Current Research On The Use Of Ai In Higher Education, Jim A. Mccleskey

Southwestern Business Administration Journal

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT, has introduced profound opportunities and challenges for higher education. This paper presents a thematic scholarly review of recent empirical studies, systematic reviews, and conceptual analyses examining AI’s impact on teaching, learning, assessment, and institutional practice. The literature highlights substantial benefits associated with AI use, including increased academic productivity, personalized and adaptive learning pathways, enhanced accessibility for diverse learners, and new opportunities for pedagogical innovation. At the same time, significant risks emerge related to cognitive offloading, erosion of critical thinking, academic integrity, blurred authorship, assessment …

Ivory Towers Have Glass Ceilings: Institutional Responsibility In Promotion To Full Professor, Chardie L. Baird, Mangala Subramaniam

Navigating Careers in Higher Education Series

A must-read for higher education leaders committed to equity, Ivory Towers Have Glass Ceilings examines faculty members’ experiences in promotion to full professorship. This volume discusses how structures, practices, processes, and policies pertaining to promotion from associate professor to full professor both presume and reproduce racialized and gendered inequity.

Women’s teaching and service loads are often quantitatively and qualitatively different from white and some Asian men’s experiences, which only serves to reinforce the status quo. This also extends beyond teaching and service to the types of intellectual contributions that are considered important, which often excludes the hands-on, engaged work that …

Leading From The Precipice: How Academic Deans Are Navigating Artificial Intelligence In Higher Education, V. Dozier, Sarina Chugani Molina

Copley Library: Faculty Scholarship

This qualitative case study examines how associate deans at a medium-sized Catholic university respond to the rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI). Guided by decolonial and feminist frameworks, the study analyzes survey data from seven academic leaders to understand their concerns, decision-making processes, and emerging practices. Our findings reveal uneven adoption, limited institutional guidance, and ongoing concerns about academic integrity, equity, and bias. The study also highlights the often-unseen relational and emotional labor involved in supporting faculty and students. We conclude by recommending flexible, collaborative approaches to AI governance that attend to context, care, and diverse ways of knowing.

“Nothing About Us Without Us”: Examining Sense Of Belonging And College Success Through The Experiences Of Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Courtney E. Mulligan

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Sense of belonging has become an increasingly important indicator of student engagement, persistence, and success in higher education. Despite this, limited research has explored how college students with autism experience and define belonging while at college. As increasing numbers of students with autism pursue postsecondary education, institutions face a growing need to better understand the factors that influence student experiences and outcomes. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to investigate the experiences of sense of belonging among current college students with autism and identify the factors that contribute positively or negatively to this experience to inform more inclusive higher …

In The Problem Lies The Solution: How Digital Mindfulness Can Address The College Students’ Mental Health Crisis And Support Holistic Education, Steve Haberlin

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

The mental health of today’s college students remains a serious concern. The alarming trend of greater psychological distress among undergraduates shows no signs of slowing. Excessive smartphone usage, screen time, and social media have been attributed as partial factors. However, what if forms of digital mindfulness and technology-assisted contemplative practices are the key to assisting students with stress, anxiety, depression and other problems? In this article, the author posits that innovations, such as neurofeedback-loop meditation platforms that dramatically increase focus, virtual reality platforms featuring in depth-meditation instruction, and Artificial Intelligence have the potential to address the crisis, establishing a refreshed …

From Awareness To Engagement: University Students’ Perceptions Of The Sustainable Development Goals And The Role Of Higher Education Institutions, Ajda Fosner

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objectives: This study examines how university students perceive the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a focus on their self-reported knowledge, attitudes, and views on the role of institutions in promoting sustainability.

Methods: An online survey was conducted among students in Slovenia.

Results: The results show that most students are aware of the SDGs and support their integration into education, although their personal engagement with sustainability practices is more reserved. Statistical analysis revealed that both the level and field of study significantly influence students’ SDG awareness, with advanced and social science students reporting higher familiarity. Regarding institutional roles, students placed the …

Investigating Factors That Affect Students' Help-Seeking Strategies In A University-Level Foundational Mathematics Course, Randall I. Haws

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Quantitative literacy, or the ability to understand and use mathematical information, is an important skill developed in college. However, required math courses can be a major obstacle for many students, and those who struggle to complete them are more likely to leave school without earning a degree. Understanding why some students seek help while others do not is key to improving student success.

This study explores how students in a university-level foundational mathematics course (college algebra) seek help and what factors influence their use of available support services. A total of 118 students completed a survey about their help-seeking behaviors, …

Differential Effects Of Generative Artificial Intelligence On Formative And Summative Assessment Performance: A Quasi-Experimental Longitudinal Study, Md Istiak Morsalin

Master's Theses

Generative artificial intelligence has unsettled a core assumption of course assessment: that scores on unsupervised work reflect what students can do unassisted. This study tests whether the widespread availability of ChatGPT altered student performance differently on formative versus summative assessments in Business Analytics and Foundations, a required undergraduate quantitative-methods course taught by one instructor across nine cohorts. In a quasi-experimental longitudinal design, the Fall~2022 cohort ($n = 90$), the last to finish before ChatGPT's public release, serves as a control against eight post-ChatGPT cohorts spanning Spring~2023 through Summer~2025 ($N = 646$). Outcomes were drawn from McGraw-Hill Connect records using matched …

College Algebra: A Key Element To Degree Completion, Christopher Charlie Jett, Gregory Downing

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

College Algebra is often under scrutiny because it serves as a critical gateway to graduation for students enrolled in our nation’s undergraduate degree programs. In this paper, we problematize the authority typically ascribed to this course and discuss meeting students’ discipline-specific needs in core mathematics courses such as it. To help facilitate college student success with respect to mathematics course requirements, we recommend that educational constituents and leaders expand dual-enrollment opportunities, infuse culturally relevant practices, and leverage other core mathematics courses as alternatives to College Algebra. In doing so, we add to the ongoing conversation about addressing this issue in …

Acquisitions Unit Annual Report 2025-2026, Andrée J. Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Annual Report of the Acquisitions Unit, University Libraries, University of Rhode Island for FY2026. 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.

Values-Based Leadership In Public Discourse: How University Leaders Frame Character And Commitment, Heather Carroll, Jeff Fritz, Sarah Williams, Cheryl A. Maurana

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

Public leadership speech is a consequential site of ethical positioning where institutional values are named, contested, and interpreted under pressure, and where the choice of virtue language shapes where attention is directed. Analyzing published quotations from university leaders during the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, we examine how virtue language functioned as a public act of values-based leadership through a socio-ecological framework for flourishing that treats character as dynamic and relational. We find that leaders constructed ethical stances by anchoring commitment to moral virtues that named goods, intellectual virtues that narrated deliberative process, and occasionally pairing both …

Cultivating Narratives: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Higher Education Student-Led Farms And Gardens, Maximilan Sherard, Marc T. Sager

Publications

Despite extensive research on community agriculture, little attention has been paid to student-led farms or gardens (SFGs) in higher education contexts. SFGs represent a unique site for community agriculture due to their diverse stakeholders, academic affiliations, and the institutional policies they navigate. This study examines online promotional materials from 42 SFGs located on land-grant higher education campuses across the United States. Using critical discourse analysis, we (1) map these organizations’ practices and (2) identify competing discourses about community and agriculture within their promotional narratives. We identify and explain four core practices (membership, growing, distribution, and purpose) and connect these practices …

Alumni Voices. Beyond Graduation: The Lifelong Global Impact Of A Uk Education, Sladana Krstic, Alexander Towne

Higher education research

The third round of the British Council Alumni Voices survey provides robust and timely evidence of the enduring value of a UK higher education experience. Drawing on three years of longitudinal survey data, supplemented by a number of interviews, the findings highlight how UK education continues to deliver skills, support professional progression, and foster long lasting international networks that extend well beyond graduation and national borders. Nearly three quarters of respondents report that in the last 12 months they have maintained contact with people they first met during their UK studies, and almost 84 percent have recommended a UK study …

The Efficacy Of Open Educational Resources On Achievement Outcomes In Higher Education Institutions, Charles Trevor Alder

Theses and Dissertations

Achievement gaps remain a concern in higher education, reflected in differences in academic performance, retention, and persistence. These gaps often affect students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and underserved populations. Open educational resources (OER) have been suggested to reduce financial barriers and support student success. This study examined whether student-level and institutional-level factors predict academic performance in a business management course using OER. Average quiz scores were collected from students across 12 higher education institutions and analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Colleges were included in the analysis to determine whether outcomes differed based on the proportion of minority and Pell-eligible students. …

Face-To-Face Versus Distance Education In Competence-Based Maritime Education And Training, Clara Borén, Marcella Castells-Sanabra, Manel Grifoll

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

The COVID-19 pandemic created significant challenges for higher education, with universities being shut down and face-to-face teaching and assessment shifting to an online format. This presented an opportunity to focus on the continuity of learning through distance education, especially in the maritime context, due to the on-board training requirements, and even though five years have passed, this shift has reshaped the education landscape, proving that remote learning has come to stay.

At the Barcelona School of Nautical Studies, we have developed a weather routing software in the framework of distance education and teaching innovation. We conducted a teaching trial alternatively …

Higher Education Institutions In U.S. Blockchain Innovation Governance Documents, Clarissa Terracciano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Blockchain technologies have attracted growing attention as an evolution of digital recordkeeping, prompting interest in higher education governance, credentialing, and data management. Yet, no systematic analysis exists on how U.S. government blockchain documents define institutional roles and governance authority within higher education institutions. As the national blockchain innovation system expands through governance infrastructure, the inclusion of higher education institutions as governing actors is imperative for coherent and equitable deployment. This qualitative study examines what roles the U.S. government blockchain documents assign to higher education institutions within the national blockchain innovation system.

Using innovation systems theory, particularly the triple-helix model of …

From Ethical Principles To Executable Governance: A Policy-As-Code Framework For Trustworthy Ai In Higher Education, Edmund Evangelista, Syed M. Salman Bukhari

All Works

Artificial intelligence holds great potential to transform higher education, but a persistent gap remains between ethical aspirations and their practical, auditable enforcement. This study addresses that gap by developing and validating an end-to-end executable governance framework grounded in a policy-as-code (PaC) paradigm. Using student dropout prediction as a high-stakes example, the framework operationalizes governance through an automated gatekeeper, a multi-strategy fairness mitigation toolbox, and a tamper-evident audit chain for full reproducibility. The governance compliance was tested across sixteen fixed model configurations evaluated under five policy tiers (strict, medium, lenient, and two deployment-realistic variants). None were approved, as fairness violations, dominated …

The Faculty Advisor's Role In Student Retention And Success: A Case Study From The Student Perspective, Alice Lorraine Buchanan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this collective case study was to understand the role of faculty advisors in student retention of traditional full-time undergraduate students in their final year of study at a four-year university. Guided by Bean’s theoretical model of student attrition, this study examined how organizational interactions influence students’ attitudes, advising satisfaction, and subsequent intent to leave. The Central Research Question was: How do faculty advisors influence student retention for traditional full-time undergraduate students in their final year at a four-year university? The setting was a small, faith-based, highly residential, private university in the Midwestern United States, where faculty advisors …

Improving Quality Of Distance Education: An Illustration And Implications For Universities, Sadia Raisa, Ismet Anitsal, Nebil Buyurgan

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Reining It In: From Reflexive To Intentional Instructor Self-Disclosure, Rona Miles, Alla Chavarga, Chelsea Blaney

Essays in Education

Instructor self-disclosure is often promoted as a means of humanizing the classroom environment and improving learning outcomes. Though disclosure has the potential to be highly beneficial, it also carries a risk to students and learning that is often overlooked. This paper presents a point of departure perspective that instructor self-disclosure should be approached with far greater caution than most educators consider. We argue that disclosures should occur only when they are justified with a clear pedagogical purpose. Casual or spontaneous disclosures, by contrast, carry sufficient potential for unintended harm such that their risks outweigh presumed benefits to classroom rapport and …

Not An Afterthought: Addressing The Academic And Social Challenges That Create Barriers To Belonging For Transfer Students, Brooke Jankowsky

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the academic and social barriers to belonging for transfer students at four-year institutions, with particular attention to the University of Mississippi. The goal is to bring attention to the issues that surround transfer student populations in general by identifying some of the most pressing structural and interpersonal challenges that shape their experiences. A qualitative approach was used, drawing on existing literature, prior unpublished research at the community college level, and reflective analysis to explore themes such as transfer shock, creating and maintaining social networks, and gaps in institutional support. Findings suggest that transfer students often face a …

Leading While Black: An Examination Of The Black Supervisor Experience Overseeing White Subordinates In Higher Education, Colette Marie Tobias

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This study examines how systemic racism and social capital hierarchies shape the supervisory experiences of Black supervisors. While existing literature has explored leadership and race, it has not fully examined how systemic racism shape Black supervisors’ experiences or how social capital hierarchies play into the behavioral responses of white subordinates. This study addresses that gap by centering the lived experiences of Black supervisors within higher education.

Grounded in narrative inquiry, this research focuses on how participants make meaning of their experiences through their stories. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and reflective journals with 19 Black supervisors who had at …

The Transformational Role Of Perceived Self-Efficacy In Combating Online Exam Anxiety, Ana Pereles, Carmen Romero-García

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objective:This study investigates how university students’ perceived self-efficacy influences anxiety levels during online examinations, a pressing issue amplified by disruptions caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI)–driven assessment concerns. The aim is to analyze the relationship between self-efficacy and online test anxiety, identifying effective strategies to mitigate its effects.

Method: A systematic review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology was conducted. Searches in Scielo, Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest Education, Google Scholar, and Dialnet databases included peer-reviewed articles in education, psychology, social sciences, and computer sciences, published …

Leveraging Data Analytics For Student Success: Lessons From Building An Analytics Program At Bentley University, Jane De Leon Griffin, Edlira Stefani, Rahat Sabyrbekov, Patrick Dickson, Annie Raunikar

Student Success Publications

Higher education institutions across the United States face an unprecedented convergence of challenges: a shrinking pool of college-aged students, persistent learning gaps from the COVID-19 pandemic, the destabilization of longstanding federal support structures, and the rising cost of attendance, which increases public skepticism about the value of higher education and challenges access for low-income learners. In this environment, student success is no longer simply a strategic priority—it is an institutional imperative.

One way in which Bentley University has responded to these pressures is by launching the Building a Data-Driven Student Success Ecosystem (BaSSE) initiative, a comprehensive analytics program designed to …

A New Approach To Generate Combinatorial Patterns In Logical Analysis Of Data And Its Application To Predict College Retention, Salihah Ahmed E. Jaafari

Theses and Dissertations

Student retention and degree completion remain central challenges for higher-education institutions, with significant implications for student success, institutional effectiveness, and public accountability. While advances in predictive analytics have enabled earlier identification of students at risk of withdrawal, many commonly used machine learning approaches suffer from limited interpretability, constraining their practical usefulness for advising, intervention, and policy decision making. This dissertation addresses the problem of predicting student persistence by developing and evaluating optimization based, interpretable classification models within the Logical Analysis of Data (LAD) framework. Building on existing LAD formulations, this research introduces two novel pattern generation models, the Best Term …

Intersectionality And Belonging: Higher Education Mathematics, Ashley Natalie

Mathematics and Statistics

Students with intersecting marginalized identities (such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, disability, or first-generation background) often face unique challenges in advanced mathematics that affect confidence, participation, amounting to a sense of belonging. These experiences remain underrepresented in mathematics education research. This qualitative, narrative-based study examines how these students experience classroom dynamics and belonging in upper-level mathematics courses. Semi-structured interviews will be analyzed thematically to identify patterns related to identity, classroom culture, instructor behavior, and peer interactions. Findings aim to highlight barriers and supportive practices, informing more inclusive teaching strategies and equitable learning environments in advanced mathematics.

Intersectionality And Belonging: Higher Education Mathematics, Ashley Williams

Mathematics and Statistics

Students with intersecting marginalized identities (such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, disability, or first-generation background) often face unique challenges in advanced mathematics that affect confidence, participation, amounting to a sense of belonging. These experiences remain underrepresented in mathematics education research. This qualitative, narrative-based study examines how these students experience classroom dynamics and belonging in upper-level mathematics courses. Semi-structured interviews will be analyzed thematically to identify patterns related to identity, classroom culture, instructor behavior, and peer interactions. Findings aim to highlight barriers and supportive practices, informing more inclusive teaching strategies and equitable learning environments in advanced mathematics.

Husky Paws S-Stem Summer Bridge Program Dataset (2024 Cohort), Michelle Jarvie-Eggart, Kathryn L. Hannum, Karlee J. Westrem, Lincoln Sorenson, Briana C. Bettin, Adrienne R. Minerick

Michigan Tech Research Data

This dataset was collected as part of the Husky PAWS (Pathways for Academic
Wellness & Success) S-STEM program at Michigan Technological University. It
includes anonymized quantitative and qualitative data from a three-week
pre-semester summer bridge program in 2024, designed to support low-income,
STEM-bound students. Data sources include pre- and post-program Likert and
open-ended surveys and daily written reflections aligned with instructional
modules on metacognition and Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth Model (CWM).
The dataset supports research on how bridge programming influences
students’ sense of belonging, metacognitive development, and engagement
with institutional support systems during the transition to college.

Attention To Their Uniqueness: Differentiation In A University Classroom, Robin Gingerich

MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL

University students come to campus with unique gifts and individual challenges. To meet the needs of diverse learners, one solution is differentiation. Differentiation involves deliberately planning lessons that address the unique learning styles of diverse learners by offering pedagogy informed not only by content, but also by the students themselves. While differentiation in elementary and secondary classrooms is considered best practice, professors in higher education face unique challenges when it comes to implementing differentiation. This paper examines definitions of differentiation, research on differentiation in universities, and, from the author’s personal experience, offers suggestions for university writing instructors.

A Quality Assurance Framework For Maintaining And Enhancing Academic Standards Of Ai-Infused Higher Education: Insights From Gcc Faculty Perspectives, Nina Abdul Razzak

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objectives: This study addresses the gap in research on maintaining and enhancing the quality of artificial intelligence (AI)–infused higher education in a structured and systematized way by proposing a comprehensive quality assurance (QA) framework fit for that purpose.

Methods: The study employs a qualitative research design approach in the form of a constructivist or interpretive investigation, exploring in depth faculty members’ different perspectives and experiences in relation to AI implementation. The study combines a textual analysis of the international literature on the topic, with insights from four focus groups involving faculty members from various disciplines and colleges across the Gulf …