Swapna Kumar

Swapna Kumar
University of Florida | UF · School of Teaching and Learning

Doctor of Education

About

132
Publications
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2,753
Citations

Publications

Publications (132)
Article
Full-text available
Bichronous online learning is the intentional blending of asynchronous and synchronous online learning experiences. Twelve award-winning online instructors participated in interviews to discuss best practices they use, and benefits and challenges in bichronous online courses. When sharing best practices for bichronous online courses, online instruc...
Article
Bichronous Online Learning is the blending of asynchronous and synchronous online learning. In this qualitative study, 12 award-winning online instructors were interviewed for their online teaching practices focused on blending, design, facilitation, and assessment of asynchronous and synchronous online modalities. Data was collected through virtua...
Article
Dissertation guiding principles and purposefully designed research curriculum guide the conceptualization and structure of dissertations in the EdD in Educational Technology at a large university in the US. An analysis of 69 dissertations completed by the first five cohorts over ten years was conducted to determine the theories, frameworks, and res...
Article
Full-text available
The focus of this study is an academic development program for doctoral students which takes a broadened perspective. A thematic analysis of interviews with 23 program graduates provides insight into the perceived value of the program; graduates’ learning about teaching in a multidisciplinary environment; their reflections on changes in perceptions...
Article
Full-text available
Online instructors play a critical role in online student success, and need various forms of institutional support to succeed in online teaching. This article describes the creation, validation, and results of the Online Instructor Support Survey (OISS) consisting of six sections (a) Technology and technical support (b) Pedagogical (Course Developm...
Chapter
The upward trend in online graduate degrees, the mobility of graduate students, and the increase in the number of dissertations completed at a distance from universities poses several challenges for faculty who supervise research virtually, students being mentored virtually, and institutions invested in the quality of doctoral education. At the sam...
Chapter
This chapter synthesizes research in graduate online education utilizing the research framework adapted from Martin et al. (2020) who identified themes from a systematic review of research on online learning focusing on the learner, course and program, and organization. While reviewing research on graduate online learners, we summarize graduate onl...
Article
Full-text available
Online instructors adopt various roles and perform various competencies in the design and delivery of online courses. In this study, online instructor roles are categorized into eight types including Subject Matter Expert, Course Designer and Developer, Course Facilitator, Course Manager, Advisor/Mentor, Assessor/Evaluator, Technology Expert, and L...
Article
This article focuses on online research group supervision in an online doctoral programme. The analysis of interviews with 10 graduates supervised online in research groups of 4–6 students during the dissertation process highlighted how supervisors structured and supported individual and group research development and progress, leading to perceived...
Chapter
Full-text available
The purpose of this chapter is to define and describe the roles and competencies of instructional designers working in the context of higher education. Inspired by existing research, this chapter summarizes these roles and competencies of instructional designers in higher education. We first review the context and settings in which these profession...
Article
"Social Europe Days” is a collaborative four-day international seminar held yearly near Brussels, Belgium, by a network of ten European universities from eight different countries. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the seminar had to be offered virtually and redesigned. The final design included synchronous and asynchronous activities, informal and for...
Article
Full-text available
The proliferation of online graduate programs, and more recently, higher education institutions’ moves to online interactions due to the COVID-19 crisis, have led to graduate student mentoring increasingly occurring online. Challenges, strategies, and outcomes associated with online mentoring of graduate students are of primary importance for the i...
Article
Full-text available
The widespread growth of online education at higher education institutions necessitates institutional support for the development, implementation, and sustenance of online education. Faculty who teach online are at the forefront of implementation and play a critical role in online student success. In this scoping review, 13 online education quality...
Article
This project used blended learning and virtual connections to infuse global perspectives in U.S. curriculum by preparing pre-service teachers with intercultural competence, understanding of global issues from diverse viewpoints, and the ability to use online technologies to develop critical thinking and digital literacy. Global themes were addresse...
Technical Report
In response to the Covid-19 emergency, there has been a shift towards the online supervision of research students. Many supervisors have little or no experience of this mode of communication or the associated issues and problems. The purpose of the Guide is to support them in working effectively with research students in the online evironment.
Article
We describe the integration of telecollaborative language coaching sessions into an online Spanish program as the unifying thread for asynchronous learning and reflection activities. In survey responses, students reported improved language skills and cultural knowledge, and the ability to apply linguistic skills to “real-life” situations due to the...
Article
Full-text available
The purpose of this study was to explore award-winning instructors' insights on elements of their course design that were award-winning and the differences between expert and novice online instructors. Interviews were conducted with eight award-winning online faculty members from across the United States who had received online teaching awards from...
Article
The purpose of this study was to identify the course design, assessment and evaluation, and facilitation practices from the perspectives of award-winning online faculty. Aligned with this purpose, we developed a conceptual framework focused on online course design, assessment and evaluation, and facilitation; and review relevant literature in light...
Chapter
The upward trend in online graduate degrees, the mobility of graduate students, and the increase in the number of dissertations completed at a distance from universities poses several challenges for faculty who supervise research virtually, students being mentored virtually, and institutions invested in the quality of doctoral education. At the sam...
Article
This article is freely downloadable at https://www.ijres.net/index.php/ijres/article/view/359 Following a one-to-one iPad implementation at an urban high school for one year, juniors and seniors (n=76) participated in focus groups about their use of iPads for learning and their perceptions of the one-to-one iPad implementation. Students reported...
Book
Free for download at https://www.aupress.ca/books/120272-an-online-doctorate-for-researching-professionals/
Chapter
Um der wachsenden Diversität von Studieninteressierten gerecht zu werden, bieten Hochschulen zunehmend online-gestützte berufsbegleitende Studiengänge an. Im Bereich der Sozialen Arbeit stoßen solche Studienangebote auf eine hohe Nachfrage. Hochschulen betreten mit diesem besonderen Studienangebot auch mit Blick auf die Qualitätsentwicklung Neuland...
Chapter
Um der wachsenden Diversität von Studieninteressierten gerecht zu werden, bieten Hochschulen zunehmend online-gestützte berufsbegleitende Studiengänge an. Im Bereich der Sozialen Arbeit stoßen solche Studienangebote auf eine hohe Nachfrage. Hochschulen betreten mit diesem besonderen Studienangebot auch mit Blick auf die Qualitätsentwicklung Neuland...
Chapter
The rapid growth of online courses and programs in the last decade has been accompanied by a need for quality online instructors who can improve learning effectiveness and student satisfaction. Professional development is an important aspect of online education, as online instruction requires different pedagogical approaches and often requires facu...
Chapter
This chapter provides an overview of different frameworks, benchmarks, guidelines, and instruments that exist to assess the quality and effectiveness of e-learning programs. Elements of multiple frameworks and instruments are combined to identify seven quality indicators such as institutional support, technology infrastructure, course design, learn...
Article
Full-text available
This study examines Hungarian pre- and inservice teachers’ satisfaction (n=154) with the Mentored Innovation Model (MIM), an online collaborative mentoring model focused on technology integration. The Kano model was applied to results from two surveys to identify conditions in the MIM that most contribute to overall satisfaction with online mentori...
Article
What do instructional designers in higher education really do? With the rise in online courses and programs in higher education, this question is especially important. We interviewed eight instructional designers from across the United States using a semi-structured interview protocol. The results were analyzed using the constant comparative qualit...
Article
This study focused on the mentoring experiences of 10 faculty members during the dissertation stage of two online professional doctoral programs. Interview data provided insight into the strategies used by the professors in the areas of virtual communication, research design and dissertation development, and psychosocial support, and the challenges...
Article
The purpose of our research was to explore faculty members’ experiences with online mentoring during the dissertation stage of an online doctoral program. During semi-structured interviews, four mentors reflected on their online mentoring of students, specifically the strategies that worked well, challenges faced while mentoring online, and other f...
Article
Full-text available
In this research, the design of teaching and learning with web-enabled technologies, such as iPads, in 64 one-to-one (1:1) Nordic classrooms was explored using the Digital Didactical Design (DDD) framework. DDD focuses on both teachers' activities and students’ learning activities in the classroom and how web-enabled technologies are integrated int...
Article
Full-text available
The increase in online graduate programs and the online mentoring of student research have led to the need to identify challenges faced by online mentees and successful strategies used by online mentors during the dissertation process. Based on semistructured interviews with ten graduates, strategies for online mentoring and areas of support valued...
Chapter
Full-text available
In this chapter, we discuss why open educational resources (OER) and MOOCs are a necessary and powerful combination, especially in German-speaking Europe. We begin with an introduction to open online courses and an overview of copyright law in Germany and Austria. We then describe the evolution of OER MOOCs in Austria and Germany, especially the de...
Article
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine students’ perceptions of a development course designed to increase global understanding by virtually connecting students from multiple world regions. Design/methodology/approach – This paper describes a graduate course that connected campuses across America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Qualitative da...
Chapter
In this chapter the authors share the guiding principles for professional practice dissertations developed and studied within their online EdD in Educational Technology at the University of Florida. While these guiding principles were developed approximately four years before the call for chapters for this book was released, they align nicely with...
Article
Full-text available
Although less well established than in other parts of the world, higher education institutions in German-speaking countries have seen a marked increase in the number of open educational resource (OER) initiatives and in government-supported OER funding in recent years. OER implementation, however, brings with it a unique set of challenges in German...
Article
Full-text available
The Mentored Innovation Model is an online collaborative mentoring model developed in Hungary to help teachers integrate technology in their classrooms in meaningful ways. It combines an online modular approach of formal pedagogical ICT training with an informal online community experience of sharing, developing and critiquing of shared learning re...
Chapter
As online education grows, so does the need for institutional support for online students. Information literacy support is one support that is infrequently addressed. Though students are familiar with the Internet, they often do not have the information literacy skills necessary for research. A collaborative effort involving program faculty and lib...
Chapter
Full-text available
In this book chapter we describe and analyze the case of COER13 (http://www.coer13.de/about.html), a community-oriented cMOOC titled ‘Online Course on Open Educational Resources’ that was run as an Austrian-German joint venture in 2013. All but one of the authors of this chapter were convenors of the course. COER13 was deliberately designed and imp...
Article
In this paper, we sought to address the following research question: What knowledge and skills are needed by instructional designers in higher education to be successful in their roles? We interviewed eight instructional designers from across the United States, all working for institutions of higher education. Using the constant comparative method,...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
In the last decade, online education has increased access to institutions of higher education and equity for non-traditional populations. Developments in ICT have led to an augmented number of online professional programs for adults, where adult practitioners look for accreditation or advanced degrees. Online professional programs offer students pr...
Article
Full-text available
The “Maker Movement” deals with innovative forms of production and do-it-yourself work. It is not only a way for new business models and developments, e.g. using 3D print or other new digital tools and gizmos, but also influencing education. This paper introduces several diverse terms (from FabLabs to Hackerspaces) and gives insights into backgroun...
Conference Paper
alle Rechte dem Verlag vorbehalten; Volltext (open access) verfügbar unter: https://www.waxmann.com/fileadmin/media/zusatztexte/3142Volltext.pdf Artikel verfügbar unter: https://www.pedocs.de/volltexte/2015/10092/pdf/Lernraeume_gestalten_2014_Mayrberger_Kumar_Mediendidaktik_und_Educational_Technology.pdf
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Recent research has highlighted how teaching and learning can benefit from the inclusion of Web 2.0 applications like blogs, wikis, and social bookmarking in higher education. However, there is insufficient empirical evidence to support the discipline-specific usefulness of certain new technologies over others. This paper reports on the development...
Article
Full-text available
This paper introduces several diverse terms (from FabLabs to Hackerspaces) and gives insights into background, practice and existing experiences from Maker Movement in educational settings amongst all age groups. As a conclusion, the authors present reasons why practitioners and researcher should consider its educational potential. Besides its crea...
Article
Full-text available
From an instrumental view, conceptual frameworks that are carefully assembled from existing literature in Educational Technology and related disciplines can help students structure all aspects of inquiry. In this article we detail how the development of a conceptual framework that connects theory, practice and method is scaffolded and facilitated i...
Article
The University of Florida offers an online professional practice Ed.D. focused on Educational Technology. Twenty-three students have completed professional practice dissertations and graduated since the program’s inception in 2008. The purpose of this article is to share what these dissertations have looked like and to begin a dialogue about profes...
Article
This article describes the impact of an online Ed.D. in educational technology based on data collected from students at regular intervals during the program. It documents how students who were working professionals applied learning from the program within their practice, enculturated into the educational technology community, and grew professionall...
Conference Paper
Learning technologies in higher education open up new possibilities for academic professional development due to the flexibility in time and place they offer. For professional students it is important to develop a critical distance to their daily practice and a capacity for reflection. E-portfolio technology is considered to be suitable to help to...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present one approach to the measurement of impact in a professional doctorate in education that encompasses discipline-based coursework and practice-embedded research. Design/methodology/approach – Quantitative and qualitative data on the impact of the doctoral program were collected at regular intervals,...
Conference Paper
Investigations in networked learning often focus on specific educational designs, questions of appropriate supporting technologies, community building issues or social network analysis. In this paper we look at networked learning from a different angle: Students who are working professionals in the social field and who study for a BA degree in soci...
Conference Paper
Investigations in networked learning often focus on specific educational designs, questions of appropriate supporting technologies, community building issues or social network analysis. In this paper we look at networked learning from a different angle: Students who are working professionals in the social field and who study for a BA degree in soci...
Article
Full-text available
Investigations in networked learning often focus on specific educational designs, questions of appropriate supporting technologies, community building issues or social network analysis. In this paper we look at networked learning from a different angle: Students who are working professionals in the social field and who study for a BA degree in soci...
Article
Full-text available
This research presents five examples of how teachers integrated iPads into their classrooms, as part of a larger study of 15 Danish classrooms. Classroom observations and interviews with teachers revealed the use of multiple apps and a focus on creativity, production, and collaboration in the learning process. We discuss the results in the context...
Article
Full-text available
This paper shares the experience of offering the community-oriented MOOC called “COER13.” The focus is on how the convenors perceived the collaborative endeavor of planning and implementing this cMOOC, and on the lessons learnt in the process. COER13, the “Online Course on Open Educational Resources (OER)”, aimed at increasing awareness of open edu...
Chapter
Full-text available
This paper shares the experiences of offering the community-oriented MOOC called “COER13” with a special focus on how the convenors perceived the collaborative endeavor of planning and implementing this cMOOC and lessons learnt in the process. COER13, the “Online Course on Open Educational Resources (OER)”, aimed at increasing awareness of open edu...
Article
Full-text available
A cohort-based online professional doctorate program that consisted of both online coursework and research activities was designed using the community of inquiry (CoI) framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer 2000). The evaluation of the program proved a challenge because all existing CoI assessment methods in the past have dealt with online courses...
Chapter
Full-text available
Isa Jahnke & Swapna Kumar (2014): iPad-Didactics - Didactical Designs for iPad-classrooms: Experiences from Danish Schools and a Swedish University. In: Charles Miller & Aaron Doering (Eds.). The New Landscape of Mobile Learning: Redesigning Education in an App-based World. New York: Routledge, chapter 15.
Article
Full-text available
This article presents one approach to the design and implementation of a quality online doctoral program in which students engage in a community of inquiry to connect theory, research, and practice. Based on research in an online professional doctorate in education, faculty presence, social presence, cognitive presence, and learning presence (Garri...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Social presence in a community of inquiry in prior research has been characterized as social off-task interactions that depict learners as real people in an educational environment. This research presents an open-ended approach to the analysis of social presence in an online learner-driven environment that supplemented formal interactions in an onl...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
An educational technology course for preservice social studies teachers was created based on technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) and refined based on the results of a TPACK- survey completed by students before the course began. The instructor was able to eliminate aspects correlating with high self-assessed...
Chapter
Full-text available
Verlagsseite: http://www.waxmann.com/buch3142 Dieser Beitrag untersucht die verschiedenen Lernräume, die beim Aufbau einer Community of Practice genutzt wurden. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei die Frage, welche Funktionen Lernräume wie das Learning Management System, ein Wiki, Facebook und Twitter sowie Konferenzsysteme, aber auch Präsenztreffen, erfüll...
Chapter
The online mentoring of dissertations is perceived as a challenge by both faculty and students in higher education. Graduates of a new online doctoral program who were interviewed about their online mentoring and dissertation experiences did not perceive online communications or interaction to be a major challenge. Instead, they cited writing, time...
Article
Full-text available
This article presents one approach to assessing the impact of an online professional practice doctorate in education on participants' work environments. It is unique in that it explored impact during the doctoral program, before participants began their dissertation research, and it focused on how participants apply learning from the program within...
Article
Full-text available
This paper reports on an embedded librarian project aimed at providing incoming online graduate students with essential information literacy skills to succeed in an online programme. It describes the design and implementation of the project, the results of pre- and post-instruction surveys of students’ information literacy skills and students’ perc...
Article
This article describes the signature pedagogy, design, research, and redesign of the first to third iterations of an online doctoral program for educational technology leaders. The development of the online program over four years, based on mixed methods used in each iteration is presented with a focus on online teaching and learning, community-bui...
Chapter
As online education grows, so does the need for institutional support for online students. Information literacy support is one support that is infrequently addressed. Though students are familiar with the Internet, they often do not have the information literacy skills necessary for research. A collaborative effort involving program faculty and lib...
Conference Paper
An educational technology course for pre-service social studies teachers was explicitly designed to focus on technological pedagogical content knowledge (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) and Hooper and Rieber’s (1999) model of teacher use of technology as a theoretical framework. Students’ (n=15) perceptions of their learning during the course were recorded...
Conference Paper
This paper presents a case study of faculty-librarian collaboration in an online program over three years. Based on interviews with the faculty and the librarian, challenges are discussed and suggestions are made for best practices in faculty-librarian collaboration for initiating, implementing, assessing, and sustaining information literacy instru...
Article
Full-text available
This article describes the use of Facebook as an educational community of practice by online doctoral students to achieve their common goals. The analysis of participants' interactions in the social network revealed that participants shared knowledge, resources, advice, and insights. They collaborated and communicated with each other to provide fee...
Article
Full-text available
The purpose of this research was to identify best practices in online mentoring used in an online doctoral program to mentor doctoral students through their dissertation. During semi-structured interviews, students (n=9) reflected on the challenges faced communicating with their mentors, and the online technologies, online mentoring strategies, and...
Article
Full-text available
Beginning teachers often feel isolated and either lack role models or find it difficult to reach out to more experienced teachers. An educational technology course connected beginning teachers with experienced educators using social media. An analysis of pre-service teachers’ (n=15) reflections indicated that online interactions with experts had pr...
Article
As online education grows, so does the need for institutional support for online students. Information literacy support is one support that is infrequently addressed. Though students are familiar with the Internet, they often do not have the information literacy skills necessary for research. A collaborative effort involving program faculty and lib...
Article
With constant explorative research on educational technologies, it remains important to have a detailed understanding of the implementation of these innovations. Cases on Educational Technology Implementation for Facilitating Learning blends together vital research and advancements on educational technologies into one comprehensive collection; whil...
Article
Full-text available
Many educators have called for the inclusion of new technologies like blogs, wikis, and social bookmarking in higher education to address the learning needs of the Net Generation. Is there really a discrepancy between the personal and educational use of new technologies by undergraduates? What new technologies do they perceive as most beneficial fo...
Article
Full-text available
Academic librarians often provide information literacy support for specific courses or topics in the form of research guides, one-shot training sessions, library orientations, or by embedding library content into online courses. Less frequently, they provide continuous program-level support on-campus or online. This paper highlights the value of su...
Article
Research on several aspects of asynchronous online discussions in online and hybrid courses has been successfully conducted using content analysis in the past. With the increase in Web 2.0 and social media use in education, research on knowledge construction within newer virtual environments like blogs or wikis is just emerging. This study applies...
Article
Full-text available
To better understand how students’ familiarity with digital media in their daily lives can be harnessed in learning environments, a survey about their informal and educational use of new technologies was administered to undergraduates in three schools at a private university in the United States. The results indicated that undergraduates (n=282) tr...
Article
Full-text available
This paper reports on a library instruction needs assessment conducted with incoming doctoral students (n=34) in two online programs in education. The differences in the prior skills and experiences of the two groups highlighted the importance of needs assessments and learner analyses as well as course- or program-specific instructional design in i...
Conference Paper
This pilot project explored elementary preservice teachers’ use of social media for personal use, educational use when required by their professors, and educational use when not required by their professors. Their use of social media for creation of content was also studied. The survey results confirm that undergraduates do not transfer their perso...

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