{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/129889"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/129889","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"The impact of virtual learning on students’ aspirations in rural and regional New South Wales (Australia)","abstract":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-20 without embargo terms","abstract_html":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-20 without embargo terms","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Mockler Giles, Wendy"],"institution":"University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ed.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Kalantzis, Mary","Cope, William","Zhu, Xinran","You, Yu-ling"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-07-18","date_published":"2025-07-18","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:06Z","subjects":["Rural Education","Virtual Learning","Educational Equity","Academic Achievement Gap","Remote Learning","Australia Education","Academic Buoyancy"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2025 Wendy Mockler Giles"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129889","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Kalantzis, Mary","Cope, William","Zhu, Xinran","You, Yu-ling"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Mockler Giles, Wendy"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-07-18","2025-08"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ed.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Rural Education","Virtual Learning","Educational Equity","Academic Achievement Gap","Remote Learning","Australia Education","Academic Buoyancy"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2025 Wendy Mockler Giles"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129889"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-20 without embargo terms","The student, Wendy Mockler Giles, accepted the attached license on 2025-07-17 at 10:53.","The student, Wendy Mockler Giles, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-07-17 at 11:03.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-07-18 at 09:02.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22632 on 2025-10-20 at 16:58:42","In Australia, and particularly in its most populous state of New South Wales, school students from rural and regional backgrounds do not perform as well as their metropolitan-based peers on national standardized tests or high-stakes state examinations and they consistently report having lower aspirations than urban students. Behind these outcomes, rural and regional students demonstrate lower levels of engagement and attendance at school, and fewer of them complete school or study at university. This “remoteness gap” correlates with socio-economic status, but this only partly explains the stubborn and persistent educational outcome gaps. Research found that in-school factors such as school climate, access to expert teachers and high-quality curriculum materials for a broad range of subjects were as predictive of educational aspirations as school characteristics, such as size and type, and more than family and student characteristics and experiences. Critically, however, access to expert teachers and high-quality curriculum materials are not always available to rural and regional students. This study of the Virtual Learning Collaborative revealed that through a network of schools in rural and regional New South Wales, students overcame entrenched access and equity structural barriers by accessing virtual courses not available in-person at their school. They not only matriculated and then accessed their preferred university courses but also reported gains in their academic self-concept and self-regulation skills from studying a course virtually. In the analysis, academic buoyancy emerged as instrumental in developing students’ academic confidence (related to academic self-efficacy) and provided a novel theoretical contribution to addressing the rural-urban education gap through virtual learning networks."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The impact of virtual learning on students’ aspirations in rural and regional New South Wales (Australia)"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Kalantzis, Mary","Cope, William","Zhu, Xinran","You, Yu-ling"],"dc:creator":["Mockler Giles, Wendy"],"dc:date":["2025-07-18","2025-08"],"dc:description":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2025-10-20 without embargo terms","The student, Wendy Mockler Giles, accepted the attached license on 2025-07-17 at 10:53.","The student, Wendy Mockler Giles, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-07-17 at 11:03.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-07-18 at 09:02.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22632 on 2025-10-20 at 16:58:42","In Australia, and particularly in its most populous state of New South Wales, school students from rural and regional backgrounds do not perform as well as their metropolitan-based peers on national standardized tests or high-stakes state examinations and they consistently report having lower aspirations than urban students. Behind these outcomes, rural and regional students demonstrate lower levels of engagement and attendance at school, and fewer of them complete school or study at university. This “remoteness gap” correlates with socio-economic status, but this only partly explains the stubborn and persistent educational outcome gaps. Research found that in-school factors such as school climate, access to expert teachers and high-quality curriculum materials for a broad range of subjects were as predictive of educational aspirations as school characteristics, such as size and type, and more than family and student characteristics and experiences. Critically, however, access to expert teachers and high-quality curriculum materials are not always available to rural and regional students. This study of the Virtual Learning Collaborative revealed that through a network of schools in rural and regional New South Wales, students overcame entrenched access and equity structural barriers by accessing virtual courses not available in-person at their school. They not only matriculated and then accessed their preferred university courses but also reported gains in their academic self-concept and self-regulation skills from studying a course virtually. In the analysis, academic buoyancy emerged as instrumental in developing students’ academic confidence (related to academic self-efficacy) and provided a novel theoretical contribution to addressing the rural-urban education gap through virtual learning networks."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129889"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2025 Wendy Mockler Giles"],"dc:subject":["Rural Education","Virtual Learning","Educational Equity","Academic Achievement Gap","Remote Learning","Australia Education","Academic Buoyancy"],"dc:title":["The impact of virtual learning on students’ aspirations in rural and regional New South Wales (Australia)"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ed.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:06Z"}