Repository logo

Browsing by Author "Kaiser, Leann, committee member"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Assessing college students' sustainability literacy: the development, use, and analysis of an assessment tool
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Harmon, Renée, author; Makela, Carole, advisor; Kaiser, Leann, committee member; Switzer, Jamie, committee member; Wallner, Barbara, committee member
    This dissertation discusses the development, use, and analysis of a knowledge-based multiple-choice sustainability literacy assessment tool used in Spring 2016 at Colorado State University (CSU). CSU is a leading institution of sustainability education and research, and a participant of the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS). A component of STARS includes assessing college students' sustainability literacy. The study, and the sustainability literacy assessment tool described, were designed within the framework of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL). Data sets were collected and analyzed from a sustainability literacy assessment given in Spring 2016. Findings from the study show students performed highest in environmental sustainability literacy and lowest in social sustainability literacy, two of three dimensions of the TBL. Additionally, four focus groups of students were held at CSU in Spring 2017. The focus groups informed the study of how students' defined the concept of sustainability and the three dimensions of the TBL. Findings from the focus groups indicated the design of the assessment tool did not garner meaningful results. The assessment tool was designed with knowledge-based multiple-choice questions, which did not accurately assess sustainability literacy, according to its definition. Recommendations for redesigning the assessment tool include designing questions that assess students' ability to apply systems-thinking and conduct critical thinking and problem-solving. Sustainability educators should seek to encourage transformational learning when teaching sustainability education. With the recommendations for assessment redesign, the researcher also includes suggestions of unique ways institutions of higher education can assess students' sustainability literacy.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Building capacity and integrating training, education and experience: the Fire Learning Network's Prescribed Burn Training Exchanges
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Spencer, Andrew G., author; Schultz, Courtney, advisor; Hoffman, Chad, committee member; Kaiser, Leann, committee member
    Prescribed fire is an important tool for forest and rangeland management, but there are barriers to its use, including a lack of qualified personnel with the necessary ecological knowledge and operational expertise. In order to implement prescribed fire across landscapes containing a variety of ownerships, these personnel should be from both federal agencies and non-federal organizations. Further, fire science educators have suggested that in order to prepare the next generation of fire professionals, three components--training, education, and experience--must be integrated in a professional development triangle. However, recognized needs for professional development and increased use of fire are not being met. The Prescribed Burn Training Exchange model from the Fire Learning Network incorporates the three components of the professional development triangle while fostering collaboration between nongovernmental organizations, private contractors, landowners, and government agencies. This study evaluated the training model and assessed outcomes using surveys, interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. I found that the participants are very satisfied with the flexible model across disparate training needs and experience levels. The results suggest that the training model is a valuable addition to prescribed fire education opportunities, can be implemented by other organizations, and therefore can serve to increase the capacity for fire management.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Combating employee burnout in long-term care
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Ferrara, Katherine, author; Morgan, George, advisor; Buchan, Vicky, advisor; Quijano, Louise, committee member; Kaiser, Leann, committee member
    Employee burnout in long-term care is a growing concern due to the changing demographics of individuals admitted to nursing homes in the United States. There is an increase in the number of admissions to nursing homes that include residents with dementia or some form of major mental illness. In addition to having some form of mental disorder, over half of these individuals also have some type of challenging behavior such as verbal or physical aggression. In spite of these changing demographics, there is a lack of adequate training for staff in these settings to care for this population. Lack of training and poor stress management coping skills can contribute to burnout. Burnout can have detrimental effects on the organization, the individual and the residents served in nursing homes. An eight session skills based intervention derived from the Cognitive-Behavioral therapeutic foundation was designed to educate employees on stress management skills and skills to effectively manage challenging resident behaviors. The skills based intervention was implemented in eight sessions to three different nursing homes that had a minimum of a 40% resident population with some form of mental disorder as a diagnosis. This study used a pretest/posttest comparison group design. Change scores on the data collection instruments were analyzed to determine the effect of the intervention on employee level of burnout as well as level of knowledge of behavior management techniques, for the intervention group only. Results indicated no statistically significant difference between the experimental and comparison group on change scores pertaining to level of burnout. There was, however, a significant gain in knowledge of behavior management techniques from pre to post intervention. Other constructs measured that are considered characteristics of burnout included tardiness and absenteeism. There was significant decrease in frequency of absenteeism comparing pre to post intervention in the experimental group. There was no significant change from pre to post intervention in the area of tardiness. A participant evaluation was administered to experimental group participants. Results of a participant evaluation indicated participants had a positive experience with the intervention. Participants felt an increase in level of support from co-workers and increase of knowledge on how to effectively care for residents with challenging behaviors. The length of time of the intervention may have been too short to achieve the desired results of a significant decrease of level of burnout from pre to post intervention. Evaluations revealed the majority of participants would have liked more time for the intervention. Also, vicarious trauma was not a consideration for the development of the intervention or as a contributing factor to burnout in the participants of this study. The majority of participants in the experimental group were classified as non-direct care staff, included members of the activities, social services and business office. It is recommended to include vicarious trauma as a contributing factor of burnout and to include interventions to combat vicarious trauma in future studies. It is further recommended for future studies to have the length of time of the intervention increased to greater than eight sessions. A final recommendation would be to limit participants to both the experimental and comparison groups to those who are classified as direct care staff.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    ESL writing conference: expectations and revisions in the subsequent draft
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Ritthirat, Karanrat, author; Becker, Tony, advisor; Nekrasova-Beker, Tatiana, committee member; Kaiser, Leann, committee member
    Although the area of L2 feedback has been widely investigated (eg, Ferris, 2004; Ferris & Roberts, 2001; Goldstein & Conrad, 1990), there has been little research examining students' expectations of writing conferences and their uptake in subsequent drafts. These issues need to be further studied since they could promote better writing conferences and create a better understanding between instructors and students. The purpose of the present study is threefold: 1) to gauge ESL students' expectations towards writing conferences, 2) to determine types of feedback students received during one-on-one writing conferences, and 3) to examine students' uptake in subsequent drafts. Employing a mixed-methods design, data was collected using surveys and interviews to examine students' (n=29) expectations before and after each writing conference that took place between instructors and students. The results showed that students expected their instructor to focus on content and organization the most, followed by the expectation that the conference would make them feel that their instructor cared about them as an individual. In addition, most students successfully took up the feedback they received into their subsequent draft. The findings suggest that prior to a conference, students should be informed of what they are expected to do during a one-on-one discussion since students from different cultural backgrounds can have different perspectives towards personal interaction with their teacher.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemEmbargo
    Evaluating learning resource selection to support gross anatomy education
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Martin, Jason, author; Magee, Christianne, advisor; West, Andrew, committee member; Meyer, Carolyn, committee member; Kaiser, Leann, committee member; Winger, Quinton, committee member
    Anatomy educators are tasked with developing, maintaining, and revising comprehensive curricula that strengthen the foundation of a growing body of scientific knowledge necessary to be successful medical professionals. This work sought to evaluate the impact of instructional timing, spatial ability, self-efficacy, and resource preference in the animal anatomy classroom for undergraduate and graduate students at Colorado State University. It identified factors relevant to optimizing student performance on animal gross anatomy examinations. The first chapter provides a background on anatomy learning resources in the context of self-efficacy and spatial ability research. Chapter two found that following a transition to remote instruction, students value resources that assist with navigating their learning ecology and assist with content mastery. Chapter three was a five-year retrospective study that identified a correlation between prior examination experience and dissection examination scores. Chapter four compared two measures of visuospatial ability with atlas- and specimen-based animal anatomy assessments following experimental single-resource and real-world multi-resource instruction. Chapter five was a mixed-methods analysis that developed an experimental framework used to describe the relationship between learner self-efficacy and animal gross anatomy assessment scores. Using this framework, increased time attending in-person didactic lectures and teaching assistants mediated open laboratories was found to be beneficial for low self-efficacy students while independent exploration of open-laboratory was beneficial for high self-efficacy students. An experimental study reported in chapter five failed to find a relationship between resource preference and performance on experimental anatomy assessments. When taken together, the research provides suggestions for anatomy educators seeking to use the selective distribution of learning resources to improve the instruction of animal anatomy students.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Examining factors that influence alumni giving from traditional and online MBA alumni at Colorado State University
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Guild, Erin, author; Kuk, Linda, advisor; Kaiser, Leann, committee member; Kaminski, Karen, committee member; Weiss, John, committee member
    Increasingly, institutions of higher education seek out alumni support to help offset budget cuts and look toward technological advances to lower costs of instruction and create new revenue streams. In light of the desire to increase funding for university programs and the potential giving-power of MBA alumni, this study investigates factors that influence alumni giving from traditional and online MBA alumni. The relationship between sense of community, alumni demographics and donor behavior and attitudes is explored to consider factors that might predict alumni giving behavior and attitudes. This quantitative study uses logistic regression and independent samples test statistical methods to reveal that the odds of an alumnus making a financial donation are increasingly greater as age increases and as gender is female. Analysis also suggests that the odds of an alumnus making a financial donation are increasingly greater as sense of community increases. Statistical analysis shows that online CSU MBA alumni are different than traditional face-to-face CSU MBA alumni on sense of community, whereby the sense of community score for the online alumni is significantly lower than the score for traditional face-to-face alumni. Analysis in this study also demonstrates, however, that online alumni do not differ from face-to-face alumni on the following characteristics: age; donor status; attitude toward giving; gender; citizenship; and race/ethnicity.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Lived experiences of students in the online learning environment as it relates to acts of academic dishonesty: a Western United States community college study
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Heiser, Eric A., author; Anderson, Sharon, advisor; Hall, Bruce, committee member; Kaiser, Leann, committee member; McKelfresh, David, committee member
    Academic dishonesty has been an issue in education for many years (McCabe, 2001). As online education becomes more prevalent, the belief among faculty is that more acts of academic dishonesty are occurring in online courses rather than in face to face or on campus courses (Burke, 1997). However, little is known about how students understand and discuss acts of academic dishonesty in the online learning environment.