DTheses (Athabasca University)
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CLINICAL NURSES’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD THEIR NURSE MANAGERS’ DEGREES OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND TRUST
Get PDFScholars have emphasized the importance of trust as a critical foundation of effective and successful leadership. However, empirical evidence on behaviors that promote trust in leadership remains scarce and lacking. It is postulated that transformational leadership behaviors are a strong predictor of trust in the leader. The American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet Recognition Program® highlights transformational leadership as a main component for delivering nursing excellence. Since leadership behaviors can be perceived through the leaders’ interactions with superiors, peers, and followers, this study aimed at examining clinical nurses’ perceptions toward their nurse managers’ degrees of transformational leadership and trust within a Magnet® designated hospital. The study utilized a cross-sectional survey using the Multilevel Leadership Questionnaire 5X-Short Rater Form to examine perceptions of the degree of transformational leadership, and the Trust in Leader Scale, to examine the perceptions of the degree of trust in the nurse manager. Results indicated that clinical nurses perceived their nursing manager to demonstrate transformational leadership “sometimes” to “fairly often”. The mean trust in the nurse manager score indicated a neutral position of neither agree or disagree, with a propensity towards perceiving the nurse manager as trustful. The study found a strong and positive correlation between trust scores and transformational and its dimensions.December 14, 201
From belief to disbelief: A phenomenological study of the journey from Christian fundamentalism to atheism
Get PDFThis thesis describes the rationale and methodology for a qualitative research project on the journey from Christian fundamentalism to atheism. It includes a review of the relevant literature on apostasy from Christian fundamentalism and on the adoption of an atheist identity, as well as a definition of the terms atheism, Christian fundamentalism, and apostasy/deconversion that will be used in this study. Descriptive phenomenology is the approach best suited to the research question and Colaizzi’s method as the optimum choice for data analysis because it incorporates participant feedback. Typologies for deconversion and for assuming an atheist identity are presented and discussed. Ethical considerations are also identified and addressed. The research question is: What is the lived experience of those who have moved from Christian fundamentalism to atheism?June 201
An exploratory study of Ontario college electrical engineering students’ learning styles
Get PDFThis exploratory case study sought to determine the learning styles of Ontario college electrical engineering students using the Barsch Learning Style Inventory (VAK) and Kolb 3.1 learning style instruments. The findings are compared to previously conducted university studies. In addition to learning style, basic demographic data as well as Internet-based communication preferences in academic pursuits were obtained from six participants. The results indicate that this convenience sample of technical college electrical engineering students have kinesthetic and accommodator styles, which differ from their university counterparts who tend to have visual, assimilator, or converger preferences. These findings support the long standing instructional traditions found in electrical engineering community college programs where hands-on laboratory and project activities focus on application. These findings can aid college faculty in the development and delivery of engineering courses in online, blended, and distance education formats, as well as guide additional research on such programs.2016-0
A causal model of writing competence
Get PDFTraditionally, assessing competence in English composition involves ignoring most of the steps in the writing process and focusing only on the final submission. The writing process cannot be assessed sufficiently in a traditional setting, and no formal structures exist for improving process-based writing competences.
In online distributed learning environments, students’ steps to complete a composition can be recorded at granular levels using content capturing methods. For each step in the writing process, numeric qualities of the text can be determined using natural language processing. These metrics combine into measures of writing competence.
The volume of generated data is cumbersome to submit through distributed environments, and time-consuming to process. This research overcomes the difficulty by simulating writing traces from a corpus of completed essays. A writing analytics engine processes the traces, and the resultant metrics are examined using causal inference, producing multiple statistical models of writing competence as systems of interventions.2018-0
Time and its relationship to help-seeking behavior toward learning strategy resources with entering medical students
No full textIn medical school, the rigorous pace of instruction and large volume of content can create difficulties for some students and medical institutions are exploring ways to incorporate pedagogical communication and online innovations in order to help students be successful. This study monitored entering Year 1 students’ intent to use help from face-to-face and online learning strategy resources at St. George’s University. The purpose of the study was to explore if entering medical students’ perceived they had enough discretionary time available to seek help for an academic problem using the learning strategy resources at SGU.
This study used an action research case study methodology using mixed methods data collection and analysis that was guided through a pragmatic worldview. The relationship between entering medical students intent to seek help when faced with learning challenges and their actual help sought, where these students were most likely to seek academic help, and gender bias was investigated through pre- and post-questionnaires. How discretionary time was perceived to be a factor in seeking help, given that discretionary time allocation is so limited in medical school, was explored through semi-structured interviews.
The results demonstrated that the majority of entering Year 1 medical students reported intention to seek help during orientation and actual help sought during the term had the highest matches with the Internet and learning strategist. Just under half of the interviewees indicated that they had explored the online learning strategy resources at least once. Results also showed that there was some gender bias in help-seeking behavior but the sample size was too small to make more than generalities. The findings indicated that students’ perception of discretionary time was not a major factor in deciding to seek or not seek help from learning strategies resources. Other factors indicated to be important to students’ decisions to seek help could be summarized by the category title “unambiguous communication.”
Although this study focused on specific learning strategy resources in a particular context, the results and findings may provide benefit to other professional studies schools with similar time pressures on their students.2017-0
Experiences of interaction for students with disabilities in online university programs
Get PDFThere is growing interest in online learners with disabilities because of an increase in the number of students with disabilities enrolled in universities and colleges across North America, enabling human rights legislation, and opportunities presented by advances in use of information and communication technologies in education. The past decade has seen a significant number of publications covering this topic; however, the experience of students with disabilities engaged in online learning remains an under-researched area. To address this gap in the research literature, a descriptive phenomenological study was conducted to describe the experience of interaction for students with disabilities who study online in an institution of higher education.
The structure of the experience of interactions for students with disabilities in online programs had five constituents: having access, working harder, being supported, being connected, and becoming. Having access, working harder, being supported, and being connected were constituents that had a high intra-constituent variability in which experiences of students were not described as a singularity but as a continuum that ranged from a lack of or a limited presence of the constituent to fully present constituent in participants’ descriptions. Students also described the following barriers: processes of accessing accommodations, inconsistencies in providing accommodations, a lack of awareness of disability, accommodations, rights and obligations among instructors, responsiveness of the system to students’ inquiries, and over-reliance on a single mode or an activity in the design of courses. Knowing themselves and flexibility were facilitators that helped students with disabilities learn in the online environment. Flexibility was a multidimensional concept including flexibility of time, people, processes, infrastructure, course design, and funding.
This research contributes to the current body of knowledge by capturing experiences of students with disabilities that are mostly absent from the literature. By describing the nature of students’ experiences of online learning, this study revealed that there was an institutional capacity to support students with disabilities in online higher education; however, this capacity was not present consistently within programs and across different departments pointing to the areas of potential changes at instructional, administrative, service, and policy levels.2018-0
EFFECTS OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS ON HOME AND HOST ECONOMIES AND ON THE PROFITABILITY OF INVESTING FIRMS
Get PDFOver the last two decades, FDI flows have increased nearly six-fold across the world. These surges in FDI flows have led to extensive research on the topic in economics and business literature. However, the focus of existing research has mostly remained limited to the study of the relationship between total inward FDI flows and the host (FDI receiving) country’s GDP. The current literature also points to the inconclusiveness and the uncertainty of the results of the existing empirical studies on this topic. Recent literature on this topic also indicates that the two distinct forms of FDIs, greenfield investments and cross-border mergers and acquisitions (CB-M&As), can have different effects on the domestic economies. Nevertheless, the effects of the two forms of FDI on the key macroeconomic variables of host economy such as competition, export propensity and productivity have largely remained under-researched.
Using a cross-country time series data, this dissertation contributes to the current literature through an integrated study, investigating the effects of both forms of FDI Inflows and Outflows on the host and the home economies and on the profitability of MNCs. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) estimates show the following results: (a) A negative long run relationship between CB-M&As and the welfare (per capita GDP) of the host economies; (b) a positive long run relationship between CB-M&As and the welfare (per capita GNI – Gross National Income) of home economies; (c) positive long run relationships between greenfield investments and welfare of both host and home economies; and (d) a positive long run relationship between CB-M&As and the long run profitability of MNCs. The country specific results show mixed trends but are found to be consistent with that of panel data results.
Based on country specific results this study provides an additional explanation for the uncertainty surrounding the effects of FDIs by showing that the two forms of FDI can have varying effects on individual countries. Therefore, for sustainable FDI benefits, in the long run, the host country’s FDI policy should ensure the existence of efficient competition in its economy.2017-0
A DESCRIPTION OF A SUCCESSFUL INDIGENOUS ONLINE HIGH SCHOOL: PERSPECTIVES OF TEACHERS, STAFF, STUDENTS, AND PARENTS
Get PDFEducation is often referred to as a key to success – a means of empowerment that is essential for economic, social, and political success. Hence, Aboriginal education is critical to Aboriginal Peoples’ efforts to control their lives and their communities. Current literature shows that in Canada, not all Aboriginal youth have access to high school programs within their local communities, and there is a gap between educational attainment levels of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. Education attainment levels affect workforce participation, and in order to reduce poverty, it is necessary for more Aboriginal workers to join the workforce. In order for this to happen, the number of Aboriginal learners completing high school must increase.
Online learning provides increased opportunities for Aboriginal learners to access quality high school education while remaining in their communities and reconnecting with their languages and cultures. This case describes a successful online Aboriginal high school based on the perceptions of teachers, staff, students, and parents.2017-0
Learner experience of silence in cohort-based distance education
Get PDFThis study explores how distance learners experience the phenomenon of silence online. Guided by the primary research question – What are the lived experiences of online silence for learners who are members of distance learning communities? – and a phenomenology of practice approach, I interviewed 12 post-secondary learners who were engaged in cohort-based distance learning to explore their lived experiences of silence online. I further investigated how participants described the four phenomenological existentials of lived body (corporeality), lived space (spatiality), lived time (temporality), and lived relationship with others (relationality) in relation to their experiences of silence online. The participants were forthcoming in their interview and generous in sharing their experiences with me. The interviews, 22 in total, yielded thick, rich data.
I carefully transcribed each interview and used iterative rounds of a whole-part-whole interpretive process to discern key features of the four phenomenological existentials and to identify key themes that inform our understanding of the phenomenon under study. Following each interview, and in between each round of interpretation, I used journaling to reflect on (a) my developing understanding of the phenomenon of online silence, and (b) the unfolding research process.
The participants’ experiences highlighted that silence is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that was both enacted and received by the participants. Speaking out online was done carefully, sometimes with partial voice and sometimes in fuller voice with a sense of spontaneity and connection. Participants described profound ways that they experienced corporeality, spatiality, temporality, and relationality in the online learning environment. Participants described challenges and successes while becoming embodied through their words in the discussion forums, mediating the physical separateness and asynchronicity of the online space, and maintaining relationships with others in the distance learning community.
The six themes that emerged were: (1) Learners enact purposeful silence; (2) Learners absorb silence from others; (3) Learners perceive, and use, silence as demarcation; (4) Learners experience silence within voice; (5) Learners use deliberate, complex strategies while engaging in online discourse; and (6) Learners hear each other in trusted community. These six themes give new understandings to the silence online and reflect multifaceted and nuanced aspects of the participants’ experiences of this phenomenon.2018-0
Accelerometer-determined physical activity and sedentary time among lung cancer survivors: Associations with health-related quality of life and fatigue
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to determine associations between objectively assessed
physical activity and sedentary time with health-related quality of life and fatigue among lung cancer survivors. We also examined demographic and clinical correlates of physical activity and sedentary time. In total, 127 lung cancer survivors wore an Actigraph® GT3X+ accelerometer on their hip for seven days and completed a mailed questionnaire. Lung cancer survivors were not engaged in meaningful amounts of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity and also engaged in high amounts of sedentary time. Engaging in physical activity was positively associated with better patient-reported outcomes, while
negative associations were found with sedentary time. Older and overweight lung cancer survivors with a smoking history who were more than five years post diagnosis were
found to be less active and more sedentary. Strategies specifically designed for this
population are needed to increase their physical activity levels and decrease sedentary time.2017-0