DTheses (Athabasca University)
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Case study of a knowledge-based organization. Master of Distance Education thesis, Athabasca University
No full textThis interpretative case study is an attempt to gain insight into the operation of a successful organization working within the new knowledge-based society, with a view to increasing the efficacy of educational interventions targeted at ordinary knowledge workers. Much of the relevant research, including such topics as tranorganizational development, learning organization theory, STS theory, and lean production, comes from management and organizational theory. Many organizational theorists would agree that a product of companies is people. While not denying the truth of this statement, this study attempts to reverse it and say that when workers share in the development of the organizational vision, companies are potentially also a product of the workers that they comprise. Q, the organization that is the subject of the study, has a culture that is well-matched to the turbulence of the knowledge industry. The three characteristics of its culture that stand out are experimentalism, individualism, and informality. It is certainly an organization that learns, but it appears to lack the pervasive double-loop learning that characterizes a learning organization. Much of the double-loop learning and knowledge-acquisition that goes on within it depends on individual initiative and the coordinating capabilities of certain key "operators." Hence, it might be more fruitfully compared to a lean production system. However, tranorganizational development theory suggests that an educational intervention that permitted shared visioning to be founded on the personal mastery of many participants, could catalyze the transformation of Q into a learning transorganization that would not only produce superior goods and services, but also lead to new opportunities for the development of an even more intangible product -people.200
Faculty attitudes toward interactions in delivering undergraduate distance education. Master of Distance Education thesis, Athabasca University
No full textInteraction is a common theme in distance education. While distance learners, and the uses of various technologies and tools, have been studied extensively, faculty have received less attention in the literature. The purpose of this study was to determine practitioners'attitudes toward interaction in undergraduate education at a distance, as well as how these attitudes and outlooks are demonstrated in practice. This study used a mail survey of faculty who deliver undergraduate education at a dedicated distance university, regarding their attitudes and actions in relation to learner-instructor, learner-content, learner-interface and learner-learner interactions. The resulting data was analyzed to provide descriptive statistics as well explore possible correlations between how frequently faculty use various approaches to interaction, how satisfied they are with these approaches, and how important they feel the approaches are to helping learning happen. Learner-instructor, learner-content, and learner-interface interactions are valued highly. Learner-learner interaction is valued just moderately. In practice, faculty provide for all four types of interaction. Learner-instructor interaction receives the most attention, with learner-learner interaction attended to somewhat less. For all four types of interaction, there are positive correlations between how frequently faculty use approaches, and both their satisfaction with these approaches and their perceptions of how important these approaches are to helping learning happen. The strongest of these correlations involve online approaches such as electronic mail and multimedia presented on the Internet. Two major issues remain to be addressed. The first is whether the attitudes and actions of Athabasca University tutors regarding the four types of interaction are comparable to those of the faculty who teach undergraduate courses. The second is whether faculty at dual-mode distance universities, or those who deliver group-paced instruction to students organized into classes and cohorts, have attitudes and behavior regarding interaction that are similar to or different from the faculty in this study.200
Conversational audio in online distance education. Master of Distance Education thesis, Athabasca University.
No full textThis thesis explores the effectiveness of convenient audio in online education. Conversational audio is defined as structured, but not scripted, conversations between the instructor and colleagues, students, subject matters experts, or people who have experienced the subject firsthand. The results of this thesis suggest strong student support for this format of audio in their online courses, with particular support for the use of conversation with guests and their use of stories and examples to reinforce the course content. One hundred and sixty-five students in four online courses conversational audio at Camosun College in Victoria, B.C. were surveyed in two consecutive offerings of the courses: at the end of the fall 2000 semester, and at the end of the winter 2001 semester. The students had the choice of listening by the analog methods of radio and audiocassette, or digitally through a stored computer file or as a live audio stream while the program was broadcast on the radio. Most students used only one method to listen to the audio, and the most popular listening method was the stored computer file. The students did not indicate technical difficulties using online audio, Most students said they enjoyed listening to the audio and felt it helped them learn the content. About 87% of the students felt the conversational audio programs helped them to understand different views of the subject, and that same percentage agreed that the stories and examples helped them to relate the subject to real life situations. While most students said hearing their instructor's voice contributed to them feeling a personal relationship with him, a substantial number of students indicated that they needed two-way communication in order to feel a personal connection. It appears that the use of conversational audio online may be better supported by providing substantial opportunities for peer and instructor interaction by computer mediated communication (CMC). There is strong student support that online conversational audio was interesting, enjoyable, and contributed to learning. Furthermore, students were satisfied with accessing and using the delivery technologies. This thesis concludes with 22 recommendations presented in support of conversational audio in online education.200
Survey of available online training for Canadian voluntary boards. Master of Distance Education thesis, Athabasca University
No full textThere is a revolution underway in the voluntary section in a number of overlapping arenas. After years of benign neglect government, political and academic attention has been directed to the information vacuum that surrounds this sector representing one eighth of Canada's Gross Domestic Product. Although a recent study revealed that Canadians hold a high degree of trust in the work and workers of charities, there is increasing pressure on voluntary organizations to articulate to their stakeholders all aspects of their accountability practices. Cognizant of this pressure, a concerned group from the voluntary sector established the Voluntary Sector Roundtable to look at its governance and accountability practices. Through a series of roundtable discussions with voluntary organizations across Canada the Voluntary Sector Roundtable developed eight key governance standards to act as a guide for the governance practices of voluntary boards. Despite the number of well-developed face-to-face training programs aimed at improving the governance practices of voluntary boards, the sheer size of the sector suggests that a technological solution in the form of online training will provide all boards the potential to access the training and information required to meet these emerging needs. The purpose of this survey was to discover and examine Canadian online training directed at voluntary boards. The study compared existing online training materials with the eight key standards developed by the Voluntary Sector Roundtable (the only existing standards of this nature in Canada). The study also closely compared existing online training to the key standards met by the Board Development Program text-based training materials.200
Web design for effective online training and instruction. Master of Distance Education thesis, Athabasca University
No full textThe following is a research/experimental thesis that surveys and examines web-design for effective online training and instruction. The purpose of the thesis is to create -- from a variety of relevant learning theories and practical web-design strategies advocated in the research literature -- a Web-based instruction checklist that can be used to develop and assess online instructional materials. This checklist, referred to as WeBIC, is structured around the common ISD processes of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation, with a focus on ‘Web Usability’ and ‘the Five Ps’ of preparation, presentation, participation, practice and performance. To determine the usefulness of WeBIC as a design and evaluation tool, three studies have been generated: (1) an experimental comparison study of online instructional materials in two formats -- a web-study one that follows guidelines and strategies outlined by WeBIC, and the other that follows a text-only format based on a modified form of thesis writing guidelines; (2) an analysis study of server data related to website access and instructional activity at ESLenglish.com and during the comparison study; and (3) an evaluation study of the instructional materials used in the comparison study and the instructional materials available at ESLenglish.com. The comparison study showed 2.1% learning gains that under closer analysis were found to be non-significant. The server analysis study confirmed the importance of designing for ‘speed of access’ and ‘navigation ease.’ It also brought into question the reliability of web mining data and the need for proper operational definitions. The evaluation study produced WeBIC scores for ESLenglish.com and the comparison study learning materials that could be used as benchmarks for further research.200
Student experiences with computer mediated conferencing: a case study. Master of Distance Education thesis, Athabasca University.
No full textComputer conferencing provides students with the opportunity to interact with each other and with the instructor with greater ease and more flexibility than ever before. The literature indicates that conferencing was initially used as a supplemental form of interaction but is now a main form of teaching- learning activities in distance delivered post-graduate programs. For the purpose of this study interaction is assumed to be a critical component of the learning process. Despite the interaction that conferencing provides, conferencing experiences can be both positive and negative. The literature to date has not exhausted this area of inquiry. This study utilized a single case study research design to investigate what students experience (both positive and negative) in computer conferencing and how their experiences may relate to instructor objectives. In addition to the specific course instructor, 8 subjects from a course of 22 students responded by completing questionnaires and participating in telephone interviews. Student subjects answered questions relating to both their positive and negative conferencing experiences and offered suggestions for conference improvement. The instructor answered questions relating to objectives for including conferencing as a component of the specific course, as well as the method that was used to determine whether the students had met the objectives. Data analysis found that both of the instructor objectives were met and, despite the negative aspects of conferencing, all student subjects found conferencing to be an overall beneficial endeavor. In addition to a variety of opinions, student subjects gave interesting and constructive comments and suggestions regarding the improvement of conferencing. Finally, limitations of the study are described and further research ideas are suggested.200
Developing a student model for distance education. Master of Distance Education thesis, Athabasca University.
No full textThe current thesis describes a number of educational problems which arise in asynchronous distance education, such as discontinuity of educational sessions or lack of effective student supervising, and explores how such problems may be addressed by the use of Student Models. A number of typical examples of Student Models that have been developed are reviewed, in order to indicate the uses and the achievements of Student Models in education. The question of how Student Models could potentially be useful in asynchronous distance education is discussed, in addition to criteria for testing the applicability of such models. Furthermore, the pilot implementation of a student model called See Yourself Improve (SYIM) and the application of this model to a real asynchronous distance education session as a field test is described. The thesis closes with an evaluation of the feedback provided by the field test participants, and the modifications/recommendations for further improvement of the SYIM model.200
Analysis of graduate student attitudes towards computer-mediated communication. Master of Distance Education thesis, Athabasca University.
No full textComputer-Mediated Communication is a relatively new methodology in the arsenal of universities in their quest to educate graduate students. It has advantages and disadvantages, all documented in some detail in the prevailing literature. This literature documents the insecurities and fears that learners have in putting their ideas down irrevocably in print without recourse to body language or the option of changing their mind in the midst of a face-to-face conversation. Others fear the phenomenon of posting their ideas to a bulletin board type of conference and being ignored by both their fellow learners and their instructors. Much has been written about the types of learners that are drawn to CMC, and their competency with the technology involved in this type of learning. It has been suggested that lack of familiarity could be a limiting factor in their success. Others have written about the confusing aspect of reading text on a screen and of the confusing nature of computer conferencing systems. Because of the asynchronous nature of CMC, prospective CMC learners are worried about the amount of time that must be spent sitting in front of a computer when participating in CMC sessions. Because of this, it is of prime importance to find out if participants in CMC learning have the ability to use time and equipment at their places of work for this purpose and if this is generally sanctioned or prohibited in the workplace. The amount of interaction with instructors and fellow learners is an important aspect of CMC, whether too much or too little is a limiting factor to good learning attitudes. How do learners on CMC sites respond to criticism or overly aggressive fellow learners and how many are aware of the dangers of flaming? Should course designers factor this into their course designs? These and other questions are addressed in this study. A questionnaire containing 48 questions was posted on the internet at a site which limited participation to Athabasca University MDE students. One hundred and fifty responses were received and tabulated to provide statistical data on the relative importance of 46 scenarios which these graduate students face in their CMC studies. The findings of this study should be of interest to CMC course designers in their quest to improve the design of these courses. This study concluded that the group of graduate students from Athabasca University’s MDE program consider themselves to be a sophisticated and very computer literate group. They are confident and well supported by families or partners and they are not at all concerned about making errors in text submissions to conferences. They are often kind, caring and consider themselves to be very aware of the dangers of ‘flaming’ on-line. They still prefer text-based material over digital methods to store their important concepts and are very results oriented. They also wish to have their postings noticed and responded to within twenty-four hours on their conferences.200
A distance delivery model to improve accessibility to post-diploma baccalaureate level dental hygiene education. Master of Distance Education project, Athabasca University
No full textDental hygiene practice is grappling with change as it adapts to the rapidly evolving health care delivery system, and dental hygiene education must respond to the changing needs of its graduates. Dental hygienists and the Canadian Dental Hygienists Association see a need for increasing access to baccalaureate degree dental hygiene education in Canada. Changes in student demographics require flexibility in curriculum delivery. A post-diploma baccalaureate degree program for dental hygienists that is available by distance delivery methods is one mechanism by which to increase access to post-diploma baccalaureate educational opportunities. The purposes of this study were to identify the challenges dental hygienists face as potential learners, to propose a model for a post-diploma dental hygiene baccalaureate degree-completion program for delivery by distance methods, and to suggest appropriate distance delivery methods for courses that would lead to a baccalaureate degree. To achieve these purposes, two surveys were undertaken. A survey of a stratified random sample of 668 members of the Canadian Dental Hygienists Association was conducted to identify learning preferences of dental hygienists who would enrol in a post-diploma baccalaureate degree program. Fifty-seven post-diploma dental hygiene baccalaureate degree programs in Canada and the United States were surveyed to determine the curriculum content and delivery mechanisms of these programs. Response rates were 57.6% for the survey of dental hygienists and 57.9% for the survey of the dental hygiene programs. Dental hygienists are motivated to pursue baccalaureate education by a desire for increased knowledge and for personal satisfaction. They are constrained in their pursuits by a need for flexibility in scheduling, and by family and work obligations. Dental hygienists perceive the barriers or constraints to have a stronger influence than the motivators, as evidenced by higher mean scores in their ratings of these factors. They prefer to pursue baccalaureate education by means of correspondence, computer-based communication/Internet, or evening or weekend classes in their home communities. They are not interested in full-time study or weekend classes in a distant community. They have access to and are comfortable using computers and e-mail. Current dental hygiene post-diploma degree programs are not accessible by the delivery methods that dental hygienists indicate they prefer. Current post-diploma baccalaureate dental hygiene degree programs were most likely to be 120 semester hour credits in length, transfer 60 credits from the diploma, more with an articulation agreement, have a residency requirement of 30 credits, and require a minimum grade point average and National Board exam for admission. They were not likely to require a clinical component but were likely to offer specialization components. They offer a blend of advanced dental hygiene and liberal studies, but were not likely to offer the program by distance delivery methods. A model, including program specifications and a sample curriculum, has been proposed for distance delivery of a post-diploma baccalaureate dental hygiene degree.200
Learner perceptions of the importance of situated learning design components in a self-study internet-based continuing education program. Master of Distance Education thesis, Athabasca University.
No full textSituated learning in which knowledge is gained in the context of problem situations reflecting its use in practice, is one approach recommended to help professionals in continuing education programs acquire tricks of the trade used by experts, while learning program content. To explore the applicability of situated learning to continuing pharmacy education at a distance, a situated learning design framework was chosen to guide the design of a self-study Internet-based continuing education program to help practicing pharmacists learn how to use the Internet as a drug information resource. A non-experimental study design, consisting of a written survey and semi-structured interviews, was used to determine which situated learning components of the program pharmacist learners perceived to be important to their learning, and to determine if there was a difference between experienced and novice Internet users in the value they placed on various situated learning components of the program. Pharmacist learners valued the contribution to their learning of course elements representing nine of the 10 key situated learning components. There was no difference between novice and experienced Internet users in the value they placed on any of the program's situated learning design components. The situated learning component least valued by pharmacists in both groups was the collaborative learning opportunity provided by the bulletin board. Overall, it appears that the situated learning framework used in this study is relevant to the design of distance-delivered, independent-study continuing pharmacy education programs. An issue that remains to be addressed is whether collaborative learning through a bulletin board can make a valuable contribution to learning in a continuous enrolment type of course such as this one.199