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Prospective Students
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Faculty and Staff
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Current Students
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Alumni and Friends
Traditional methods of staff development do not meet the needs of current healthcare organizations. It is difficult to find training that is effective and flexible to meet staff needs with variable scheduling (Chen at al., 2022; Haggerty et al., 2012). Preceptor development was identified as a course that is important for the success of staff, but hard to attend the training with traditional methods. This study sought to gain insight to the experiences of nurses who attended a blended learning preceptor development course. The course trains preceptors to develop the confidence, identify tools, and know the resources needed to onboard new nurses so they are in turn confident and safe in their practice. The following research questions will guide this study: 1) What are the experiences of nurse preceptors who attended the blended learning preceptor development course?; 2) How do nurse preceptors perceive their level of preparedness in being able to successfully train and onboard new nursing staff after attendance in the blended learning preceptor development course?; 3): How do nurses who attended the blended learning course describe their ability to be able to precept a new hire?
Energy efficiency and scalability continue to be key considerations for the development of low-cost wireless networks for meeting the needs of the emerging world of the Internet of Things (IoT). Recent developments in low-power wide area networks (LPWAN) promise to meet these requirements by achieving long communication ranges at low data rates without increasing the energy cost.
Consequently, LPWAN technologies are rapidly gaining prominence in the development of IoT networks in comparison to legacy WLANs. LPWANs address the challenges of legacy wireless technologies that use multi-hop mesh networking for increasing connectivity and coverage. Long Range (LoRa) technology is receiving increasing attention in recent years for addressing the challenges of providing wireless connections to a large number of end devices in the field of IoT. LoRa has become the most prominent LPWAN standard due to its long transmission range, low power consumption, and large network capacity. Despite these benefits, LoRa networks may not be able to achieve their full potential unless additional improvements are achieved in the network scalability domain. Specifically, the probability of success under heavy network traffic loads or a large number of end devices needs to be improved.
In this dissertation, we present the causes of performance degradation of LoRa networks and propose several approaches to enhance their performance. Next, we present a novel framework to employ AI tools to make IoT applications smarter. The effectiveness of all the proposed approaches is validated using mathematical analysis as well as via simulations thereby creating the basis for further research in this area.
The purpose of this exploratory descriptive case study was to understand the experiences of faculty learning community members practicing active learning strategies in virtual learning environments (VLEs) to discover how teaching in virtual spaces for an extended period of time impacted the use of active learning strategies in physical classrooms. Ten faculty interviewed in this study experienced an abrupt and forced transition from active learning classrooms (ALCs) to VLEs in March 2020 and continued teaching virtually until August 2021. Through interviews conducted at the case study institution, three overarching themes emerged about practicing active learning strategies in VLEs and subsequent changes when participants returned to physical classrooms: (1) Working the Room highlighted how participants adapted existing active learning models designed for physical spaces to fit the VLE and replicate physical elements from ALCs. (2) It’s Not in the Syllabus reframed Lewin’s (1947) change model and included a “pivot” that provided faculty the flexibility needed to address unpredictable challenges. Finally, the emergence of (3) Virtual In-Person Classrooms (VIPCs) that included tools that transferred from VLEs allowed participants to imagine new ways of practicing active learning strategies in physical classrooms and helped to overcome learning space barriers and ALC shortages.
This study explored two aspects of K-12 core content area teachers' experiences with digital citizenship through the Connectivism lens (Siemens, 2005). First, it explored how teachers instruct students on digital citizenship topics, including how they define digital citizenship and integrate it into their core content area curriculum. Second, it looked at teachers’ experiences and needs regarding digital citizenship professional development. This study followed a basic qualitative approach and used interviews with a follow up questionnaire to gather data. Participants’ responses were analyzed using Fereday and Muir-Cochrane’s (2006) six-step, hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. Findings and discussion were presented through the learning theory of Connectivism. Information on how core content area teachers define digital citizenship was summarized using the S3 Guiding Principles from Ribble and Park (2019). Information on teachers’ experiences integrating digital citizenship into their core content curriculum revealed five major themes: Responsibility, Student Behavior, News & Media Literacy, Non-Cognitive Competencies, and Technology Use. Findings related to professional development experiences were presented through five broad themes: Personal Learning Networks, Parenting & Family, Self-Exploration, Technology Facilitators & Other Technology Champions, and Participating in the Digital World. Findings related to teachers' professional development needs regarding integrating digital citizenship into their core content curriculum were summarized through three themes: making this content relevant and authentic for their students, raising awareness among their peers to build a community around teaching digital citizenship, and identifying resources to integrate this subject matter into their curricula.
Historically, male students have been known to score lower than their female counterparts in reading and writing on standardized measures of academic success. While scholars, teachers, and even policy makers have attempted to explain and mitigate this gender gap in reading and writing scores, the male students themselves have had little opportunity to offer their insight into the research. Moreover, there is limited research about the causes of the perceived gap in reading and writing scores, or the potential ways in which the high school English classroom could be reimagined in order to provide a solution. This qualitative multiple case study explores how the experiences outside of the classroom in the lives of high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program mediate their reading and writing in the high school English classroom. Furthermore, this study explores how high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program perceive pedagogical elements in the high school English classroom. In particular, this study focused on the experiences outside of school of three high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program. These stories were told through individual, narrative portraits composed by the researcher which were composed based on the analysis of data from two focus group sessions and two semi-structured one-on-one interviews. Findings from the study indicate that there is a need to expand the understanding of literacy skills, as well as how they are recognized, practiced, and assessed, in the high school English classroom.
Historically, male students have been known to score lower than their female counterparts in reading and writing on standardized measures of academic success. While scholars, teachers, and even policy makers have attempted to explain and mitigate this gender gap in reading and writing scores, the male students themselves have had little opportunity to offer their insight into the research. Moreover, there is limited research about the causes of the perceived gap in reading and writing scores, or the potential ways in which the high school English classroom could be reimagined in order to provide a solution. This qualitative multiple case study explores how the experiences outside of the classroom in the lives of high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program mediate their reading and writing in the high school English classroom. Furthermore, this study explores how high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program perceive pedagogical elements in the high school English classroom. In particular, this study focused on the experiences outside of school of three high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program. These stories were told through individual, narrative portraits composed by the researcher which were composed based on the analysis of data from two focus group sessions and two semi-structured one-on-one interviews. Findings from the study indicate that there is a need to expand the understanding of literacy skills, as well as how they are recognized, practiced, and assessed, in the high school English classroom.
Facilitating productive mathematical discussions is considered a core practice of mathematics education. The complexity of this teaching practice presents the need for pedagogical tools to provide structure for preservice teachers (PST) developing their practice, yet little is known about how PSTs use these tools. This multiple case study sought to understand what pedagogical tools PSTs use to plan and enact mathematical discussions with elementary students and how they use these tools to support their practice. In particular, this study focused on capturing the experiences of three elementary PSTs as they transitioned from university-based methods course instructions into early clinical teaching experiences in elementary classrooms. These experiences were captured through multiple one-on-one interviews, observations of teaching in clinical classroom settings, and analysis of artifacts of teaching and learning. This study has implications for mathematics teacher education, practice-based teacher education, and the refinement of tools to support teachers’ practice facilitating mathematical discussions with students.
Accurate knowledge and estimation of the electro-mechanical modes in the power system are of great importance since a system-wide outage can be caused by one single unstable mode of oscillation. Most of these unstable mode of oscillations are inter-area oscillations which typically are in the range of 0.15Hz to 1Hz. Generally oscillation identification and damping are performed based on Model-based frequency studies. However, the stochastic nature of modern power grid with the advent of renewables and changing load dynamics, and nonlinear interactions makes the oscillation study with apriori models inaccurate and inefficient. Due to these factors, recently, measurement-based power grid mode estimation has attracted great attention.
In this research work, a series of measurement-based oscillation identification methods are proposed. First, a comparison of various measurement-based electro-mechanical oscillation mode detection methods is studied. Among the measurement-based techniques, Prony analysis, Eigenvalue Realization Algorithm (ERA), and Matrix Pencil (MP) methods are found to be very useful. These methods have successfully been used to determine low-frequency oscillatory modes from measurement data. Recently, Subspace Identification (SSI) methods have become popular as they are robust to variations, and can be represented in state-space form, thus making it easier for designing time-domain control approaches. Thus, second, an online wide-area direct coordinated control architecture for power grid transient stability enhancement based on subspace identification and Lyapunov energy functions has been designed and studied. Third, a novel hybrid deterministic-stochastic online measurement-based identification framework using subspace theory is introduced. The novelty of the design using a fully recursive algorithm and the effectiveness of combined treatment are further discussed. For controlling electro-mechanical oscillations of the power system effectively, identifying the location of the oscillation source is very important. Thus, fourth, an approach for power system oscillatory mode estimation and classification and source location identification based on Lyapunov energy functions are proposed. This new method is then compared with the most commonly used method known as dissipated energy flow (DEF). Finally, this work explores grid following and grid forming control architecture of battery energy storage and the use of identification methods to observe low-frequency oscillation with Distributed Energy Resource (DER) connections.
Accurate knowledge and estimation of the electro-mechanical modes in the power system are of great importance since a system-wide outage can be caused by one single unstable mode of oscillation. Most of these unstable mode of oscillations are inter-area oscillations which typically are in the range of 0.15Hz to 1Hz. Generally oscillation identification and damping are performed based on Model-based frequency studies. However, the stochastic nature of modern power grid with the advent of renewables and changing load dynamics, and nonlinear interactions makes the oscillation study with apriori models inaccurate and inefficient. Due to these factors, recently, measurement-based power grid mode estimation has attracted great attention.
In this research work, a series of measurement-based oscillation identification methods are proposed. First, a comparison of various measurement-based electro-mechanical oscillation mode detection methods is studied. Among the measurement-based techniques, Prony analysis, Eigenvalue Realization Algorithm (ERA), and Matrix Pencil (MP) methods are found to be very useful. These methods have successfully been used to determine low-frequency oscillatory modes from measurement data. Recently, Subspace Identification (SSI) methods have become popular as they are robust to variations, and can be represented in state-space form, thus making it easier for designing time-domain control approaches. Thus, second, an online wide-area direct coordinated control architecture for power grid transient stability enhancement based on subspace identification and Lyapunov energy functions has been designed and studied. Third, a novel hybrid deterministic-stochastic online measurement-based identification framework using subspace theory is introduced. The novelty of the design using a fully recursive algorithm and the effectiveness of combined treatment are further discussed. For controlling electro-mechanical oscillations of the power system effectively, identifying the location of the oscillation source is very important. Thus, fourth, an approach for power system oscillatory mode estimation and classification and source location identification based on Lyapunov energy functions are proposed. This new method is then compared with the most commonly used method known as dissipated energy flow (DEF). Finally, this work explores grid following and grid forming control architecture of battery energy storage and the use of identification methods to observe low-frequency oscillation with Distributed Energy Resource (DER) connections.
