The purpose of this dissertation was to expand knowledge and theory around instructor social presence in online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study provided a depiction of real-world experiences from the perspective of high school teachers during their shift to online learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The study surveyed 50…

The purpose of this study is to identify the motivational elements of formal online instructional design processes that are being implemented at traditional institutions of higher education (IHEs) in the United States (U.S.). For this study, I conducted a comprehensive literature review identifying emerging issues of practice for instructional…

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many academic institutions to transition to online learning in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. In particular, prelicensure nursing education has been significantly impacted by this shift. This qualitative, descriptive, phenomenological study sought to explore, understand, and describe the lived experiences…

Students' voices are all too often missing in classrooms today. Research over the past 50 years has identified a number of problems associated with these missing voices. There are ingrained habits of "initiation-response-evaluation" (I-R-E) during which teachers assume responsibility for guiding classroom conversation and a tendency for…

During the global COVID-19 pandemic, to decrease the risk of viral spread, universities in the United States were forced to transition traditional classroom learning to online learning formats. Instructors who were teaching face-to-face classes had to urgently transition those courses to all-online. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological…

As an increasing number of students take online courses, lower completion rates in these online courses have created a crisis of attrition and turned the reversal of dwindling retention and graduation rates into a national priority. This descriptive quantitative study with "de facto" data investigated a subset of undergraduate online…

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted many changes within nursing education. The problem that was addressed in this study was educators' lack of preparedness for the changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic which reduced student retention and success rates within traditional nursing programs. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore…

This study examines the lived experiences of K-12 Instructional Technology Leaders in rural schools and school districts throughout Mississippi. It sought to explore the challenges that were encountered, the strategies they were employed, and the lessons that were learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, as traditional classroom teaching and learning…

This dissertation examines the key challenges faced by collegiate aviation faculty members as they transitioned from in-person coursework to emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interpretive phenomenological analysis of semi-structured interviews profiled four collegiate aviation faculty members' experiences with the…

This research has examined the perspectives of college professors in providing online instruction in higher education. The professors were randomly selected from a four-year university in an urban community in the Midwest. They were of various ages, backgrounds, and different years of experience. They provided answers to questions about providing…

This qualitative study will focus on students' views toward their sense of connection and engagement within the postsecondary environment amid the unexpected, forced learning environment which resulted from the COVID-19 Pandemic that caused a global shutdown at the beginning of March 2020. This research is relevant to any college presidents or…

This study analyzed participants' perceptions regarding a sales training program before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a descriptive research design, a survey was administered to 53 participants that examined the training methods used, topics covered, and their overall satisfaction with the program. The participants were assigned to…

The purpose of this dissertation study was tri-fold: (1) to gain insight into the overall impact and implications of remote dance teaching and learning which resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) to investigate potential online applications of Lincoln Center Education's (LCE) approach to Aesthetic Education (AE); and (3) to identify concrete…

This study was designed to address the problem that some corporate trainers are lacking instructional design skills when creating multimedia activities. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to identify skills corporate trainers perceive they need when creating multimedia activities. The cognitive load theory (CLT) was used as…

The COVID-19 pandemic represented an extraordinary public health emergency, leading to the most profound disruption to education systems in modern history. As higher education institutions expand their post-pandemic online course catalogs, it is necessary first to explore the student outcomes and student perceptions of learning related to the…