Social Presence During Instructor Mediated Synchronous Versus Asynchronous On-Line Course Discussions: A Study of Undergraduate Students with Disabilities Learning Statistics

这一扩大参与度的研究项目将有助于了解有学习障碍、注意力缺陷多动障碍和自闭症谱系障碍的大学生如何在教师和学生同时参与讨论或讨论不同步的在线课程中学习统计学的基础知识。这些类型的残疾学生是我国高校中最大的残疾学生群体。在线中学后STEM(科学、技术、工程和数学)教育正在快速增长，关于残疾学生如何在这种环境中学习的研究很少。此外，随着大学教职员工让学生参与在线讨论和课堂，信息传递的不同时间可能会对学生学习STEM内容产生负面或积极的影响。虽然已经有几项研究支持在线课程中教师出席率的增加与学生对在线讨论和在线学习表现的满意度之间的正向关系，但需要确定当教师在场或不在场且与教师的交互是异步的时，学习是否最大化。对于有执行功能缺陷的残疾学生来说，这是一个更关键的问题，这可能会对他们的在线学习产生负面影响，而教师在教学过程中的存在可能会减轻这一问题。更多地了解患有学习障碍、注意力缺陷多动障碍和自闭症谱系障碍的大学生如何在在线课程中学习统计学，当教职员工主导的讨论在同步和异步格式之间变化时，对这些残疾学生学习STEM的方式以及大学教职员工教授在线STEM课程的方式具有巨大的潜力。兰德马克学院的项目负责人将确定调查患有学习障碍、注意力缺陷多动障碍和自闭症谱系障碍的大学生在在线课程中学习统计学的最佳方式，无论是教师引导的讨论是同步的还是异步的。患有这些残疾的学生通常表现出执行功能方面的困难，这对学习产生了负面影响，在线学习期间有教师在场可能会减轻这种困难。以社会临场感理论为基础，研究人员将进行一项探索性研究，以检验这一研究问题：在线统计内容的讲师主导的虚拟同步讨论是否有助于提高残疾学生对统计概念的概念理解？这项工作的假设是，残疾学生在线学习大学统计学入门课程后，将在同步讨论之后发展对统计学概念的更深层次的理解，而不是异步的、虚拟教师中介的讨论。在该项目完成后，预计结果将为今后关于残疾学生和非残疾学生在在线课程中学习STEM的基础和应用教育研究提供信息。这项工作的成果预计将在专业出版物上与教育研究人员和公众分享。

This broadening participation research project will contribute to foundational knowledge about how college students with learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, and autism spectrum disorders learn statistics in an on-line course when the instructor and the students participate in discussions at the same time or when the discussions are asynchronous. Students with these types of disabilities are the largest group of students with disabilities taking courses at our nation's colleges and universities. Online postsecondary STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education is growing at a rapid rate with little research conducted about how students with disabilities learn in this environment. Additionally, as college faculty engage students in on-line discussions and classes, the varied timing of the information delivered may negatively or positively impact how students learn STEM content. While there have been several studies to support a positive relationship between the increased presence of the instructor during on-line courses and student satisfaction with online discussions and online learning performance, there is a need to determine if learning is maximized when the instructor is or is not present and the interactions with the instructor are asynchronous. This is an even more critical issue for students with disabilities who have deficits in executive function, which may negatively impact their on-line learning and which may be lessened by the presence of the faculty during instruction. Knowing more about how college students with learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, and autism spectrum disorders learn statistics in an on-line course, when faculty-led discussions are varied between synchronous and asynchronous formats, has great potential to lead to improvements in how these students with disabilities learn STEM and how college faculty teach on-line STEM courses. Project leaders at Landmark College will determine the best ways to investigate how college students with learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, and autism spectrum disorders learn statistics in an on-line course when the instructor-led discussions are either synchronous or asynchronous. Students with these disabilities typically exhibit difficulties with executive function, which negatively impacts learning, and which may be mitigated by the presence of an instructor during on-line learning. Using social presence theory as the grounding for their work, the researchers will conduct an exploratory study to examine the research question: Does the inclusion of instructor-mediated virtual synchronous discussions of online statistics content result in improved conceptual understanding of statistics concepts for students with disabilities? The hypothesis for this work is that students with disabilities learning introductory college statistics online will develop a deeper understanding of statistics concepts following synchronous, as compared to asynchronous, virtual instructor-mediated discussions. At the completion of the project, it is anticipated that results will inform future basic and applied educational research about students with and without disabilities learning STEM in on-line courses. The results of this work are expected to be shared with education researchers and the public in professional publications.