Mount Ama Dablam, Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal (photo credit: Maureen A. Eger)
Dissertation
Defense Date: September 26, 2024
The Adoption and Use of Distance Education: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Organizational Change in American Colleges and Universities
My dissertation explains the adoption of distance education by American four-year colleges and universities between 1987 and 2019. To do this, I combine data from the National Center for Education Statistics Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), state-level census data, and an original network dataset I created from historical and archival research on institutional membership in higher education consortia. I use multi-level repeated measures models to distinguish among various institutional and contextual effects.
Masters Thesis
Academic Interventions for Increased Retention of First-Generation, Low-Income College Students
My master's thesis evaluated an academic intervention program designed to increase persistence among low-income first-generation college students who received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Academic
Presentations
2015
Author/Presenter, “Why Offer Online Courses? The Adoption of Distance Education at American Universities.” Department of Sociology, Umeå University, Sweden
2014
Author/Presenter, “The Impact of Distance Education on Students Outcomes at U.S. 4-year Colleges and Universities.” Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS) International Conference, University of Bremen, Germany
Author/Presenter, “The unexamined expansion of online education.” Adult Education Seminar, Department of Education, Stockholm University, Sweden