VTechWorks
VTechWorks provides global access to Virginia Tech scholarship, including journal articles, books, theses, dissertations, conference papers, slide presentations, technical reports, working papers, administrative documents, videos, images, and more by faculty, students, and staff. Faculty can deposit items to VTechWorks from Elements, including journal articles covered by the University open access policy. Email vtechworks@vt.edu for help.
Open Access Policy
Virginia Tech's open access policy enables researchers to deposit the accepted version of scholarly articles with no embargo.
Theses and Dissertations
Virginia Tech was first in the world to require ETDs in 1997, and continues to add scans of older theses and dissertations.
Open Textbooks
More than 40 freely available and openly licensed textbooks are among our most downloaded items.
Communities in VTechWorks
Select a community to browse its collections.
Recent Submissions
An Examination of High School Teacher Experiences with STEAM Curriculum Implementation
Mitchell, Anza Laquetta (Virginia Tech, 2024-11-19)
In the United States, there has been a growing focus on using science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to increase global competitiveness. Despite increased attention to these subjects and funding through the years, American students still fall behind students in other countries in math and science achievement. STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education has been proposed as a reform effort to address this problem. Designed to prepare students for the interdisciplinary demands of the 21st-century workforce, STEAM education aims to incorporate art and design principles into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects to foster creativity, critical thinking, and innovation.
This study examines the experiences of high school teachers as they implement STEAM. Despite the potential benefits of STEAM to learning and STEM career interest, little is known about the teachers who are an integral part of its implementation. This study aims to fill this gap by examining how high school teachers' backgrounds and social interactions influence their understanding and implementation of STEAM curricula, the roles high school teachers play in developing and modifying said curricula, and the challenges high school teachers face when implementing it.
This research was guided by a conceptual framework built upon three theories: social constructivism, teachers as curriculum makers, and barriers to technology integration. Social constructivism emphasizes the importance of social interactions and cultural context in shaping teachers' understanding of STEAM education. Teachers as curriculum makers highlights the active role teachers play in designing and adapting curricula to meet the needs of their students and educational environments. Barriers to technology integration provides a lens for understanding the challenges teachers face in implementing STEAM curricula.
Using qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis, this exploratory study examined high school teachers' experiences implementing STEAM curricula. The findings reveal that high school teachers often lack formal STEAM pedagogical training, leading them to rely on prior content knowledge, informal learning experiences, and collaborative planning with colleagues to make decisions about implementation. Teachers face significant challenges in implementing STEAM, including a lack of funding, insufficient support from administrators, and difficulties with school timetabling. Despite these challenges, teachers hold positive attitudes toward STEAM and believe in its benefits for student career preparation, skill-building, and exposure to various subjects.
The implications of this study highlight the need for targeted professional development programs that address the specific needs of high school teachers, emphasizing both content knowledge and interdisciplinary pedagogical strategies. They also highlight the importance of creating flexible and adaptable STEAM curricula that allow for teacher autonomy and creativity. Furthermore, the findings suggest that schools and districts should prioritize STEAM education by providing adequate funding, resources, and support structures to ensure its successful implementation in high schools.
This research contributes to the growing body of literature on STEAM education by providing a detailed exploration of the experiences and challenges faced by high school teachers. It concludes with practical recommendations for educators, policymakers, and curriculum developers to support the effective implementation of STEAM education, aiming to prepare students with the skills and knowledge necessary for success in the 21st century.
Secret sharing in online communities: A comparative analysis of offender and non-offender password creation strategies
Bergeron, Andréanne; Dearden, Thomas E. (Elsevier, 2024-11-05)
Even though several authentication methods exist, passwords remain the most common type of authentication. Researchers have demonstrated the influence of a person’s environment and exposure to the Internet on their online security behavior (Bosnjak & Brumen, 2016; He et al., 2021; Juozapavičius et al., 2022). Those studies suggest that social identity seems to play a role in password choice. The objective of this study was to determine if the criminal nature of a network influences password-creation strategies. To achieve this, we utilized two databases with a substantial number of actual passwords (1,485,095) that had been leaked to the Internet. One database was sourced from a non-delinquent social network, while the other was from a hacker forum. We employed logistic regression to reveal the characteristics associated with each group, ensuring a comprehensive analysis of different types of password strategies and the similarity between actors of the same network. Results show that users of the same network have passwords with characteristics that are similar to each other. Individuals with the same social interests seem more likely to use the same password-creation strategies. From a network analysis perspective, the results show that similar individuals (sharing the same interests) are similar in other aspects (password creation strategies). These findings offer valuable insights into the diverse landscape of password varieties and user behaviors, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of internet user networks.
Using Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Tools to Analyze Safety, Road Scene, Near-Misses and Crashes
Yang, Gary; Sarkar, Abhijit; Ridgeway, Christie; Thapa, Surendrabikram; Jain, Sandesh; Miller, Andrew (National Surface Transportation Safety Center for Excellence, 2024-11-18)
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies have the potential to enhance road safety by monitoring driver behavior and analyzing road scene and safety-critical events (SCEs). This study combined a detailed literature review on the application of AI to driver monitoring systems (DMS) and road scene perception, a market scan of commercially available AI tools for transportation safety, and an experiment to study the capability of large vision language models (LVLMs) to describe road scenes. Finally, the report provides recommendations, focusing on integrating advanced AI methods, data sharing, and collaboration between industry and academia. The report emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations and the potential of AI to significantly enhance road safety through innovative applications and continuous advancements. Future research directions include improving the robustness of AI models, addressing ethical and privacy concerns, and fostering industry-academic collaborations to advance AI applications in road safety.
Community-Owned-and-Operated: Amplifying Cultural Heritage through Inter-Institutional Collaboration
Kinnaman, Alex; Palazzo, Ashley (2024-11-15)
The Greater Southwest Virginia Digital Collective (GSDC) is a community-owned collective steered by a volunteer community advisory board composed of community members from the region and Virginia Tech University Library (VTUL) faculty members that reviews, approves, and champions community collections to be added to the Virginia Tech Digital Library. The challenge GSDC aims to address is the gap between well-resourced institutions and smaller cultural heritage organizations by providing community-tailored assistance in processing and describing collections, digitization and consultation, and depositing material into an access and preservation repository. This roundtable will consist of two GSDC members representing both a community organization and VTUL to discuss the relationship-building process, successes and challenges, and sharing the community-driven model of GSDC.
Examining Elementary School Leaders' Perceptions of Induction Supports for Provisionally Licensed Teachers
Rios, Diana Frasier (Virginia Tech, 2024-11-18)
The purpose of this study was to examine elementary school leaders' perceptions of the induction programming they provided provisionally licensed teachers. The research question guiding this study was: What are the perceptions and experiences of elementary school leaders in relation to the induction programming and support they are responsible for providing provisionally licensed teachers? The sub-question was: How do elementary school leaders differentiate induction support for provisionally licensed teachers? This research contributes to the literature by presenting school leaders' perceptions of induction support for a growing number of provisionally licensed teachers entering the teaching profession. Qualitative study data were collected from 15 elementary school leaders across Virginia using a demographic survey and semi-structured, one-on-one interviews. A data analysis of leaders' perceptions provided insight on support structures, leaders' responsibilities, and additional support needed for provisionally licensed teachers. The summarized findings indicate that elementary school leaders view mentoring, coaching, and peer observations as crucial support structures for provisionally licensed teachers. The research highlighted the significance of communication, resource management, and workload management in fulfilling school leaders' responsibilities toward these teachers. Further findings emphasized the importance of career development for support staff, fostering a supportive school and community environment, the need for enhanced division-level support, and the necessity for targeted professional development aimed at provisionally licensed teachers. Implications included formalizing mentoring, coaching, and peer observation support, maintaining communication, allocating resources, and cultivating an inclusive school culture to support provisionally licensed teachers. The findings and implications may be helpful to school leaders planning induction support for provisionally licensed teachers.