This qualitative study examines the perspectives of K-12 school principals in urban settings on the strengths and weaknesses of various professional development program modalities. The research involved interviews with 10 urban K-12 school administrators to explore their views on in-person, online synchronous, and online asynchronous professional…

Will there be a difference in academic achievement between remote learners and face-to-face learners between the school years of 2020-21 and 2021-22 school year? Archived data of approximately 1,200 students from the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years was used from a suburban secondary school servicing students grades 9-12. The school district…

The overarching theme of this research project is to build a machine-accessible and mathematically precise abstraction of human body movement through experiments in programming an articulated puppet that imitates the human body structure and mobility within a "Real-Time Interactive Computer Animation" (RTICA). Human movement has been the…

The Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic posed challenges for laboratory-based courses. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore students' experiences, as related to engagement, in a HyFlex laboratory course that was designed for on-campus and online students to learn together. The research questions were: 1. What are the students'…

In March 2020, COVID-19 spread quickly throughout the nation leading to one of the largest health crises in the U.S. since the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic (Trinidad, 2021). With Michigan being among the states hardest hit by the COVID-19 health crisis during the beginning months of the pandemic, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed executive…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to compare mean first-time pass rates on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) of nursing graduates who were trained in hybrid versus traditional prelicensure nursing programs in California from 2018 to 2023. A theoretical framework in constructivism connects this…

This dissertation investigates the factors influencing the matriculation trends of former College Credit Plus (CCP) participants to host institutions in Ohio, utilizing Perna's (2006) College Choice Model as a framework. The study examines variables such as course modality, geographical proximity to the host institution, course load, and grade…

In the elementary school, children's learning, thinking, making and doing are usually regarded through universalizing and progression-based accounts particularly from child development. Further, within these developmental frames, learning is often considered as a cognitive process that occurs solely within the conscious mind. In this dissertation,…

This teacher-research study explored how opportunities for multimodal project learning provided time in the classroom for ongoing conversations and inquiries that promoted student agency and growth, cultivated content and literacy learning, and inherently provided authentic assessment opportunities. This study documented the multimodal curriculum…

This dissertation examines the role of writing assessment in college composition courses, and how issues including learning aversion, access to technology, and white-language supremacy can harm our assessment practices and pedagogy. Writing assessment is one of the most important aspects of teaching and is a significant factor in shaping students'…

Currently, little to no research is available that translates the decrease in college enrollment and retention into dollar amounts, nor discussions about the numbers and funding needed to revive colleges to pre-COVID numbers. COVID-19 was said to have hit areas, populations, and groups of people who were already underrepresented, but this remains…

In today's digitally interconnected world, one's ability to collaboratively create with others and compose multimodal texts is essential. Yet, high-stakes standardized assessments that value individualistic print centric conceptions influence instruction, leading schools to often undervalue the multimodal and collaborative composing processes and…

Through multiple educational reforms, China has pursued developing well-rounded learners with solid content knowledge, higher-order thinking skills, and the ability to transfer knowledge to real-world problem spaces. The imbalance of learning resources between urban and rural China, however, has caused disadvantages for learners in rural China to…

The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine if, and to what extent, community college first-year learners' (FYL) selection of the mode of instruction (MOI), online courses (OLC) or face-to-face courses (FTFC), is related to their persistence into a second year or their academic success within a southern California…

Online technology in academia offers an opportunity to improve high school students' academic achievement and graduation status. The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to determine if or to what extent a statistically significant difference exists in the graduation status of full-time online versus traditional high school students…