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Full-Text Articles in Education
Reducing The Constraints To School Access And Progress: Assessing The Effects Of A School Scholarship Program In Malawi, Stephen Hunsaker
Reducing The Constraints To School Access And Progress: Assessing The Effects Of A School Scholarship Program In Malawi, Stephen Hunsaker
Undergraduate Honors Theses
The study utilizes a causal-comparative research design to compare the educational experiences and outcomes of two student groups – those who did and those who did not receive a needs-based scholarship to attend secondary or tertiary school. We administered surveys to 89 scholarship recipients and 57 non-recipients in the Dowa, Kasungu and Lilongwe Districts of Malawi. Surveys included items to determine group differences across a range of short and medium-term outcomes, including: career aspirations, attendance rate, withdrawal rate, graduation rate, employment status, time unemployed since graduation, and employment quality (using the Tanzanian Standard Classification of Occupations). This study included students …
The Impact Of Gap Years On Academic Outcomes For Women: A Case Study From The Missionary Age Change, Margaret Marchant
The Impact Of Gap Years On Academic Outcomes For Women: A Case Study From The Missionary Age Change, Margaret Marchant
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Young adults throughout the United States and other countries participate in “gap years,” or time away from school, often for travel, work, or volunteering. This practice is promoted as a way to mature and refocus. However, some worry that it lowers the likelihood of college completion. Previous literature has investigated the academic, social, and personal benefits of gap years with mixed results; however selection into gap years confounds the true impact with unobservable personal characteristics. To overcome selection issues, I exploit an exogenous policy change that lowered age requirements for missionary service, a unique type of gap year, resulting in …
The Cost And Quality Of Open Textbooks: Perceptions Of Community College Faculty And Students, Tj Bliss, John Hilton Iii, David Wiley, Kim Thanos
The Cost And Quality Of Open Textbooks: Perceptions Of Community College Faculty And Students, Tj Bliss, John Hilton Iii, David Wiley, Kim Thanos
Faculty Publications
Proponents of open educational resources (OER) claim that significant cost savings are possible when open textbooks displace traditional textbooks in the college classroom. We investigated student and faculty perceptions of OER used in a community college context. Over 125 students and 11 faculty from seven colleges responded to an online questionnaire about the cost and quality of the open textbooks used in their classrooms. Results showed that the majority of students and faculty had a positive experience using the open textbooks, appreciated the lower costs, and perceived the texts as being of high quality. The potential implications for OER initiatives …