Browsing by Author "Warnick, Quinn"
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- Developing Supplemental Instructional Videos for Construction Management EducationBarnes, Andrew F.; McCoy, Andrew P.; Warnick, Quinn (MDPI, 2023-09-28)Technological advancements and lower production costs since the mid-1990s have dramatically improved opportunities for instructors to tailor self-made instructional videos for their students. However, video production technology has outpaced the development of educational theory, causing instructional videos to consistently fall short of their pedagogical potential. Responding to these shortcomings, scholars from various backgrounds have started publishing guidelines to help practitioners as they develop instructional videos for their respective fields. Using a rapid literature review, this article contributes to this ongoing effort by synthesizing theory-based, best-practice guidelines for a specific subcategory of educational videos called supplemental instructional videos (SIVs). SIVs are different from other types of instructional videos in that they are used to support and magnify other learning methods, mediums, and materials rather than substitute for them. Bringing the best-practice guidelines synthesized in this paper immediately into application, they were used to inform the production of SIVs for an undergraduate course that was held in the Building Construction Department of a major public university in the United States during the Spring 2020 semester. The methods used in the production of the SIV guidelines were systematically documented during the course for future researchers and practitioners to learn and build from.
- Identity, Ethos, and Community: Rhetorical Dimensions of Secular Mommy BlogsMacdonald, Lindsey Marie (Virginia Tech, 2015-06-17)This study examines secular mommy bloggers, a group of women who blog about the difficulties of being a nonbeliever parent in a predominantly religious society. In this study, I explore the rhetorical dimensions of four separate blogs by investigating how each mother builds identity within her personal blog and how her sense of identity enables her to construct individual ethos. Furthermore, I illustrate how the individual ethos of each blogger contributes to a group ethos representing the entire secular parenting community. Ultimately, I show how these mothers rhetorically set themselves apart from other nonbeliever/secular groups.
- Instructional Video Object-Based Learning in a Flipped Construction Management ClassroomBarnes, Andrew Floyd (Virginia Tech, 2021-04-19)Traditional methods of teaching (i.e., didactic reading and lecture) remain the primary way instruction is delivered in construction management (CM) classrooms. This is true despite a growing body of literature promoting more contemporary, student-centered pedagogies that offer improvements over traditional teaching models. One of these is object-based learning (OBL), a student-centered approach that uses digital learning objects (LOs), such as videos, images, animations, mobile apps, and educational games, to facilitate deep and engaging learning experiences. One of the most common types of LO is instructional videos. Over the past quarter century, abundant research has been conducted in the field of computer science to advance the quality and reach of instructional video LOs. In contrast, a relatively small amount of research has been dedicated to understanding them in terms of their pedagogical efficacy. This is especially true for the field of CM. Very little empirical research currently exists at the intersection of CM and OBL. This dissertation examines the ability of supplemental instructional videos (SIVs) — a specific type of instructional video that complements other forms of instruction, including in-person teaching, readings, and group work, to deliver a full learning experience — to improve both the performance and the quality of the learning experience for undergraduate CM students. The first chapter of the dissertation is introductory, providing information about the major themes of the dissertation including construction management education, OBL, SIVs, and flipped classrooms. The second chapter explores the foundational learning theories that support OBL in a flipped CM classroom. A theoretical framework is proposed that can be used by teachers to guide them as they tailor their own approach for using instructional videos. The third chapter presents an interdisciplinary synthesis of best practices for the design and development of SIVs. Using these best practices, I document the production process of SIVs for an undergraduate CM course called Residential Construction Technologies. The fourth and fifth chapters cover a study in which the SIVs I developed were used as teaching aids for pre-class readings in Residential Construction Technologies. Chapter Four centers on a repeated measures experiment that was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the SIVs at improving student performance. Chapter Five uses surveys and interviews to understand student perceptions of the SIVs. Overall, I found that the SIVs had little measurable effect on improving the student's grades. However, overwhelmingly, the students reported that they valued having the videos, and felt that they helped with their understanding of unfamiliar or complicated course topics. Chapter Six concludes the dissertation with a short synthesis of all chapters and summary of their major themes and findings.
- Interactive Close ReadingRisha, Zachary Joseph (Virginia Tech, 2017-06-05)Over the past two decades, the readership of poetry has declined to the point that the art form is seldom engaged with by the public. I argue that reading poetry requires a skillset that must be learned, practiced, and refined. While close reading is traditionally trained in college classrooms, such spaces cannot reach broad audiences. To address this dearth, I have developed a web app that applies interactive learning strategies, through a series of exercises, to cultivate expert reading practices in novice users. Close Reading will guide users through poems by Robert Frost. With each poem, users will progress through exercises grounded in the practices of expert readers. For instance, users will block poems into sections to allow a chunking of the material, slowing down novice reading speeds. Another exercise cognitively models the act of reading by displaying the sequential thoughts of a reader making sense of a work. Furthermore, Socratic questioning will attempt to stimulate an internal dialogue to foster focus and interpretation. These exercises will build on one another and attempt to replicate pedagogical processes observed in the classroom. Performing these pedagogical exercises will provide a resource for developing the skillset necessary for poetry appreciation. This ambitious digital humanities project experiments with a new venue for pedagogy and poetry, promoting an engagement with the public frequently neglected in academic work.
- The Nonprofit Mission Statement as Genre: Speech Acts, Social Facts, and EcologiesSchiewer, Tana M. (Virginia Tech, 2017-11-21)In this case study, the author explores the nonprofit mission statement as a genre, its place within a genre ecology, and its communication through various genres. Theorizing the mission statement as a controlling and stabilizing force in a genre ecology, the author notes the potential of the mission statement to enact the genre function, "the authority a genre has even in the absence of its author. Noting the limitations of current genre ecology modeling (GEM), the author maps the genres, documents, and activities of a small community foundation using a revised form of GEM that more purposefully includes speech genres to map relationships; in this case study, the speech genres revealed how the mission statement is mediated through genres and activities. Further, observations and interviews revealed ideological conflicts of the organization's key stakeholders that resulted in clashes between key stakeholder values and the language of the nonprofit's mission (and other genres). Additionally, ideological consensus resulted in the addition of new organizational activities and genres, even though these activities are not in line with the language of the mission statement as written. Eventually, these activities become social facts, "ideas that the key stakeholders believe are in line with the mission when they are, in fact, in conflict with it. If these social facts are not re-aligned with the mission statement, new activities and genres are created and mediated by speech genres, potentially moving the organization further away from its purpose and goals. The author ultimately suggests a cycle of genre and activity production that will realign the social facts and the mission statement and encourage organizational leaders to return to the mission statement and change the language to reflect the organization's new reality.
- A Pedagogical Model for Realigning the Priorities in Technical Communication Between Industry and AcademiaLee, Sanglin (Virginia Tech, 2014-05-19)Although there have been many attempts to mediate the longstanding gap between technical communication academics and practitioners, the field has yet to become a unified community. This study tracks the history of the field to identify the causes of the breach. The goal of this thesis is to assess technical communication's current industry and academic environment based on data collected from interviewing selected academics and practitioners. For my research, I compared my interview findings to the information from my bibliographical research in order to contribute to creating a healthy research-to-practice loop by producing a course syllabus for a senior seminar for the Professional Writing option within Virginia Tech's department of English. This syllabus contains readings, assignments, projects, and industry tests that are meant to help students contribute to bridging the gap between academia and industry by combining the important components from both sides of technical communication. Research indicates that important professional skills for the workplace include knowing how to transform writing into products through topic-based writing, structured authoring, and information typing. Examples of other important professional technical communication skills include search engine optimization and content repurposing. Advanced technical communication-related jobs in industry include content strategist and information architect. Methods of diminishing the gap between academics and practitioners and providing an environment that is conducive to collaborative research include generating awareness among technical communicators about what the other group does, changing the paradigm for research and faculty requirements for technical communication academics, and the two groups collaborating to develop more technical communication-related internships for students.
- The Rhetoric of Commoditized Vulnerabilities: Ethical Discourses in CybersecurityHoskins, Brittany Noel (Virginia Tech, 2015-06-15)The field of cybersecurity is relatively uncharted by rhetoricians and sociologists but nevertheless laden with terminological assumptions, violent metaphors, and ethical conflicts. This study explores the discourse surrounding the morally contentious practice of hackers selling software vulnerabilities to third parties instead of disclosing them to the affected technology companies. Drawing on grounded theory, I utilize a combination of quantitative word-level analysis and qualitative coding to assess how notions of right and wrong on this topic are framed by three groups: 1) the hackers themselves, 2) technology companies, and 3) reporters. The results show that the most commonly constructed argument was based on a "greater good" ethic, in which rhetors argue for reducing risk to "us all" or to innocent computer users. Additionally, the technology companies and hackers assiduously build their ethos to increase their trustworthiness in the public mind. Ultimately, studying this unexplored area of "gray hat hacking" has important implications for policymakers creating new cybersecurity legislation, reporters attempting to accurately frame the debate, and information technology professionals whose livelihoods are affected by evolving social norms.
- Safety at the Margins: A Rhetorical Analysis of Occupational Risk Communication in ConstructionPatriarca, Ashley S. (Virginia Tech, 2013-05-07)This dissertation focuses on occupational risk communication created by grantees of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration\'s Susan Harwood Training Grant (SHTG) Program. Although the SHTG program is aimed at workers in most high-hazard industries, I focus on occupational risk communication developed for residential construction workers, who remain the most at-risk for on-the-job injuries and fatalities. In 2011 (the most recent year for which statistics are available), 721 construction workers died in work-related accidents (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). In this study, I relied primarily on two research methods: context-sensitive text analysis of deliverables created by twelve SHTG program grantees from 2006-2009 and interviews with representatives of four of these twelve grantees. The findings from this research illustrate the complexity of creating occupational risk communication in grant-related institutional settings. Although the process might seem straightforward, it is composed of twelve milestones, each of which can result in difficulties for the final deliverables. Grantees are asked to create safety training deliverables that includes principles of active workplace learning; however, qualitative analysis of these deliverables indicates that such principles are rarely enacted. Instead, the deliverables are marked by an emphasis on technical language, as well as by death-focused justification strategies that scare trainees into following the guidelines being presented. Each of these characteristics can alienate audiences of varied linguistic and cultural backgrounds, such as those found in the construction industry.
- Seizing the Initiative: Rhetorical Implications of US Army DoctrineHayek, Philip (Virginia Tech, 2016-10-05)Army doctrine imbues the organization and its personnel with characteristics of professionalism. Texts analyzed for this dissertation present the Army professional's demeanor and awareness in terms of an ability to recognize and capitalize on fleeting opportunities. These doctrinal texts show that the Army professional embodies the rhetorical concept of kairos. In rhetoric studies, Kairos is understood to be an independent force that a rhetor must accommodate and also as an ability whereby a rhetor creates an opening for action; both models are rooted in reasoned action. Recent work on bodily rhetorics makes room for an immanent, embodied, and nonrational model of kairos as a kind of instinctual awareness. An analysis of how the notion of professionalism is conveyed in the selected corpus shows that the Army's philosophy of command is communicated in terms of kairos, and offers insight into how the Army professional is taught to recognize and act on opportunity. Army doctrine provides an example of how all three models of kairos function in the education of the Army professional.
- Student Perceptions of Screencasted FeedbackHarding, Jonathan M. (Virginia Tech, 2018-07-02)This study addresses student perceptions of screencasted feedback compared to traditional written comments. Screencasts allow instructors to provide audio-visual feedback on a student's essay that is captured directly from the instructor's computer using a screencasting software. Using survey results from 31 first year composition students, this study found that students generally perceived screencasted feedback to be easier to understand, more engaging, and more helpful than traditional written comments. It also found that students perceived a stronger rapport between themselves and their instructor after receiving screencasted feedback, and that students generally prefer receiving screencasted feedback over written comments on their essays. This study was not able to discern if student writing improved more with screencasted feedback compared to written comments, nor was it able to definitively say if students were more motivated to improve their writing after receiving screencasted feedback.
- A Study of Writing within Discipline-Specific Writing Support Centers: Expanding our DefinitionsMorrison, Rebecca Ann (Virginia Tech, 2016-08-01)This dissertation explores discipline-specific writing support spaces in an attempt to better understand disciplinary writing from various perspectives. Neal Lerner suggests that writing center scholarship would benefit from interdisciplinary work; therefore, I investigate spaces that are uniquely positioned in disciplines to identify disciplinary questions within writing center work. These spaces will allow writing center professionals to gain a better understanding of the intersections between writing in the disciplines and writing center work, and the writing center's role in student learning, from within the disciplines. We can then integrate these interdisciplinary frameworks into writing center scholarship to broaden perspectives and subsequently better accommodate students across disciplines. This scholarship could offer some clarity as we try to expand our scholarly purview in order to identify some of the questions writing center professionals should be asking. Through ten interviews from three different academic institution, this dissertation interrogates questions that have been embedded within writing center scholarship for decades. This dissertation shows the prominence of the generalist / specialist debate, the 'students can't write' narrative, and explores a situated learning theory in writing center practice. While there has been valuable research done in writing center research and scholarship in an attempt to move writing centers out of the margins, many writing centers still maintain a marginalized status to some faculty and administrators within their institutions. Unless we shift the perception of, and the narratives coming from, writing centers, we might be replaced by writing support centers that are not affiliated with writing centers. These writing support spaces, as shown in this dissertation, provide students a plethora of discipline-specific resources, often including research and communication. If writing centers do not distinguish themselves as a place that can help students across disciplines, writing centers might move from a marginalized position into having no position within the institution at all. For writing center scholars, professionals, and students, the findings of this dissertation mean that as writing centers attempt to accommodate students who write in the disciplines, our identity potentially becomes distorted. Therefore, we must pay special attention to the narratives we use in the writing center and subsequently circulate to our faculty. We have an opportunity to reconsider those narratives and offer a new theoretical framework for how we conceive of and define writing center work. If we do not adapt a situated learning theory in writing centers, we might consider other alternatives so that writing support spaces, such as those highlighted here, do not replace writing centers altogether. Those of us who are involved in writing center theory and practice have a responsibility to consider the alternative venues students might seek for help and to, as a community, identify best practices and theoretical frameworks as writing centers seek to accommodate disciplinary writers.