Explore the vast range of titles available.

With the increasing transformation of using distance learning platforms in educational institutions, deaf student instructors in schools and universities have no specialized platform for remotely delivering learning content for deaf students with sign language translation videos. This study suggests a new asynchronous distance learning platform for deaf students with particular capabilities to assist deaf student instructors in developing and delivering educational materials over distance. Nineteen educational technology experts, seven instructors for deaf students, and sixteen undergraduate deaf students participated in this study to assess the proposed platform. Qualitative methods were used to collect data using online questionnaires. According to the findings, the suggested platform is suitable for distance learning when creating and delivering educational materials with sign language translation videos for deaf students. Deaf students could easily access and study the courses remotely with the help of the proposed platform.

For many learners assessment conjures up visions of red pens scrawling percentages in the top right-hand corner of exams and feelings of stress, inadequacy, and failure. Although negative student reactions to evaluation have been noted, assessment has provided educational institutions with important information about learning outcomes and the quality of education for many decades. But how accurate is this data and has it informed practice or been fully incorporated into the learning cycle? Conrad and Open argue that the potential in many of the new learning environments to alter and improve assesment has yet to be explored by educators and students. In their investigation of assessment methods and learning approaches, Conrad and Openo aim to explore assessment that engages learners and authentically evaluates education. They insist that moving to new learning environments, specifically those online and at a distance, afford educators opportunities to embrace only the most effective face-to-face assessment methods and to realize the potential of delivering education in the digital age. In this volume practitioners will find not only an indispensable introduction to new forms of assessment but also a number of best practices as described by experienced educators.

Limited empirical research has investigated the impact of interdisciplinary STEM approaches on students' learning with a particular dearth in the area of assessment. A lack of alignment between interdisciplinary approaches in STEM teaching and its assessment strategies is notable. In this study, we adopt an inquiry approach to the ways in which interdisciplinary learning of science and mathematics impacted on student learning through the use of a STEM challenge that involved a real-world task. Two secondary school teachers, one who teaches science and the other mathematics, participated in the study and jointly planned and taught a sequence of science and mathematics lessons using an interdisciplinary approach to their Year 8 class of 24 students over several weeks. Data of students' project reports, video of their project presentation, and teacher interviews were analysed to identify the intersection of disciplinary specific and generic skills in assessment practice of an interdisciplinary task. Our findings highlight the importance of having an assessment rubric with criteria that addressed both disciplinary specific skills as well as generic STEM skills.

Education, Interrupted tells the story of the unprecedented disruption in schooling caused by the coronavirus pandemic, through the eyes of Tyra Johnson, a single mother raising her three children in one of the poorest zip codes in the country. Veteran journalist Aisha Sultan followed Tyra for two years, through the ups and downs of trying to home-school her children during the COVID pandemic. Tyra’s family faced overwhelming odds — an 18-month absence from in-person schooling, an unexpected pregnancy, the death of her partner, and job loss. Still, Tyra remained devoted to keeping up with her children’s education while still being the best parent she could. The film shows Tyra’s efforts to have her children meet the same educational standards that would be expected of them during in-school learning. When the results of their evaluative tests come back, the gap between expectation and reality is revealed. Education, Interrupted examines these central questions: What are the consequences of missing so many months of formal education during children’s foundational and critical years for literacy development? Will students be able to regain this ground? Or will they join the countless children whose opportunities will be shortchanged long after the pandemic has ended? And can a parent’s relentless dedication and effort enough to overcome the setbacks created by a pandemic that exacerbated existing inequities and devastated communities around the world? Also offering a lens into how young children processed and navigated sudden changes over the course of the pandemic, Education, Interrupted is a vital document both of a specific time, and the challenges that have and continue to be faced by under-resourced schools and communities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the transition to distance education in nursing education. However, Nursing students are not accustomed to learning through distance learning.This research aimed to determine the effect of distance education method on the attitudes of nursing students towards the profession during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research was cross-sectional in design. Data were collected with an online survey about distance education and the nursing profession through Google Forms in November 2020 and June 2021 at the nursing department. The students' views on distance education were moderate (46.66±8.81), and their attitudes towards the nursing profession were good (86±13.86). There was no statistically significant relationship between scale scores. There was no statistically significant difference in terms of students' grade levels, graduating from a distance education institution before, taking courses through distance education before the COVID-19 pandemic and clinical practice before the pandemic, and their attitudes towards both distance education and the nursing profession. Our study shows that the distance learning method does not affect students' attitudes toward the nursing profession.

Finally, the first research-based book of sound strategies and best practices to help instructors motivate students to complete their online courses. Although studies support the effectiveness of learning online, students often fail to complete online courses. Some studies have found that as many as 50–70% drop out of their online courses or programs. Retention is not only a growing expectation and imperative, but it is also as opportunity for faculty members to take the lead in innovating, researching, and implementing new strategies while demonstrating their effectiveness. Designed for instructors and instructional designers, Motivating and Retaining Online Students is filled with empirical research from the authors’ study of motivation and retention strategies that can reduce online learner dropout. Focusing on the most important issues instructors face, such as course design; student engagement and motivation; and institutional, instructional, and informal student support strategies, the book provides effective online strategies that help minimize student dropout, increase student retention, and support student learning. While helping to improve the overall retention rates for educational institutions, the strategies outlined in the book also allow for student diversity and individual learner differences. Lehman and Conceição’s proven model gives instructors an effective approach to help students persist in online courses and succeed as learners.

When endeavoring required statistics coursework, many graduate students struggle with feelings of anxiety and low self-efficacy about their academic performance. This may be especially true for those enrolled in online statistics courses. The current study investigated doctoral students’ experiences in an online statistics course using mixed methodology. Doctoral students enrolled in an 8-week online educational statistics course were asked to report on their experiences learning statistics at two points during the course (approximately Weeks 2 and 7) using quantitative and qualitative surveys. These surveys were analyzed separately in concordance with each strand’s research questions and then merged by transforming qualitative themes into dichotomous quantitative variables for further analysis (i.e., correlations between the transformed variables and scores on the quantitative assessments). By merging these two types of data together, the research sought to gain understanding about doctoral students’ experiences within their online statistics course in a more holistic way. Qualitative results indicate that high statistics anxiety and low self-efficacy are negative encounters for most in that they experienced frustration and tension and felt “incompetent” and “inadequate.” Students cited having problems with choosing the correct statistics test and using SPSS. Quantitative results showed a significant main effect of time on the combination of statistics anxiety and self-efficacy, as well as a significant interaction of prior experience and time on the combination of statistics anxiety and self-efficacy. Univariate analysis of variance indicated a significant difference in statistics self-efficacy over time. Statistics self-efficacy significantly increased from the beginning of the course to the end of the course for all students, with those who had little to no prior experience showing a larger increase than those with moderate to extensive experience and those with moderate to extensive experience having higher mean levels of self-efficacy overall. Further, there was a significant interaction effect of statistics anxiety across levels of prior experience and time. Statistics anxiety increased over time for students with little to no prior experience and decreased over time for those with moderate to extensive experience. Mixed integration results found no significant correlations between total scores on the Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale and the Current Statistics Self-Efficacy with four salient qualitative themes.

A key concern of theological educators in offering online education has to do with spiritual formation. A related concern is the apparent lack of community online, which is considered an essential context for formation. This research explored how spiritual formation was demonstrated in the online learning environment of a Bible College in Singapore. The study also explored how community was represented by the community of inquiry (COI) with its three constructs of social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence. The population for this study was comprised of graduate students and instructors enrolled in all online courses offered in the School of Theology (English Department) during Term 1 (January to March) of 2018. Textual communication of participants in the learning management system of four online graduate courses was examined using qualitative content analysis. Deductive analysis using the COI theoretical framework showed a learning community was represented online in each of the four courses. Inductive coding and categorizing of data demonstrated how students engaged in the process of spiritual formation online. Students interacted with content, including Scriptures, in the process of formation. They demonstrated intellectual engagement, emotional expressions, volitional indications, and relational communication. Students also integrated their learning with life dimensions of self, spiritual life, and ministry, demonstrating a potential effect on and formation of such areas. As spiritual formation is an ongoing lifelong process influenced by an ecosystem of multiple communities, this study did not measure each student’s outcome or extent of formation. Future research calls for an examination of data beyond the textual communication in the learning management system to provide a more holistic evaluation of both the elements of COI and the process of spiritual formation.

While provision of appropriate supports in the first year of study has been found to have a positive effect on student success, supports targeting online and distance learners are often applied in a 'goulash approach'. Against this backdrop, the research investigated the experiences of first-time distance learners with a view to informing the future design of supports during the early stages of the study lifecycle. The study was framed around design-based research involving a mixed method approach over three phases: a stocktake of services designed to support distance learning; a pre- and post-semester survey of first-time distance learners; and a video diary phase that gathered the lived experiences of 20 students upon commencement of their study. Triangulated results of the three phases highlight a disconnection between institutional support services and the majority of first-time distance learners who demonstrated a self-sufficient 'lone wolf' approach to learning. [Author abstract]

High attrition rates in doctoral programs is a growing concern. A doctoral journey is a unique educational experience; research has shown that 40-60% of doctoral candidates never graduate (Cochran, Campbell, Baker, & Leeds, 2014; Council of Graduate Schools, 2008). The topic of doctoral attrition in the distance education or online education environment is becoming increasingly important as more students are choosing online programs (Cross, 2014; Rockinson-Szapkiw, 2011). Additionally, attrition rates for distance-based online programs can be as much as 10-20% higher than traditional doctoral programs (Carr, 2000; Terrell, 2005b). Many doctoral students get stuck or decide to quit in the dissertation phase (D'Andrea, 2002; Lovitts, 2001b; National Science Foundation, 2009). Doctoral persistence during the dissertation phase requires instructional strategies to support the development of scholarly writing (Cotterall, 2011) and a positive relationship with the doctoral mentor that promotes both mutual respect and trust (Rademaker, O'Connor Duffy, Wetzler, & Zaikina-Montgomery, 2016; Reedy & Taylor-Dunlop, 2015). The purpose of this research is to provide an in-depth understanding of ways in which limited residency and online doctoral programs could promote mentorship and socialization between the mentor and the candidate, possibly reduce attrition rates, and lead to scholarly collaboration postgraduation.