– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

An update on the competitive grants announced by the Outreach School of the University of Wyoming (UW) – one each has been awarded to Doris Bollinger and Bruce Cameron. Bollinger, assistant professor of Adult Learning and technology, bagged the research grant for her project, “An Examination of Trends in Faculty Utilization of Course Management Tools in an Online Environment,” while Cameron, associate professor of Family and Consumer Sciences, and his co-workers Kyle L. Kostelecky and Kari Morgan, and department head Karen C. Williams, will use the grant to work on their research topic, “Group Projects: Student Perceptions of the Process and Implications for Distance Courses.”

Bollinger will use the money to analyze and compile data over the past five years from instructional technology courses taught by UW instructors, and present an understanding of how online education tools have changed, and how these changes have affected the behavior of online learners.

Cameron and his team will collect and analyze data from surveys, emails, chat sessions, and threaded discussions to find out how online learners perceived group dynamics in distance education courses.