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ISSN 2693-9193
Welcome!
HETS Chair Message
As HETS Chair of the Hispanic Educational Technology Services (HETS) Consortium, I am pleased to announce the publication of the 2024 Spring Issue of its peer-reviewed Online Journal (HOJ). This Journal, created in 2010, provides high-quality research articles covering online teaching, learning, and training topics for the academic community around the world.
“We are pleased to publish 12 new articles, six in English and six in Spanish, and consistently continue providing this peer-reviewed publication focusing on showcasing innovative research, scientific papers, and best practices on topics related to online education with a globalized perspective,” said Dr. Carlos Morales, chairman of the HETS Board of Directors and President of TCC Connect Campus-Tarrant County College in Texas.
Access to the publication on the new platform is available from the HETS website (hets.org/ejournal/). In this issue, the Journal showcases articles in English and Spanish, discussing topics such as Driving Accessibility, ESOL in the Digital Age, An Assessment of the Active Learning Worksheets, and Online Course Design Review: Quality e-Learning Practices in Higher Education.
HETS invites you to enjoy reading the articles on this issue and share the Journal with colleagues, academics, students, and administrators involved with higher education. Likewise, HETS encourages all those interested in publishing their articles to take advantage of this opportunity to share their knowledge. The deadline for submission of articles to be considered for publication in Volume XV, Fall Issue, is September 24, 2024.
Finally, we extend our invitation to join HETS collaborators as reviewers of our publication. If you are interested, please send an e-mail to info@hets.org.
We hope you enjoy this edition as much as I have!
Regards,
Dr. Carlos Morales
HETS Chair
President, TCC Connect Campus
Tarrant County College
You will now be redirected to the new dedicated platform at the HETS Online Journal.
Editor’s Message
Happy Spring!
Thank you for accessing the HETS Online Journal. In this issue, we offer articles in English and Spanish that align with the HETS mission to promote, support, and increase the capabilities of member institutions to enhance Hispanic/Latino student success and opportunities in Higher Education. Many of the articles relate to the use of technology, and all are intended to help with access, retention and success of students. While the focus is on Hispanic students, many of the ideas shared here apply to all students or can be adapted to the unique needs of other student populations.
We hope you are inspired by what our authors have shared for publication in this issue:
In “Driving Accessibility: Tarrant County College’s Online Campus Races Toward Accessibility for Online Courses and Communication,” Kim Estes and Lindsay Nichols Foster describe an initiative to enhance accessibility in online courses and communication. They note the challenges of compliance with state and federal accessibility regulations in Higher Education and the legal, financial, and human impacts of non-compliance. The study also discusses the disproportionately lower accommodation rates for students with disabilities at two-year colleges as compared to four-year institutions.
Author Carolyn A. Choate, in “ESOL in the Digital Age: Crafting a Tailored Learning Journey,” explores the advantages and opportunities that online English as a Second Language (ESOL) instruction offers, discussing how it meets the evolving needs of learners and opens doors to a new era of language education. She concludes that online ESOL courses empower learners with accessibility, flexibility, diverse teaching methods, and the opportunity to engage in a global learning community.
The article “Impact of Growth, Purpose, and Sense of Belonging (GPS) Mindset Intervention on Student Retention Rates in Asynchronous Mathematics Courses,” authored by Tanvir Prince, examines the effects of incorporating a Growth, Purpose, and Sense of Belonging (GPS) mindset intervention on student retention rates in asynchronous mathematics courses. The preliminary findings from the study indicate that GPS mindset intervention can play a pivotal role in elevating student retention rates in these courses.
Israel Martínez Santiago, in “Aplicabilidad del modelo de retención estudiantil de Berge y Huang en estudiantes a distancia a nivel graduado de una universidad privada en Puerto Rico,” describes the applicability of Berge and Huang’s student retention model to distance education students at the graduate level at a private university in Puerto Rico. The study used Berge and Huang’s Sustainable Student Retention Model to analyze the conditions that influence institutional effectiveness in reducing attrition within the perspective of distance education. “Liderando la Revolución Digital: Estrategias de Evaluación en la Era del Chatbot,” authored by Elizabeth Díaz-Rodriguez, examines the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a support tool in Higher Education. Among her recommendations, Díaz-Rodriguez suggests that establishing clear standards would help reconcile AI with academic ethical principles.
Mervan Agovic, in the artcile entitled, “An Assessment of the Active Learning Worksheets in an Undergraduate Human Anatomy and Physiology Course,” introduces a new active learning strategy to promote meaningful learning and conceptual understanding of Anatomy & Physiology. The activities used spark student interest and provide immediate feedback on students’ understanding of challenging topics.
Author Jacelyn Smallwood Ramos presents significant enhancements made to an online course design in the article, “Online Course Design Review: Quality e-Learning Practices in Higher Education.” The enhancements were made using the 7th Edition of Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric to boost student engagement, performance, and satisfaction, and resulted in positive feedback from students.
In “La reducción poblacional y su impacto en las instituciones de PR,” Marcos Torres-Nazario updates data on the population of Puerto Rico and its impact on enrollment and institutions of Higher Education for the Fall 2022 semester. The article also examines the enrollment of 12th grade students, as well as the enrollment of distance students, and proposes estimates of population changes on university enrollment by 2025.
Tania Torres Meléndez, in “Actitudes del docente de las materias de español y matemáticas, de cuarto y quinto grado, durante las prácticas de inclusión con estudiantes con discapacidad en la sala de clases regular,” describes the attitudes of teachers of Spanish and mathematics in fourth and fifth grade during inclusion practices with students with disabilities in the regular classroom of public elementary schools in Puerto Rico. While this study was not conducted in a Higher Education setting, it may provide important insight into the needs of students with disabilities when they pursue Higher Education and allow leaders to plan for their inclusion in the classroom.
The article, “Innovación educativa: un análisis descriptivo sobre la integración de la herramienta Prodigy como técnica de gamificación,” by Lisbel M. Correa-Suárez, Mariela L. Sánchez Dávila and Abigail, M. Santiago Mercado, looks at the successful integration of technology into math instruction. The authors found that this integration ultimately reshaped the teaching process and positively impacted student academic achievement.
Carlos Morales, in “Institutional Readiness to Digital Education: Championing 10 years
of Student and Faculty Success,” addresses the need for change in educational institutions, which has been compounded by the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the expectations and needs of the modern learner. The article communicates strategies employed to grow and scale academic offerings, student services, quality, and rigor and develop best practices to satisfy the needs of non-traditional students in a completely online campus.
As the accelerated development of technologies and the ever-shortening time lapses between industrial revolutions hinder the development of technological skills of those who teach, students arrive with more technological skills than those who teach them. Author Pura Centeno, in the article entitled, “Factores que influyen en la implementación de la tecnología en el ejercicio de enseñanza-aprendizaje,” reflects on the technological skills of those who teach and those who come to learn, taking into account two models of technology integration in teaching, as well as several learning theories.
As always, we appreciate you visiting the HETS Online Journal, and hope that you will come back for future issues. We also hope that you will consider sharing your institution’s experiences in helping students to succeed by submitting an article for the Journal to consider.
Have a wonderful summer!
Pamela A. (Krauser) Vargas
HETS Online Journal Chief Editor & Director, Research and Grant Development Southeast Missouri State University
You will now be redirected to the new dedicated platform at the HETS Online Journal.