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- All Subjects: community college
- Creators: Archambault, Leanna
Description
ABSTRACT
Community colleges serve an important and pivotal role in society. Neighborhood community colleges attract local students and students who attend community colleges do so for reasons including convenience and cost savings of living near or at home, lower tuition, developmental education courses, vocational training, ESL courses for English Language Learners, and a myriad of student and college resources. Community college faculty and administration work hard to meet the needs of by providing vocational and university transfer programs.
This research study is about the proliferation of online learning and the community college’s struggle to offer online course and keep students enrolled. In an effort to keep up with new educational innovations such as learning online, community colleges offer and fill online courses. However, attrition in online courses is high. Educators continue to innovate and change in areas of course design and online teaching pedagogy, but online learning lacks the physical presence of teacher-student and student-to-student contact and connectedness to the class itself. This study investigates whether it is possible, and effective, for educators to include non-content related curriculum that tries to boost student connectedness to the class, reduce stress, and increase focus so students are more likely to stay enrolled or at least gain more self-efficacy.
I chose mindfulness and its myriad of benefits to incorporate into assignments to enhance the online learning experience and keep students enrolled and passing. This study used one class section of online ENG102 students in a small, urban community college. Within the online course students were introduced mindfulness through periodic opportunities to read about and participate in mindfulness activities.
Results indicate that students still withdrew or stopped participating in the course, even after just a couple weeks and with minimal opportunity to engage in the mindfulness exercises. Students who did stay enrolled and participated in the mindfulness exercises reported that mindfulness did relieve stress and increase focus in general and when approaching course work. Attrition remained high. The implications for online educators indicate that more than just mindfulness is needed to address the attrition problem in online courses.
Keywords: mindfulness, attrition, online learning
Community colleges serve an important and pivotal role in society. Neighborhood community colleges attract local students and students who attend community colleges do so for reasons including convenience and cost savings of living near or at home, lower tuition, developmental education courses, vocational training, ESL courses for English Language Learners, and a myriad of student and college resources. Community college faculty and administration work hard to meet the needs of by providing vocational and university transfer programs.
This research study is about the proliferation of online learning and the community college’s struggle to offer online course and keep students enrolled. In an effort to keep up with new educational innovations such as learning online, community colleges offer and fill online courses. However, attrition in online courses is high. Educators continue to innovate and change in areas of course design and online teaching pedagogy, but online learning lacks the physical presence of teacher-student and student-to-student contact and connectedness to the class itself. This study investigates whether it is possible, and effective, for educators to include non-content related curriculum that tries to boost student connectedness to the class, reduce stress, and increase focus so students are more likely to stay enrolled or at least gain more self-efficacy.
I chose mindfulness and its myriad of benefits to incorporate into assignments to enhance the online learning experience and keep students enrolled and passing. This study used one class section of online ENG102 students in a small, urban community college. Within the online course students were introduced mindfulness through periodic opportunities to read about and participate in mindfulness activities.
Results indicate that students still withdrew or stopped participating in the course, even after just a couple weeks and with minimal opportunity to engage in the mindfulness exercises. Students who did stay enrolled and participated in the mindfulness exercises reported that mindfulness did relieve stress and increase focus in general and when approaching course work. Attrition remained high. The implications for online educators indicate that more than just mindfulness is needed to address the attrition problem in online courses.
Keywords: mindfulness, attrition, online learning
ContributorsRomirowsky, Kelly (Author) / Hermanns, Carl (Thesis advisor) / Archambault, Leanna (Committee member) / Lindsey, LeeAnn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Active-duty service members pursuing college degrees face many obstacles due to their military service, such as frequent relocation, long work hours, extended field time, and deployments. While online learning makes higher education more accessible to service members, asynchronous courses can leave active-duty students feeling that online education is lacking in social or peer connection. The purpose of this action research study was to use the Community of Inquiry Framework, as well as Self-Determination Theory, to investigate the results of an intervention, called the R&R Journal, on the social presence, cognitive presence, attitude, and overall academic outcome of active-duty service members enrolled in online, asynchronous HIST 1301 at Central Texas College. This study uses a quasi-experimental concurrent mixed methods design with both treatment and comparison course groups. Results indicate that active-duty students who participated in the intervention increased in social presence, cognitive presence, and overall academic outcome over the course of HIST 1301. Implications for practice include (a) increasing social presence by encouraging peer to peer connection in an asynchronous course through deeper analysis of discussion boards, (b) increasing cognitive presence by challenging students to make personal connections to course material, and (c) increasing cognitive presence by encouraging relevant, modern-day connections to course material.
ContributorsGreene, Emily (Author) / Weinberg, Andrea (Thesis advisor) / Griswold, Philip (Committee member) / Archambault, Leanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Universities and colleges in the United States (U.S.) are in a period of rapid transformation. Driven by the need for an educated workforce, higher education institutions are responding to rapid innovation, globalization, economic realities, and sociodemographic shifts. Simultaneously, extensive educational online networks connect millions of people worldwide enable learning and knowledge sharing beyond what society has experienced to date. In light of technological advancements, the preservation and presentation of certain ideals that undergird academia and the communication and application of knowledge are undergoing dramatic change. Within higher education, this is both a challenge and an opportunity to re-envision the commitment to educate the public. This research discusses potential forms of this redesign and how it can build upon and depart from previous iterations of higher education. How colleges and universities will adapt to become more relevant, engaging, and accessible is a pressing question that must be addressed.
Using case studies focused on creating sustainability education materials, this dissertation develops knowledge related to three interconnected areas of study that will contribute to redesigning higher education through participatory action research methodology. First, higher education has a civic responsibility to provide new ways of thinking, being, and doing globally and providing more access to education to broader society, especially through public research institutions. Second, with a vast array of available learning materials, higher education should invest in elegantly-designed experiences consisting of well-reasoned, meticulously-curated, and high-quality content that is aesthetically appealing, engaging, and accessible to a broad audience. Third, as universities transition from the gatekeepers of knowledge to the connectors of knowledge, they also need to ensure that a coherent mission is articulated and invested in by stakeholders to create an intentionally beneficial transformational effort. The transformation of higher education toward a more inclusive learning environment through new ways of thinking and elegantly-designed learning experiences will serve to improve our learning institutions. As part of the necessary core for an educated democracy, higher education institutions must strive to create a more equitable, inclusive, and diverse society.
Using case studies focused on creating sustainability education materials, this dissertation develops knowledge related to three interconnected areas of study that will contribute to redesigning higher education through participatory action research methodology. First, higher education has a civic responsibility to provide new ways of thinking, being, and doing globally and providing more access to education to broader society, especially through public research institutions. Second, with a vast array of available learning materials, higher education should invest in elegantly-designed experiences consisting of well-reasoned, meticulously-curated, and high-quality content that is aesthetically appealing, engaging, and accessible to a broad audience. Third, as universities transition from the gatekeepers of knowledge to the connectors of knowledge, they also need to ensure that a coherent mission is articulated and invested in by stakeholders to create an intentionally beneficial transformational effort. The transformation of higher education toward a more inclusive learning environment through new ways of thinking and elegantly-designed learning experiences will serve to improve our learning institutions. As part of the necessary core for an educated democracy, higher education institutions must strive to create a more equitable, inclusive, and diverse society.
ContributorsHale, Anne Elizabeth (Author) / Archambault, Leanna (Thesis advisor) / Johnston, Erik W., 1977- (Thesis advisor) / Richter, Jennifer (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020