Date of Award
Fall 11-2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Education
First Advisor
Dr. Lynda Leavitt
Second Advisor
Dr. Sherrie Wisdom
Third Advisor
Dr. Tammy Moore
Abstract
As technology continues to change rapidly, online learning altered higher education. As a result, instructional designers and instructional technologists became more critical in supporting faculty in online course design. Transitioning courses to the online environment created external barriers, such as no training and support, primarily for faculty who never taught online. Instructional designers and instructional technologists helped address external barriers among full-time and adjunct faculty and provided a positive online course development experience. Therefore, the researcher conducted a mixed-methods examination of generational faculty perceptions experienced during online course development at a small Midwestern institution. The researcher investigated a difference between each generation in the following categories: perceptions of technology, ease of use of technology, training and support, and the time needed to learn and develop online courses. Perceptions from each generation depended on years of online course development and the frequency of using an instructional designer. Therefore, the researcher also examined the frequency of training and support received from an instructional designer. Lastly, the researcher wanted to understand the training and support available to different generations to individualize faculty training according to generational learning styles. Examined in the research were 48 administrative, fulltime, and adjunct faculty from four schools: The School of Professional Studies (SPS), the School of Education (SOE), the School of Arts (SOA), and the School of Business (SOB). Forty-eight participants completed an online survey to help answer six hypotheses and five research questions. The researcher used qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques to address the six hypotheses and five research questions. As a result, the v researcher failed to reject null hypotheses 1-5 due to the small sample size. The researcher found only a few components of hypothesis 6 rejected the null hypothesis. The qualitative analysis revealed specific themes for each research question, per generation. Lastly, learning characteristics applied to the Silent Generation based on the researcher’s experiences and Generation X based on interview observations.
Recommended Citation
Fleming, JeLena, "A Mixed Methods Examination of Generational Faculty Perceptions When Developing Online Courses" (2020). Dissertations. 28.
https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/dissertations/28
Rights
Copyright 2020