Architecture of Engagement: Autonomy-Supportive Leadership for Instructional Improvement

This multiple paper dissertation addresses the importance of improving student success in online higher education programs by providing support for instructors. The autonomy-supportive structures to improve instructional practice are explained through three main domains, including instructional development, instructional design, and instructional practice. The first paper addresses instructional leadership with the theoretical foundations and practical considerations necessary for instructional leaders. Recommendations are made to use microcredentials or digital badges to scaffold programming using self-determination theory. The second paper addresses the importance of instructional design in improving instructional practice including the intentionality involved in implementing a gamification strategy to improve online student motivation. The third paper addresses instructional practice with a mixed-method sequential explanatory case study. Using the community of inquiry framework, this paper explains intentional course design, course facilitation, and student perceptions of the digital powerups strategy. The conclusion considers implications for practice and the need for instructional leaders to scaffold an architecture of engagement to support instructors and improve student success

Introduction

Introduction for Resilient Pedagogy

Chapter 18- An Amazing Change in Mindset : Student Psychosocial Development and Social Science Research Methods

Students enroll in social science research methods courses with varying backgrounds and experiences with quantitative methods (Clark & Foster, 2017; Murtonen et al., 2015; Papanastasiou & Zembylas, 2008). Although some students approach research methods with self-efficacy and positive perceptions (Papanastasiou & Zembylas, 2008; Sizemore & Lewandowski, 2009), other students enter the course with misconceptions about research, and potentially apprehension regarding statistics or other unknowns about engaging in research (Earley, 2014; Kawulich et al., 2009; Slocum-Schaffer & Bohrer, 2019; Wishkowski et al., 2022). At the end of a research methods course, some students show improvements in knowledge in research methods while others remain stagnant (Balloo et al., 2016; Murtonen, 2015). Some students leave a research methods course with improved attitudes towards research (Kawulich et al., 2009) and others do not experience an improvement in attitude (Ciarocco et al., 2013; Sizemore & Lewandowski, 2009). Student motivation in these courses also improves significantly when they feel a sense of belonging to the learning community (Garrison, 2016). There is certainly learner diversity with students in mid-level social science research methods courses (Nind & Lewthwaite, 2018)

Chapter 6- #DigitalPowerups: Creating Safe and Brave Spaces in Online Discussions to Support Student Choice and Voice

When structured effectively, online discussions can create safe and brave spaces (Murphy et al., 2020) for students to engage in meaningful dialogue surrounding traditionally difficult topics, like gender and sexuality. Yet it can be challenging to motivate students to participate in online discussions (Moore, 2021). In this chapter, we show how the #digitalpowerups strategy provides an innovative and effective way for instructors to engage students in higher-order online discussion by developing Habits of Mind skills, such as applying past knowledge to new situations, thinking about your thinking (metacognition), listening and understanding with empathy, thinking interdependently, responding with wonder and awe, and striving for accuracy (Al-Zakri & Al-Jubair, 2020; Costa & Kallick, 2009)

Acculturation and the body image of Alaska Native Women

This study examined the way acculturation affects Alaska Native women’s body perception. A secondary goal was to establish an understanding of interactions of native peoples with the majority society. Little research has been conducted regarding the ways in which indigenous people are affected by societal norms, although much research has identified how immigrant people groups are affected. It was hypothesized that while the ideal body image of both cultures may be similar as a result of adherence to cultural norms, the Alaska Native sample would be more accepting of their bodies than the White Alaskan sample. It was hypothesized for this study that the more acculturated Alaska Native women to Western culture, the more likely they would be to have a similar ideal body image to that of the majority culture. This study used two sample groups, one Native Alaskan women and the other White Alaskan women. Both sample groups were asked to use the Body Image Assessment – Obesity (BIA-O) to measure their perceived ideal body image and the body shape closest to their own body image. The Alaska Native group was also asked to fill out a Cultural Lifestyle Inventory (CLI) which assessed their level of acculturation. The scores on the BIA-O and the CLI were then compared to determine if the level of acculturation had an effect on the body images of the Alaska Natives. Further, the Alaska Native group’s BIA-O scores were compared to the White Alaskan sample group to determine if there was a difference in perceived ideal body image between the groups. The results suggest there is a significant difference between how Alaska Native women perceive their ideal body types and how White women perceive their ideal body type. There is also some suggestion that the level of acculturation is a predictor in ideal body image for the Alaska Native women. Therefore, Western acculturation appears to be a significant determinant of body image. This suggests some adherence to the majority culture by the Alaska Native women living in urban settings

Habits of Mind: Designing Courses for Student Success

Although content knowledge remains at the heart of college teaching and learning, forward-thinking instructors recognize that we must also provide 21st-century college students with transferable skills (sometimes called portable intellectual abilities) to prepare them for their futures (Vazquez, 2020; Ritchhart, 2015; Venezia & Jaeger, 2013; Hazard, 2012). To “grow their capacity as efficacious thinkers to navigate and thrive in the face of unprecedented change” (Costa et al., 2023), students must learn and improve important study skills and academic dispositions throughout their educational careers. If we do not focus on skills-building in college courses, students will not be prepared for the challenges that await them after they leave institutions of higher education. If students are not prepared for these postsecondary education challenges, then it is fair to say that college faculty have failed them

Resilient Pedagogy: Practical Teaching Strategies to Overcome Distance, Disruption, and Distraction

Resilient Pedagogy offers a comprehensive collection on the topics and issues surrounding resilient pedagogy framed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social justice movements that have swept the globe. As a collection, Resilient Pedagogy is a multi-disciplinary and multi-perspective response to actions taken in different classrooms, across different institution types, and from individuals in different institutional roles with the purpose of allowing readers to explore the topics to improve their own teaching practice and support their own students through distance, disruption, and distraction

Semen molecular and cellular features: these parameters can reliably predict subsequent ART outcome in a goat model

Currently, the assessment of sperm function in a raw or processed semen sample is not able to reliably predict sperm ability to withstand freezing and thawing procedures and in vivo fertility and/or assisted reproductive biotechnologies (ART) outcome. The aim of the present study was to investigate which parameters among a battery of analyses could predict subsequent spermatozoa in vitro fertilization ability and hence blastocyst output in a goat model. Ejaculates were obtained by artificial vagina from 3 adult goats (Capra hircus) aged 2 years (A, B and C). In order to assess the predictive value of viability, computer assisted sperm analyzer (CASA) motility parameters and ATP intracellular concentration before and after thawing and of DNA integrity after thawing on subsequent embryo output after an in vitro fertility test, a logistic regression analysis was used. Individual differences in semen parameters were evident for semen viability after thawing and DNA integrity. Results of IVF test showed that spermatozoa collected from A and B lead to higher cleavage rates (0 < 0.01) and blastocysts output (p < 0.05) compared with C. Logistic regression analysis model explained a deviance of 72% (p < 0.0001), directly related with the mean percentage of rapid spermatozoa in fresh semen (p < 0.01), semen viability after thawing (p < 0.01), and with two of the three comet parameters considered, i.e tail DNA percentage and comet length (p < 0.0001). DNA integrity alone had a high predictive value on IVF outcome with frozen/thawed semen (deviance explained: 57%). The model proposed here represents one of the many possible ways to explain differences found in embryo output following IVF with different semen donors and may represent a useful tool to select the most suitable donors for semen cryopreservation

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio