This study was based on the hypothesis that gender differences and past experiences with computers and the Internet influence individuals’ perceptions of wireless laptops. The perception of wireless laptops was evaluated according to Rogers’ five attributes of innovations: relative advantages, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. An online questionnaire was utilized in the study, and the total number of participants was 248. Analyses of the data were conducted using multiple regression analysis and one-way analysis of variance. The results of the data indicated that the overall perception of participants on the use of wireless laptops was positive. A statistically significant difference in the perceptions of wireless laptops was found in the groups of graduate students and faculty members. Faculty members showed lowest interest in trying wireless laptops, worried about security problems, and were concerned about the distraction that wireless laptops may bring to learning. The relationship between the perceptions of wireless laptops to five predictors (gender, wireless laptop ownership, wireless laptop experience, attitude toward computers, and attitude toward the Internet) was significant. In evaluating the contribution of each predictor, the attitude toward the Internet was found to be the most important factor in predicting the perceptions of wireless laptops, and was followed by gender, the computer attitude scale, wireless laptop ownership, and experience with wireless laptops. The findings of this study support prior research that an individual’s past experience with computers and the Internet have positive impacts on the perceptions toward technological innovations in terms of wireless laptops in this study. The gender perception about men holding a more positive attitude toward the technological innovation does not exist. This study suggests that in order to take the best advantage of wireless laptops, the utilization and skills of computers and the Internet need to be enhanced; the issues concerning file transmission security and the distraction of using wireless laptops in class should be addressed.

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the present use of iPads in schools, particularly K-12 schools, as well as to consider how they might be used more effectively in the future. In order to carry out this aim, the researcher used the quantitative research method and developed a 32- question survey for a potential 250 participants. Responses to all 32 questions were gathered from those who responded, 65 participants. Of those who responded, 77% were female and 23% were male. Approximately 45% were between the ages of 22-25, 38% were above the age of 25, and 17% were between the ages of 18-21. A majority, 62%, had obtained a Bachelor’s degree as their highest form of education. The participants were from two schools, one in Bowling Green and the other in Toledo. Out of the 32 questions that they responded to, 18 were multiple-choice questions, and 14 involved free responses. The free responses allowed for a wide range of opinions, and for descriptive statistics to be gathered. Importantly, this study revealed that most teachers, whether or not they already use iPads as a tool for instruction, would use them as such if they were available and if their access was cost-effective. It also revealed that most teachers who are currently using iPads for the purpose of classroom instruction are able to recognize and articulate various ways that they are useful and beneficial tools for this purpose. This study recommended that parents, teachers, school administrators, and government officials communicate with one another and work together to ensure that technology is used efficiently.

There is a growing trend within secondary and post-secondary institutions to offer information technology (IT) certification programs as instructional vehicles to provide students with viable skills needed by the workforce, to satisfy state skill standards, and to prepare students for postsecondary IT studies. The use of IT certification programs in a formal education setting carries a number of salient issues and implications for educational institutions, IT teachers, administrators, students, and, ultimately, the IT workforce. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the perceived attitudes toward IT certification programs; the perceived need for a particular type of IT certification program; and the perceived need for a state-wide IT certification data collection effort among secondary school educators and business and industry IT professionals in Ohio. Additionally, this study investigated effects of selected demographic characteristics on perceived levels of attitude and need surrounding IT certification in secondary education. The population for this study utilized a census of three different populations that consisted of: a) all IT teachers in the state of Ohio working at either comprehensive high schools or area career centers, b) all principals in the state of Ohio, associated with the IT teachers, and c) all business and industry IT professionals from the state of Ohio who participated in the development of IT skill standards for the Ohio Department of Education during the 2005-2006 academic year. Three parallel descriptive cross-sectional questionnaires were developed by the researcher and sent out to IT teachers, principals, and business and industry IT professionals. The study showed: a significant difference in attitude toward IT certification programs between educators and IT professionals; a perceived need for vendor-neutral certifications programs that prepare individuals to work in multi-vendor environments; and confirmed a high perceived need for a centralized data source on IT certification program and student data. The findings also indicated that while teachers and IT professionals showed no significant differences among males and females on perceived attitude toward IT certification, principals showed significant differences. Strong significant differences were found between certified and non-certified IT professionals on perceived attitude toward IT certification.

This study examines the experiences of teachers and students in the integration of computers in three different socioeconomic school contexts of the Atlantico department in northern region of Colombia. This research used a case study approach and collect qualitative data from interviews and observations in two public and one private schools. The analysis of teachers’ beliefs in relation to their role in education, teachers and students’ perceptions toward using technology in teaching and learning, and the uses of technology in the three schools revealed that there is no connection between teachers’ beliefs about their role in the classrooms and perceptions toward the use of technology for teaching with their actual practices. The research concludes that the development of constructivist classrooms and effective use of technology in schools is a slow evolutionary process, which requires not only a better preparation of teachers but also a change in students’ expectations.

Leveraging big data for student data analytics is increasingly integrated throughout university operations from admissions to advising to teaching and learning. Though the possibilities are exciting to consider, they are not without risks to student autonomy, privacy, equity, and educational value. There has been little research showing how universities address such ethical issues in their student data policies and procedures to date though privacy and security policies are abundant. Though privacy and security policies that students sign cover institutions legally, there is more that can be done to support the ethical use of student data analytics at higher education institutions. This exploratory study addressed why it is important to support the four values of autonomy, privacy, equity, and educational value within university student data analytics policies and procedures. A rationale for focusing on these values was discussed through the lens of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. A comparative case analysis of data analytics policies and procedures at two large, public universities provided insight into what they emphasized and where risks to student autonomy, privacy, equity, and educational value existed. This study concluded with recommendations of how institutional leadership can use proposed principles of ethical student data analytics to evaluate their own policies and procedures and amend risks that are uncovered through analysis.

With advances in technology, college and university administrators have adopted platforms to track students’ progress toward successful completion of courses and degrees. The Starfish Retention System offers an early alert system that promises to provide data points for faculty, students, and support staff for timely intervention and improved student persistence. Any technological system should be integrated into the existing scholarly practice of academic advising and its established tradition, norms, and expectations. The researcher examines the effects of this integration at three different campuses of at a public four-year institution. In this qualitative study, I explored the evolution associated with the platform’s integration and the impact made on the existing advising practices. Based on interviews conducted with student support staff, the goal of this research included developing themes related to this amalgamation. Moreover, this study employed a critical lens to assess the transition to technologized advising.

With the rapid growth of Cloud Computing, the use of Clouds in educational settings can provide great opportunities for Computer Science students to improve their learning outcomes. In this thesis, we introduce Cloud-Based Education architecture (CBE) as well as Cloud-Based Education for Computer Science (CBE-CS) and propose an automated CBE-CS ecosystem for implementation. This research employs the Cloud as a learning environment for teaching Computer Science courses by removing the locality constraints, while simultaneously improving students' understanding of the material provided through practical experience with the finer details and subjects’ complexities. In addition, this study includes a comparison between Cloud-based virtual classrooms and the traditional e-learning system to highlight the advantages of using Clouds in such a setting. We argue that by deploying Computer Science courses on the Cloud, the institution, administrators, faculty, and the students would gain significant advantages from the new educational setting. The infrastructure buildup, the software updating and licenses managements, the hardware configurations, the infrastructure space, maintenance, and power consumption, and many other issues will be either eliminated or minimized using the Cloud technology. On the other hand, the number of enrolled students is likely to increase since the Cloud will increase the availability of the needed resources for interactive education of larger number of students; it can deliver advanced technology for hands-on training, and can increase the readiness of the students for job market. The CBE-CS approach is more likely to allow faculty to better demonstrate the subjects' complexities to the students by renting he needed facilities whenever it is desired. The research also identified several potential Computer Science courses which could be launched and taught through Clouds. In addition, the selected courses have been classified based on three well-known levels of the Cloud services: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Subsequently, we propose to build a framework for CSE-CS considering the service layers and the selected courses. The proposed CBE-CS framework is intended to be integrated in a Virtual Classroom Ecosystem for Computer Sciences based on Cloud Computing referred to as VCE-CS. This ecosystem is scalable, available, reliable, and cost effective. Examples from selected pilot courses (i.e., Database, Operating System, Network, and Parallel Programming) are discussed. This research describes VCE-CS and argues for the benefits of such systems.

Most evaluation activities are initiated during times of crises when resource constraints compel attention towards using evaluation as a strategy to do more with less. In other words, evaluations tend to gain attention when resources are limited and there is a need to ration the amount of resources that can be invested towards any project or program. However, to leverage evaluation organizations must develop evaluation capacity; which is challenging under resources constraints. The overarching goal of this study is to articulate how Evaluation Capacity Building (ECB) initiatives in a higher education institution, under resource constraints, could be designed and/or aligned to facilitate fulfillment of institutional needs for optimum resource utilization, innovation for cultivating impactful programs, and transformation of culture from a low focus to high focus on evaluation. This goal insinuates examination of existing resources, systems, structures, and opportunities for building evaluation capacity and promoting evaluation activities. Therefore, this dissertation takes a three paper approach where the first paper introduces the idea of Setting up For Evaluation (SFE), a strategy that helps build evaluation capacity while conducting evaluation in a limited resources context. The second paper illustrates the concept of SFE using a case study approach. Finally, the third paper provides aggregated insights into some of the barriers that inhibit evaluation and facilitators that augment evaluation and concludes with recommendations for enhancing evaluation capacity within the research context

There is evidence on the agreement of educators, scholars, and employers concerning the importance of teaching critical thinking skills to undergraduate students (Brookfield, 2015; Gose, 2009; Lennon, 2014; Tsui, 2002). Asking Critical Thinking faculty and STEM faculty about their definition of critical thinking and their use of critical thinking tools may help shed light on newer and better ways to improve STEM education by incorporating more opportunities for developing and honing critical thinking in instructional design for these courses. The practical application of critical thinking pedagogy to STEM courses is warranted, hence the need for faculty development in this area. Other research has identified a paradox where science faculty are required to hold a terminal degree but are not required to have formal training in pedagogy to teach (Lynd-Balta, Erklenz-Watts, Freeman, & Westbay, 2006). One way to ensure the suggested faculty development courses are appropriate is to query faculty directly on this topic. This research used a qualitative research methodology. A critical thinking faculty focus group and STEM faculty interviews were conducted. Faculty participants in the focus group and interviews provided all of the data for this research as these faculty members are the closest to the situation. The data collected was recorded, transcribed, coded, and developed into emergent themes. The research took place at a University in Columbus, OH. The University is a private four-year or more university. Ninety-three percent of the faculty at the University are part-time not tenure track and the faculty to student ratio is thirteen students to one faculty member. The timeframe within which this research was completed spans across one trimester at that university. A total of six questions were asked of focus group members and personal interviewees. The research indicates that a simple and shared definition of critical thinking is needed. There was no clear definition of critical thinking to be found among STEM faculty or Critical Thinking faculty. This leads to a problem, as no clear definition led to no clear understanding of the concept. If there is no clear understanding of the concept, then consistency of curriculum can be questioned. STEM faculty looked to promoting critical thinking through discipline-specific methods while Critical Thinking faculty considered the promotion of critical thinking in a worldly view. This identified a separation that could be troublesome between general education courses and discipline-specific courses. A multidisciplinary approach to critical thinking would be more beneficial to both students and the University, as this would help with consistency of curriculum. Along with promoting critical thinking earlier in student programs, faculty development was considered a way to more effectively promote critical thinking by helping align faculty with tools and methods to incorporate more critical thinking in their courses. While STEM faculty are more than likely well trained in their specific disciplines, they could be lacking in educational pedagogy and critical thinking tools. Further research suggestions include gathering information for the creation of faculty development courses themselves for alignment purposes. Also, research could be completed after the courses are taken to look at the effectiveness of those courses and any resulting changes.

The current study investigated the relationship between technology readiness (TR; Parasuraman, 2000) and job satisfaction. Participants were recruited via MTurk and assessed on their TR and job satisfaction. The final sample consisted of 93 participants. Findings indicated that overall TR, as well as combined TR drivers, were positively correlated with overall job satisfaction. The TR driver optimism was positively correlated to ability utilization, as well as independence. The TR driver innovativeness was positively correlated with creativity. Combined TR inhibitors were not significantly related to overall job satisfaction, nor were the individual TR inhibitor facets significantly related to the chosen job satisfaction facets. These findings suggest that TR may play a significant role in employee job satisfaction in the modern workplace, and that TR driver facets may hold a more significant role in this relationship.

This thesis was developed to look at leadership styles in higher education administration. The first portion of the study was to look at previous research in the field of leadership and communication, as it pertains to the industry of higher education administration. The next step was to summarize data from the Campus Climate/Great Colleges to Work For Survey administered by a regional research university, followed by individual interviews with campus leaders to formulate themes. Finally, this thesis looked at the results and determined if campus leaders have changes methods of leadership in correspondence to the results found by the Office of Assessment. Limitations and direction of future research were determined.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD) exhibit considerable behavior challenges for their parents. This group of children and parents have important special education needs. A developing group of research has shown that effective interventions for toddlers with ASD ought to incorporate parent contribution and commitment to their child. The involvement of parents in implementing intervention is appropriate in enhancing children's earliest social relationships. Recent studies have demonstrated that parents, when coached weekly by professionals(intervention team) for 12 weeks, were able to learn and implement engagement strategies throughout the day in interactions with their toddler with ASD, and maintain those strategies over time. So, One of the best approaches is virtually connecting a parent with the intervention team so that the parent can process, grieve and decide their course of action. Research has provided evidence that mobile technology is expanding the learning experience both inside and outside the classroom. We have designed a mobile application for teaching both the parents and their children. Our project mainly emphasizes on implementing special educational application connecting the intervention team with the parent. Our application includes features like messaging center, calendar of events, user profiles and soon. It will help keep track of user progress, provide supplemental instruction, and a way for families to communicate with intervention team members.