Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Health Communication
Ohio University, School of Communications
2018

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Communication for Development Studies
Ohio University Center for International Studies
2010

Master of Science (M.Sc.)

Social and Educational Research Methods
University of Rwanda, College of Education
2008

Bachelor of Arts with Education (B.A. in Education)

Literature in English with Pedagogy
University of Rwanda, College of Education
2005

Communications

Specialty Areas: Quantitative Methods, Instructional Communication, Social Cognitive Theories, Health Communication

COMM 202: Introduction to Communication Theory

COMM 203: Principles of Persuasion

Comm 252: Introduction to Health Communication

COMM 301: Intercultural / International Communication

COMM 490: Communication Research Methods

COMM 492: Senior Capstone Research

Improving post-pandemic online learning experiences for minority students

Improving post-pandemic online learning experiences for minority students: An exploratory study

Deficits persist post-pandemic in research examining the relationships among multiple platforms in online learning, cognitive load, mental health, and academic outcomes for minority students. The current exploratory investigation examines factors hindering virtual learning experiences for minority-serving institution (MSI) students (N = 139), who completed an online survey. We employ a mixed-method design to explore the relationship among the number of online platforms and perceived cognitive load associated with managing multiple online platforms, related stress and psychological well-being, and satisfaction and academic outcomes reported by MSI students. Results affirm relationships among cognitive load and academic outcomes, cognitive load and mental health, as well as mental health and academic performance. Results also offer preliminary support for the contention that accessing multiple platforms required for online learning is a form of extraneous cognitive load. Finally, results aggregate and codify MSI students’ suggestions to improve online learning as well as for an integrative content management system to manage multiple learning platforms. Practical implications and future directions are discussed.

Probing the Coping Processes Between Social Media (WhatsApp) Addiction and Mental Health During Social Distancing

Probing the Coping Processes Between Social Media (WhatsApp) Addiction and Mental Health During Social Distancing

This study examines the coping processes between social media addiction and mental health among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the problematic Internet use framework, structural equation modeling (SEM) results support the hypothesized positive associations between social media  addiction and psychological distress outcomes. However, latent interaction analysis shows that not all individuals are impacted similarly because the intensity and significance of the mentioned associations changed as a function of computer-medicated communication (CMC) competence. In some cases, communication effectiveness attenuated the relationship  between social media addiction and social anxiety  symptoms. Together, the findings from this study and previous research support calls for CMC skills training, advocacy, and social support campaigns,  particularly for and among subgroups of college students with social and relational skills deficits that put them at a greater risk of mental health prognosis.

Problematic Integration Theory

Problematic Integration Theory

This entry provides an overview of problematic integration (PI) theory, its relationship to communication, application to health communication, and evaluation in contexts where meaning is likely to be troublesome. PI theory posits that problematic meanings arise due to different forms of uncertainty (when we are not sure what to believe), ambivalence (when evaluative meanings are conflictual), divergence (when the desirable is unlikely or the undesirable is likely), and impossibility (when the desirable is simply out of reach or when the undesirable is inescapable or certain). The vast majority of PI applications have been in the domain of health communication where it has helped researchers refine forms of troublesome meanings in domains that involve uncertainty such as sex, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, genetics, hypercholesterolemia, aging, moving to assisted living, experiences with cancer (e.g., prostate, breast), advance care planning, end-of-life decision making, and hospice. A notable claim suggested by PI theory is that communication will be most valuable as a coping resource when adapted to specific forms of PI. However, communication may be problematic when uncertainty is “ontological” or when the problematic meanings involve ambivalence or impossibility. 

Paradoxes of Belonging, Organizing, and Agency

Paradoxes of Belonging, Organizing, and Agency: Integrating and Differentiating Divergent Strategic Logics in Supported Social Enterprises

Supported social enterprises (SSEs) are organizations that rely on both public subsidies and commercial activities to support underserved individuals’ social and economic integrations. As such, SSEs must manage paradoxes embedded in their double-bottom line that binds market and welfare logics. Having to pass through such authoritative and discordant filters, SSEs are inevitably compelled to vacillate between risky alignment strategies. Deploying an SSE serving immigrant women in the U.S. Southwest as a case study, this study takes a critical discourse approach to examine cross-status articulations of organizational identities, ideologies, and paradoxes underlying the work of the focal SSE. Interview discourses revealed how members of the SSE experience and respond to paradoxes of belonging, organizing, and institutional embeddedness stemming from employee profiles, workfare programs, and ideological contestations, respectively. Because the identified paradoxes are inherent in the work of SSEs, this study proposes integration and differentiation as flexible yet complementary entrepreneurial communication strategies for managing paradoxes and divergent logics. Additionally, integration and differentiation can help SSEs foster cross-status awareness and commitment to both social and business missions that are crucial in the processes of revamping legitimacy among SSEs stakeholders.

Expectancy Value Model

Expectancy Value Model

Expectancy value models (EVM) explain attitudes (evaluation), decision, and volitional behavior as outcomes of dispassionate processing of beliefs associating attitude objects (including decisions and potential actions, and more) with perceived attributes. More specifically, the strength and evaluation of each association are combined across all beliefs to determine overall response. EVM are predicated on the assumption that people will form attitudes, make decisions, and act in ways that maximize subjective expected values. Numerous specific models have woven these ideas into a variety of competing causal structures, as scholars elaborated on the processes linking EV, decision, and action. For example, normative considerations, perceived behavioral control, and intention formation have been added to some models. Although EVM were among the most productive frames for research from the 1970s into the 1990s, with applications to a wide range of volitional behavior (e.g., political, health, consumer), use has declined in recent years, with most applications focusing on use of new media. Several limitations and corresponding developments of alternative psychological models, such as dual-process theory, among others, account for these trends. 

The Marketing Mix and Hygienic Barbershop Use

The Marketing Mix and Hygienic Barbershop Use: A Formative Study

Previous public health research has demonstrated that barbershop services in Sub-Saharan Africa involve close-shaving styles that may irritate the skin or cause injuries particularly among clients with razor bumps. Barbershop services may also facilitate client-to-client transmission of pathogens because they involve reuse of sharp implements (e.g., clippers) and other tools (e.g., brushes, towels and combs). The above concerns are compounded by limited access to adequate sanitization products in reasonably-priced barbershops.

The goal of this formative research was therefore to identify and assess the structure of hygiene and hair care beliefs to be targeted by a social marketing intervention by integrating elements of the marketing mix and fundamental assumptions of the information-motivation-behavioral skills (IMB) model.

Building Communities of Practice: Advocacy for English Teachers in Rwanda

Case Study 9.3: Building Communities of Practice: Advocacy for English Teachers in Rwanda in Contemporary foundations for teaching English as an additional language: Pedagogical approaches and classroom applications

This engaging volume on English as an Additional Language (EAL), argues persuasively for the importance of critical participatory pedagogies that embrace multilingualism and multimodality in the field of TESOL. It highlights the role of the TESOL profession in teaching for social justice and advocacy and explores how critical participatory pedagogies translate into English language teaching and teacher education around the world.

Teaching and Learning About Positive Deviance

Teaching and Learning About Positive Deviance: Boosting Metacognition to Grasp Global Communication Theory and Practice

The National Communication Association’s learning outcomes in communication (LOCs) outline what students in the communication discipline need to know and do. This article argues that by teaching and learning about the Positive Deviance (PD) approach in classrooms, LOCs can be effectively promoted. Pedagogy around the PD approach can create conditions for learners to become deeply knowledgeable about how cognition operates, and deliver such global learning outcomes as application of knowledge, appreciation of cultural diversity, the value of perspective taking, and self-efficacy in initiating cross-cultural social and behavioral change. Further, planning and simulating PD interventions in the communication curriculum can foster global learning outcomes, allowing learners to self-discover the value of integrating communication theory and research.

Foundational aspects of classroom relations

Foundational aspects of classroom relations: associations between teachers’ immediacy behaviours, classroom democracy, class identification and learning

This study focused on foundational aspects of classroom relations. Specifically, relationships between teachers’ immediacy (interpersonal) behaviours, classroom democracy, identification and learning were considered. Previous work suggests that these variables can be used as a foundation to shape classroom climate, culture and learning outcomes and, by extension, assist educational institutions to achieve their civic mission. This study examined classroom democracy and class identification as variables that mediate the relationship between immediacy behaviours and learning using data collected from 529 students in six institutions of higher learning in Rwanda. Structural equation modeling revealed that classroom democracy mediates the relationship between immediacy behaviours and that classroom democracy and class identification covary substantially. The significant relationships in the final structural model suggest that immediate teachers are likely to have a positive influence on perceptions of classroom democracy, class identification and learning. Based on the growing scholarship of instructional dissent, this study highlights the foundational and strategic aspects underlying these relationships within the context of relating in the classroom and beyond.