This dissertation project began with the development of a Design-Focused Approach (DFA) to First-Year Composition (FYC) curriculum largely informed by multimodal pedagogical theory. In the DFA to FYC curriculum, I highlighted the importance of multiliteracy and the demand for multiple modalities for students to effectively communicate in various…

This qualitative, exploratory dissertation aimed to describe how accessibility, usability, and cognitive load experts explained and experienced the usability and accessibility aspects of the LT department's website pages, information, and digital links. A usability, accessibility, and cognitive load manual examination was conducted with four…

Background: Equine facilitated learning (EFL) leadership programs have recently gained recognition as a novel approach to teaching leadership but are not widely known or researched. Methods: A study was conducted from the text of 13 selected EFL leadership program websites using qualitative thematic content analysis. Program characteristics,…

For many students, life after high school means jumping into the workforce. However, getting--and keeping--a job requires a specific set of skills, and most students enter the world of work with little understanding of what will be expected of them. Schools are ill-equipped to help them because employability skills are not part of the traditional…

Teachers choose to supplement their curriculum for various reasons (Drake, 2010) and use online resources to search for and choose these supplements for their curriculum (Silver, 2022). TeachersPayTeachers.com (TPT) is a popular choice for online curriculum resources. TPT is a virtual resource pool that allows teachers to create and share…

Project-Based Learning has been a heavily debated topic in education for several years. The most recent push from multiple education departments highlights the need for a user-friendly online database. Although the Internet is filled with sites that provide many different instructors' options to develop or implement a Project-Based Lesson, there…

This dissertation aims to explore the relationships of diversity and internationalization in Higher Education from an institutional level. The project focuses on how colleges and universities construct diversity projects through international students. The project seeks to address three core questions: (1) How are international students included…

Despite the growing demand for online educational resources, there is a notable scarcity of educational materials available in the Korean language. To meet this need, this research developed and evaluated a set of educational materials, including videos and web blogs, focused on fundamental audiology concepts. Evaluation of the material involved a…

This qualitative dissertation conducted a critical discourse analysis of youth and adult discourses about the transition to high school. Despite being a well-researched field, studies of the transition to high school and interventions in the transition to high school do not prioritize youth perspectives. To remedy this shortcoming and examine…

The purpose of this content analysis study was to describe the way international student populations were conceptualized on the websites of 2-year public colleges in Texas. This inquiry replicated the Ford and Cate (2020) study, "The Discursive Construction of International Students in the USA: Prestige, Diversity, and Economic Gain."…

YouTube viewers watch over a billion hours of videos monthly and have multiple choices on professional development resources. User-generated content (UGC) on YouTube is created by individuals instead of brands and uses different typologies of video production styles. This study examined 80 YouTube microlearning videos that provided insight into…

This qualitative case study used the Technology Acceptance Model as a framework to guide this study of the social media practices of thirteen Community Colleges within the Central Region of California. The problem addressed by this study was that the California Community Colleges are not meeting the goals of Chancellor's Vision for Success to be…

In an era of heightened accountability and expanding educational technology choices, mathematics educators must critically assess the effectiveness of the tools available to them. While deciding on technological tools, it is essential that we not only promote rigor in mathematics but also ensure closing learning gaps and improve students' beliefs…

This dissertation contains findings from two research projects. The first research area focused on assessing engineering students problem solving skills. Problem solving related to two material and energy balance topics--vapor liquid equilibrium and reacting systems with recycle - were examined first followed by a more holistic analysis across two…

As the internet increases in size, our body of research into what visitors prefer for website design is leaving out a growing group of people. Those with visual impairments are one of the fastest growing minorities with a disability online. This extremely under-studied group uses the internet for as many different purposes as sighted users do, but…