This qualitative study focused on the educational, professional, and personal experiences of seven women who currently serve as NCAA Division III athletics directors. While previous literature has examined the experiences of women in Divisions I and II, very little has focused specifically on those in Division III, even though more women serve as…

Many complex problems affect the lives of our citizens, including our children. A particularly important problem is a lack of a sense of community and connectedness (Belenky, et. al, 1986; Bellah, et. al, 1985; Dewey, 1938; Houser & Kuzmic, 2001; Palmer, 1998). There is a feeling among many that we are no longer connected to something larger than…

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) refers to the geographic subset of online user-generated content. Through Geobrowsers and online mapping services, which use geovisualization and Web technologies to share and produce VGI, a global digital commons of geographic information has emerged. A notable example is Wikipedia, an online collaborative…

While approximately 62% of high school graduates enroll in college, almost half of these students do not return for their second year in school. This demonstratable gap in college interest and reaching actual goals speaks to a need for information on how to facilitate the precollege guidance process to achieve more successful high school graduate…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship among math attitudes, self-regulated learning, and course outcomes in developmental math. Math attitudes involved perceived usefulness of math and math anxiety. Self-regulated learning represented the ability of students to control cognitive, metacognitive, and behavioral aspects of…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine if employing the writing-to-learn strategy known as a "Science Writing Heuristic" would positively effect students' science achievement, science self-efficacy, and scientific epistemological view. The publications "Science for All American, Blueprints for Reform: Project 2061" (AAAS, 1990;…

Executive Order 99-281 (1999), commonly known as the "One Florida Initiative," abolished affirmative action policies in university admissions, state employment, and state contracting. This dissertation studies the impact that the implementation of this initiative has had on the admission, retention and graduation rates of minority students in…

This dissertation investigates how distributional information in the speech stream can assist infants in the initial stages of acquisition of their native language phonology. An exploratory statistical analysis derives this information from the adult speech data in the corpus of conversations between adults and young children in Russian. Because…

This dissertation is a study of scientific collaboration at the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), a modern, multi-disciplinary, distributed laboratory involved in sensor network research. By use of survey research and network analysis, this dissertation examines the collaborative ecology of CENS in terms of three networks of…

The purpose of this study is to examine textual features in Native American children's literature and Native children's responses to these textual features. Culturally authentic children's literature was used to gain insights into children's perspectives as they engaged in responses within literature circles. This study utilized qualitative…

This research examined Virginia community college students' perceptions of campus safety. A survey of 11,161 students revealed the crimes students most feared being a victim of while on the community college campus and the areas in which they felt the most and least safe. The research also demonstrated the effect certain variables had on students'…

Process models are often the basis for demonstrating improvement and compliance in software engineering organizations. A descriptive model is a type of process model describing the human activities in software development that actually occur. The purpose of a descriptive model is to provide a documented baseline for further process improvement…

This study builds upon Deci and Ryan's (1985) Self-Determination Theory (SDT) which states that humans must meet three basic psychological needs for optimal well-being: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore trends in principals' experiences in the areas of autonomy, competence, and relatedness.…

Resource constrained microcontrollers with as little as several hundred bytes of RAM and a few dozen megahertz of processing power are the most prevalent computing devices on earth. Microcontrollers and the many application components that interface to them, such as sensors, actuators, transceivers and displays are now cheap and readily available.…

What keeps students engaged in high school? Persisting to high school graduation is becoming more difficult for many students with the increased rigor of American high school graduation requirements. While many factors that contribute to students not completing high school have been explored, and while many interventions have been developed to…