Mixed methods research collects, analyzes, and integrates rigorous qualitative and quantitative methods to gain a deeper understanding of a phenomenon than would be gained by using either method alone. Integration is one of the key features of mixed methods research and consists of mixing qualitative and quantitative research in a systematic way…

The purpose of this dissertation was to develop and use a platform that facilitates Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) replication research. Replication and the verification of previously published findings is an essential step in the scientific process. Unfortunately, a replication crisis has long plagued scientific research, affecting even the…

Institutional researchers use skills from their diverse backgrounds to collect, analyze and report data about their institutions to stakeholders representing various interests and levels of data literacy. However, there is little research into how these professionals process data and none into what aspects are important to institutional…

Psycholinguistics is the research of language in the mind: The architecture of storing the different components of language in our memory, and the ways we access that knowledge when processing and producing language. Psycholinguists usually conduct quantitative experimental research in which certain standards of experimental design, data…

Foundations of statistics research aims to establish fundamental principles guiding inference about populations under uncertainty. It is concerned with the process of learning from observations, notions of uncertainty and induction, and satisfying inferential objectives. The growing interest in predictive methods in high-stakes fields like…

Latent change score (LCS) models are a powerful class of structural equation modeling that allows researchers to work with latent difference scores that minimize measurement error. LCS models define change as a function of prior status, which makes it well-suited for modeling developmental theories or processes. In LCS models, like other latent…

In today's era of large-scale data, academic institutions, businesses, and government agencies are increasingly faced with heterogeneous datasets. Consequently, there is a growing need to develop effective methods for extracting meaningful insights from this type of data. Quantile, expectile, and expected shortfall regression methods offer useful…

Building on the need for developing educational responses to the impact of data practices in our everyday lives, a new curriculum called Nayah-Irú was designed and implemented in the context of five alternative schools in Uruguay. Nayah-Irú aimed at fostering Critical Data Literacy (CDL) using speculative civic literacies, helping youth and…

Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the feasibility of using tests of robustness in peer review. This study involved selecting three high-impact papers which featured open data and utilized bioinformatic analyses but provided no source code and refactoring these to allow external survey participants to swap tools,…

There has been extensive research into the underrepresentation of minoritized students in STEM disciplines since the 1990s with limited success in improving the representation of Black women in math-intensive STEM fields. This dissertation aims to address how the guiding tenets of critical quantitative (QuantCrit) methods work when used with…

Categorical data become increasingly ubiquitous in the modern big data era. In this dissertation, we propose novel statistical learning and inference methods for large-scale categorical data, focusing on latent variable models and their applications to psychometrics. In psychometric assessments, the subjects' underlying aptitude often cannot be…

This study has three primary objectives. First to provide insight into possibilities for moderation/mediation analysis in education research by discussing analytical methods based on the counterfactual and developed in other disciplines. Second is to highlight specific issues related to mediation and the estimation of effects when the outcome is…

Two of the most significant changes in higher education over the last decade have been the reconceptualization of faculty scholarship and the increase in the hiring of adjunct faculty, yet these topics rarely merge together in the literature. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to understand how adjunct English faculty conceive…

The utilization of learning analytics to support teaching and learning has emerged as a newer phenomenon combining instructor-oriented action research, the mining of educational data, and the analyses of statistics and patterns. Learning analytics have documented, quantified and graphically displayed students' interactions, engagement, and…

The purpose of this action research study was to investigate the actual motivation for application to graduate school for first-generation and international students from historically marginalized communities (HMCS). The specific goal was to augment data on college advisory work, recruiting, and marketing, and look at the wants and needs of…