Information Science and Learning Technologies electronic theses and dissertations (MU)
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The items in this collection are the theses and dissertations written by students of the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies. Some items may be viewed only by members of the University of Missouri System and/or University of Missouri-Columbia. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
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Item Journey to the virtual realm : transforming student online orientations with 3D desktop virtual reality(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2023) Sadanala, Gayathri; Moore, JoiIn the era of online education, student orientations hold a pivotal role in guiding students through the virtual learning landscape. However, traditional approaches often fall short in delivering interactivity and immersion. This dissertation investigates the transformative power of 3D desktop virtual reality (VR) technology in revolutionizing online student orientations. The systematic literature review delves into 64 selected studies, shedding light on emerging trends, the integration of VR in educational contexts, student performance, engagement metrics, and valuable user feedback. By addressing the research gap surrounding VR's specific benefits for online student orientations, this study uncovers the untapped potential of desktop simulations. Furthermore, the examination of learner attribute behavioral engagement in a 3D desktop VR new student online orientation reveals intriguing insights. While the impact of engagement on learning outcomes proves to be relatively weak, participants report high levels of perceived engagement during the VR experience. However, challenges arise in perceiving avatars as real individuals, necessitating further consideration of engagement factors in VR-based educational interventions. Additionally, the qualitative exploration of students' experiences in a 3D desktop VR-based orientation highlights its superiority over conventional methods, particularly for distance learners. The thematic content analysis of semi-structured interviews unveils valuable recommendations, such as minimizing in-world movements and incorporating optional breaks during the orientation. This comprehensive dissertation offers a deep understanding of the benefits, challenges, and educational potential of 3D desktop VR in online student orientations. The findings provide educators, policymakers, and instructional designers with valuable insights for leveraging this technology to develop impactful and effective orientation programs in higher education. By embracing VR experiences, institutions can transform student onboarding, fostering engagement, and enhancing the overall educational journey in the digital realm.Item Non-STEM-trained employees' creativity in using STEM knowledge or skills(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2023) He, Hao; Strobel, JohannesWhile there are many studies on STEM-trained people's creativity with STEM/non-STEM knowledge and skills in the workplace, few have focused on non-STEM people's creativity using STEM knowledge and skills. According to US labor statistics, non-STEM jobs outnumber STEM jobs, and non-STEM employees in non-STEM occupations are facing increasing tasks requiring STEM knowledge and skills. Creatively completing these tasks with STEM knowledge and skills can lead to better promotions or higher incomes. Thus, understanding how non-STEM-trained employees in non-STEM occupations use STEM knowledge and skills creatively is significant. In this phenomenological study, I interviewed 15 non-STEM employees from different non-STEM occupations to learn how they value creativity and STEM knowledge and skills and how they perceive the relationship between creativity and STEM knowledge and skills. I also conducted task-based observations with six additional non-STEM employees to understand how they use STEM knowledge and skills. Our findings reveal that non-STEM employees consider math, statistics, computer programming, data analysis, data visualization, and troubleshooting as crucial STEM knowledge and skills. They value STEM knowledge and skills more than creativity. While they claim to value creativity, they use it less in work tasks. They use creativity at a lower level by adapting or borrowing from existing ideas rather than at a higher level by synthesizing existing ideas or generating brand-new ideas. These findings have important implications for learning or training design for professional development programs. By understanding how non-STEM-trained employees perceive creativity and STEM knowledge and skills and how they use their creativity to apply STEM knowledge and skills in work tasks, professional development programs can be designed to enhance STEM skills, foster creativity, and better integrate technology. Additionally, the study provides a new perspective on learning how creativity and STEM knowledge and skills shape non-STEM people's minds and help them succeed in their careers.Item Entangled collaborations : a study of cross-disciplinary research collaboration in the field of user experience and data-intensive technologies in campus cyberinfrastructure(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2023) Singh, Kanu Priya; Jahnke, IsaKnown as a collaborative virtual organization, cyberinfrastructure is a large-scale sociotechnical assembly of people, organizations, and scientific computational infrastructures. It requires and serves cross-disciplinary scientific research collaborations in the age of digital transformation. Studies have shown that lack of understanding the diverse interests of different scientific stakeholder groups involved in the development of the cyberinfrastructure and ignoring usability issues, negatively impact the usage and broader adoption of cyberinfrastructure technologies. Through this dissertation, I provide two cases of data-intensive computational applications within a cyberinfrastructure research project, aimed to trace the entanglement of cross-disciplinary user experience (UX) collaborative practices of scientific research groups, and to identify an effective approach to build user-friendly cyberinfrastructure technologies. Drawing from Olson's theory of remote scientific collaboration and Grudin's theory of groupware applications, I apply a three-phase formative research: Phase 1, a systematic literature review to uncover, analyze, and present trends and issues in user experience studies of cyberinfrastructure research projects (Study 1); Phase 2, an iterative study to design, develop, and formatively evaluate the user experience of a cyberinfrastructure application (in this case, a healthcare data-intensive computational application) involving multiple different scientific research groups (Study 2); and Phase 3, an empirical investigation of the UX collaborative practices of cross-disciplinary research groups involved in the design, development, and formative UX evaluation of campus cyberinfrastructure research projects (Study 3). Each study applied multiple methods for data collection and analysis. The results of my dissertation contribute to the understanding of integration of UX studies in cyberinfrastructure development by providing empirical demonstration of how formative UX studies can be a fruitful approach in gradually uncovering both technological problems (e.g., usability) and social problems (e.g., distributed collaboration), and provide recommendations for improving the design of complex data-intensive computational applications. My findings reveal the nuanced ways in which entanglement challenges of cross-disciplinary UX collaborations play a role in shaping cyberinfrastructure development. Here, entanglement refers to the complex interconnections between human-computer interaction (HCI) systems and their social and technical environments. Entanglement of HCI systems highlights the need to take into account the diverse and complex ways in which users engage with and are affected by technology, as well as the broader social and cultural contexts in which technology is situated. Looking at research collaborations from the lens of entanglement helps to better understand and address the sociotechnical challenges of HCI. Implications suggest the significance of integrating disciplinary knowledge and practices in cross-disciplinary teams through (a) clarification of the different and diverse research goals early in the process, (b) early communication of partly different project plans of the cross-disciplinary groups involved and their management, (c) clarification of the mental models of the work processes of the different teams, (d) continuous and formative data-based feedback for improving the research process and product and making sure that the diverse teams understand the meaning of the data, (e) clarity of user needs and user feedback, and (f) understanding that the usability problem is not with the users, rather the design of the system. Overall, my dissertation provides insights into the complex entanglement of cross-disciplinary research interaction with technological, social, and organizational entities, and how it shapes the process of cyberinfrastructure development and the cross-disciplinary scientific collaborations for UX research.Item The Faculty Support Ecosystem : the rose of institutions in technology adoption amongst higher education faculty(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2023) Riedel, Nathan Lloyd; Oprean, DanielleSocial distancing measures due to COVID-19 forced higher education faculty to adopt technology at a rapid pace. Institutions fought to keep up with the demand and assist faculty as much as possible. However, the rapid transition to all online learning highlighted shortcomings in institutional support. This study defines institutional support as the Faculty Support Ecosystem (FSE) and aims to determine what influence -- if any -- the FSE had on the adoption of technology for teaching and learning amongst higher education faculty. Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to represent technology adoption, the researcher tested the FSE's influence using a series of one-way repeated measures ANOVAs, with post-hoc pair-wise comparisons. The results demonstrated that institutions need to better fund and coordinate Professional Development and IT Infrastructure, maintain, and promote their online faculty repositories, and demonstrate the connection between policy/administrative guidance and technology use. The FSE shows potential for positively influencing technology adoption but needs to be properly supported in order to have a positive impact.Item The effects of question prompt-based scaffolding and social presence enhancement on students' argumentation and ill-structured problem solving(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2023) Pham, Minh Thi Ngoc; Marra, Rose M.Asynchronous online discussions have the potential to facilitate meaningful learning activities, such as ill-structured problem-solving, due to their asynchronicity and connectivity. However, the literature identifies two significant challenges in effectively supporting students' ill-structured problem-solving in these environments - argumentation and social interactions. Although argumentation is critical for ill-structured problem-solving, students tend to avoid engaging in critical argumentation activities, such as generating rebuttals and counterarguments, to construct meaning in discussion forums. Similarly, social interactions are essential to ill-structured problem-solving, but students tend to display low levels of engagement in asynchronous online discussions. This study aimed to explore how these two critical components of problem-solving can be supported in asynchronous online discussions using question prompt-based argumentation scaffolds in combination with social presence enhancement strategies. The primary focus was to compare the differential effects of question prompts alone and the combination of question prompts with social presence enhancement prompts on students' argumentation behaviors, problem-solving processes during discussions, and post-test problem-solving performance. This study randomly assigned 44 students to three conditions (control, question prompt-based, and question prompt with social presence enhancement) to analyze their argumentation behaviors, problem-solving processes, and problem-solving performance in asynchronous online discussions. The findings reveal that: (1) lower level interactive argumentation behaviors dominate over higher level interactive ones; (2) students focus more on identifying problem representations and generating solutions than on justifying and evaluating them; (3) there is no significant difference in argumentation behaviors and problem-solving processes in asynchronous online discussions across the conditions. However, students who received both the question prompt scaffolds and the social presence enhancement strategies consistently showed more evidence of engaging in argumentation, especially higher level interactive argumentation, and in problem-solving processes; and (4) there is a significant difference in post-test problem-solving performance across conditions, where students in the condition that received both the question prompt scaffolds and the social presence enhancement strategies performed significantly better than students in the control condition. The study's findings underscore the importance of supporting students' social presence to engage them in interactive argumentation and problem-solving processes, thereby enhancing their problem-solving performance. This study contributes to the understanding of argumentation scaffolding and social interactions in asynchronous online discussion environments and provides design recommendations for instructional designers and instructors seeking to support students' argumentation and social presence in these environments.