The Right Tools

Recently I was removing wallpaper from a bathroom and was struggling with the process when I remembered that I had some old tools tucked away in the basement from the last time I removed stubborn wallpaper..  After finding the tools (which didn't take as long as I had feared) I was quickly moving along in the process when the following thought popped into my head, "Wow, it's amazing how much easier this is to do when you have the right tools!"   

After this experience I began to think of how many of my community college students struggle in their coursework.  I wondered how much easier college would be for them if they had access to the proper tools as well as the knowledge of how  and when to utilize those tools.  

The next few blogs are going to be based on my exploration of this idea.  Here are a few of the questions that I hope to address:

 1) what tools are students missing that could make learning so much easier?  
 2)  what tools do they need that they might not even know that they have?
 3)  what can I do to help them find their tools and how to use them? 

I'm sure there are many more questions and at first I thought I'd work on this over time and then share it, but now I think it might make some interesting discussions, so I'm going to publish as it is and invite anyone who reads this to add their ideas and comments.  This could be a great collaborative experience, um that is ... if anyone sees it. (grin)

The Continuation of the Adventure

I've decided it's time to get this blog moving again.  It's hard to believe it has been four months since my last post.   I've been very busy revising my online classes, they were sorely neglected while I was in grad school and so now I'm using what I learned in my classes and research to revise my courses so that they are better experiences for my students.

I also writing a couple of papers based on my research findings on improving student academic success in online courses.  Should have done this sooner, but I have had a few motivational issues and have been recovering from the intense 3 1/2 years of graduate school and dissertation work.  I'm thinking that this blog is a good way to get back in the writing groove.  I've also neglected my Twitter account - my handle is @diagonaldee and I've decided I need to get active there as well. 

I read recently that the dissertation is just the first step in research and I can see how that is the case.  There are several questions that I didn't answer in my dissertation that I want to use the data that I have to see if I can find any answers - more on that later.  I met my goal of completing my Ph.D. and am still feeling great about it!  However,  graduating in December,  but not being able to get  hooded until two weeks ago kind of made me feel that it wasn't really done yet.  But I have the pictures and saw the streaming video  http://graduate.ku.edu/doctoral-hooding-ceremony  and had a great party after the hooding (even if our air conditioning failed that day) so yes, I'm done and now am ready to continue my education exploration - I love learning and will continue to do so and will share what I learn here!

Here's a word cloud that  I created using the last paragraph of my dissertation abstrac.

My research involved using LMS tracking data from more than 200 courses and 1700 students.  I looked at student-student interaction, student-instructor interaction, and student-content interaction to see if any of these interactions promoted student academic success better than the others.  I found that student-student interaction was the best promoter of student academic success in this study, no real surprise there, but I also found that more instructor email in the course had a negative effect on student academic success.  This finding caused me to question my results until I ran across Carr's 2014 paper on engagement in which she stated, "Email frequency needs to be monitored as it can be a sign of insufficient information in the course for students or it can be a lack of content support." (p. 102)  There were a number of limitations to my study yet I think it did provide some valuable information, so stay tuned for updates!



Carr, M. (2014). The online university classroom: One perspective for effective student engagement and teaching in an online environment. The Journal of Effective Teaching, 99.
Taylor, D. L. (2014). Interactions in online courses and student academic success (Order No. 3671767). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1651237829).

Dissertation done, now what?

I'm still having a hard time realizing that I am done, done, done with my dissertation.   I even took a picture of the Proquest listing to help me realize that yes, it is real.

I am now working on a paper, had hoped to have it done sooner, but not sure which journal I want to submit to,  and need to meet with advisor to decide.  Then what after that?  I have several ideas of what I might want to do, yet not sure of the best way to go.

I really enjoy working with other faculty and helping them set up their online classes, and I could do that on the one-by-one basis.  I am also thinking that I've never taken a sabbatical (deadline is Feb. 17) but that would mean committing myself to stay where I am for two more years - not sure I want to tie myself down.  I have several ideas for projects so it would not be hard to fill the time, but honestly I was so busy going to grad school and working, that I could continue teaching and still do much of what I want.

I know that I am fortunate to be in a tenured position teaching physiology, which I love, but after 25 years, perhaps a change is needed. 

I'm hoping to get my blogging up to speed now that I am done, so this is the first installation of the second phase of my education exploration.