International students represent a large portion of student populations at some higher education institutions in the United States. In response to the complexity of the student immigration process, more international students are choosing to pursue their US degrees online, while fulfilling their personal and professional obligations in their home…

Software is an integral part of our lives. It controls the cars we drive every day, the ships we send into space, and even our toasters. It is everywhere and we can easily download more. Software solves many real-world problems and satisfies many needs. Thus, unsurprisingly, there is a rising demand for software engineers to maintain existing…

This exploratory case study delves into the instructional design of a gamified online course. The study focuses on how the professor incorporated game elements into a graduate-level online course. Participants in the gamified course were pre- and in-service mathematics teachers. The qualitative case study used two sources of data, an interview…

The purpose of this study was to explore high school principals' perceptions, perception formation, and resultant behavior toward student online learning options. Using the theory of cognitive dissonance as the theoretical foundation, semi-structured interviews were conducted with high school principals in a large, suburban school district. The…

Online learning has increased access to higher education for underrepresented ethnic groups. These groups include African American and Latino/a students. Affirmation of ethnicity and culture contribute to positive academic outcomes for African American and Latino/a students. Yet, African American and Latino/a perspectives regarding online social…

Distance learning students at a community college in the southeast United States were not completing their coursework as well as were students enrolled in traditional courses. This disparity was negatively affecting the institution's state performance measures, putting at risk the institution's state-based funding under the state's performance…

In order to serve its nontraditional students, a university piloted a competency-based program as alternative method for its students to earn college credit. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to conduct a summative program evaluation to determine if the program was successful in order to make decisions about program revision and…

Evaluation of instruction has typically occurred during development, before implementation, and after course completion. The problem is that evaluation is typically post delivery; courses are not traditionally updated in real time with feedback from students in the classroom. However the potential to evaluate and modify instruction during delivery…

Immersive virtual worlds provide a new way to deliver online courses or parts of online and face-to-face courses. There is a growing body of research on online learning, and the data on virtual worlds is also increasing. However, literature concerning professors' experiences with specific aspects of virtual worlds is limited. For example,…

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to describe the characteristics of three law professors teaching online courses to determine what type of adopter they were. This study used the Rogers diffusion of innovation theory, and specifically analyzed the participants on whether they were innovators or early adopters. These analyses are…

This qualitative study applied the theory that reading skills are predictive of high school graduation to examine the impact that reading proficiency has on student success in online credit recovery programs for credit deficient students, many of whom struggle with reading. Since reading proficiency impacts academic achievement in general, this…

This study explored undergraduate teaching faculty's perceptions regarding using biometric-based technologies to reduce academic dishonesty in online classes. The first objective was to develop a baseline of the respondents' concerns toward and experience with using biometrics; attitudes, experience, and mitigation strategies used to…

The emergence of online learning environments and advances in web-based technologies enable teachers to interact and exchange ideas and experiences in online communities. However, these rapid technological advances also cause such online communities to disband quickly, before they have the opportunity to evolve into a community of practice, in…

This qualitative case study was designed to explore students' perceptions of online learning at a small rural community college to understand what factors impacted their persistence in coursework. The research problem dealt with retention rates in online courses, which were lower than in face-to-face courses. Despite extensive quantitative…

Researchers have indicated that the number of online courses will continue to grow in the coming years, resulting in an increased need for online course facilitators. Often these facilitators have transitioned without receiving adequate training. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the training requirements and future faculty…