Date of Degree

5-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Program

Education

Advisor

Norman St Clair

Advisor

Maria Marquise

Advisor

Laura Vasquez

Abstract

Research Focus. The Covid pandemic was an unprecedented event evolving from a novel virus unknown to humans, highly infectious with no human immunity, spreading globally (Bell et al., 2020). With the declaration of a worldwide pandemic in March 2020, graduate students and faculty of colleges and universities nationwide experienced a disruption in their graduate practicum/internship courses. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to use a qualitative instrumental case study design to explore the challenges faculty instructors faced with supervising graduate student practicums/internships, and the graduate student barriers with self-directed learning, when limited to digital environments during the Covid pandemic; within a private university’s graduate programs located in South Central Texas.

J. Swales’ Creating a Research Space (CARS) model (2008) with its three rhetorical strategies: establishing a territory, establishing a niche, and occupying the niche, were utilized as a framework towards understanding the problem, the existence of previous research, the importance of the topic, and the core issues needing to be further investigated. Due to the limited amount of studies, four issues were explored further to address changes in the learning platform: 1) What were graduate students’ experiences accessing digital and material resources while engaging in a graduate practicum or internship course during the Covid pandemic; 2) What contributed to a graduate student feeling a sense of isolation in their practicum or internship course due to being limited to a digital environment during the Covid pandemic; 3) What were the limitations graduate students encountered in locating a practicum or internship site supervisor/mentor due to being limited to a digital environment during the Covid pandemic; and 4) What were the instructional challenges experienced by faculty instructors when supervising graduate students’ practicums or internships when utilizing a digital environment during the Covid-pandemic.

Research Methods. The research design used was an instrumental case study, utilizing the primary data sources of semi-structured graduate student interviews, faculty interviews, and focus groups discussions. The instrumentation for the collection of data consisted of audio recordings, interview transcripts, field notes, course documents, memoing, and journaling. Building on Saldana’s (1995) coding strategies, Miles and Huberman’s (2020) code-to-theory was used in the data analysis, utilizing the qualitative analysis software of QDA Miner version 6.0 and Microsoft Delve version 2024 in the assessment of the transcription data. The population for this study consisted of graduate students enrolled in practicum/internship courses limited to a digital learning platform and the faculty instructors who taught graduate level practicum/internship courses during the period of spring 2020 to spring 2022.

Research Results/Findings. This case study’s findings revealed a total of five themes inclusive of one emerging theme. The five themes consisted of: 1) graduate student academic and socioeconomic divide; 2) faculty instructional and supervision challenges; 3) graduate student imbalance from seclusion, disruption in self-directed learning and lack of socialization; 4) faculty and student personal challenges impacting their well-being; and 5) graduate student dissatisfaction with the digital experience. Unexpectedly, the fourth theme developed from the physical, emotional, and personality trait challenges which surfaced from the barriers encountered by both graduate students and faculty instructors. The categories were represented in the conceptual framework of this case study, each theme also exemplified and characterized within educational theories which provided support and reasoning towards understanding the challenges with self-directed learning, isolation, and the various challenges faced by graduate students and faculty instructors.

Conclusions from Research. Inevitably, this national impact of the Covid pandemic did not allow the opportunity for colleges, universities, instructors/mentors to prepare for this sudden disruption. Therefore, the findings of this case study helped to identify and understand the graduate-level instructional impediments with supervising graduate students during practicums/internships, and their barriers to effectively engage in self-directed learning due to social distancing and a sense of isolation. Unfortunately, this sudden shift towards a digital platform accompanied with a limitation of time, did not allow for proper digital development to occur; thus resulting in graduate students having a dissatisfactory experience with their practicums and internships.

Upon the completion of this case study, answers to the research question and sub-questions were attained. The dissatisfaction and lack of readiness in shifting towards a digital platform were linked to an imbalanced academic situation and impact on graduate students and faculty instructors; with an increase of dissatisfaction coming from the lack of guidelines, need for training/tutorials to navigate through digital course modules and tools, and the need for a little technology savviness towards producing better interactive class discussions. Therefore, the theoretical recommendation of a “best practices” model was developed, to provide a plan when shifting to a digital learning platform. This model addresses three major areas attained from the data analysis, which are: college/university resources and support, socialization for the increase of self-directed motivation, and support of faculty instructors, educational institutions, and graduate student peers. Through substantial development, this theory model could be implemented as part of a faculty instructor’s course building prior to teaching a graduate practicum/internship course, with the goal of establishing preexisting digital course material should the course need to be shifted to a digital platform or evolve into a Hy-flex course.

Consequently, with the development of this best practices model, the implications of this case study can be understood as revolving around the real-world impact of addressing graduate students’ challenges with self-directed learning, isolation and academic challenges when utilizing a digital platform; while addressing faculty instructor’s challenges with digital supervision, digital divide, and personal challenges. In addition, providing research data for future development of strategies and evaluations of digital practicums/internships and data in support of future research; with recommendations evolving from the researcher’s reflection on the challenges and barriers encountered by the graduate students and faculty instructors, in an effort towards helping to close the gap between the classroom and online populations.

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