Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

The Perceived English Writing Needs Of Non-Primary English International Doctoral Students At R1 Universities Across The United States, Brenna M. Butler

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite United States higher education institutions experiencing a 7.4% increase and a 3.1% increase in enrollment of international doctoral students (IDSs) during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years, there are aspects of graduate education that are lacking for IDSs, including training specifically on writing (Sidman-Taveau & Karathanos-Aguilar, 2015). Without adequate writing assistance provided to IDSs, there is a potential that they may be less likely to persist and succeed in their doctoral programs (Sowell et al., 2009), which may dampen international graduate students’ contribution to the intellectual life (Smith & Khawaja, 2011) and diversity on campus (Williams & Johnson, 2011). …

Exploring The Status Of Learning Outcome Focused Initiatives In Four-Year Public Higher Education, Andrew Quentin Morse

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the present status of efforts to assess student-learning outcomes within the bachelor’s degree granting institutions of the campuses in one system of public higher education. Further, the purpose of this study was also to understand what challenges and criticisms academic leaders report about the call to provide learning outcome evidence. The study was guided by the following research questions:

• What efforts, if any, are institutions presently taking to assess and report student-learning outcomes and why?
• What types of learning outcomes, if any, are colleges and universities trying to measure?
• What challenges and …