Professional development is viewed as a lifelong learning process for educators to improve student instruction and professional skills (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). Online professional development for teachers of students who are visually impaired (TVIs) provides opportunities for continuing education, including for earning of recertification…

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand how connective experiences are built between elementary teachers and parents in a virtual setting at the ABC school district in the southeastern region of the United States. The theory guiding this study was Siemens' connectiveness theory, as it explored the students'…

Many researchers will comment on how vital parent engagement and participation is for student achievement, but there is limited research on this field in the online realm (Borup et al., 2019). This dissertation examined parent engagement at Indiana Connections Academy over the course of the spring semester of 2023 at the school. Since parent…

In the ever-changing digital era, the surge of online informal language learning platforms has revolutionized the way we learn new languages. This dissertation delves into the critical role of interactional feedback (IF) in synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC), a cornerstone for optimizing these digital learning spaces. Anchored in…

Cyberbullying has become one of the most talked-about topics and problems in this highly connected society (Sun & Fan, 2018). Smartphones provide instant access to the internet and social media, making the user susceptible to being cyberbullied at any time (Barlett et al., 2016). Based on many cyberbullying studies, researchers have focused on…

School counselors are challenged to identify, address, and eliminate unwanted behaviors to ensure a safe environment for students to learn and grow. Cyberbullying is an unwanted behavior that is considered a growing phenomenon among middle school students causing negative outcomes on youths' mental health, academic performance, and…

The emergency school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic impacted students and teachers across the globe. This study explored how the Global Educator Collaborative Facebook group, with over 125,000 members, supported teachers as they adapted to distance learning instruction amid emergency school closures. Through the Facebook group, teachers…

This descriptive study used a convergent parallel mixed methods design to explore what elementary educators report about implementing digital citizenship as well as their perceptions regarding its value in elementary classrooms. In April 2021, 92 educators who worked directly with students on a daily basis during the 2020-2021 school year…

This modified e-Delphi study sought to gain consensus from a group of K-12 educational professionals on the intersection between essential components of connectivism, the next-generation digital learning environment, and the substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition model. Twelve participants, each having a minimum of five years…

This research study delves into the multifaceted realm of social presence in online education, encompassing the existence and manifestation of social presence indicators in students' engagement with discussion boards within asynchronous online courses. Social presence manifests when individuals perceive themselves to be simultaneously present with…

This qualitative study examined the experiences of graduate students enrolled in online programs that have varying levels of outsourced student services. Specifically, the study examined students' experiences in graduate programs that fully outsourced services, those that outsourced some student services, and those that did not outsource services.…

With the growing number of online course opportunities in higher education, it is necessary to gain an understanding of the benefits of fostering social presence in those courses for adult learners. Ensuring that adult learners are provided with an online learning community that fosters social presence and promotes students' autonomy, competence,…

Social Annotation (SA) is a learning technology that allows people to read, highlight, and comment on specific parts of text. SA tools like Hypothes.is enable users to highlight and annotate texts and documents online and respond to others' annotations via text, sharing links of documents, audio, or video. Research on SA in higher education online…

The purpose of this study was to contextualize how the communication modes I used, and my presence shape the experiences of students within a single online course. I conducted a qualitative case study in which I collected data from three sources: in-depth qualitative interviews with nine former students of the online course GBA 300, fifteen…

This mixed methods study aimed to explore the effects that parental involvement and student online learner efficacy have on student achievement and perceptions of parents and exceptional education students in the traditional and virtual education settings. The study participants included parents and exceptional education students in grades K-12th…