ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of virtual office hours in the online classroom on engagement and course completion among criminology students at Arizona State University. The study relied on an action research mixed-method design. The goal of the interventions was to increase the engagement of all members of the class. The study’s conceptual framework drew from Albert Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory that combines cognitive psychology and behaviorism to describe the learning process within individuals, as well as Garrison, Anderson, and Archer’s (2000) Community of Inquiry Framework, which is based on constructivist learning theory, where individuals actively make sense of their experiences (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008).
For the quantitative portion of the data collection, 60 students in my CRJ 305: Gender and Crime criminology iCourse were asked to participate in a pre- and post-intervention survey. For the qualitative portion of the data collection, I collected field notes during virtual office hours and invited all virtual office hour participants to participate in post-intervention interviews. From those who responded to my invitation, I conducted one-on-one interviews.
Once analyzed, descriptive data and self-reporting Question #5 indicated that the intervention—virtual office hours—did have an impact on student engagement and successful course completion. Additional quantitative data collected (mean grade point averages), once compared, suggested that those who participated in virtual office hours overall had a final higher grade point average.
The interview responses and field notes suggested that virtual office hours did have an impact on student engagement and successful course completion by allowing students to develop relationships, feel more connected, and be more successful. Overall, students found that virtual office hours allowed for a more visual and personal space where they felt comfortable and could develop a relationship with others, the kind of meaningful relationship that needs to happen with online students in order for them to be as successful, if not more so, than in traditional learning environments.

The focus of this study was to investigate better learning opportunities at the epicenter of field-level aircraft maintenance technical training for the United States Air Force. While narrow in focus, this project may be informative for training communities across diverse industries. The intent of this project is to improve the transfer of training from the classroom to the workplace by implementing a blended learning classroom pedagogy, successively enhancing class time for more meaningful construction of student-centered learning. This mixed-methods research study utilized surveys, observations, and interviews with students, instructors and supervisors to explore perceptions that aircraft maintainers have about the current and potential value of curriculum. The first significant finding was that aircraft maintainers do believe there is opportunity to improve the current rote transmission style of curriculum and make it more learner-centered. The second significant finding is that aircraft maintainers do see a blended learning classroom as a means to explore the curriculum in more depth and improve the transfer of their knowledge in a more meaningful way to the workplace.

This study examined the influence of perceived transfer of learning on student engagement, completion rates, and attendance hours of high school equivalency (HSE) students within a Wicked Problems Framework. Local research had shown that over 30% of HSE students stopped attending HSE classes prior to completing 40 instructional hours, and many students cited a lack of relevant, “real-world” application, and the need to pursue employment as the two most common reasons that they stopped attending.

To address this issue, an innovation was developed and deployed for one semester at the Rio Salado College Avondale location. The innovation identified the individual career interests of each student in a treatment group, then worked with industry experts in those career fields to develop PowerPoint slides explaining how each HSE math lesson would directly transfer to the student’s career of interest. In addition, hiring managers from each career field that the students expressed interest in visited the class to discuss the need for HSE math skills and to answer any questions about their career and the transferability of what the students were learning.

The treatment groups’ attendance hours, completion rates, and self-reported engagement were examined and compared all other HSE math classes at Rio Salado College that took place during the same semester, as well as compared to the instructor of the innovation’s previous math classes. The results showed that students who participated in the innovation had, on average, over 38 more attendance hours than students who did not receive the innovation during the same semester and over 44 more attendance hours than the instructor’s previous classes at the same location. In addition, students who participated in the innovation reported higher engagement and enjoyment in the class than in similar HSE classes that they had previously taken.

This dissertation shares findings from a qualitative case study of Latina adolescent girls (ninth and 10th graders) and their mothers and fathers participating in Somos Escritores/We Are Writers. Somos Escritores was a five-week bilingual writing workshop for Latina adolescent girls and their mothers and fathers that invited them to write, draw, and share stories from their lived realities on a variety of topics relevant to their lives. The stories, voices, experiences, and ways of knowing of the Latina adolescent girls, mothers, and fathers who allowed me a window into their lives are at the center of this study.

This study explored the ways a safe space was coconstructed for the sharing of stories and voices and what was learned from families through their writing about who they are, what matters to them, and what they envision for their futures. To understand Somos Escritores, and the Latina adolescent girls, mothers, and fathers who participated in this space and the stories that are shared, I weave together multiple perspectives. These perspectives include Chicana feminist epistemology (Delgado Bernal, 1998), third space (Gutiérrez, 2008), Nepantla (Anzaldúa, 1997) and sociocultural theories of writing (Goncu & Gauvain, 2012; Prior, 2006). Data were drawn from the following sources: (a) postworkshop survey, (b) audio recording and transcription of workshops, (c) interviews, (d) workshop artifacts, and (e) field notes. They were analyzed using narrative methods. I found that Latina adolescent girls and their mothers and fathers are “Fighting to be Heard,” through the naming and claiming of their realities, creating positive self-definitions, writing and sharing silenced stories, the stories of socially conscious girls and of parents raising chicas fuertes [strong girls]. In addition, Somos Escritores families and facilitators coconstructed a third space through intentional practices and activities. This study has several implications for teachers and teacher educators. Specifically, I suggest creating safe space in literacy classroom for authentic sharing of stories, building a curriculum that is relevant to the lived realities of youth and that allows them to explore social injustices and inequities, and building relationships with families in the coconstruction of family involvement opportunities.