Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding Universal Design For Learning Implementation: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study Of The Experiences Of Higher Education Faculty And Instructional Designers, Breanne A. Kirsch

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Faculty face a rising challenge in supporting diverse student populations on campuses (Bastedo et al., 2013). Inclusive pedagogy, facilitated by UDL, helps alleviate learning barriers for diverse student groups (Basham & Blackorby, 2021). However, the ambiguous operational definition of UDL poses practical challenges in implementation and assessment (Diedrich, 2021), especially when it is described variably as a practice, framework, or intervention in the literature (Basham & Blackorby, 2021). This hermeneutic phenomenological study explores the meaning faculty and instructional designers ascribe to the experience of implementing UDL in higher education.

The main question is: what is the meaning that faculty and …

3/5ths Of Freedom: The Analysis Of {With} Black Individuals In Higher Education And Navigating Society Post-Justice-Involvement, Gabrielle Sarah Smith Finnie

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Black individuals have been disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system in the United States (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2022). Because of their criminal justice involvement, Black individuals are perceived as second-class citizens making their quest for “freedom” an endless journey impacted by oppression and domination post-justice-involvement (Couloute & Kopf, 2018; Johnson, 2021; Pager, 2003). To combat domination and oppression, Freire (1970) emphasized pursuing higher education helps individuals who experience marginalization become more humanized and aids them on their plight to freedom. Research highlighted pursuing higher education post-justice-involvement is a liberatory yet challenging experience because of discriminatory on-campus …

Online Learning As A Tool For Accessibility For Autistic Higher Education Students, Keirnan E. Brown

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Online learning is becoming more prevalent (Aylmer, 2020) and institutions are seeing an increase in disabled students (HEFCE, 2017; Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of the University System and Research [ANVUR], & National Conference of University Delegates for Disability [CNUDD], 2021; Rao, Edelen-Smith, & Wailehua, 2015). Meanwhile, this group experiences an achievement gap concerning learning and outcomes (ECU, 2017; Eurostat, 2014; Eurostat, 2019; Pearson et al., 2019). Therefore, exploring potential uses of online learning may be beneficial. One related use for online learning is its potential as a tool for accessibility for autistic students. Moreover, a literature gap exists …

Exploring Situational Factors For Female International Students And Their Satisfaction In Higher Education Using Cb-Sem, Dian Fu Chang, Angel Chang, Cheng Yi Kang

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

While the topic of attracting and maintaining inbound international students has received much scholarly attention in higher education, attracting female international students has rarely been discussed. This study addresses the issue of attracting degree-seeking female international students. Based on the notion of situational factors and total quality management (TQM), we assumed both institutional design and students’ satisfaction are core concepts for attracting and retaining female international students that will make a difference in higher education. A total of 215 survey responses were analyzed, and a covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) approach was developed. The results confirm female international students’ perception …

“I Don’T Even Know What That Is”: Deprivation, Censorship, And Responsibility In Administering The Pell Grant In Prison, Erin L. Castro, Cydney Y. Caradonna, Mary R. Gould

Journal of Student Financial Aid

The violence of incarceration creates greater responsibility for higher education administrators in supporting students who are in prison. Using focus group data with incarcerated students and formerly incarcerated alumni who participated in or are actively participating in Second Chance Pell, we explore their perceptions and understandings of the Pell Grant and eligibility for the Pell Grant, including lifetime eligibility used limits. Through a lens of Witnessing, we argue that deprivation and censorship of information negatively influence students’ access to accurate and timely information about federal student aid and their ability to fully participate in the process. Accordingly, college and university …

The Lived Experiences Of Women In Higher Education Administrator Roles Through The Salary Negotiation Process At The Time Of Hire: A Phenomenological Study, Nancy Kay Hernandez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of salary negotiation at the time of hire for women in full-time administrator positions at Texas institutions of higher education. Eagly’s social role theory guided this study to explain gender roles and negotiation. A qualitative research design with a phenomenological approach was used to explore the experiences of women in higher education administrator roles during the salary negotiation process. Institutions within the south-central regions of Texas, including public and private colleges and universities, served as the site for this study. Participants were 12 women in full-time administrator positions at …

Examining Technology Use And Competence Of Higher Education Academics During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Devrim Akgunduz, Aysegul Kinik Topalsan

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objectives: The present study describes the utilization frequency and competencies of educational technologies among academics at a university in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Participants were 391 faculty members and lecturers working in the faculties and vocational schools of a Turkish university during the 2020–2021 academic year. A survey included questions regarding the use of educational technologies and perceived competency in the use of those technologies.

Results: Academics are more familiar with distance education than hybrid or blended learning. Academics reported that blended learning, hybrid learning, and distance education provide more effective education on integrating technology but report that …

Covid, Contracts, And Colleges, John K. Setear

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Athletics In The Future Of Small Colleges: An Agency Theory And Value Responsibility Budgeting Approach, Claire Zvosec, Nathan Baer

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

No abstract provided.

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes Feb 16, 2024, A-State Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Minutes

Meeting minutes for the Faculty Senate held on February 16, 2024.

Living Well With Ai: Virtue, Education, And Artificial Intelligence, Nicholas Smith, Darby Vickers

Philosophy: Faculty Scholarship

Artificial intelligence technologies have become a ubiquitous part of human life. This prompts us to ask, ‘how should we live well with artificial intelligence?’ Currently, the most prominent candidate answers to this question are principlist. According to these approaches, if you teach people some finite set of principles or convince them to adopt the right rules, people will be able to live and act well with artificial intelligence, even in an evolving and opaque moral world. We find the dominant principlist approaches to be ill-suited to providing forward-looking moral guidance regarding living well with artificial intelligence. We analyze some of …

Teaching And Learning In Stem With Computation, Modeling, And Simulation Practices, Alejandra J. Magana

Purdue University Press Books

Computation, modeling, and simulation practices are commonplace in the STEM workplace, yet formal training embedded in disciplinary practices is not as standard in the undergraduate classroom. Teaching and Learning in STEM With Computation, Modeling, and Simulation Practices: A Guide for Practitioners and Researchers gives instructors a handbook to ensure their curriculum bridges the gap between the classroom and workplace by equipping students with computational skills and preparing them for a rewarding career in STEM. Grounded in theory and supported by fifteen years of education research at the undergraduate level, this book provides instructional, pedagogical, and assessment guidance for integrating modeling …

A Pilot Study On Implementing An Interprofessional Education Model For Developing Rehabilitative Science Student Core Competencies, Maureen Ellen Johnson, Norman Cadiz Belleza, Mohan Ganesan

Journal of Innovation in Health Sciences Education

Introduction: Inclusion of interprofessional education (IPE) in academia is required by education accreditation agencies for occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT) in the United States. Limited information is available on models of IPE to guide faculty. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the feasibility of implementing a recently designed IPE model with OT and PT graduate students. This IPE model aligned Interprofessional Education Collaborative core competency domains with novel learning activities, such as an escape room, simulated medical chart, and two simulations.

Methods: Data were retrieved from 52 auto-enrolled students (n=14 OT) and (n=38 PT) …

Embedded Support In The College Writing Classroom: A Teaching Reflection On Late Pandemic Pedagogy For Trio Students In An Intensive Transitional Summer Course, James P. Austin, John Gavin Iv

Pedagogy and the Human Sciences

In this teaching reflection, the authors discuss their experiences as professor and embedded support for an intensive summer college writing course for incoming undergraduates participating in a TRIO program. The reflection considers the contextual factors making this cohort of students vulnerable, including the relationship between family income level and pandemic-era learning loss. The authors devised a pedagogy to "flip" the classroom, allowing students to write deeply during long class sessions, and delivered intensive, layered support at the point of writing to accelerate progress through challenges in writing development.

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes Feb 2, 2024, A-State Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Minutes

Meeting minutes for the Faculty Senate held on February 2, 2024.

The Pacifican February 2024, University Of The Pacific

All Issues - Student Newspaper, The Pacifican, Pacific Weekly

No abstract provided.

Critical Race Theory, Neoliberalism, And The Illiberal University, Rodney D. Coates

Journal of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

No abstract provided.

Empowering Education For Students With Learning Difficulties And Disabilities: A Faculty And Student Perspective On The Utilization Of Assistive Technology At The Academic Arab College Of Education In Haifa, Nadia Ghalia, Darawsheh Ahlam, Eyal Isami

Information Sciences Letters

This study aimed to investigate the current usage of electronic educational technology by educators in the context of teaching students with learning difficulties and disabilities at Haifa University. The research employed a qualitative analysis approach, utilizing the SAS software for both the analysis of questionnaire responses provided by academic staff and the coding of interview data. The interviewees included 40 students who represented various disabilities within the university and 20 academic professionals from the Department of Special Education. The studys results indicated a consensus among respondents that the provision of assistive technology in the university significantly enhances the learning experience …

Beyond The Classroom: Influence Of A Sustainability Intervention On University Students’ Environmental Knowledge And Behaviors, Dawn Christina Null, Kristin Hurst, Leslie A. Duram

Publications

On college campuses, environmental science education largely takes place in classrooms, thereby limiting impact on the full student body. By implementing an educational intervention in an informal campus setting, this study tested an approach aimed at expanding the reach of environmental learning. Students at a mid-size Midwestern university were exposed to a food-focused environmental and climate education intervention consisting of sustainability trivia and marketing materials displayed in dining halls. Prior to exposure, students completed a pre-test, followed by a 5-week intervention, then a post-test. Comparing correct responses between pre-test and post-test, we found a significant increase in environmental and climate …

Drop-Out Rates Among First-Generation Undergraduate Students In The United States, Rachel Alger

Ballard Brief

For first-generation college students, receiving an acceptance letter to an institution of higher education is a milestone: a means to secure economic and social opportunities not afforded to their family members. However, for many first-generation students, college acceptance does not equate to a college credential or degree, with only 27.4% graduating within 4 years. These lower attrition rates stem from a lack of familial financial resources and inadequate academic preparation in high school. Additionally, a different set of rules, jargon, and expectations between home life and institutions of higher education create a 'hidden curriculum' for first-generation students, making college completion …

Women In Leadership Positions In Higher Education: Challenges, Opportunities, And Strategies For Success, Maria Bowen

M.S. in Leadership

This research project is aimed to identify the challenges and barriers women face in higher education while striving to obtain leadership positions and provide possible solutions to resolve the gender gaps found in higher education’s leadership. A literature review was conducted, which informed questions that were asked in an interview setting. Interviews were conducted with leaders that identify as women in higher education and sought to provide personalized accounts of the researched trends. Ultimately, despite higher education being perceived as a progressive industry and having legislature in place to combat gender disparities, leadership positions are not reflective of gender distribution …

Lived Experiences Of Latino/A/X Students At Emerging Hispanic Serving Institutions In The Midwestern United States, Elizabeth Depew

Dissertations of Practice

LIVED EXPERIENCES OF LATINO/A/X STUDENTS AT EMERGING HISPANIC SERVING INSTITUTIONS IN THE MIDWESTERN UNITED STATES

There are a growing number of Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) and emerging Hispanic Serving Institutions (eHSI) across the United States (Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, 2013a, 2013b, 2022). Because many HSIs and eHSIs are either formerly or still also Predominantly White Institutions (PWI), historical policies and practices within institutions of higher education do not routinely consider the lives of Latino/a/x students. In addition, HSIs are not required to have any portion of their mission dedicated to the advancement of Latino/a/x students as part of …

Empowering Students Of Color To Study Abroad: Effective Approaches For Predominantly White Institutions, A'Mari Bing-Way

Community Engagement Student Work

Traditionally studying abroad is an opportunity afforded to college students. For many, it is perceived as a desirable and essential component to the college experience. Initially developed by a white professor for white students at a predominantly white institution (PWI) to immerse themselves in European culture. The study abroad model in higher education was not designed with inclusivity in mind. However, research suggests that access to such opportunities depends on a student’s network to include: social, cultural, and financial capital as well as the university’s investment in empowering students to participate in study abroad programs. Historically, government funded initiatives have …

Technology Affordances And Curriculum Flexibility In Higher Education Blended Learning, Clement Chimezie Aladi

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores technological affordances in blended learning, their influence on the flexibility of statistics and data science curricula, and students' satisfaction with learning. While blended learning is often perceived as a flexible learning approach, its correlation with flexibility lacks substantial evidence in existing literature. This study contends that technological affordances significantly impact curriculum flexibility in blended learning, an aspect currently underrepresented in blended learning educational literature. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Technology Affordance and Constraint Theory (TACT) and Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK), this research investigated six hypotheses to elucidate how technological affordances and the teacher's technology …

Honors As Neighborhood: 1995 National Collegiate Honors Council Presidential Address, Ada Long

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

1995 National Collegiate Honors Council Presidential Address, published in the National Honors Report, Vol. XVI, No. 4 (winter 1996), 21–24; rpt. in NHR Vol. XX, No. 4 (winter 1999), 9–12. The typographical errors have been silently corrected.

In this address to members of the National Collegiate Honors Council, outgoing president Dr. Ada Long (1945–2024) reflects on the sensibility and characteristics of neighborhood and considers what this means to honors education and its community of learners. Identifying three values of neighborhood—conversation, personal affiliation and belonging, and caring—Long expounds on their relevance to educators and society at large on the cusp …

Honors As A Changing Neighborhood, Betsy Greenleaf Yarrison

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Honors programs were conceived for traditional-age suburban middle-class majority-culture students who live on campus or nearby and do not hold full-time jobs or have family responsibilities. While the college population of this century is much more diverse and just as academically capable, first-generation students from traditionally marginalized populations see honors communities as unfamiliar, scary, and unwelcoming neighborhoods. Honors programs seek diversity but practice assimilation with exclusionary admissions policies, curricular inflexibility, and an emphasis on place-dependent community building that invites students to come into honors space rather than taking their offerings out to meet them where they are. Lack of funds …

Expanding Our Honors Neighborhood: Teaching In And About Jails And Prisons, Victoria M. Bryan, Owen Cantrell

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Dr. Ada Long (1945–2024) advocated for equal access to quality education. Authors suggest that her reflections on neighborhoods, community, and intentional inclusion were not one-off musings but rather indicative of how she saw her responsibility as an educator. Drawing on Long’s establishment of a lecture series that brought faculty into a local Alabama prison to share research with incarerated students, this essay presents firsthand experiences teaching honors courses in prison, particularly those offered at Walker State Prison as part of Georgia State University’s Prison Education Project (2016–2023). While honors colleges often build programs to be as community-centric as possible, authors …

“The Direful Spectacle Of The Wrack”: Teaching Against Colonialism Through Shipwrecks And Shakespeare, Sara A. Rich

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

It has become increasingly apparent that anti-colonial and anti-racist pedagogies are necessary in higher education classrooms, and honors education as an experimental zone is an ideal place to test ideas that can be taken into the wider university community. Honors professors epitomize the teacher-scholar model, and this paper presents a six-year trajectory of anti-colonial pedagogy coupled with original interdisciplinary research in the social sciences, arts, and humanities. Bringing canonical Shakespeare into conversation with historical shipwrecks and their aftermath, students learn how The Tempest was written at a pivotal point in history, coincidentally situated in the same year as the earliest …

Equity And Inclusion In Honors: A Case Study Of Admissions Changes, Trevor Zink, Andrew Dilts

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Creative levers for change often emerge in times of institutional uncertainty. As higher education continues to confront institutional racism, honors programs can exercise their power to increase diversity and educational outcomes for excluded and marginalized students, as well as influence related university-level policy. This case study chronicles dramatic changes to admissions policies and programmatic offerings in honors between 2020–2023. Changes in admissions practices markedly diversified the student body, moving it from a 60% white population to 60% minority population in just three years. Conversations around race and racism were initiated, inculcating a culture of inclusion rather than elitist exceptionalism. As …

Music Instruction At The California Labor School, 1942–1957, Phillip Hash

Faculty Publications - Music

The purpose of this study was to examine music instruction at the California Labor School (CLS), located in San Francisco, California. This institution existed from 1942 to 1957 as a center for adult education affiliated with the Communist Party. Although the curriculum focused on Marxism and labor, the institution also offered classes in general subjects, vocational training, life skills, and the arts to enrich the lives of the immigrants, industrial workers, and people of color that it served. The music program included courses in music fundamentals, appreciation, and songwriting; group and individual instruction in voice, guitar, and piano; and ensembles …