Middle and High School Implementations of Moodle-Facilitated Blended Instructional Designs

Web-based technologies such as Moodle (modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment) are regularly used in classrooms and present an effective way to reinforce blended learning of different curricula. Nontraditional learning methodologies such as the i2Flex model provide teachers with a range of options with regards to how to employ a constructivism-based instructional design and facilitate their shift from traditional instructors to effective learning facilitators. Consequently, students become inquirers and discover knowledge in a positive environment where flexibility and blendedness of learning styles optimize the learning outcome. The chapter discusses implementations of Moodle features and the support types with regards to the authors engagement in i2Flex methodology in order to update their practices in relation to enhancing the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Framework presences in Middle School and Academy Classes of Science, Physics, and Modern Language Arts.

Academic makerspaces as a “design journey”: developing a learning model for how women students tap into their “toolbox of design”

An academic makerspace, home to tools and people dedicated to facilitating and inspiring a making culture, is characterized by openness, creativity, learning, design, and community. This nontraditional learning environment has found an immense increase in popularity and investment in the last decade. Further, makerspaces have been shown to be highly gendered, privileging men's and masculine understandings of making. The spike in popularity warrants deeper analysis, examining the value of these spaces for women and if learning is occurring in these spaces, specifically at higher education institutions. We implemented a phenomenologically based interviewing process to capture the making experiences of 20 women students, recruited through purposive and snowball sampling. By eliciting the narratives of women students, we captured how making, designing, and creating evolved through gendered experiences in the university makerspace. Each interview was transcribed and resulted in around 868 pages of single-spaced text transcriptions. The data were analyzed through multiple cycles of open and axial coding for common themes and patterns, where makerspaces create a culture of learning, facilitate students’ design journey, and form a laboratory for creativity. These themes forwarded the creation of a learning model that showcases how design and learning interact in the makerspace. This work demonstrates that women students are engaging learning and inspiration; developing confidence and resilience; and learning how to work with others and collaborate.

Measuring Motivation and Volition of Nursing Students in Nontraditional Learning Environments

The purpose of this study was to identify the best fitting model to represent interrelationships between motivation, volition, and academic success for adult nursing students learning in nontraditional environments. Participants (N = 297) completed a survey that incorporated two measures: the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and the Academic Volitional Strategies Inventory (AVSI) as well as demographic information. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used for data analysis. In Phase 1, EFA resulted in factors that generally aligned with previous theoretical factors as defined by the psychometrics used. In Phase 2 of the analysis, CFA validated the use of predefined factor structures. In Phase 3, SEM analysis revealed that motivation has a larger effect on grade point average (GPA; βˆ = .28, p < .01) than volition (βˆ = .15, p < .05). The covariance between motivation and volition (r = .42, p < .01) was also found to be significant. These results suggest that there is a significant relationship among motivation, volition, and academic success for adult learners studying in nontraditional learning environments. These findings are consistent with and elaborate the relationship between motivation and volition with a population and setting underrepresented in the research.

Learning Management Systems

Formal university-based distance education has been around for over 100 years. For example, Cornell University established the Correspondence University in 1882, and Chautauqua College of Liberal Arts in New York was awarding degrees via correspondence courses in 1883 (Nasseh, 1997). Soon many other educational institutions, including the University of Chicago, Penn State University, Yale University, and John Hopkins University, were offering these nontraditional learning options for their students. Many institutions then moved to instructional telecommunications as the technology matured. With the entry of the personal computer into homes and workplaces in the 1980s, learning started to become more technology driven. But it was not until the 1990s, with the proliferation of the World Wide Web, that the concept of technology-enhanced education began to change drastically.

Adaptors and Innovators: Differing Approaches to Designing Organizational Change Interventions

The purpose of this preliminary study was to explore the role of cognitive style and problem-solving in terms of what are similarities and differences among experienced practitioners of human resource development in their approaches to organizational change interventions and what is the relationship, if any, between these approaches and Kirton's characterizations of adaptors and innovators. Qualitative analysis of responses from 10 persons to a hypothetical scenario supported Kirton's Adaption-Innovation theory. The 2 Adaptors accepted the given problem and solution and described creative ways to design traditional classroom-based training. The 8 Innovators challenged the assumptions in the scenario, found creative ways to restructure the problem, and proposed nontraditional learning interventions.