Education Commons^™

Assessing Community-Engaged Learning Impacts Using Ripple Effects Mapping, Benjamin J. Muhlestein, Roslynn Mccann

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Communicating Sustainability, an upper level undergraduate service-learning live broadcast course was created at Utah State University to help students gain critical skills in communicating and participating in local sustainability efforts. Community-Engaged Learning was a key component applied in gaining and using these skills. This study sought to capture the impacts of this course on both its students and the community partners who worked with those students using Ripple Effects Mapping. Key findings include: powerful impacts on student learning, growth and ability to engage in local movements; as well as clearly defined benefits for community partners. Included in this study …

“Does Increased Online Interaction Between Instructors And Students Positively Affect A Student’S Perception Of Quality For An Online Course?”, Jennifer Hunter Dr, Brayden Ross

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Online education is increasing as a solution to manage increasing enrollment numbers at higher education institutions. Intentionally and thoughtfully constructed courses allow students to improve performance through practice and self-assessment and instructors benefit from improving consistency in providing content and assessing process, performance, and progress.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of student to instructor interaction on the student’s perception of quality for an online course. “Does increased online interaction between instructors and students positively affect a student’s perception of quality for an online course?”

The study included over 1200 courses over a three year time …

Aggie Recreation Center Impact Report Fall 2015 To Spring 2019, Amanda M. Hagman, Erik Dickamore, Daniel Lawrence, Mitchell Colver

Publications

Recreation facilities are an integral part of the university community. The Aggie Recreation Center is a place that helps foster a well balanced student. The ARC provides students with a myriad of opportunities for recreation, exercise, and community that can support students on their academic journey. This report explored the association between ARC facility use and student persistence to the next term at Utah State University. METHODS: Students recreation center use was captured with entry log-ins as students entered the facility. Students who had a record of using the facility were compared to similar students who did not have a …

Student Nutrition Access Center: Impact Analysis 2019, Amanda M. Hagman, Hayden Hoopes, Nelda Ault-Dyslin

Publications

Introduction: Access to nutritional food items is crucial to student well-being, which in turn is crucial to student success. Student success emerges from “the amount of physical and psychological energy that the student devotes to the academic experience” (Astin, 1984). Campus nutrition programs help students eliminate food security issues so that they can devote more energy to the academic experience. However, creating efficient and convenient nutrition programs requires that administrators understand the complexities of their implementation, their effect on specific student segments, and their effect on decisions to either persist at or leave an institution. This report explores the impact …

Exploratory Advising Impact Report: Spring 2016 To Spring 2019, Amanda M. Hagman, Mykel Beorchia, Stephanie Hamblin, Mitchell Colver

Publications

Academic advising performs a pivotal contribution to student success by providing information about univeristy expectations and avenues towards graduation. Exploratory student advising has the additional task of supporting students in major selection. This analysis investigated the relationship between academic advising and student persistence for exploratory students to better understand the impact of current advising practices. METHODS: Exploratory academic advisors met with an average 53% of exporatory students each semester. Students with a record of meeting with an academic advisor were compared to similar exploratory students who did not. Students were compared using prediction-based propensity score matching. Students who met with …

University Academic Advising: Impact Analysis, Amanda M. Hagman, Mykel Beorchia, Erik Dickamore

Publications

abstract: Academic advising performs a pivotal contribution to student success by providing information about university expectations and avenues towards graduation. The impact of academic advising is routinely assessed to explore its influence on student persistence. This report explores the impact of academic advising between 2016 to 2019 on student persistence to the next term. METHODS: Academic advising met with nearly 40% of students at USU each semester. Students who had a record of meeting with an academic advisor were compared to similar students who did not. Students were compared using prediction-based propensity score matching. Students who met with an advisor …

Evaluating Relationships Of Knowledge, Attitudes, And Perception Between Ranchers And Bureau Of Land Management Professionals, Calee L. Garn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages approximately 245 million acres in the U.S., the majority of which are in the western half of the country. There have been several conflicts in Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Arizona, since 2010 that have resulted in a fatality, armed militias, several incarcerations, and lawsuits facing the federal government. Following a preliminary needs assessment conducted in Box Elder County, Utah, and a comprehensive review of the literature, further research was needed to understand BLM professional (BLM managers or BLM specialists) and rancher perceptions regarding BLM policies and procedures. The study specifically looked at attitudes, …

Questionable Behavior In The Writing Lab, David Bates

Writing Center Analysis Papers

In the setting of a writing center tutoring world where calibrated questioning is typically a core strategy of connecting with, evaluating, and ultimately counseling student writers, my work is an attempt to discover by examination and evaluation the effectiveness of questioning tools and techniques used by writing tutors and teachers. My purpose is to offer potential refinements to common questioning methods so as to help tutors better facilitate student writers in generating their own solutions to writing quandaries, as opposed to being led to preconceived tutor-generated solutions. The content of this paper is based upon my observations of tutoring sessions …

Self-Discovery, Self-Sufficiency: Assuming The Role Of A Listener While Tutoring, Adrian Thomson

Writing Center Analysis Papers

My discovery of the method of student self-discovery in tutor sessions established itself early on in my path of wearing the ‘two different hats’ of tutor and lecturer. By forming a spiel that represents my own personality within established Writing Center philosophy, I attempt to allow the student to control the session and discover improvements of their paper on their own. I do so by taking the role of a listener, which may lend itself as well to my teaching endeavors.

Hats: Being A Tutor, Teacher, Student, And Mother Learning When To Wear What Hat, Holly Vasic

Writing Center Analysis Papers

“Chapter One” of The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors (Ryan & Zimmerelli, 2016) breaks down the ways in which tutors may interact with students with the metaphor of hats and “the many hats tutors wear” (Ryan & Zimmerelli, 2016). This paper explores the way in which these hats have been worn in the USU Writing Center, in my experience, as well as how they translate into other roles I play.

Forget Power Dynamics: Why You Should Be Bbfs With Your Students And Professors, Maygan Barker

Writing Center Analysis Papers

This paper is half personal narrative and half reflection on the nature of power dynamics in the classroom and writing center. The paper examines the nature and nuances of the word “relationship,” how we interact with the concept of relationships and power, and the ways we limit our joys through limiting the types of relationships we engage in. From there it discusses how to challenge those power dynamics in the classroom and writing center, and the benefits of doing so.

The Wall Of Silence: Disrupting Kairotic Spaces, Victoria Jaye

Writing Center Analysis Papers

Every class has a balance of kairotic space where teachers have power and students accept that power within the confining space of the classroom. Power defines our world as well as our relationships to one another; without power there is no control which can be key to governing a classroom. Disruption of this power dynamic can open dialogue between teachers and students that might not have existed otherwise because students feel confined to the strictures binding their power creating a wall of silence. Using brainstorming and reflecting as well as peer tutoring, I experimented with breaking down the wall of …

High, Cry, Hesitant: A Lesson In Effective Teaching, Macy Marin Keith

Writing Center Analysis Papers

There are no rules or perfect structures when it comes to teaching, tutoring, or learning. To be concerned with them will inevitably create a wall between the student and the teacher. That wall eliminates the possibility of open communication which leads to effective discussions—a back and forth—that results in true learning. Sometimes we need to kick the rules, the guides, and the formulas out the window and instead, remember what it is to be a student first.

Successful Tutoring Sessions, Successful Student Conferences, Elsa C. Torgersen

Writing Center Analysis Papers

Many students come into their writing center appointments and student-teacher conferences with largely negative “writing baggage.” These students often have the expectation that these sessions will be what they were like in high school—the teacher marks what they have done wrong and though there may be positive things said, the students often remember the negative. So how can tutors and teachers create a new environment to help students feel comfortable with their writing while still teaching? This paper explores two potential solutions: beginning sessions and determining a session’s agenda. Through treating students like they matter and letting them help determine …

From Statia To School, Frances Avery

Writing Center Analysis Papers

This paper discusses how marginalized voices in the writing center and in the classroom can be heard. The atmosphere differences in the classroom and in the writing center contribute a great deal to the differences in communication that occur there. This paper does not define the term marginalization; basically, it refers to the exclusion that occurs because someone or a group of people are different than the people or group of people who are spear-heading the conversation. The paper begins with a personal story of marginalization and then moves into how marginalization takes places in academia. At the end of …

Of Writing, Teaching, And Tutoring: Banishing The Presence Of The Inner Critic In The Writing Center, Andrew Romriell

Writing Center Analysis Papers

The inner critic is the internal voice inside all of us that impedes us with negative messages about ourselves and our own capabilities (Elliot 111). In this essay, I illustrate the impact an inner critic can have in Writing Centers for both students and tutors alike and structure strategies to silence that critic. Three specific strategies are provided: (1) to name the inner critic in order to grant control over it, (2) to practice freewriting and understanding poor first drafts, and (3) to assist the student in understanding the allowance for imperfection within writing. By implementing these strategies alongside awareness …

Well, How Do You Feel About That Semicolon? Striking A Balance Between Instruction And Discovery As A Tutor And Teacher, Mark Smeltzer

Writing Center Analysis Papers

The paper explores the relationship between experiences with teaching and tutoring in the English Department at Utah State University. It examines observations of a first-year graduate instructor; it also draws conclusions on how to navigate the different environments of the USU Writing Center and the 1010 classroom, incorporating strategies and lessons from both

Phd Technical Communication Writing Fellows: A Proposal, Rachel Bryson

Writing Center Analysis Papers

New master’s and doctoral graduate instructors in the English department at Utah State spend two hours each week during their first semester working in the campus Writing Center as peer tutors. This practice has many positive outcomes for new students, including building familiarity with composition theory, understanding Writing Center pedagogy, and working with student writers and their texts. These outcomes are particularly beneficial to new master’s students who are entering graduate coursework and university teaching for the first time. On the other hand, new PhD students in Technical Communication & Rhetoric are typically experienced students and teachers but may be …

Learning On Equal Grounds, Andrea Diamond

Writing Center Analysis Papers

Utah State University welcomes students to its beautiful campus where they can achieve their potential in an environment where everyone is welcome and each is promised that their voice will be heard and valued. The “Diversity Statement” facilitates this by encouraging discourse in a “free and respectful exchange of ideas.” Certainly, the opportunity to collaborate with students, scholars, and instructors in such an environment would help each gain command of the English language and improve their writing skills. As a graduate student, graduate instructor, and Writing Center tutor, I looked forward to this opportunity from many angles. Navigating my campus …

Audience Awareness In The Writing Center: Guiding Introductory Writing Students With More Directive Comments, Samantha Clem

Writing Center Analysis Papers

Looking at the demographics of the students utilizing the writing center (WC) at a university in the US mountain west, the author questions whether the commenting styles in which WC tutors are trained accurately address the needs of the user population. Data on what courses WC visitors are enrolled in shows that the majority of WC user are introductory English students, with 70% of users being enrolled in one of the two required introductory level English courses (ENGL 1010 or ENGL 2010). Tutor training focuses on facilitative commenting styles, tactics that may not be effective for this given population of …

Old Buildings Have Old Drafts, Emma D. L. Chadwick

Writing Center Analysis Papers

This is a reflection of my experiences as a tutor at the Utah State University Writing Center in comparison with my time at the Dixie State University Writing Center. Although both have provided opportunities for me to learn and practice pedagogy as well as improve my own writing, both have also provided entirely different experiences and atmospheres. The physical differences between the buildings and the departments that house each writing center are reflective of the processes emphasized in their instruction of writing. Consequently, they impact the way that students view the writing process and the role of the Writing Center, …

Wearing A Hat Or A Mask: How To Consolidate The Teacher/Tutor Identity, Tyler Hurst

Writing Center Analysis Papers

What is a tutor and what is a teacher? What roles do they play in the construction of writing and the teaching of it? These identities, and their unique approaches to teaching, initially served as struggling points of my pedagogical identity. Many individuals who have ever tutored writing or taught composition can relate to this pedagogical trial by fire. So, then, while under the duress of identity how can a teacher/tutor consolidate these distinct practices? What may seem to be a crisis of identity is actually a crisis of self, best solved by identifying these frustrations and compiling the best …

Housing & Residence Life Impact Report: Fall 2017 To Spring 2018, Hayden Hoopes, Alan Andersen, Kirk Bird, John Bostock, Whit Milligan, Amanda M. Hagman

Publications

Introduction: Living on campus is considered a high impact practice for student success. Student success is believed to emerge from “the amount of physical and psychological energy that the student devotes to the academic experience” (Astin, 1984), housing and residence life programming facilitates this type of devotion. However, creating this type of living experience requires administrators understand the complexities of how housing can affect specific student groups and their decision to either persist at or leave an institution. This report explores the impact of housing and residence life at Utah State University on students living on campus. It disaggregates results …

Student Insights Report, Fall 2019, The Center For Student Analytics

Publications

For the past three years, the staff of the Center for Student Analytics have worked to discover and expose meaningful, data-informed insights into what helps students succeed at Utah State University. The following pages highlight 20 of the most useful insights we found provided here in small sets that will be useful to students, faculty, staff, university leadership, parents, and even prospective students. As you explore this report, we encourage you to see the student data as a window into USU itself. While big data helps us understand how individual students are performing, it tells us a great deal more …

Student Involvement & Leadership Center: Impact Report Spring 2015 To Fall 2018, Erik Dickamore, Amanda M. Hagman, Spencer Bitner, Nathan Laursen, Mitchell Colver

Publications

Leadership and involvement programs are an integral part of the student experience on University campuses. Volunteers and scholars within leadership and involvement serve their peers by providing rewarding events that unify the student body. Volunteers and scholars also benefit through opportunities for personal exploration and growth. Working with SILC allows students to serve and lead in a unique way. This report explored the association between student participation in leadership and involvement programs, and student persistence to the next term at Utah State University. METHODS: Students participation was captured by rosters across all SILC programs. Students who had a record of …