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Teaching Online and Cyberbullying: Examining Higher Education Cyberbullying Policies in the Florida State University System

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Teaching Online and Cyberbullying: Examining Higher Education Cyberbullying Policies in the Florida State University System University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2019 Teaching Online and Cyberbullying: Examining Higher Education Cyberbullying Policies In The Florida State University System Joseph Raditch University of Central Florida Part of the Educational Leadership Commons, and the Higher Education Administration Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Raditch, Joseph, "Teaching Online and Cyberbullying: Examining Higher Education Cyberbullying Policies In The Florida State University System" (2019). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 6726. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/6726 TEACHING ONLINE AND CYBERBULLYING: EXPLORING HIGHER EDUCATION CYBERBULLYING POLICIES IN THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM by JOSEPH RADITCH B. A. University of Central Florida, 2007 M. A. University of Central Florida, 2012 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education in the College of Community Innovation and Education at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Fall Term 2019 Major Professor: Thomas Cox © 2019 Joseph Raditch ii ABSTRACT The cyberbullying phenomena has been recorded as affecting students and faculty alike in the K-12 and higher education systems. Cyberbullying in higher education has negative effects to the institution and its stakeholders, including faculty turn over and student suicide. While these responses are highly publicized, the effects of cyberbullying on the online classroom remain relatively untouched by researchers. There are very few resources available to faculty who teach online courses for creating strategies to combat cyberbullying in that context. Furthermore, many states, including Florida, defer conduct policies and their enforcement to the individual institution. While there are many aspects of cyberbullying within the online course in higher education that remain unexplored by research, this study seeks to breach the subject by analyzing the policies at Florida public universities. Using document analysis, this study analyzed policies from the 12 state universities capturing the definition of cyberbullying and recommended reporting practices for faculty on cyberbullying from each institution. By framing the results of the analysis through the community of inquiry, this study provides value to faculty seeking to strengthen their online teaching presence through providing clear guidelines established by each Florida institution. It will also provide value to administrators at institutions within the United States who are reviewing their policies addressing online abuse and cyberbullying by identifying to common definitions currently used within public institutions. iii For dad, Jonathan, Jessica and Lily. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my committee members: Dr. Cox for assuming the role of chair in the final hours of this process. Dr. Preston and Dr. Brown thank you for all the time you put into my education. Dr. Marshall, thank you for joining the team and being delightfully insightful to the higher education process. A special thank you to Dr. King who guided the beginnings of this project and helped to mold this achievement. Next, I would like to thank my wife, Jessica, who endured this process with me. You acted as my anchor, my sounding-board, and my therapist. Without you, this document would not exist. Thank you for taking this ride with me. I’d also like to thank my daughter, Lily. You are the light of my life. Thanks also go to my mother, brother, and in-laws. Thank you for providing the space I needed to excel. Thank you for also enduring my long periods of brooding and silence. To my dad, Robert, and best friend, Jonathan, who both expired too soon, I want to thank you for showing me how to look at the world in different ways. You both taught me how to approach problem solving through finesse, ingenuity, and, at times, brute force. Thank you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... xii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 General Background ....................................................................................................... 1 Research on Cyberbullying ......................................................................................... 4 Issues Defining Cyberbullying ................................................................................... 6 Legal Issues ................................................................................................................. 8 Statement of the Problem ................................................................................................ 9 Significance of the Study .............................................................................................. 11 Conceptual Framework ................................................................................................. 11 Community of Inquiry Overview.............................................................................. 11 Teaching Presence .................................................................................................... 15 Cognitive Presence.................................................................................................... 23 Social Presence ......................................................................................................... 30 COI Debate and Limitations ..................................................................................... 34 Summary ................................................................................................................... 37 Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 38 Definitions of Terms ..................................................................................................... 39 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 40 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................... 42 vi Introduction ................................................................................................................... 42 Online Distance Education ........................................................................................... 43 Definition and Description of Distance and Online Distance Education ................. 43 Online Distance Education Growth .......................................................................... 46 Summary ................................................................................................................... 47 Computer-Mediated Communications and Online Communities................................. 47 Computer-Mediated Communications ...................................................................... 47 Social Identity Deindividuation Model ..................................................................... 59 Assumptions of Social Identity/Deindividuation ...................................................... 61 Social Identity Model of Deindividuation Effect Limitations .................................. 67 Bullying, Cyberbullying, and Cyber-Harassment ......................................................... 67 Bullying..................................................................................................................... 67 Bullies, Victims, and Bully-Victims ......................................................................... 68 Witnesses .................................................................................................................. 70 Cyberbullying ........................................................................................................... 71 Occurrences in Higher Education ............................................................................. 72 Cyberbullying Laws and Policies in K-12 ................................................................ 78 Cyberbullying Laws and Policies in Higher Education ............................................ 81 Summary ................................................................................................................... 83 Conflict and Conflict Resolution .................................................................................. 84 Conflict ..................................................................................................................... 84 vii Conflict Resolution ................................................................................................... 90 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 92 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................
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