Investigating value creation in a community of practice with social network analysis in a hybrid online graduate education program

This study reports an analysis of 10?years in the life of the Internet-based Master in Educational Technology program (iMET) at Sacramento State University. iMET is a hybrid educational technology master’s program delivered 20% face to face and 80% online. The program has achieved a high degree of success, with a course completion rate of 93% and a graduation rate of 84%. iMET is based on Lave and Wenger’s seminal community of practice (CoP) model, which is identified by faculty and students as key to the program’s success. This study applied a value creation framework (VCF) created by Wenger, Trayner, and de Laat for assessing value creation in a CoP. The article presents detailed information concerning the framework and how it was applied. It then outlines how a social network analysis led to findings that value was created in the iMET CoP and how the value created led to a sustained CoP currently entering its 13th year.     

Flexible and inexpensive: Improving learning transfer and program evaluation through participant action plans

Action plans have been shown to improve transfer of learning and have proven an effective tool in training evaluation. This study describes how action planning was simply and successfully adapted to a preexisting curriculum with few additional resources. The decision to use participant action planning, the administration of it, and the participants' and the sponsor's responses are discussed, along with suggestions for future human performance technology research.     

Years/Fears: From Artist to Teacher to Somewhere In-Between

As I began my first year of graduate school - admittedly, a shaky start of my own - a group of my former students began to struggle with their transition to high school. Upon hearing this from my friend, colleague, and their current theatre teacher (who I will call Ms. M), I developed a workshop curriculum focused upon health for the artist to facilitate for her company. Both the development of this curriculum and the facilitation of the workshop itself brought on an incredibly cathartic reflection of my own journey towards prioritizing health as an artist. This is the product of that, with the workshop materials I created interspersed for anyone who may wish to recreate a similar experience for their company - said Ms. M afterwards: “This should be taught every year to every high school and college theatre company - it is just SO important.” I hope you feel the same!     

Self-regulatory and demographic predictors of grades in online and face-to-face university cohorts: A multi-group path analysis

Predictors of academic success at university are of great interest to educators, researchers and policymakers. With more students studying online, it is important to understand whether traditional predictors of academic outcomes in face-to-face settings are relevant to online learning. This study modelled self-regulatory and demographic predictors of subject grades in 84 online and 80 face-to-face undergraduate students. Predictors were effort regulation, grade goal, academic self-efficacy, performance self-efficacy, age, sex, socio-economic status (SES) and first-in-family status. A multi-group path analysis indicated that the models were significantly different across learning modalities. For face-to-face students, none of the model variables significantly predicted grades. For online students, only performance self-efficacy significantly predicted grades (small effect). Findings suggest that learner characteristics may not function in the same way across learning modes. Further factor analytic and hierarchical research is needed to determine whether self-regulatory predictors of academic success continue to be relevant to modern student cohorts.

Practitioner Notes

What is already known about this topic

• Self-regulatory and demographic variables are important predictors of university outcomes like grades.
• It is unclear whether the relationships between predictor variables and outcomes are the same across learning modalities, as research findings are mixed.

What this paper adds

• Models predicting university students' grades by demographic and self-regulatory predictors differed significantly between face-to-face and online learning modalities.
• Performance self-efficacy significantly predicted grades for online students.
• No self-regulatory variables significantly predicted grades for face-to-face students, and no demographic variables significantly predicted grades in either cohort.
• Overall, traditional predictors of grades showed no/small unique effects in both cohorts.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• The learner characteristics that predict success may not be the same across learning modalities.
• Approaches to enhancing success in face-to-face settings are not automatically applicable to online settings.
• Self-regulatory variables may not predict university outcomes as strongly as previously believed, and more research is needed.

     

‘Standing back’ or ‘stepping up’? Exploring climate change education policy influence in England

This paper explores the nature of climate change education-related policy influence in England at a time when public consciousness about the need to accelerate climate change action was heightened, and as the 2018 climate strikes gathered momentum around the world. Informed by Foucault's concept of ‘governmentalities’, and using data generated through 24 exploratory interviews and reflexive thematic analysis, we examine the extent to which influential individuals were advocating for policy change. We discuss the nature of policy influence with particular reference to the ‘stances’ that individuals adopted relative to climate change education policy influence and noting a common tendency exhibited amongst participants which was a tendency towards ‘deference’. Coupling our insights with theorisations of dissent, we consider how ‘infra-political dissent’ could support key individuals to ‘step up’ and influence for more effective policy relative to climate change education, and to other areas of education or environment policy.