Digital Commons Network^™

Case Managers As A Compass: A Strategy For Influencing First-Generation College Student Success, James Riley

Student Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of case managers who use case management as a strategy for improving first-generation student retention at higher education institutions in the United States. Case managers are college or university staff members who provide non-clinical one-on-one student support, including interventions, advocacy, referrals and follow-up services for students who are experiencing significant difficulties. Guided by Tinto’s Theory of Student Departure (1975) and Pascarella’s Model for Assessing Student Change (1980), this study involved interviews with 11 case managers from institutions across the United States and a subsequent review of 24 …

Exploring Students' Perceptions Of Genai Tools In Higher Education: A Case Study, Dina Mansour Tbaishat, Maha Waleed Elfadel

All Works

As artificial intelligence transforms the educational landscape, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools have become influential in enhancing learning experiences. Despite their growing presence in higher education, limited research explores how university students, especially learners in non-Western contexts, perceive these tools. This study investigates students' perceptions at a university in the UAE, focusing on five dimensions: perceived benefits, institutional support, technological self-efficacy, ethical considerations and user satisfaction. The findings reveal that students generally expressed strong agreement regarding the benefits of GenAI, demonstrated a clear sense of ethical awareness and felt confident in their technological abilities. While satisfaction levels were generally high, …

Introduction, Rosalind Latiner Raby

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Full Pdf Issue 17(4) 2025

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Decolonizing Colombian Foreign-Language Classroom Assessments: A Meaningful Framework, Patricia Grillet Rodriguez

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

In Colombia, foreign-language evaluation validity appears to be mainly related to the analysis of instruments, leaving aside students’ characteristics, affective schemata and expectations. Drawing from critical pedagogy, this study aimed at raising authenticity and meaningfulness in the development of valid foreign-language assessments in a higher education classroom. Framed in the sociocultural perspective, the teacher/researcher and her students obtained substantial gains by adapting a syllabus and evaluation system to better respond to the needs of their context. It was a collaborative process that implied contextualizing contents, establishing a concept of language ability, and including students’ voices in the design of assessments, …

Do Micro-Level Support Areas Impact International Students’ Perceived Academic Success?, Taiwo O. Soetan

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

This study examined the micro-level support areas for international students at a higher education institution (polytechnic) in Canada to determine their perceived academic success using the Bronfenbrenner theory of human development at the micro-level. A quantitative study was conducted to measure the impact of micro-level support areas on international student’s perceived academic success. A target sample of 399 international students was recruited to participate in a hard copy, one on one survey in the 2019 winter semester. The results of this study show that international students’ support areas at the micro-level were strongly related to their perceived academic success. The …

Barriers Beyond Bars: Examining Experiences Of Students With Criminal Records, Anakin Rivera Ramirez

Dissertations and Theses

As educational opportunities, particularly prison education programs, continue to expand for incarcerated individuals, this study, which included two participants, one formerly incarcerated and one who pleaded guilty to avoid incarceration, suggests that those who plead guilty to avoid prison may enter college without the structured reintegration resources available to their incarcerated peers. While substantial research has explored the school-to-prison pipeline phenomenon in K-12 settings, fewer studies have examined its impact on students with criminal records navigating higher education. Grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT) in education, this study seeks to understand the experiences of carceral system-impacted students of color in …

Framework Integration In Academia: Moving From Theory To Practice, Lori B. Doyle, Kara S. Bratton, Timothy Young, Catherine Webb, Cari A. Chittick, Heather L. Vezner, Rebecca A. Stanton, Tanya M. Tarbutton

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

Character education has been a point of focus and research in K-12 education dating back to the 1990s. The work of integrating a character-forward framework in higher education is now considered a beneficial and impactful practice. One university has successfully completed the initial work of integrating a servant leadership framework in the School of Education using an approach in line with the community of practice model. The authors of this paper work together and have each played a key role in not only the early stages but the ongoing phases associated with maintaining and improving. This theory-to-practice article begins with …

Digital Odyssey: Navigating Culture, Structure, And Agency In The Transformation Of A Public University, Lisa Santa-Coloma

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Digital transformation broadly refers to the process of enacting digital technologies to fundamentally change how an organization creates value, enhancing the customer experience, increasing efficiency, and achieving a sustained competitive advantage. Current industry research estimates that over 90 percent of large organizations globally are undertaking digital transformation initiatives, yet a surprisingly low percentage of them report a resulting lift in revenue or improved efficiency. This trend is particularly pronounced in the education sector, where universities, navigating the pressure of lower enrollment rates following the global pandemic and the impact of disruptive technology such as artificial intelligence and online learning platforms, …

Career Advising Utilization: A Quantitative Archival Analysis Of Student Engagement Across Academic Levels And Colleges At A Southeast University, Edward Raimundi Iii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative ex-post facto study examined patterns of career advising utilization at a large, R1 public university in the southeastern region of the United States. Institutional advising data from the 2023–24 advising year was utilized to identify usage patterns across different demographics such as college affiliation and academic level. The descriptive stats from the archival data were used to measure topic distributions, undergraduate–graduate usage by college, and contact engagement. The sample size included over 35,000 students with 10 different college affiliation labels. Significant differences across advising usage in the different colleges were found during the study. Undergraduate students had higher …

Like Playing Plinko: A Conceptual Framework For Student Financial Aid Communication, Alyssa Takatori, Karla A. Weber-Wandel, Z.W. Taylor

Journal of Research Initiatives

The process of applying for and receiving student financial aid is an incredibly complex process involving multiple stakeholders (students, institutions, parents, counselors), levels of information (federal, state, institutional, personal), and modes of communication (print, email, text message, social media, phone calls). Moreover, first-generation students, low-income students, and students of color are most likely to struggle with the financial aid application and awarding process, further marginalizing these students. To date, research has examined how complicated the financial aid process is, how to identify financial aid communication issues, and how to remediate financial aid communication to render it simpler and more intuitive …

On Being The Only: Using Black Feminist Thought And Hermeneutic Phenomenology To Deeply Understand Onliness As Experienced By Black Women In Stem, Karen M. Jarvis-Thorne, Karen M. Jarvis-Thorne

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

When a Black woman persists in a STEM undergraduate academic space as the only Black woman in that space, how is she shaped as a human being? How does she fare? How does the experience influence her decision making as she contemplates graduate school applications? Does the experience guide her decision to stay or leave STEM? In this study, the author used Black Feminist Thought to provide cultural and critical oversight of her engagement with Hermeneutic Phenomenology. Hermeneutic Phenomenology requires this oversight because the methodology’s theoretical foundations are grounded in Heidegger’s Nazism and should be critiqued if and when appropriate …

Exploring Technology-Enhanced Learning: A Comparative Study Of Online And Offline Interactive Practices In The Iranian Higher Education System, Naser Rashidi, Mohamad Reza Farangi, Ali Hosseini

The Qualitative Report

This study explored how interactive teaching and learning are enacted through technology-enhanced methods in Iran’s higher education system. Using an exploratory qualitative design, it investigated the pedagogical strategies employed by instructors and examined whether these practices align with the principles of Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) across online and in-person contexts. Data were collected through the analysis of 263 class reports and 37 semi-structured interviews with university instructors. Thematic analysis using MAXQDA revealed six cohesive and interpretive themes: fostering human connection, empowering student voices, learning as dialogue, adaptive teaching, multimodal engagement, and feedback as dialogue. These themes reflect a holistic view of …

Developing An Instrument To Measure Teacher Attitudes Toward Multilingual Pedagogies, Lauren H. Ramers

Dissertations

In an increasingly globalized world, substantial numbers of multilingual learners occupy K–12 and higher education spaces bringing diverse linguistic resources that, when intentionally and appropriately leveraged, can significantly enhance English language learning outcomes. Multilingual pedagogies, which honor and build upon students' full linguistic repertoires, are essential for fostering equitable and inclusive learning environments. This quantitative exploratory study investigated teachers' attitudes toward multilingual teaching with the goal of developing a reliable survey instrument—the Multilingual Pedagogy Scale (MPS)—to measure how teachers perceive language learning in multilingual classrooms and what they report doing in their classrooms.

First, a review of the research helped …

“We Are Swans:” An Ecological Analysis Of U.S. International Students’ Experiences Of Higher Education Satisfaction, Eunsong Park, Corey S. Shdaimah, Yao Wang

Journal of Graduate Education Research

International students make important contributions to the US academic landscape and broader society; however, their numbers continue to decline in the face of an unwelcoming and unsupportive environment compared to their counterparts worldwide. This manuscript presents findings from a student satisfaction survey (n = 423) that included both multiple-choice and open-ended questions. We used the ecological model and the Spanning Systems Model as a framework, looking at how individual, community, institutional, and larger societal factors impacted the experiences of international students in the US. For quantitative analysis, hierarchical multiple linear regressions were conducted to examine factors associated with student satisfaction. …

Introduction: 17(3) Emerging Scholar Summaries 2025, Rosalind Latiner Raby

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Trans* Student Experiences In Higher Education, Megan Chaffee, Deborah King

New York Journal of Student Affairs

This paper reviews literature on trans* students' experiences in higher education, examining their obstacles and institutional approaches to inclusion. The study investigates challenges regarding chosen names and pronouns, access to facilities, extracurricular involvement, and the impact of increasing anti-trans* legislation. Despite growing visibility, trans* students continue to report harassment, discrimination, and a decreased sense of belonging. The paper explores current Title IX interpretations and recommends that higher education administrators develop inclusive policies, enhance professional development, and create supportive campus environments that foster trans* students' academic success and overall well-being.

U.S News & World Report 2025 Graduate Program Rankings, Unlv & Unr, Dre Boyd-Weatherly, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Higher Education

This fact sheet presents 2025 graduate program rankings for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and for the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) based on the data published in spring 2025 by U.S. News & World Report. The graduate program categories reported include business, education, engineering, fine arts, law, medicine and health care, sciences and mathematics, and social sciences and humanities.

Scholars And Changemakers: The Vital Role Of Graduate Students In Campus Women's Centers, Kate J. Freeman, Amber Byrd Ndukwe

Journal for Women and Gender Centers in Higher Education

On college campuses, Women’s Centers serve as a safe space for many marginalized students, faculty, and staff members across campus. These Centers are active spaces that serve a wide variety of individuals including graduate students who play multifaceted roles that are essential to the Center’s work. These students contribute significantly to the functioning of the Center while also gaining professional and personal development from their involvement. In this article, we reflect on our own experiences as two graduate students working within a campus-based Women’s Center while simultaneously integrating literature on the function of graduate students within these spaces. Employing a …

Do They Belong? Inquiries Into The Perceptions Of The Black Male College Athlete Identity In Higher Education, Marcis Fennell, Kayla Martinez, C.Keith Harrison, Whitney Griffin, Nick Kopka

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

This qualitative study examined attitudes about Black male college athletes (BMCA)in predominantly White higher education institutions. To investigate the experience in the classroom, the purpose of this study was to inquire into the perception of the BMCA identity from the identity of the non-college athletes (NCA). Using the social identity complexity model, we sought to understand the perceptions that influence group formation among college students. The present study employed the film elicitation technique to examine the NCAs’ perceptions of the legitimacy of the BMCA identity in higher education during faculty interactions and its correlation to ingroup formation. The findings from …

Meet The Fars: An Examination Of The Background, Roles, And Appointment Of Faculty Athletic Representatives At National Collegiate Athletic Association Member Institutions, Chris Corr, Christopher Atwater, Mark S. Nagel, Richard Southall, Rick Eckstein, Marek Taškár

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

As many National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) member institutions continue to engage in athletic centric decision-making processes, academic integrity and the campus experience for college athletes is often marginalized. Mandated by the NCAA to represent athletes’ academic interests, the faculty athletics representative (FAR) position is designed to occupy a central role in maintaining the primacy of academia among college athletes. FARs, however, exist within an institutional setting muddled by competing and contradictory logics. Accordingly, given the inherent juxtaposition between the operation of collegiate athletics and the stated role of FARs, the present study sought to examine the characteristics and positional …

The Frequency Of Academic Advising: A Quantitative, Predictive Study On Postsecondary Second-Year Student Satisfaction, Angelia M. Brown

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative, predictive correlational study was to examine the relationship between student satisfaction with academic advising, the frequency of academic advising activities, and the type of postsecondary institution (community college or public university). This study is important in providing valuable context for re-evaluating how academic advising efficacy is assessed and structured in postsecondary institutions. Through convenience sampling of second-year community college and public university students, data was collected via a self-paced online survey of 110 participants. In addition to demographic information, the survey incorporated the Academic Advising Inventory to measure student satisfaction with academic advising. Multiple linear …

Faculty Experiences With Evaluation Practices Within A Community College, Janie Dobbins Hamrick

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to understand faculty experiences with evaluation practices for teachers within two-year higher education institutions in the Southeast region of the United States. The theory guiding this study is transformational leadership theory as it aids in understanding the problem that some faculty experience with evaluation practices established by ineffective leadership. By researching transformational leadership theory, researchers have determined that leadership style influences faculty experiences with teacher assessment procedures like evaluation and observation practices. The Central Research Question is, how are teaching evaluation experiences of community college faculty influenced by perceived supervisor leadership style? The …

Investigating The Role Of Student-Instructor Connectedness And Student Thriving In Living A Calling, Whitney Claire Cranford

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This mixed-methods study explored student-instructor connectedness and student thriving as predictors of living a calling for graduates of four-year higher education institutions. It also investigated which aspect of student thriving - academic, emotional, or social - is most predictive of living a calling. While research addresses these variables individually, limited research has been conducted to address their interconnection and the results for four-year higher education graduates. All variables were measured using established scales. The mixed-method approach encompassed qualitative data from surveys and quantitative data from interviews with graduates of four-year higher education institutions. A total of 79 participants were recruited …

Acquisitions Unit Annual Report 2024-2025, Andrée J. Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Annual Report of the Acquisitions Unit, University Libraries, University of Rhode Island for FY2025. Covers personnel, work flow, special projects, and serial, monograph, and e-resource acquisitions. Supplemental files include data on library materials expenditures by a number of variables as well as important working documents from the year.

A Collaborative Teaching Approach: Teaching Emergent Bilinguals In Higher Education, Erika Oliveros

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This dissertation examines the collaboration between two college instructors, one in writing and one in psychology, to enhance support for emergent bilinguals at a private university in the northeastern United States. While collaboration among educators is widely encouraged in K–12 settings, it is far less common and studied in higher education, particularly in relation to language-minoritized students. Through an action research model, this study examines how our informal exchanges evolved into a more intentional and reflective collaboration over time. Grounded in the frameworks of translanguaging (García, 2009) and community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005), the study traces the evolution of our …

Exploring Communication, Connection, And Culture During Technology Implementation: An Autoethnography, Paula Bryant Blue

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies have been undertaken on technological innovation in the classroom; however there is a lack of study on innovation at the organizational level and there is also a lack of focus on experiences of individuals leading the transformation. Individuals who are spearheading change can gain and offer valuable insights into their behaviors during the change process by reflecting on and examining their interactions, inclinations, and objectives. Furthermore, it is crucial to take into account the organization's culture and structure in order to comprehend how leadership operates throughout periods of change. This analytical and evocative autoethnography documents the experiences of …

Belonging Starts With You: Exploring Trust, Belonging, And Spiritual Connection In The Success Of Culturally Diverse Students In Higher Education, Moises Aguirre

Theses and Dissertations

Cultivating trust and belonging is essential for student success in higher education, particularly for students from diverse cultural backgrounds (DCB) who face unique challenges in developing these connections. Research highlights lower levels of trust reported by DCB students toward peers and institutions, adversely impacting their academic performance and social integration (Van Maele & Van Houtte, 2010). The urgency of these issues is underscored by the demographic evolution in Utah's educational system, with projections indicating significant growth of students' diversity by 2065 (Hollingshaus et al., 2019). Because of these projected developments, this study investigates how DCB students conceptualize and experience trust …

Performance Analysis Of University Wifi Using 802.11e Information Elements, Douglas Christopher Hales

Theses and Dissertations

Wireless networks, including IEEE 802.11 (WiFi), continue to become more important for many uses, including university classrooms. Factors that impact the performance of these networks have changed greatly over time, with increased scale at which they are used, and growing dependence of latency sensitive applications. In order to better understand the performance of current WiFi networks, a methodology was created to capture and analyze beacon frames with optional 802.11e information elements (IE), using Quality of Service enhanced Basic Service Set or QBSS load (channel utilization) and station count. This methodology is able to collect channel use more frequently than many …

A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Approach To Understanding The Academic Support Services That Influence The Success Of Student Veterans, Yuki A. Stephenson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand the academic support services that influence the success of student veterans pursuing higher education at Fort Green of the South. The theory guiding this study was Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory focusing on the extrinsic motivators that enhance academic support services for student veteran success. The central research question was: How do academic support services influence the success of student veterans? The methodology of this study used a qualitative approach, employing hermeneutic phenomenology to best address the research question and exploration of the lived experiences of the student veteran’s utilization …