Read “Students’ Characteristics, Self-Regulated Learning, Technology Self-Efficacy, and Course Outcomes in Online Learning,” located in this week’s Electronic Reserve Readings.

The article supports the idea that students with prior online learning experience have more effective learning strategies to apply to future online studies than those with no prior online learning experience. They also had higher levels of motivation for courses, and increased technology self-efficacy.

Given these results, apply the learning-cognitive theories of personality to explain these findings.

Select two theoretical approaches to learning from any of the behavioral, cognitive and constructionist views.

Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper in which you combine the principles of the theory to explain how a student’s increased online learning experience can lead to a demonstration of more effective learning strategies, higher levels of motivation, and increased technology self-efficacy. Address the following:

• Identify the synergy between personality development and student learning behavior.
• Differentiate between two theoretical approaches, and discuss how each one supports effective learning strategies, increases motivation for learning, and enhances technology self-awareness.
• Apply each theoretical approach to an example of student learning.

Include a reference page with a minimum of three additional peer-reviewed sources.

Format your paper according to APA guidelines.

You must also use the textbook as one of the references.

Feist, J., Feist, G. J., & Roberts, T. (2013). Theories of personality (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

This article is also required as a reference: Wang, C. H., Shannon, D. M., & Ross, M. E. (2013). Students’ characteristics, self-regulated learning, technology self-efficacy, and course outcomes in online learning. Distance Education, 34(3), 302-323.

Wang, C.H., Shannon, D.M., & Ross, M.E. (2013). Students’ characteristics, self-regulated learning, technology self-efficacy, and course outcomes in online learning. Distance Education, 34(3), 302-323. .

Overview
In the Week One Assignment, you formulated a concrete ethical question, took a position on that topic, and identified a reason supporting and a reason opposing that position. In the Week Three Assignment, you discussed either deontological or utilitarian theory, applied that theory to the question, and raised a relevant objection.

By engaging with the course material, you now have had a chance to refine your thinking and broaden your understanding of the problem by approaching it from the perspective of multiple ethical theories.

In this paper, you will demonstrate what you have learned by writing an essay in which you

• Present a revised formulation of the ethical question and introduction to the topic.
• Explain the kind of reasoning you think is the best way to approach this question, and how that reasoning supports the position you think is strongest.
• Raise an objection, and be able to respond to it.

Instructions
Write an essay that conforms to the requirements below. The paper must be 1500 to 2000 words in length (excluding the title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

The paragraphs of your essay should conform to the following guidelines:

• Introduction
  Your first paragraph should begin with the topic question, suitably revised. It should be focused, concrete, and on a relevant moral problem. You should then introduce the topic in the way described by the Week One instructions, but reflecting the developed understanding and information you have gained about the topic and any necessary refinement of the scope.

  Follow this with a thesis statement that states your position, and a brief description of the primary reason(s) supporting your position. (See the handout on thesis statements provided). Finally, provide a brief preview of the overall aim and procedure of your paper.

• Explanation and Demonstration of Moral Reasoning
  This section of the Final Paper will explain and demonstrate what you believe to be the best way of reasoning about the question you have chosen, and showing how that reasoning supports the position you have taken on the question. You might explain the principles, rules, values, virtues, conceptions of purposes and ends, and other general ideas that you find persuasive, and show how they support concrete judgments.

  In the course of doing so, you must make reference to at least two of the approaches that we have examined in the course (such as deontological, utilitarian, or virtue-based), and utilize at least one resource off the provided list for each of the two approaches. One of these theories may be the theory you discussed in your Week Three Assignment, but your discussion here should be more refined.

  For example, you might find the reasoning associated with Aristotelian virtue ethics to be the most compelling, and reference Aristotle in the process of showing how that reasoning supports a certain conclusion. In the course of this, you could contrast that with a utilitarian approach, referencing Mill for instance.

• Objection and Response
  After explaining the ethical reasoning that supports your position, you should raise an objection and respond to it. An objection articulates a plausible reason why someone might find the argument weak or problematic. You should explain how it brings out this weakness, and do so in a way that would be acceptable to someone who disagrees with your own argument. Then, provide the best response you can to the objection, showing how it does not undermine your position. Your response should not simply restate your original position or argument, but should say something new in support of it.
• Conclusion
  Provide a conclusion that sums up what you presented in the paper and offers some final reflections.

Be sure to acknowledge the source of the quotation or paraphrase.

1. Interest groups attempt to influence politicians and public policy in a variety of ways. Define the term interest group, distinguishing it from a political party, and briefly describe some of the ways interest groups seek influence.
2. Discuss the differences between economic groups and citizen groups. Which areas does each try to influence, and why? From which sources does each of these groups receive the funds needed to function?
3. Through inside lobbying, groups seek to gain direct access to officials in order to influence their decisions. Describe key elements and tactics of the process of inside lobbying. Define outside lobbying. Who is involved, and who are the targets? What tactics are used, and what relationship is there with elections?
4. Political action committees (PACs) are the financial arm of interest groups. Discuss PACs and super PACs. Discuss some of the controversies surrounding PACs.
5. Define a pluralist approach to group theory and the elite critique.
6. Summarize the historical development of the news media from the nation’s founding to today. What has been happening to the news audience and the news media in recent years, and how has that affected the information levels of the American public? Why is it important for citizens to be attentive and informed?
7. Define and explain the media functions of agenda setting, promoting the public good, watchdogs, and corporate revenue generator. Why is the media referred to as the fourth estate, and what are the other three? Explain your answer.
8. Discuss divided government. Does redistricting have any effect? What is gerrymandering?

We looked at “Freedom”
this week, but as the term ends, it is always a good idea to try to tie
together different ideas in order to see the coherency.

While you
are writing, please do not use the textbook or any outside materials.
You can mention things in the textbook, but you will not have time to
look them up. The paper you write is intended to give you the
opportunity to express your philosophical viewpoints.

Please take
a few minutes to read through the two choices for the first part, to
choose one of them, to figure out your views, and to scribble down a
skeleton outline for an argumentative essay. You will be trying to prove
that your view is the best one.

Make sure you include:

1. An introductory paragraph with a clear thesis statement,
2. At least two evidentiary paragraphs, each offering supporting points,
3. A brief summary of the opposition’s main point and a refutation of it, and
4. A summarizing conclusion.

After you have answered either Question A or Question B in Part 1, go to Part 2 and answer the single question there as well.

PART 1

In a well-developed short essay, address the prompts for one of the choices below:

Question A

Freedom and Morality.
In Chapter 18 of The Prince, Machiavelli offers advice for future
rulers: “Everyone admits how praiseworthy it is for a political leader
to keep his word and to behave with integrity rather than cunning.
Nevertheless, our experience has been that those leaders who have done
great things have considered keeping their word of little account and
have known how to beguile men’s minds by shrewdness and cunning.
Occasionally, the words of leaders must serve to hide the facts. But the
lies should be told in such a way that the general population does not
become aware of them; or, if the lies are discovered, excuses must be
ready at hand to be produced immediately. In the end, the leaders most
likely to reach their goals and sway the people are those who have not
relied on integrity or on keeping their word.”

Contrastingly,
Aristotle said that we are not free if our actions are caused or
influenced by external compulsion (including deceit or insufficient
evidence).

The old joke asks, “How can you tell a politician is
lying?” And, the classic answer is, “His lips are moving.” Americans
have always suspected that their politicians leaders tell falsehoods,
and recent national leaders have even admitted that they “misspoke”
(i.e., lied) on numerous occasions to the American people.

Define freedom
in your own terms, specifically outlining those aspects of yourself
that you consider the basis of your own conception of “acting freely.”
To what extent can people truly be free if they are living in a society
where their leaders routinely lie to them in order to gain the common
man’s compliance? To what extent is it possible or impossible for a
person to be “acting freely” when he lacks the relevant (and truthful)
information needed for his decision-making? Explain which type of
government you believe provides the most individual freedoms and that
you personally believe would be more preferable to live in—an immoral
and powerful government that lies to the people or a weak but moral
government in which the leaders always tells the truth. Defend your
position for why your choice is more desirable than the alternative.

Question B

Freedom
and Self. Define freedom in your own terms, specifically outlining
those aspects of yourself that you consider the basis of your own
conception of “acting freely.”

An idea we were left with from the
textbook is that people are so largely influenced by both nature and
nurture that it is difficult to make any sort of decision which has not
already been affected by both internal and external influences; our
“self identities” are not a creation of own but largely the product of
biology and relationships. But, choosing to “act freely” implies that we
are choosing freely, without influences affecting our choices.

Think
back to our discussion of the “essential self” in Week 4 as you address
the following questions. To what extent does your conception of “acting
freely” include playing roles and interacting with other people? To
what extent do other people limit your freedom? How can your “essential
self” be free choose to “act freely” while living in a world in which
you are bound by obligations to various kinds of other people? Under
which conditions would you be confident to declare that you had freely
chosen a “free act”?

PART 2

In no more than one or two paragraphs, answer the following:

As
you reflect on your work and your learning in this class, what has been
the most important skill you have mastered, insight you have secured,
or knowledge you have gained? With respect to the skill, insight, or
knowledge you have identified, why is that thing important to you and in
what ways, and to what ends will you be able to use it later on?