An investigation of U.S. Army instructors providing feedback face-to-face and online

As the United States Army modernizes its institutional learning domain, the shift from traditional face-to-face classroom settings toward online environments requires designers, instructors, and students to evolve. The instructor is the keystone that closes the gap between the content and the learner through instruction and feedback. Early identification of the challenges imposed on instructors by the infrastructure, policy, procedure, training, or generation increases the chances of optimizing the efficiency and effectiveness of the instructor's delivery, presence, and feedback face-to-face or online. This study utilized a convergent parallel mixed methodology approach to examine how the Community of Inquiry's Teaching Presence and the Transactional Distance Theory's Learner-Instructor Interaction influenced United States Army instructors providing face-to-face and online feedback. Additionally, this study explored how the face-to-face or online environment affected the United States Army instructor's attitudes and perceptions of feedback. The participants in this study included certified United States Army Officers, Warrant Officers, Noncommissioned Officers, and Department of the Army Civilian (DAC) instructors from a large military installation located in the southeast region of the United States. One hundred thirty-three respondents completed the online survey for the quantitative study, and 13 participants contributed to the focus group discussions. A side-by-side comparison of the data from both studies displayed the merged findings. The key findings suggested that engagement and instructor presence mattered regardless of the learning environment, instructors lacked the requisite competencies to facilitate discourse or provide formative feedback effectively, courseware utilized by the instructors was designed summatively with little or no formative feedback cues included, and internal and external influences impacted the instructor's confidence. Additionally, the study also offered evidence that there were course design and equivalency concerns that influenced the instructor's attitudes and perceptions.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Stampley, Keith Anthony

Contributors dc:contributor

• Cope, William
• Kalantzis, Mary
• Kang, Hyun-Sook
• Montebello, Matthew

• Community Of Inquiry
• Convergent Parallel Mixed-methods
• Equivalency
• Feedback
• Military Instructor
• Transactional Distance Theory

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Keith Anthony Stampley

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120303

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F120303