus did not benefit from any increased presence. Student discussion response videos yielded similar results qualitatively, with benefits demonstrated by those students who watched the videos but none by those who abstained.
ContributorsMiller, Brian John-Suydam (Author) / Salik, Steve (Thesis advisor) / Nelson, Brian (Committee member) / Nyambane, Gerald (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
As a result of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs, works can be distributed and viewed at a global scale with the simple click of the mouse. One can even visit entire museums and virtually walk through their collections without having to leave one’s own seat. Furthermore, new software, programs, and digital tools facilitate and make possible the ability to experiment and create one’s art in ways that were previously unimaginable or even unheard of. This is also true with the dissemination of one’s art and the visibility of contemporary artists who create works pertaining to the digital realm. However, the availability, usage, and training associated with such technologies do not come without its own implications and drawbacks. Unfortunately, there exists a great disparity not only with access and availability of the Internet at a global level, but also a digital divide, which indicates that the technologies and sciences are “gendered”—for instance, the male majority in STEM professions and fields of study. When considering the Humanities, specifically the genre of contemporary art and literature, women’s marginalization is witnessed there too, as distinguished canonical works belong to predominantly Caucasian, Anglo-Saxon men. In the digital age then, Iberian and Latin American women writers and artists face the challenge of visibility and recognition in two territories—technology and contemporary artistic creation—dominated by men. This study gathers contemporary female artists of digital works originating from North America, the Caribbean, South America, and Spain who utilize a wide variety of tools to conduct and create their artwork. The artists and authors analyzed in this project include: Teresa Serrano (México, D.F. 1936-), Adriana Calatayud (México, D.F. 1967-), Ana Mendieta (Havana, 1948-1985), Maritza Molina (Havana), Yasmín S. Portales Machado (Havana, 1980-), María María Acha-Kutscher (Lima, 1968-), Praba Pilar (Colombia), María Cañas (Seville, 1972-), and Pilar Albarracín (Arcena, Huelva 1968-), with the objective of investigating the manner in which digital tools are being used by these women artists and writers for the purpose visibility, identity (de)construction, as spaces of resistance, and to explore how those messages are transmitted and transformed through digital mediums.
ContributorsByron, Jennifer Elaine (Author) / Urioste-Azcorra, Carmen (Thesis advisor) / Tompkins, Cynthia (Committee member) / Foster, David W (Committee member) / Gilfillan, Daniel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Young women ages 18-29 are the highest users of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the United States. As a group, they curate and create more online content than any other adult user group (Duggan, 2014). Throughout the research literature, scholars claim that the high rate of technology use among young people is related to their developmental stage (boyd, 2014; Kuper & Mustaki, 2014; Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008; Turkle, 2010). The primary developmental tasks of young adults include forming an adult identity, and sustaining intimate relationships. Developmental psychologists and sociologist hypothesize that ICT’s influence developmental trajectories and outcomes (Jensen & Arnett, 2012). Given the breadth of discussion in the literature about development, and ICT use, there is relatively little research focusing on how young women interpret and internalize these experiences. The primary purpose of this study was to understand the interaction between young adults frequent online use and developmental tasks — identity formation and intimate relationships.
Interviews were conducted with young women (18-29) who qualified as high users (N=22). Participants’ were interviewed twice; the initial interview used a structured schedule, providing uniformity across participants. The second interview was an informal conversation personalized to the participant’s’ interests, experiences, and opinions about the topic. Participants were recruited from across the country, and the diversity in the sample mirrors the heterogeneous nature of the emerging adult population. Two forms of qualitative analysis were used, open thematic coding and narrative analysis.
Findings demonstrated the shift of the networked culture creates a highly individualized life trajectory for young people. Identity and intimacy are still the salient developmental tasks for young adults, but continue evolve throughout the life course. . Narrative analyses were used to show strengths of the critical realism theory, especially the reflexive modes, by using case examples. Lastly, the role of ICT are discussed using four primary themes— augmented relationships, disruptive networks, defining moments, and driven agency. Ultimately, this research study helps provide evidence that online spaces are relational and the interactions a part of sociality. For social workers ability to understand development experiences and other facets of social life, further research is needed.
Interviews were conducted with young women (18-29) who qualified as high users (N=22). Participants’ were interviewed twice; the initial interview used a structured schedule, providing uniformity across participants. The second interview was an informal conversation personalized to the participant’s’ interests, experiences, and opinions about the topic. Participants were recruited from across the country, and the diversity in the sample mirrors the heterogeneous nature of the emerging adult population. Two forms of qualitative analysis were used, open thematic coding and narrative analysis.
Findings demonstrated the shift of the networked culture creates a highly individualized life trajectory for young people. Identity and intimacy are still the salient developmental tasks for young adults, but continue evolve throughout the life course. . Narrative analyses were used to show strengths of the critical realism theory, especially the reflexive modes, by using case examples. Lastly, the role of ICT are discussed using four primary themes— augmented relationships, disruptive networks, defining moments, and driven agency. Ultimately, this research study helps provide evidence that online spaces are relational and the interactions a part of sociality. For social workers ability to understand development experiences and other facets of social life, further research is needed.
ContributorsLindsay, Megan (Author) / Krysik, Judy (Thesis advisor) / LaMendola, Walter (Committee member) / MacEachron, Ann (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This dissertation explores the various online radicalization and recruitment practices of groups like al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, as well as Salafi Jihadists in general. I will also outline the inadequacies of the federal government's engagement with terrorist / Islamist ideologies and explore the ways in which early 20th century foundational Islamist theorists like Hasan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, and Abul ala Mawdudi have affected contemporary extremist Islamist groups, while exploring this myth of the ideal caliphate which persists in the ideology of contemporary extremist Islamist groups. In a larger sense, I am arguing that exploitation of the internet (particularly social networking platforms) in the radicalization of new communities of followers is much more dangerous than cyberterrorism (as in attacks on cyber networks within the government and the private sector), which is what is most often considered to be the primary threat that terrorists pose with their presence on the internet. Online radicalization should, I argue, be given more consideration when forming public policy because of the immediate danger that it poses, especially given the rise of microterrorism. Similarly, through the case studies that I am examining, I am bringing the humanities into the discussion of extremist (religious) rhetorics, an area of discourse that those scholars have largely ignored.
ContributorsSalihu, Flurije (Author) / Ali, Souad T. (Thesis advisor) / Miller, Keith (Thesis advisor) / Corman, Steven (Committee member) / Gee, James P (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Cancer survivors engaged in either six-week Internet-delivered mindfulness training or a usual-care control and were compared on the following outcome battery: The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Profile of Mood States, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the Fatigue Symptom Inventory. Assessments were conducted before and after treatment and intervention compliance was monitored. Mindfulness treatments were delivered at a time and on a computer of the participants’ choosing. Multivariate analysis indicated that mindfulness training produced significant benefits on all measures (p < .05). Online mindfulness instruction represents a widely-accessible, cost-effective intervention for reducing psychological distress and its behavioral manifestations in cancer survivors, especially those who are unable to participate in in-person training.
ContributorsMesser, David, Ph.D (Author) / Horan, John J (Thesis advisor) / Homer, Judith (Committee member) / Larkey, Linda (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Sexual assault at colleges and universities in the United States is a significant health and human rights issue that impacts somewhere between one-in-four and one-in-five students. Despite the alarmingly high burden, overall rates of disclosing to crisis, health, and victim services, and reporting to schools and law enforcement remain low. In order to buffer students from associated short- and long-term harm, and help them reestablish safety and pursue justice, empirically-supported, innovative, and trauma-informed secondary prevention strategies are needed. To address this pressing issue, the current study used a trauma-informed, feminist community research approach to develop and design a prototype of an internet-based decision aid specifically tailored to assist students at Arizona State University who experience sexual assault with making informed choices about reporting and seeking care, advocacy, and support on and off campus. Results from preliminary alpha testing of the tool showed that: 1. It is feasible to adapt decision aids for use with the target population, and 2. While aspects of the tool can be improved during the next phases of redrafting and redesign, members of the target population find it to be acceptable, comprehensible, and usable.
ContributorsVillegas-Gold, Michelle (Author) / Hurtado, Ana Magdalena (Thesis advisor) / Gaughan, Monica (Thesis advisor) / Durfee, Alesha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Despite an abundance of defenses that work to protect Internet users from online threats, malicious actors continue deploying relentless large-scale phishing attacks that target these users. Effectively mitigating phishing attacks remains a challenge for the security community due to attackers' ability to evolve and adapt to defenses, the cross-organizational nature of the infrastructure abused for phishing, and discrepancies between theoretical and realistic anti-phishing systems. Although technical countermeasures cannot always compensate for the human weakness exploited by social engineers, maintaining a clear and up-to-date understanding of the motivation behind---and execution of---modern phishing attacks is essential to optimizing such countermeasures.
In this dissertation, I analyze the state of the anti-phishing ecosystem and show that phishers use evasion techniques, including cloaking, to bypass anti-phishing mitigations in hopes of maximizing the return-on-investment of their attacks. I develop three novel, scalable data-collection and analysis frameworks to pinpoint the ecosystem vulnerabilities that sophisticated phishing websites exploit. The frameworks, which operate on real-world data and are designed for continuous deployment by anti-phishing organizations, empirically measure the robustness of industry-standard anti-phishing blacklists (PhishFarm and PhishTime) and proactively detect and map phishing attacks prior to launch (Golden Hour). Using these frameworks, I conduct a longitudinal study of blacklist performance and the first large-scale end-to-end analysis of phishing attacks (from spamming through monetization). As a result, I thoroughly characterize modern phishing websites and identify desirable characteristics for enhanced anti-phishing systems, such as more reliable methods for the ecosystem to collectively detect phishing websites and meaningfully share the corresponding intelligence. In addition, findings from these studies led to actionable security recommendations that were implemented by key organizations within the ecosystem to help improve the security of Internet users worldwide.
In this dissertation, I analyze the state of the anti-phishing ecosystem and show that phishers use evasion techniques, including cloaking, to bypass anti-phishing mitigations in hopes of maximizing the return-on-investment of their attacks. I develop three novel, scalable data-collection and analysis frameworks to pinpoint the ecosystem vulnerabilities that sophisticated phishing websites exploit. The frameworks, which operate on real-world data and are designed for continuous deployment by anti-phishing organizations, empirically measure the robustness of industry-standard anti-phishing blacklists (PhishFarm and PhishTime) and proactively detect and map phishing attacks prior to launch (Golden Hour). Using these frameworks, I conduct a longitudinal study of blacklist performance and the first large-scale end-to-end analysis of phishing attacks (from spamming through monetization). As a result, I thoroughly characterize modern phishing websites and identify desirable characteristics for enhanced anti-phishing systems, such as more reliable methods for the ecosystem to collectively detect phishing websites and meaningfully share the corresponding intelligence. In addition, findings from these studies led to actionable security recommendations that were implemented by key organizations within the ecosystem to help improve the security of Internet users worldwide.
ContributorsOest, Adam (Author) / Ahn, Gail-Joon (Thesis advisor) / Doupe, Adam (Thesis advisor) / Shoshitaishvili, Yan (Committee member) / Johnson, RC (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
In this dissertation i argue that the internet has a positive impact on the likelihood of ethnic riots. To make this argument I put forward three major claims. First, ethnic riots are best understood as performances that aim to clarify ambiguities in the social order. Second, communication technologies structurally constrain the flow of information passing through them. Third, the internet is unique among modern Information Communication Technologies in its capacity for inducing ethnic riots. I provide two types of empirical evidence to support these claims: a cross-national analysis of internet penetration and a case study of India. The former provides evidence for the central claim, finding that the internet has a positive effect on the likelihood of ethnic conflict after a threshold of internet penetration is met. The latter sketches the limits of the proposed theory, finding that internet penetration decreased the likelihood of ethnic riots in India. I argue this is a result of welfare contextualization of the internet.
ContributorsAtcha, Haroon (Author) / Siroky, David (Thesis advisor) / Kittilson, Miki (Committee member) / Thomas, George (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020