CCE Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Computing Technology in Education (DCTE)

Department

College of Engineering and Computing

Advisor

Ling Wang

Committee Member

Donna N. Lane

Committee Member

Martha M. Snyder

Keywords

Andragogy, phenomenology, TPACK, Training

Abstract

It is inevitable that campus-based higher education will adopt some form of a hybrid learning approach. For schools and their faculty members, this means the acknowledgment and acceptance of these changes are required. Campus-based higher education faculty members wish to change how they teach courses due to societal demands to better suit the next generation of students. Initially, schools began offering new technology to faculty that wished to use the technology; however, over the years, due to the demands of competition with other schools and next generation, tech-savvy students entering academia, schools are starting to require the use of technology that was once only an option for faculty members. This implementation of incorporating technology into the classroom has faced several roadblocks because what was once considered a simple transition has become more complex due to faculty resistance to new technology, which stems from various limitations, barriers, and perceptions, such as low computer self-efficacy, high computer anxiety, and time to learn new technology. The purpose of this study was to understand how in-service faculty experience individualized training as a method of teaching faculty how to use the technology and integrate it into their courses. The lived experiences and perceptions of in-service faculty regarding individualized training were specifically focused on to determine how individualized instruction was perceived to help or hinder integrating technology into their courses. The focus was the experience Harper College and McLennan Community College’s in-service faculty, who experienced training through the group training currently offered by the schools, as well as the proposed individualized training. Higher education faculty from general study areas, such as English, math, and science were invited to participate. The study consisted of a 6-week individualized training program for 12 in-service faculty members (seven completed the study) who previously participated in a group training program about Blackboard. The study was a phenomenological approach in that used interviews to gather information regarding the lived experiences as the basis of analysis. The data for this study were gathered, horizonalized, and analyzed through a 7-step data processing method for phenomenology studies. After the data were analyzed, the findings show how developing a good individualized training program can help in-service faculty members not only integrate technology into their course designs but address any of the limitations or barriers the faculty faced. These findings coincide with the recommendations that training programs need to be developed into a phased approach in which the existing group training should continue but a secondary training program should be developed that incorporates andragogy-based principles and the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework.

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