Sheri Conklin

• Doctor of Education
• Professor (Assistant) at University of North Carolina Wilmington

We investigated the utility of ChatGPT 3.5 in the creation of a fully online asynchronous higher education course. Our collaborative effort with ChatGPT resulted in developing a Master’s level course on Trends and Issues in Instructional Design using the Backward Design Model. Throughout this process, we recognized the critical role of precise prom...

This quantitative study explored the relationship between student-instructor connectedness and student anxiety in online higher education courses. Research shows the value of student-instructor connectedness for student satisfaction in online learning. Utilizing the Connectedness and Anxiety items of the Student-Instructor Relationship Scale (Creas...

Background Preparing the next generation of nurses requires consideration for the integration of emerging technologies. This refers specifically to technologies that will shape and affect how care is delivered—not in today's health care facilities but in facilities 20 years from now and beyond. Method A cross-sectional survey examining how seven e...

Connecting with students has been shown to increase motivation, satisfaction, and perceived learning while decreasing anxiety. Connecting with students in an online or distance education environment can prove difficult. This study examined perceptions of higher education students who were enrolled in various modalities (e.g., hybrid, online asynchr...

Connecting with students has been shown to increase motivation, satisfaction, and perceived learning while decreasing anxiety. Connecting with students in an online or distance education environment can prove difficult. This study examined perceptions of higher education students who were enrolled in various modalities (e.g., hybrid, online asynchr...

Although online learning has increased as a delivery method of instruction in higher education, learners may still feel isolated from the instructor and peers due to a lack of physical presence. Thus, intentional and purposeful online course design is necessary. To remediate feelings of isolation, cooperative learning strategies have been implement...

The Covid pandemic resulted in many higher education classes shifting to online instruction in the middle of a term and many institutions stayed online at least in part for several terms. Students taking these online courses did not choose to shift their modality and many would not have chosen an online over a face-to-face class. The purpose of thi...

During the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, instructors at a southeastern university had one week to convert their current face-to-face courses to an online format, under a time frame that did not allow for a "well-designed" online course. The current study investigates how some instructors were able to maintain social presence in the transiti...

Minority students, particularly those of the Black and Latinx communities, face daunting challenges—confronted with the recent pandemic, ongoing inequality, and increased financial uncertainty due to job loss and rising unemployment. With recent shifts to skill‐based learning and remaining "work‐ready," competency‐based education (CBE) has never be...

The purpose of this book is to provide guidelines and best practices for how to lead instructional design efforts in higher education. The audience for this book are instructional designers and technologists working at 2-year and 4+ year degree institutions. This book provides instructional designers and technologists with templates, suggestions fo...

When faculty need to use technology that is not familiar to them, it may take more time to integrate into to their teaching. The purpose of this study was to gather data on the ease of use and usefulness of the Blackboard LMS in anticipation of transitioning to a new LMS. A survey with the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) usability and perceived eas...

In this chapter, we will explore the evaluation procedures used when exploring new technologies such as a Learning Management System (LMS). Evaluation of a technology change is critical. Not only do you need stakeholder buy-in, but you also need data that the stakeholders have bought into the idea of change. When conducting an evaluation, you want...

Learning Management Systems (LMS) provide a variety of tools and functions to support teaching and learning that include, but are not limited, to group chats, threaded discussions, document sharing, assignments, quizzes, grading and course evaluations. Migrating to a new LMS can be a challenge for faculty, in fact, changes in technology have been n...

As the number of online programs continues to increase, more faculty are concerned with the quality of their courses. Many institutions subscribe to Quality Matters (QM) for professional development and guidance on components associated with high-quality asynchronous courses. However, determining how professional development impacts the actual chan...

Blending learning environments are being adopted by an increasing number of educational institutions in order to offer flexibility to students. Although, blended synchronous learning environments have been around since early 2000s, there has been little research conducted on students' experiences in these environments, specifically in terms of inst...

Instructor social presence involves instructors establishing their presence as “being there” in terms of frequency of communication and interaction with students as well as supporting students throughout the learning process (Lowenthal 2015). Instructor social presence can be constructed and maintained through the design and facilitation of online...

Distance education environments can take many forms, from asynchronous to blended synchronous environments. Blended synchronous learning environment (BSLE) can be defined as an innovative setting in which students can decide to attend classes either face-to-face or via a synchronous virtual connection. Many educators are unfamiliar teaching in BSLE...

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the enhancement of asynchronous online discussions and assessment using multimodal interactive tools that allow text, video, and audio posts. The integration of these multimodal interactive tools as well as their affordances could lead to powerful changes in the learning experience of students interacting i...