Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES OF FACULTY MEMBERS AT TAIBAH UNIVERSITY TOWARD CHALLENGES FACING DEAF AND HARD-OF HEARING STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Almutairi, Hammam A; John L, HospThis dissertation examines the knowledge and attitudes of faculty members at Taibah University toward the challenges faced by Deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) students in higher education. As Saudi Arabia moves toward greater inclusivity in its educational system, understanding how faculty perceive and support D/HH students is critical. Using mixed-methods, research design, the study collected both quantitative survey data and qualitative interview insights from faculty across the Humanities and Science colleges. The research aimed to assess the faculty's awareness of D/HH students' needs, their attitudes toward inclusivity, and the degree of training or experience they possessed in working with students with hearing impairments. The findings of the present study revealed that there was no significant influence of demographic characteristics and D/HH experience on the knowledge and attitude toward the challenges of teaching D/HH students. However, a significant inverse moderate correlation was found between knowledge and attitude (r = -0.647, p < 0.01). Importantly, this correlation demonstrated that higher levels of knowledge about D/HH students were associated with more positive attitudes toward teaching them. This indicates that as faculty members' knowledge about D/HH students increases, their attitudes become more positive, resulting in lower attitude scores on the scale used. While many faculty members expressed positive attitudes toward inclusion, significant knowledge gaps and inconsistent support strategies remain. Issues such as limited awareness of effective communication techniques, inadequate use of assistive technologies, and a lack of specialized training were identified as barriers to full participation for D/HH students. The study emphasizes the urgent need for comprehensive faculty development programs focused on inclusive teaching practices, particularly in relation to D/HH students. It also highlights the necessity for institutional policies that mandate accessible classroom environments and ongoing professional training. Recommendations are provided for improving faculty readiness, enhancing assistive services, and fostering a university-wide culture of inclusion. By focusing on Taibah University as a case study, this research offers valuable insights for other higher education institutions in KSA and the broader Middle Eastern region. It contributes to the growing body of literature on disability inclusion in higher education and aims to inform future educational policy and practice improvements that promote equity, access, and success for D/HH students.33 0Item Restricted RESPONSE RATES AND RESPONSE QUALITY OF ONLINE COURSE SURVEY FOR DEAF COLLEGE STUDENTS: A MIXED-METHOD STUDY(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alqahtani, Abdulaziz Abdullah M; Merchant, WilliamThe study design investigated how data are collected from deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) college students and how different delivery formats of the online course survey evaluation of total effectiveness affect the response rate results of course evaluation, its psychometric properties, and students’ perceptions of the survey-taking experience. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was used. In the first phase, the quantitative data is gathered and analyzed. Ninety deaf college students were surveyed (experiment group = 48; control group = 42). The results found that the overall response rate is very low (12.5%). The results also indicated that the experimental group attained a marginally higher response rate (RR = 13.41%) in comparison to the control group (RR = 11.73%). The chi-square test indicates this difference in response rate between the experimental group and control group of deaf college students was not statistically significant (p = 0.573). This result is a relatively low response rate, which is not uncommon for surveys. Next a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed with the data for only the evaluation course subscale (four items). The model fit results indicated that the data aligned very well with the course survey evaluation (CSE) model. I also tested a one-factor model across groups for configural invariance, metric invariance, and scalar invariance. All groups demonstrated configural, metric invariance, and scalar invariance, which confirms that the psychometric properties of the online course survey are not vary based on the delivery formats of online survey used to evaluate overall effectiveness. The internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) and McDonald Omega reliability were conducted on the CFA data for the CSE instrument, and the results met the acceptable standards. In the second phase, qualitative data and its analysis were implemented to clarify and explain those statistical results by delving more deeply into the participants' perspectives on their course survey evaluation and their response rates. Eight deaf college students participated. Relevant data were collected by in-depth semi-structured interviews. From the semi-interviews, several themes were identified as follows: (a) more support needs; (b) being authentic in communication; (c) problems with online surveys; and (d) visual quality; (e) recommendations for increasing response rate. Participants believed these themes to be worthy of note in order to increase deaf college students response rates. Finally, several limitations, future research, and impications were reported.22 0