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2013 — A Grounded Theory Study on Student Perceptions of Online Distance LearningAbstract
The student population in higher educational institutions in North American Societies of the 21st century is rapidly changing (Allen & Seaman, 2011). The findings in a recent study conducted by Allen and Seaman of universities in the United States indicates that approximately 6.1 million students were enrolled in at least one online course during their academic program. Allen and Seaman further state the increased offerings of an online learning option are also forms an integral part of the long term strategy of educational institutions to increase student enrollment. With the upsurge of sophisticated technologies, students have become more informed of … Read more
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2017 — An Examination of School Safety Preparedness in CanadaAbstract
Although a rare occurrence, at least 32 Canadians have died in school shootings since 1902. School shootings and incidents of serious school violence in Canada are not as prevalent as they are in the United States, however, educators and school staff should be prepared for these critical incidents. This study uses an online survey to collect information from school staff across Canada about their preparedness for incidents of school violence. Topics solicited in the survey are: respondent beliefs about the prevalence of violence at their schools, their awareness of school safety plans, and strategies used to promote school safety. The … Read more
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2025 — Exploring professors’ perceptions of generative artificial intelligence in higher educationAbstract
The invention and widespread adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has begun to disrupt the field of education, as leading scholars debate its potential to enhance or hinder learning. GenAI models such as ChatGPT demonstrate remarkable capabilities, evidenced by its success on the United States Medical Licensing Exam and Uniform Bar Exam, for example. With over one billion current users and more than one million users within five days of launching, ChatGPT remains one of the most rapidly adopted consumer applications. ChatGPT’s ability to amass users at a significantly greater rate than other popular platforms such as Facebook and Instagram … Read more
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2013 — Learning Pattern Languages from a Small Number of Helpfully Chosen ExamplesAbstract
A pattern is a string containing variable symbols and constants. The language of a pattern is the set of all strings obtained by replacing all variables in the pattern with non-empty strings. Patterns and their languages were introduced by Angluin in 1980. Since that time, learning of pattern languages has been a topic of great interest in the research area of computational learning theory, mainly because of its relevance for many applications. Areas in which patterns are suitable for modelling data are for example bioinformatics (e.g., when representing sets of amino acid sequences) or text mining (e.g., for automated information … Read more
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2021 — An Investigation of Engagement in Parent-Administered, Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Childhood Anxiety: Intervention Usage and Subjective ExperienceAbstract
Childhood anxiety is the most prevalent mental health concern facing Canadian children but often goes untreated. Parent-administered, Internet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy (ICBT) has been suggested as an approach to improve treatment access. For this approach to be effective, however, it is important to ensure that parents will use and remain engaged with the treatment intervention. ICBT researchers frequently include measures of engagement in efficacy studies, but the measures tend to be uni-dimensional and inconsistent across studies. Perski, Blandford, West, and Michie (2017) developed a conceptual model of engagement, designed to address limitations in the literature by capturing two broad dimensions … Read more
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2017 — Internet-Delivered Exposure Therapy Training for Parents of Children With Anxiety: Therapist and Parent Perceptions of UsabilityAbstract
Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) has been identified as an effective form of treatment for childhood anxiety disorders, but many families are unable to access it. One possible way of increasing access to treatment is by providing online CBT training to parents so that they can implement CBT with their children at home. Exposure therapy is a particularly beneficial component of CBT but poses unique challenges in the development of a parent-administered, Internet-delivered CBT (ICBT) program, as research suggests that parents may be hesitant to implement exposure techniques with their children. Few studies have investigated ways to address such challenges. The … Read more
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2012 — Liberal Value Pluralism: A Study of the Political Ideas of Michael IgnatieffAbstract
This thesis looks at the writings of Michael Ignatieff to try to answer whether the value pluralist philosophy he espouses is compatible with his doctrine of human rights. Value pluralism is a political and ethical philosophy first developed by Isaiah Berlin that believes the values we hold to be plural. This plurality of values is fundamentally irreducible or incommmensurable. In other words, there is no common measure by which we can reliably compare values. A further aspect of value pluralism is that values change and people value different things. That is, values are social and historical. And since values are … Read more
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2021 — Consuming the Counterculture: The Evolution of Products and Advertisements in 1960s AmericaAbstract
Consumer-culture in 1960s America changed dramatically from previous decades. As highlighted by scholars such as Thomas Frank, a Creative Revolution occurred within advertising and consumer-culture during the decade. Concurrently, organizations filled with America’s youth, such as the New Left and the counterculture, sought social and cultural change. The emergence of the hippies from within this young generation also caused a shift within American advertising strategies. This thesis analyzes advertisements from a variety of mainstream and underground print media publications from 1960 to 1973, to understand how, and how often, themes of hippiedom were co-opted in order to both sell products, … Read more
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2020 — Stochastic Modelling of Heavy-Tailed Precipitations in Canadian PrairiesAbstract
The statistical modelling of extreme precipitation structures is essential in many aspects such as assessing and managing risks resulting from the occurrence of such extreme events for agricultural purposes, in particular. Typically, daily precipitation time series with many zero (on dry days) and positive (on wet days) observations exhibits characteristics such as heavy-tailedness and volatility clustering (i.e., some periods of high and some periods of low volatility) which make it challenging to develop an effective model for both the theoretical and observations viewpoints. The main goal of this study is to introduce a model capable of describing structure of precipitation … Read more
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2015 — Sacrificial Zone or Living on Borrowed Time: Oil Exploitation in Northern Alberta and its Impact on the Athabasaca Chipewyan First Nation CommunityAbstract
This research study explored the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) to the impacts of oil extraction in northern Alberta. The ACFN is one of many Aboriginal communities that have lived in northern Alberta for centuries. Historically, the community has relied on their natural environment for sustenance. The sources of livelihood for the ACFN have been affected at various levels by the negative impacts of oil extraction activities in the region. Such negative impacts on the environment and the people have exposed them to vulnerability issues, namely health and socioeconomic issues, and have equally challenged … Read more
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2019 — The Root of Respect: Perspectives on Ethical Life on Dobu, Papua New GuineaAbstract
This thesis is an analysis of the concept of amayaba (“respect”) as it is understood by Dobu Islanders of the Massim Region of Papua New Guinea. I argue that the meaning of amayaba is integrally tied to the concepts alamai’ita (“self-control”), paisewa (“work”), and oboboma (“generosity”), as well as to Dobuan understandings of relational personhood. The main source of ethnographic data for this thesis is Susanne Kuehling’s Dobuan research. Unlike Kuehling I position amayaba at the center of my analysis. While amayaba is a subsidiary element of her explorations of Dobuan social life, my thesis takes amayaba as its focal … Read more
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2023 — Impact of an online discussion forum on self-guided internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for Canadian public safety personnel: A randomized trialAbstract
First responders and other public safety personnel (PSP) are at elevated risk of experiencing potentially psychologically traumatic events, mental disorders, and barriers to accessing mental healthcare. Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) is an effective and accessible treatment for various common mental disorders. Therapistguided ICBT is more effective than self-guided ICBT, but self-guided ICBT is easier to implement on a large scale. Designing self-guided ICBT to be more engaging for users has been recommended to improve engagement and outcomes. One way to engage users is to provide them with access to an online discussion forum. Self-guided ICBT interventions that have included … Read more
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2020 — Does Persuasive Design Predict Efficacy In Unguided iCBT? A Meta-Regression AnalysisAbstract
Mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety are leading contributors to the global disease burden. However, a large proportion of people with mental health disorders remain untreated, often due to a lack of nearby services, logistic barriers (e.g., work schedules), stigma, the cost of treatment, and other barriers. Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) without therapist guidance represents a promising solution to this problem, as it is cost-effective, convenient for users, and possible to implement on a large scale. Various persuasive design elements—features or design principles intended to make interventions more engaging—have been proposed and implemented to improve adherence and … Read more
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2017 — Be-Coming To Care: Teachers' Perspectives on CaringAbstract
This research is a qualitative study aimed at growing towards a deeper understanding of how teachers be-come caring teachers. Using current thinking in affect studies, particularly the work of Massumi (1995, 2005) and Ahmed (2004), narratives are created to highlight the subtle gestures, miniscule slidings, and everyday occurrences that can be overlooked and that intimate the relationship between teacher and students. Through teachers’ own performance of their narrative and using the diffractive framework of Barad (2003) and Lenz Taguchi (2012), a flattening of the relationship between researcher, participants, theory, and data (Jackson & Mazzei, 2013) emerges and an opening is … Read more
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2016 — Conversations Storied: Meeting New Students Who Arrive Carrying a Suitcase of Memories and a Backpack Over-Stuffed With EmotionsAbstract
Welcoming new students into schools and classrooms is a common occurrence in the lives of Canadian educators. The profile of the new student varies as does the reason for the school move. Some students may make many school changes; some students may only move once. Regardless of the reason or number of moves, they will all experience being the new student. This research study seeks to inquire into the experience of being a new student and opens with my own experience of a school move in the third grade. Literature is presented about mobility and considerations for researching with children. … Read more
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2019 — Indigenous adoptees' experiences of racism in transracial adoption in Saskatchewan: Discovering truth and being authenicAbstract
Transracial adoption in Canada, part of the child welfare system, has adversely affected Indigenous people’s families and communities for generations. The purpose of this project is to examine and analyze the experiences of racism for Indigenous adoptees who were transracially adopted into non-Indigenous homes in Saskatchewan between 1960 to1985. Using critical race and Indigenous theoretical frameworks, the methodology for the study includes dialogical and phenomenological approaches and analysis to examine the experiences of four adoptees. The findings indicate that the experiences of racism are painful, life-long, and profound for adoptees in this study. There is value in sharing the experiences … Read more
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2016 — Undressing an American icon: Addressing the representation of Calamity Jane through a critical study of her costumeAbstract
This investigation studies Martha Jane Canary, known as Calamity Jane, with focus on her apparel, the buckskin outfit of a scout. This thesis looks at Calamity Jane’s costume because it was so seminal to her emergence as an American frontier icon. Unlike one-off costumes such as Dorothy’s ruby slippers or Marilyn Monroe’s JFK birthday dress, Calamity Jane’s costume re-occurred and was the determining factor in her rise to fame. What is innovative in this research is the use of critical costume theory as a methodology to revisit the history of Calamity Jane. This thesis considers Calamity Jane’s garments as a … Read more
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2015 — Coaches’ Coping with Stressors: Hardiness in CoachingAbstract
In the field of competitive sports there is an emphasis on the growth of technical, tactical, and physical aspects as it relates to coach performance. However, little emphasis is placed on how coaches cope with stress and adversity that accompanies their career choice. The purpose of the present research is to establish the background of coping with the stressors by professional (paid to coach) hockey coaches using the conceptual model of hardiness. Hardiness has been used to describe stress resistant individuals (Kobasa, 1979). Kobasa (1979) indicates that hardiness involves the three C’s – commitment, control, and challenge. Commitment is the … Read more
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2013 — Characterization of Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus associated with mixed skin and soft tissue infections in northern Saskatchewan communitiesAbstract
Community-associated infections are a significant public health concern worldwide. In particular, epidemic and emerging antibiotic-resistant bacteria associated with skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) are becoming more prevalent in certain populations. Bacterial pathogens Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus can each cause infections that range from being mild in nature to severe and life-threatening. Together, these bacteria can be isolated from mixed, polymicrobial SSTI. These infections, such as impetigo, can be typically mild, but are easily spread by contact transmission. Treatment of these uncomplicated cases may include either prescription or over-the-counter (OTC) topical antibiotic therapy. In northern Saskatchewan communities experiencing high … Read more
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2012 — Structural Style and Regional Comparison of the Paleoproterozoic Ketyet River Group in the Region North-Northwest of Baker Lake, NunavutAbstract
Archean to Paleoproterozoic rocks of the Rae Craton, Western Churchill Province, have been affected by polyphase deformation and metamorphism causing structural complexity and confusion regarding the age and affiliation of rock units. This study improves the stratigraphic and structural understanding of the Paleoproterozoic Ketyet River group and immediately subjacent Neoarchean rocks through detailed mapping of four areas north and west of Baker Lake: “Nipterk Lake”, “Ukalik Lake”, “Bar Lake” and Kiggavik, north of the uranium deposits. This improves knowledge of the basement rocks marginal to the late Paleoproterozoic Thelon Basin for unconformity-related uranium exploration. In 2010 and 2011, detailed mapping … Read more
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2012 — Riddlehoard,Abstract
Riddlehoard is a collection of literary riddles inspired by the Old English Riddles of the Exeter Book. Riddlehoard describes objects that fall into three categories: objects accessible to the Anglo-Saxons, often because they pertain to the natural world; technological items largely unique to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; and objects that self-consciously reflect on the act of riddling. Riddlehoard explores metaphor as interactive, mysterious, and playful and suggests an underlying absurdity to subjective human experience. Read more
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2017 — Cooling Bodies StoriesAbstract
Cooling Bodies is a collection of six short stories that explore contemporary technology, Internet culture, and social media through various subjective positions ranging in age, gender identity, sexual orientation, and social background. Cooling Bodies employs classic short story theorists, sociological and philosophical theorists, and the inspiration of prominent authors in the genre, as a means of situating its stories in the broader tradition, as well as reexamining common conventions of this tradition through a contemporary lens. The stories of Cooling Bodies align sociological concerns regarding human alienation with familiar ideas vested in short fiction criticism, exploring digital technology as a … Read more
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2018 — Jane Jacobs The Ethicist: Systems of Survival and Jacobs' Moral PhilosophyAbstract
This work intends to show that Jacobs’ moral philosophy makes a strong case for objective moral knowledge. She posits that there are two moral syndromes that are intended to guide working life morality. Roughly speaking, the commercial syndrome guides commerce and the guardian syndrome governs politics and other occupations associated with territorial management. These syndromes are composed of several interconnected precepts and Jacobs argues that these precepts from one syndrome should not be employed with precepts from the other. Should we fail to observe this rule, we will trigger what she calls the Law of Intractable Systemic Corruption (LISC). This … Read more
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2024 — Field notes for returning home: Creative-critical conversations on the home place in Kroetsch’s completed field notesAbstract
This thesis utilizes a creative-critical approach to explore the concept of returning home as a place-based practice through the reading of three early poems from Robert Kroetsch’s Completed Field Notes. Each chapter begins with a personal, embodied experience related to the home place where I grew up and a Kroetsch poem grounds each chapter and acts as a field guide through which to view the experience of home. The selected Kroetsch poems, “Stone Hammer Poem”, “The Ledger”, and “Seed Catalogue”, each demonstrate a tension common in Kroetsch’s work: finality and simultaneity, product and process, and history and archaeology. The result … Read more
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2017 — How do High School Counsellors Perceive Their Role? It Can Start in the Parking LotAbstract
This doctoral research was designed to acquire authentic data about the roles of practicing high school counsellors. Through a qualitative collective case study design, twelve practicing high school counsellors were interviewed about their perceptions of their role. Using open and axial coding, data were thematically reported and analyzed and were embedded in three conceptual frameworks: an interpretivist approach, elements of Durkheim’s structural functionalism, and principles of grounded theory. The results found that school counsellors perceived tension in ten of eleven thematic topics: advocacy practices, role ambiguity, the overwhelming demands placed upon them, their work as front-line mental health workers, parental … Read more
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2015 — A Feminist Poststructural Analysis of Aboriginal Women’s Positioning in a Colonial Context: NEHINAW ISKWEW AK E-PIKISKWECIKAbstract
This research examined the lives of single-parent Aboriginal women of Northern Saskatchewan. This group of women was interviewed to give them an opportunity to share how they see their lives being produced for them. Aboriginal women’s marginalization has become normalized through the systems, practices, and institutions that have materialized through the Indian Act, Christianity, Indigenous knowledges, and colonial relations with non-Aboriginal society. Discursive practices located in these structures establish and maintain ideas of how and who these women are supposed to be. How these women are positioned is largely a product of our Canadian colonial history. Aboriginal women continue to … Read more
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2012 — Aboriginal Communities in Canada and HIV/Aids: The Voices Must Be HeardAbstract
The purpose of this research was to develop a theory grounded in the life experiences of Aboriginal community members in Canada that describes the ways in which they have been affected by HIV/AIDS. This theory has incorporated the effects of colonization within Aboriginal communities; although historical, effects of colonization have been linked by researchers to many health challenges confronting Aboriginal communities today. This thesis has reviewed the research evidence that suggests the higher prevalence and incidence of HIV/AIDS in Aboriginal communities has roots in historical colonization. The qualitative data collected provides experiential information documenting present-day experience of community members who … Read more