Digital Commons Network^™

Perceptions Of College/University Students On High School Science And Stem Courses, Brian Park

Theses and Dissertations

Over the years, the evolution of science along with technology, engineering, and mathematics has been noticeably evident while science education, on the other hand, has shown little development. The research study aimed to investigate future change initiative implementation in secondary science curricula. In addition, the purpose of the research was to learn and examine postsecondary students' perceptions of how well secondary science education prepared them for the postsecondary level plus for schools to utilize the feedback received from students to further improve the quality of science education. The data for the study were collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 college/university …

Drawing To Conceptualize Research, Reduce Implicit Bias, And Establish Researcher Positionality In The Graduate Classroom, Alissa A. Droog, Kari D. Weaver, Frances Brady

Faculty Books & Book Chapters

Through reflection, coupled with literature to ground our thinking, this chapter discusses the experiences of three librarians with the use of conceptual drawings about research processes as an equitable pedagogical practice. This drawing technique has pushed each of us to understand research in different ways and reflect on our own positionality as researchers and as teachers in the classroom. First, Kari D. Weaver considers how drawing research shapes an individual’s understanding of themselves as a scholar. Second, Alissa Droog reflects on the use of drawing to understand how research relates to our identities. Finally, Frances Brady connects drawing to further …

Student-Led Learning In Public Libraries, Donica Swann

Library Scholarship

In recent years, the field of library science has developed a competitive, experience-driven hiring culture. Students are expected to graduate with years of varied hands-on experiences in addition to coursework. How can students gain these experiences? In what ways can practitioners provide a productive learning environment for students? With budget cuts and constraints on staff time, how can public libraries make space for library science students to gain practical experience and to engage in self-directed learning? For seven years (2016-2023), Donica Swann provided practicums, internships, and apprenticeships that benefited both The Urbana Free Library and the University of Illinois at …

Administrator, Faculty, And Veteran Student Perspectives On Barriers Faced By Veterans In Higher Education, Christie Marie Mcdonald

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractMilitary veterans’ prior experiences can impact their study experiences and result in barriers to entering higher education. Prior research on veteran student barriers in higher education has not included the perspectives of faculty and administrators in addition to veterans. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the barriers that veteran students face in higher education and how those barriers could be addressed. The research questions focused specifically on the perspectives of administrators, faculty, and veterans on the barriers veteran students face and how those barriers could be addressed. The conceptual framework included Tinto’s student integration model and …

Employer Perceptions Of The Skills Gap In College Graduates’ Written Communication, Julie Minnaugh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

U.S. employers have reported that many college graduates are underprepared in written communication when hired and that lack of preparedness hinders these graduates’ employment success. Higher education institution (HEI) administrators need information regarding which writing skills should be taught across the curriculum to improve student outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate employers’ perspectives on the written communication skills gap that hinders college graduates from being successful in their professional practice. Swales’s six characteristics of a discourse community provided a conceptual lens for the study, as graduates commencing employment represent newcomers to a discourse community. A basic qualitative …

Universal Design For Learning Implementation In Higher Education: Survey Of Faculty And Instructional Designers, Breanne A. Kirsch, Tian Luo

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Universal design for learning (UDL) is an inclusive design framework. Faculty and instructional designers were surveyed to investigate UDL implementation in higher education. This survey was based on one used by Westine et al. (2019). Results about how faculty and instructional designers learn about UDL, how instructional designers train and support faculty in UDL, and why and how participants choose to employ UDL are shared. The results from this study have provided new findings in relation to faculty and instructional designer UDL implementation efforts in higher education that have implications for training and supporting faculty with UDL application efforts.

Running The Gauntlet: Barriers For Black Women Academics In Higher Education Research Productivity, Crishana Dionne Benton

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Internationally, research productivity bears significance for an institution’s reputation and overall research ranking. Many previous efforts surrounding faculty issues have focused on individual faculty research productivity. This study reimagined the definition of productivity as an academic’s impact on scholarly research, evidenced by their h-index.

At the same time, the need for diversity of faculty populations is becoming more urgent, even in a time when the number of tenure-earning faculty positions is diminishing and those which remain are occupied mainly by white men. To add to the disparities, it is reported that only 4% of full-time faculty are Black women. Black …

An Introduction To Local And Global Health Behaviors Using A Collaborative Online International Learning Exchange, Niamh M. Higgins, Lisa B. Smith

Psychology Faculty Publications

Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), uses technology to facilitate the engagement of students from different countries in collaborative coursework and sharing of cultural perspectives. The existing literature concerning COIL exchanges points to the need to further explore student satisfaction and engagement with such exchange projects, and whether course learning outcomes are being achieved. This practice paper describes a COIL exchange between students of health psychology at Mary Immaculate College, Ireland, and Sacred Heart University, in the United States. During this 10-week project students were required to engage in synchronous and asynchronous activities. Following the completion of the COIL project, students …

Exploring The Role Of Institutional Culture In Student Affairs Assessment Practitioners’ Experiences Implementing Equity-Centered Assessment, Jaime L. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Student affairs assessment is a field in higher education that emphasizes the measurement of effectiveness and student learning in student serving programs that take place outside of the classroom. Outcomes-based assessment is the basis of most assessment practices in student affairs, and focuses on the continuous improvement of out-of-classroom programs, services, and student learning. Many assessment practices stem from traditional research methods, which have been developed by people who hold mostly majority identities. These methods were not created with the rapidly changing demographics of today’s college-going students in mind. To help address the increasing diversity of college students and the …

Exploring The Relationships Between Student Perceptions And Educational Technology Utilization In Higher Education, Ana-Paula Correia, Karly Good

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This study examines the perceptions of educational technology use among college students at a small liberal arts university in the United States. Using institutional data analytics, 34,480 survey responses were analyzed to understand how students perceive the use of technology in the classroom and its relationship with teaching methods, progress on learning objectives, and course features. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were conducted, revealing a positive correlation between the use of educational technology and effective teaching methods, progress on learning objectives, and overall satisfaction with instructors and courses. However, it is important to note that the study is correlational in …

Leading A Business School, Julie Davis, Howard Thomas, Eric Cornuel, Rolf D. Cremer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Business schools are critical players in higher education, educating current and future leaders to make a difference in the world. Yet we know surprisingly little about the leaders of business schools. Leading a Business School demystifies this complex and dynamic role, offering international insights into deans’ dilemmas in different contexts and situations. It highlights the importance of deans creating challenging and supportive learning cultures to enhance business and management education, organizations and society more broadly. The book traces the historical evolution of the business school deanship, the current challenges and future sources of disruption. The leadership characteristics and styles of …

The Glories And Inglories Of Library And Information Science Pedagogy: An Introduction, Kim M. Thompson, Keren Dali

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Exploring Supervisory Needs Of First-Generation Professionals Working In Higher Education, Angela R. Wellman

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

As first-generation students enter the workforce and traverse through their careers, their work supervisors are solidly positioned to positively influence their experiences. There is very little literature to be found that addresses the professional experiences of first-generation professionals in relation to their supervisors. The purpose of this exploratory study was to learn, directly from first-generation professionals working in higher education, what they believe they need from their supervisors to support their well-being and success. This research also sought to discover how important participants thought that each need statement was, as well to gain insight to what extent the identified needs …

Experiencing Workplace Inclusion: Critical Incidents That Create A Sense Of Inclusion For Professional Staff In Higher Education, Katherine Penn Lampley

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Professional staff make up the majority of employees at colleges and universities in the United States but are rarely the focus of research in higher education. As a result, little is known about how these employees experience the workplace, creating a challenge for educational institutions working to attract, develop, and retain this essential resource. Employees who feel included in the workplace have higher performance levels and are more likely to remain with their organizations, but workplace inclusion is a complex and undertheorized psychological phenomenon. This exploratory study provides insight into the psychological experience of inclusion by examining the experiences, interactions, …

Navigating Conflict During Periods Of Change In Higher Education: Deconstructing Academic Leaders’ Construction Of Meaning, Tyler Guy Olson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Navigating departmental and organizational conflict is an essential function and responsibility of an academic unit leader (dean, associate dean, director, or chair) in higher education institutions (HEIs). During periods of organizational change, conflict tends to increase in complexity and difficulty—in part due to resistance to change—making it more difficult to manage in a constructive manner (Marcus, 2014). Much of the literature that looks at the academic unit leader and conflict focuses on personal conflict styles (or modes), types of conflicts encountered, and training on techniques and skills for conflict resolution and management. Missing from the literature is research that examines …

Sex Trafficking Prevention Training For Higher Education Students, Jessica Nicole Kennedy

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Higher education students are vulnerable to being sex trafficked (Campus Law Enforcement-DHS, n.d.). As a means of prevention, an online training was developed for higher education students. The purpose of this training was to provide awareness and education about sex trafficking and promote safety in terms of relationships, jobs, and the internet. The intention of this study was to research the effectiveness of this training in building an understanding of sex trafficking. A convergent mixed methods study was conducted using pre and post surveys to assess awareness around sex trafficking in higher education. The training was found to be effective …

“I Tell My Brothers That It Can Be Done”: Indigenous Males Navigating Elite Australian Higher Education, Garth Stahl, James A. Smith, Andrew Harvey, Braden Hill, Himanshu Gupta, Sam Moore, Jianing Wang

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

As Australian higher education grapples with its colonial history, there has been significant attention to recruiting Indigenous students. However, while we have seen increases in Indigenous participation, males lag significantly behind. Very few Indigenous males enter university and even fewer enter the upper echelons of the stratified higher education sector. In this paper, we investigate the experiences of four Indigenous young men who attended an elite Australian higher education institution. Central to our analysis is how their identities are realised in relation to their sense of Indigeneity and Western ways of knowing, being and doing. In capturing the complex identity …

Exploring Faculty Perspectives On Open Access At A Medium-Sized, American Doctoral University, Rachel E. Scott, Julie Murphy, Cassie Thayer-Styes, Chad E. Buckley, Anne Shelley

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

Faculty hold widely varying perspectives on the benefits and challenges afforded by open access (OA) publishing. In the United States, conversations on OA models and strategy have been dominated by scholars affiliated with Carnegie R1 institutions. This article reports findings from interviews conducted with faculty at a Carnegie R2 institution, highlighting disciplinary and individual perspectives on the high costs and rich rewards afforded by OA. The results reiterate the persistence of a high degree of skepticism regarding the quality of peer review and business models associated with OA publishing. By exploring scholars’ perceptions of and experiences with OA publishing and …

Digital Learning Transformation In Higher Education: International Cases Of University Efforts To Evaluate And Improve Blended Teaching Readiness, Charles R. Graham, Ganbat Danaa, Tserenchimed Purevsuren, Adriana Martínez, Cinthia Bittencourt Spricigo, Barbara Maria Camilotti, Tserenkhand Batsukh

Faculty Publications

The global pandemic of 2019 brought heightened awareness to institutions of higher education of the need to engage in a digital transformation that extends beyond university business operations to the pedagogy of the classroom. This paper is a case study that explores three international cases of universities in Colombia, Brazil, and Mongolia that are at different stages along the path of a digital pedagogical transformation. This article tells each story, including (1) what is driving the local need to engage in digital transformation, (2) what the major challenges and barriers are to achieving a transformation, and (3) what efforts are …

An Exploration Of Institutional And Personal Barriers To Online Academic Engagement At A Brazilian University, Cinthia Bittencourt Spricigo, Bárbara Maria Camilotti, Charles R. Graham, Ruth Baptista

Faculty Publications

The recent global pandemic has raised institutional awareness around the world concerning the importance of having high quality online learning options for students. Learner engagement is often correlated with quality outcomes such as student academic success and student satisfaction. Learner engagement is commonly thought of as having three important dimensions: affective engagement, behavioral engagement, and cognitive engagement (ACE framework). Engagement is also enabled or limited by facilitators/barriers. Three important categories of facilitators/barriers are learner characteristics, personal environment, and course environment. Elements in each of these three areas enable or are barriers to students fully engaging in a course. This research …

Internationalization As A Strategy To Enhance Higher Education Quality In Vietnam – Reflections From University Leaders, Nguyen Trong Hoai, Luong Vinh Quoc Duy, Damien Cassells

Articles

Internationalization is viewed as an important strategy in the context of a country in transition from central planning to market orientation. Efforts to internationalize universities are being carried out at both national and institutional levels. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has been no study to investigate how individual institutions approach internationalization and what they gain from that process. This paper aims to investigate the enhancement of teachers’ and students’ knowledge and skills using internationalization in Vietnam universities as a strategy.

Engaged Alienation: Sotl, Inclusivity, And The Problem Of Integrity, Michael K. Potter, Jessica Raffoul

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) defines itself as an inclusive field of study, and scholars have long lauded its ability to engage academics from each and every discipline. Yet SoTL’s research culture has long been dominated by a narrow conception of social science. As a result, the lived experience of scholars from other disciplines, particularly the humanities, is one of engaged alienation. The borders created by SoTL’s research paradigm are invisible to those within and somewhat impenetrable to those who are othered by virtue of their disciplinary identities. This paper interrogates the contradictions between SoTL’s espoused values and …

Unmasking Microaggressions On The Homefront: Exploring Faculty And Staff Perceptions After Attending An Online Workshop On Microaggressions In Higher Education, Andrea N. Crenshaw, Natasha N. Ramsay-Jordan, Allyson Deskins

Georgia Educational Researcher

Microaggressions are brief and everyday slights, insults, indignities, and denigrating messages sent to people of color and/or marginalized groups (women, LGBTQ+, etc.) by well-intentioned [people] who are unaware of the hidden messages being communicated (Sue et al., 2007). Microaggressions are connected to broader conceptualizations of the impact of implicit bias and systems of inequity. Specifically, in K-12 and higher education, microaggressions impact the physical, social, and emotional well-being of those who experience them. Growing research posits the need for more discussions in education about racism, sexism, and other bias prevalent in the field of education (Bergerson, 2003). As such, some …

Identifying Success Strategies For Hmong American Students In Higher Education, Jason Xiong

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Hmong Americans' postsecondary completion rates remain low when compared to other Asian ethnic groups. As the Hmong population continues to grow, so does the need for intervention to increase the total number of postsecondary graduates. Many Hmong Americans are first-generation college students and continue to face challenges and barriers that prevent them from being successful in higher education. “Forty-seven and a half percent of Hmong adults (25 years or older) reported having attended college, but not earning a degree” (National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education, 2011). Without a college degree, Hmong Americans face limited resources …

Meta-Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of Project-Based Learning Approach On Academic Achievement In Higher Education Worldwide, Ziyu Meng

Doctoral Dissertations

This research study conducted a meta-analysis to integrate the studies that investigated the effectiveness of project-based learning on academic achievement based on a worldwide higher-education population. The researcher explored the variables that previous meta-analysis studies used to evaluate academic achievements, such as student grade point average (GPA), course grades, and test scores, to explore the use of these variables in project-based learning. There were 17 studies in total included in the meta-analysis evaluating the effect size of academic achievement, which was influenced in moderator variable by subject-matter areas, school location, hours of instruction, technology support, and group size. The researcher …

The Well-Being Of A University: The Relationship Between Gratitude And Organizational Commitment On Faculty Members' Intention To Stay, Brenda Merkel, Kristi Bockorny, Amber Henderson, Aaron Scholl

Research & Publications

Retaining good employees can be difficult , and no organization is immune. This study investigated the relationship between gratitude and organizational commitment to determine if they can predict the intention to stay among university faculty. Specifically, this study analyzed gratitude, a construct that has not been researched much in the workplace. There was a significant relationship between gratitude on organizational commitment. Gratitude and organizational commitment were important predictors of intention to stay. Gratitude was supported as a moderator between organizational commitment and intention to stay. Organizations should incorporate posititve reinforcements to express gratitude to increase organizational commitment and intent to …

Using New Assessment Tools During And Post-Covid-19, Gbolahan Olasina

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This work tackles the need to evaluate and identify fresh assessment techniques utilized in LIS education during and after the COVID-19 epidemic. It investigates the impact of digital media, feedback, formative assessments, and concerns such as cheating and authenticity, providing critical insights for future assessment practises in the post-pandemic period. Accordingly, there is a pressing need to employ new assessment tools post-pandemic to adapt to online and hybrid learning challenges. This qualitative study investigates complex social phenomena in higher education assessments by exploring behaviours, preferences, beliefs, customs, attitudes, viewpoints, and experiences. Twelve LIS instructors, 6 teaching and learning administrators, and …

Beliefs Of Higher Education Online Faculty Regarding The Integration Of Multimedia, Kimberly Diane Hoyt

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Integration of multimedia resources in higher education curricula continues to be a concern for today’s teachers, especially in identifying effective, efficient, and engaging resources that provide individualized instruction and meet a variety of learning needs. However, there was a gap in the literature regarding teachers' beliefs about multimedia integration within the context of adult learning in online higher education. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the benefits and challenges higher education online teachers experienced when integrating multimedia resources into their courses. The research question explored the beliefs of higher education online instructors about their experiences when …

Beliefs Of Higher Education Online Faculty Regarding The Integration Of Multimedia, Kimberly Diane Hoyt

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Integration of multimedia resources in higher education curricula continues to be a concern for today’s teachers, especially in identifying effective, efficient, and engaging resources that provide individualized instruction and meet a variety of learning needs. However, there was a gap in the literature regarding teachers' beliefs about multimedia integration within the context of adult learning in online higher education. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the benefits and challenges higher education online teachers experienced when integrating multimedia resources into their courses. The research question explored the beliefs of higher education online instructors about their experiences when …

Nursing Students Doing Gender: Implications For Higher Education And The Nursing Profession, Lesley J. Andrew, Ken Robinson, Julie Dare, Leesa N. Costello

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The average age of women nursing students in Australia is rising. With this comes the likelihood that more now begin university with family responsibilities, and with their lives structured by the roles of mother and partner. Women with more traditionally gendered ideas of these roles, such as nurturing others and self-sacrifice, are known to be attracted to nursing as a profession; once at university, however, these students can be vulnerable to gender role stress from the competing demands of study. A qualitative research design, guided by Gadamer's hermeneutic philosophy, explored the gendered behaviours and experiences of 22 women nursing students, …