Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
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Item User Onboarding Design In Citizen Science: A Path To Grow Engagement And Participation.(2022) Cascaes Cardoso, Marina; Preece, Jennifer J; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the context of crowdsourcing communities (e.g., Citizen Science), crowd engagement is a significant determinant of projects' sustainability. The challenging missions of finding motivated people to participate in such initiatives and triggering their engagement to the cause have been widely acknowledged by scholars in the field of Citizen Science (Eveleigh et al., 2014; Nov et al., 2011b; Raddick et al., 2010; Rotman, 2013; Rotman et al., 2014); both on crowdsourcing initiatives (Balestra et al., 2017; Lampe et al., 2010; K. Y. Lin & Lu, 2011; Preece & Shneiderman, 2009; Steinmacher et al., 2015) and on online communities, in general (Brabham, 2010; Crowston & Fagnot, 2008; de Vreede et al., 2013; Zheng et al., 2011). The initial interaction with the technology employed by crowdsourcing platforms, including Citizen Science, affects users' experiences and should be designed considering their effects on the initial engagement. This work focuses on understanding how onboarding impacts early engagement and, consequently, the likelihood of boosting the quality of initial interaction and sustaining the adoption. Early engagement means the intricate process of embracing users' characteristics and motivations during the first interaction. The goal of Citizen Science platforms when implementing an onboarding design is, in general, to turn first-time visitors into a long-term users by scaffolding the first use toward participation. The central premise of this investigation is that onboarding characteristics and users' initial experiences largely determine whether they ultimately continue using the app; therefore, the thoughtful design of the first experience is fundamental. Organized in eight chapters, this doctoral dissertation starts by offering insights into the variables involved in the process of onboarding new users. Although commonly employed by the SaaS industry in various applications, onboarding design still lacks systematic investigation and precise definitions. Therefore, this research presents a terminology for the onboarding process and defines its four structural elements: Statement of Purpose, User Identification, Informational Support, and Conversion Event. Delving into the Citizen Science context, it is conducted three studies on how existing projects employ onboarding practices in their mobile applications. The studies, in chapters four to six, reveal barriers and reactions to onboarding experiences from volunteers. For example, making the statement of purpose clear, explicitly showing why individuals should be volunteering, and being part of a contributing crowd, apps have promising chances of keeping users engaged and returning in the future. Through various analyses and discussions, this work provides novel comprehension of how first-time interactions have the potential to alter newcomers' engagement in mobile apps. Finally, this investigation offers guidelines to support the designing decision process of creating a successful onboarding flow, primarily in the Citizen Science domain. It is presented seven drivers of newcomers' engagement that consist of design recommendations for onboarding that can be adopted for virtually any crowdsourcing app. Key drivers include essential concerns that influence engagement and can be resolved, for instance, by providing information on the users' roles and their contributions to the project, plus informing the app's goals and impact on the world with transparency. The seven drivers address cautious use of (1) technical language and jargon; to encourage (2) informing users regarding app's mechanics, and offering guidance to tasks accomplishments; stressing (3) the users' roles and their contributions' purpose within the project; to be transparent about the (4) app's goals, results, and impacts on the world; elucidate any (5) benefits or rewards right from the beginning, even they are not tangible or immediate; consider (6) UI's visual quality as a decisive interest factor and design it according to the intended audience; and lastly, (7) to advise the use of visual cues to enhance usability and reduce uncertainty. This dissertation has a pivotal contribution: the definition of terms and operationalization of onboarding elements, their attributes, and roles upon users' needs and individual aspects. Moreover, an onboarding flow creates an opportunity to successfully captivate and retain newcomers only when design and engagement attributes address users' characteristics, needs, and motivations.Item The Chick or the Egg? Multi-Group, Short-Term Longitudinal Relations Between Grit and Literacy Achievement(2019) Boyars, Michal Yablong; O'Neal, Colleen R; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The impact of grit on achievement is well established, but it is unclear whether achievement impacts grit. This short-term longitudinal study examined the direction of relations between grit and literacy among diverse elementary school student groups. Most grit research features a unidirectional design (e.g., grit affects achievement). Yet, recent research supports cross-lagged models in which socioemotional skills and achievement affect one another. In addition to testing cross-lagged effects, this study examined the direction of grit-literacy relations for different demographic groups (i.e., age, gender, and dual language status). Method: Participants included upper elementary students (N = 396; 3 schools; Mage = 9.61; 55% female; 59% dual language learners; 11% Black, 6% Asian, 29% Latino/a, 8% Multiracial; 39% White). Measures were student-reported grit, teacher-reported grit, and a student literacy achievement performance task (Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension, TOSREC). Analytic Approach: An autoregressive cross-lagged design included two time points over 4 months. A cross-lagged model was compared to unidirectional models (i.e., direct and reverse) for best fit. Multi-group analyses were then used to examine whether grit-literacy relations differed as a function of demographics. Results: The data fit the cross-lagged model better than the direct or reverse models. Within the context of a cross-lagged model – which contained both the direct and reverse effects – there was a significant relation between Time 1 literacy achievement and Time 2 student-reported Grit-PE, suggesting that literacy achievement can predict later Grit-PE. There were no demographic differences in the fit of the data with the cross-lagged model between gender, DLL status, and age groups. Findings of the current study support the examination of reciprocal effects in grit-literacy relations and its generalizability among students. Longer-term cross-lagged studies are needed to further understand the temporal sequence between grit and literacy.Item Assessment of Perceived Stress Among School-Age Children: Relations with Emotional Engagement and Literacy Achievement(2020) Meyering, Kristin M; O'Neal, Colleen; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This short-term longitudinal quantitative study is the first to examine the psychometric properties of the PSS-10 among elementary-age students and the impact of stress on school-related outcomes, including emotional engagement and literacy achievement. Participants included upper elementary students (N = 396, Mage = 9.62; 55% female; 56% dual language learners; 6% Asian, 12% Black, 28% Latino/a, and 40% White students). Emotional engagement was assessed using self- and teacher-reported questionnaires. Literacy achievement was assessed using a literacy performance task. A CFA revealed a two-factor structure for the PSS-10, including a coping factor and distress factor. The PSS-10 had adequate internal consistency but did not demonstrate adequate test-retest reliability between time points two to four months apart. Path analyses revealed that the coping factor was a significant predictor of later literacy achievement. The distress factor predicted later emotional engagement when the coping factor was removed from the model.Item Which Skills Predict School Success? Socioemotional Skills and the Achievement Gap(2016) Boyars, Michal Y.; O'Neal, Colleen R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This cross-sectional study examined the relations of four socioemotional skills with academic achievement among ethnic minority (e.g., Asian, Black, Latino/a, and multiethnic) and White elementary school students. Method: Participants included public school upper elementary students (N = 257; Mage = 9.71; 58% female; 10% Black, 5% Asian, 6% Latino/a, 12% multiracial; 61% White). Measures included student-reported grit, growth mindset, engagement, and emotion regulation, in addition to a student literacy achievement performance task (Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension, TOSREC) and student reading achievement scores (Measures of Academic Progress in Reading; MAP-R). Results: Across all analyses, socioemotional skills were more related to literacy achievement for ethnic minority students than for White students. While simple regressions supported several skills’ relation to achievement for both groups of students, multiple regressions suggested that grit was the sole significant predictor of achievement, and it was only predictive of minority students’ achievement. Although literacy achievement differed between the full samples of ethnic minority and White students, moderation analyses indicated that this achievement gap disappeared among high grit students. Yet, while these regression and moderation results suggested grit’s unique role as a predictor, SEM analyses suggested that the magnitude of all of the socioemotional skills’ prediction of achievement were more similar than different. These findings support a novel but cautious approach to research on socioemotional skills and the achievement gap: results suggest that the skills operate differently in students of different ethnicities, with grit playing a uniquely predictive role for minority students. The skills, however, may be more similar than not in the strength of their association with literacy achievement.Item Engagement as a Mediator of the Associations Among Expectancies and Values for Reading and Reading Outcomes(2014) Cambria, Jenna; Wigfield, Allan; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Previous research studies have shown that cognitive engagement could be included in the Eccles et al. (1983) expectancy-value model as the indirect means, or mediator, by which motivational influencers drive achievement (e.g., Greene et al., 2004; Hardré et al., 2007; Skinner et al., 2008). To explore the associations between values, expectancies, cognitive engagement and reading performance, I conducted a study with 1197 seventh graders. Values, expectancies, and cognitive engagement were measured using survey data. Performance was measured using the informational text comprehension test (ITC) and Reading/Language Arts grades. The main finding of this study was that cognitive engagement was a significant mediator of both expectancies and values with reading performance. Guthrie et al. (2012) discussed how reading requires effort and attention. Expectancies and values partially drive engagement, which is to say, they initiate engagement and not that motivation stops when a student becomes engaged in a task. When reading is valued and students believe they can be successful, students will be more persistent and put in more effort in deducing meaning from passages, like the ITC test. If students are more motivated, they will put in more effort and will result in better Reading/Language Arts grades. As discussed, the indirect effects of values and expectancies, and the direct of values, expectancies, cognitive engagement, and demographic controls were the same across the ITC and Reading/Language Arts grades. One exception to this association was the effects of gender and race on the reading outcomes. For gender, girls had higher grades than boys, but boys and girls did the same on ITC. This finding replicated previous research that males and females do not differ on standardized tests at this age and girls often perform better in Reading/Language Arts grades, which are typically seen as favoring females than do other classes such as mathematics (Banks & Banks, 2010). For race, there was no difference in performance in Reading/Language Arts grades, but there was a race difference on ITC. From an expectancy-value framework, mediation may mean that through engagement, expectancies for success and values may be actualized into achievement.Item A MULTILEVEL INVESTIGATION OF LEADER EMPOWERING BEHAVIORS: INTEGRATING THE JOB DEMANDS-CONTROL MODEL AND TRANSACTIVE MEMORY SYSTEM THEORY(2013) DONG, YUNTAO; Bartol, Kathryn M; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Empowering leader behaviors have been generally suggested to motivate employees and facilitate their goal achievement, but they can also be challenging and demanding. Yet questions regarding why employees may feel challenged and even concerned when empowered and how leaders can reduce such unfavorable reactions have been largely ignored in the literature. To examine the multifaceted impacts of empowering leadership and, at the same time, consider how the empowerment climate created by the leader at the team level may help facilitate the individual-level leadership processes, this research integrates the job demands-control (JD-C) model and the transactive memory system (TMS) literature to advance and test a model of the impacts of leader empowering behaviors on individuals and teams, as well as interrelationships of the multilevel dynamics. Applying the JD-C model, I propose that empowering leadership can provide team members with learning opportunities but also generate perceptions of role overload, which then influence, in opposite directions, their engagement and performance. Further incorporating the TMS literature, I propose that by creating an empowerment climate, leaders can help foster the development of TMS within the team. TMS will, in turn, benefit team performance as well as produce a positive cross-level influence on individual team members. Using survey data from 74 research and development teams in 14 high-technology companies in China, hierarchical linear modeling and hierarchical regression analyses provided overall support for the model. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed in this dissertation.Item A TALE OF TWO GROUPS: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MINORITY STUDENTS AND NON-MINORITY STUDENTS IN THEIR PREDISPOSITION TO AND ENGAGEMENT WITH DIVERSE PEERS AT A PREDOMINANTLY WHITE INSTITUTION(2009) Hall, Wendell Diedrik; Cabrera, Alberto F.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which minority students and non-minority students differ in their predispositions to engage in campus-based diversity activities upon entering college and engagement with diverse college peers during college. These ethnicity-based interactional differences were examined under a revised version of the Transition to College Model (Locks et al., 2008). The Diverse College Student Engagement Model accounts for the joint influence of student pre-college characteristics along with collegiate experiences, in shaping engagement with racially diverse peers at a predominantly White college. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Latent Means Modeling (LMM), this dissertation examined direct and indirect effects of factors that influence engagement with diverse students in college. Findings indicated that engagement with diverse peers does not take place in a vacuum; conditions and mechanisms that facilitate engagement also matter. Several pre-college variables and college variables were shown to influence predisposition to engage in diversity-related activities and engagement among diverse peers in college. Findings from testing the proposed model indicate that minority students were significantly higher in the latent factor Predisposition to Engage when entering college; however, no significant differences were found in the latent factor Engagement after the sophomore year of college. The differences appear to have been attenuated by some of the campus mechanisms the University of Maryland has in place to foster engagement among diverse students.Item Early Elementary Influences on Student Engagement in Learning(2006-12-11) Nese, Joseph F; Gottfredson, Gary D; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Student engagement is a process that combines the attention, interest, investment, and effort students expend in work towards learning. Studies have shown that engagement leads to academic achievement and that disengaged students have lower scores on achievement tests and a higher probability of dropping out of school (Connell et al. 1994; Finn et al., 1995; Marks, 2000). The goal of this study was to probe the validity of an explicit predictive model of the antecedents of engagement involving measures of prior achievement, ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic status, and parent involvement and the total effect of these variables decomposed into direct and indirect (via engagement) effects on academic achievement. Results indicate that a self-report measure of engagement was found to predict achievement for a sample of 676 third grade students but that engagement had no incremental validity in predicting achievement. The construct validity of engagement and parent involvement measures are discussed.