Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Implementing Active Learning Techniques In An Undergraduate Aviation Meteorology Course, Daniel J. Halperin, Robert W. Eicher, Thomas A. Guinn, Joseph R. Keebler, Kim O. Chambers

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

A course in Aviation Weather is an integral component of multiple degree programs at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Consequently, the course sustains large enrollments with several faculty teaching it. Efforts to promote a consistent experience for students resulted in primarily PowerPoint-based lectures. This paper describes a set of changes made to the course with the goal of improving students’ engagement, understanding, and retention of the course material that are consistent with effective teaching strategies based on prior research. Specifically, daily quizzes, Poll Everywhere questions, in-class activities, flipped classroom sessions, and assertion-evidence based lectures were introduced. These changes initially were implemented in …

Connections Impact On Student Persistence: Impact Report Spring 2015 To Fall 2018, Amanda M. Hagman, Heidi Kesler, Matt Sanders, Mitchell Colver

Publications

Connections is Utah State University's (USU) first-year seminary. A primary objective of Connections is student persistence. It is designed to help students become learners. While being a learner is not synonymous with being a college student, it aligns students’ expectations with what is required to succeed in college and at USU. This impact report explores the influence of Connections participation on student persistence to the next term. Participation in Connections is associated with a 1.4% increase in persistence to the next term. The positive impact of Connections is increasing with strategic programmatic changes.

Writing Fellows: Impact Analysis Fall 2015 To Spring 2019, Amanda M. Hagman, Julie Foust, Erik Dickamore, Hayden Hoopes

Publications

The Writing Fellows program strategically places high performing writing mentors in courses with rigorous writing requirements. Writing Fellows work with each student in a course by reviewing their writing and offering mentoring to improve their written communication skills. Persistence is a secondary objective of the Writing Fellow program. As such, an impact evaluation on persistence should only be used as part of an evaluation of the influence of the Writing Fellows program on student wellbeing. This impact evaluation on student persistence found that students in courses with a Writing Fellow experienced a significant increase in persistence to the next term …

New Student Orientation: Impact Analysis Fall 2017 To Spring 2019, Amanda M. Hagman, Jacob Van Den Akker, Erik Dickamore, Lisa Simmons

Publications

The transition to university represents a major life change more incoming students. To facilitate this transition, USU adopted a phased-orientation system that provides students information justin- time for use. Currently, Module 3 can be completed either in-person or online. This analysis explores both the impact of the phased-orientation modules and the impact of completing Module 3 online verse in-person on student persistence to the next term. METHODS: First students who completed Module 3 online were compared to students who completed Module 3 in-person. Next students who completed all 5 modules were compared to students who only completed the required modules. …

Writing Center: Impact Analysis Fall 2014 To Fall 2018, Amanda M. Hagman, Kendall Becker, Susan B. Andersen, Star Coulbrooke, Erik Dickamore, Jasilyn Heaps

Publications

The Utah State University (USU) Writing Center is dedicated to empowering students to express their knowledge and ideas in writing. Their approach promotes academic inquiry, critical thinking, and expressions of diversity. While research and evaluation suggest that the Writing Center significantly impacts student academic performance, the impact on student persistence is not yet clear. This report explores the association between USU’s Writing Center and students’ persistence toward graduation. METHODS: Students’ Writing Center use was captured through student log-ins at writing appointments. Students who had a record of using the Writing Center were compared to similar students who did not have …

Passport Experience: Impact Analytics Fall 2014 To Fall 2018, Amanda M. Hagman, Nate Jensen, Lisa Simmons, Janet Anderson, Erik Dickamore

Publications

Utah State University (USU) dedicates substantial resources to support student transition to higher education. The Passport Experience cuts across all university domains to support early student participation in curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities. Students are invited to attend a variety of events, when milestones are reached, students are rewarded. Persistence is a primary objective of the Passport Experience. The Passport Experience helps students develop an increased awareness of campus events, broad their engagement in the university experience, and become more involved in the University community. This report explores the association between the Passport Experience and students’ persistence toward graduation. METHODS: …

How Do Usu Students Use University Support Services?, Amanda M. Hagman, Meghan Lewis, Kristi Swainston, Mitchell Colver

Publications

The central mission of USU is to be one of the nation’s premier student-centered universities. This is accomplished by fostering academics and offering opportunities to expand students’ vision of the world around them through co- and extra-curricular activities. These auxiliary activities are designed to support academic achievement and to engage students in meaningful opportunities to practice and enhance their personal and professional well-being. This analysis describes how students are using co- and extra-curricular services. It investigates the most salient student-facing programming in supporting student retention.

Fraternity & Sorority Life: Impact Analysis Spring 2016 To Fall 2019, Erik Dickamore, Paige Eidenschink, Amanda M. Hagman

Publications

Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL) is a valued part of the USU community It connects students with leadership and philanthropic opportunities throughout their time at university. Many students cite their time spent associated with FSL as one of the biggest contributing factors of their university experience. METHODS: Student’s membership in a FSL is recorded each semester on rosters. These rosters were used in identifying which students participated in FSL. Students were compared using prediction-based propensity score matching. Students who participated in FSL were matched with non-participating students based on their persistence predication and their propensity to participate. FINDINGS: Students were …

The Challenge Of Counseling Research In Developing A Signature Pedagogy For Quantitative Methods, Richard S. Balkin

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

Research in counseling is at risk of becoming impertinent, if not irrelevant, with an over-emphasis on perceptions of counselors or counselors in-training, and a lack of evidence supporting client-centered outcomes and community needs. Students seeking doctoral degrees in training may have limited interest in research, and research courses are typically taught outside of the discipline by individuals unaffiliated with the counseling profession. Research courses may not be aligned with the needs of counseling researchers who focus on individuals and small groups. Developing a signature pedagogy emphasizing tools and methods consistent with the needs of emerging counseling researchers may be important …

Persona Development: Unpacking The Process, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In our last post, we introduced the concept of personas and discussed how we are using personas to create a compelling and approachable representation of our aggregated interview data with working learners. Our hope is that the personas we develop will help practitioners and program developers better understand the working learners' experiences. We have found that personas help us illustrate who working learners are and situate our findings within the existing instructional design paradigm. In this post, we discuss our process for creating person as.

School Libraries In South Australia 2019 Census, Katherine Dix, Rachel Felgate, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Toby Carslake, Shani Sniedze

School and system improvement

This report presents the results of a survey census and website review of school libraries, taken across all South Australian schools in Term 3, 2019. The census collected data on school library staffing, facilities, funding, and support. Results reveal that schools with a qualified teacher librarian are more likely to have improved student literacy outcomes. While 94 per cent of South Australian schools have someone to manage the library collection and to select resources, less than a quarter (23 per cent) are managed by a qualified teacher librarian. Questions about the nature of library provision in schools uncovered eight main …

Assessment Of Social Media Use On Study Habits Among Nursing Students: A Case Study Of Babcock University, Sussan Udoaku Ogbuiyi Phd, Chuks Daniel Oriogu, Folashade Munirat Lawal, Chukwuemeka Anthony Onyebuchi

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Objective- The main objective of the study is to investigate the assessment of social media use on study habits among nursing students in Babcock University ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria. Methods- The study adopted survey research design. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analysis. Specifically, data collected were analyzed using charts, graphs, percentages and frequency were used to answer the research questions. The Analysis of Variance were used to test hypotheses at 0.05 significant level.

Results- The results and findings revealed that 66 (68.8%) of the respondents use the social …

Leveraging Local Resources And Contexts For Inclusive Computer Science Classrooms: Reflections From Experienced High School Teachers Implementing Electronic Textiles, Mia S. Shaw, Deborah A. Fields, Yasmin B. Kafai

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Background and context

Promoting open-ended projects presents new opportunities and challenges for inclusive teaching in CS classrooms. While efforts have been made to develop inclusive curricula, little research has focused on ways teachers apply curricula in their classrooms to promote inclusion.

Objective

To understand the challenges faced in facilitating an open-ended unit and the pedagogical strategies enacted to address those challenges, we analyze the self-reported teaching practices that experienced teachers developed in their implementation of a constructionist electronic textiles unit in Exploring Computer Science.

Method

We inductively analyzed and coded 17 experienced teachers’ weekly surveys and post-interviews.

Findings

Teachers …

An Experimental Evaluation Of Arts Field Trips, Heidi H. Erickson, Angela R. Watson, Jay P. Greene

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

This paper presents results of a multi-visit, longitudinal experiment on the academic and social-emotional effects of arts-based field trips. We randomly assign fourth and fifth grade students to receive arts-based field trips throughout the school year or to serve as a control. Treatment students express greater tolerance for people with different opinions and a desire to consume arts. Additionally, treatment students have fewer behavioral infractions, attend school more frequently, score higher on their end-of-grade exams, and receive higher course grades. Effects are strongest when students enter middle school. We find no effect on students’ desire to participate in the arts, …

Computer Science Teacher Survey, Josh B. Mcgee, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

In April/May of 2020, the University of Arkansas’ Office for Education Policy (OEP), in partnership with Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson's Computer Science and Cyber Security Task Force, fielded a survey with the 400+ Arkansas educators who at that time held a computer science endorsement (528), computer science approval code (5016), or computer science technical permit (5014) on their educator’s license. The survey received 153 responses, a nearly 40 percent response rate.

Academic Department Indicators, 2019-2020, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Academic Department Indicators

The audience is the Academic Planning Council (APC), college and department heads, and faculty. The purpose is to report instructional productivity measures useful for making comparisons and observing trends. Selected departmental information in this report is submitted annually to the Delaware Study, a National Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity.

This Instructional Productivity information corresponds to the UNO state- and tuition-funded budget. The Supplemental Information at the end of the document provides counts and statistics for campus-wide programs embedded in most colleges. Only Dual Enrollment instruction is excluded from the productivity report since it is a fee-based instructional program for …

Faculty Perceptions Of Online Teaching At A Midsized Liberal Arts University, Dana L. Shreaves, Yu-Hui Ching, Lida Uribe-Florez, Jesús Trespalacios

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this mixed-methods study, faculty perceptions of online teaching at a midsized liberal arts university were examined to better understand faculty acceptance and participation in online teaching at the university. Seventy-nine participants responded to a survey that collected qualitative and quantitative data. Content analysis of faculty perceptions of online teaching was employed and resulted in the identification of six themes. An examination of 21 quantitative factors identified 17 factors reported by more than 50% of respondents to influence their decision to teach or not teach online. Study participants perceived online learning as attractive to students but they wanted any online …

Academic Librarians Examination Of University Students’ And Faculty’S Perceptions Of Open Educational Resources, Lane Fischer, Olga Belikov, Tarah K. Ikahihifo, John Hilton, David Wiley, M. Troy Martin

Entrepreneurship Faculty Research

A survey of 2,574 students and 1,157 faculty members across ten institutions of postsecondary education in the state of Utah was conducted by the Utah Academic Libraries Consortium. Survey items were created to understand the influence of textbook costs on student academic behavior and the viability of faculty adopting open educational resources (OER) as a solution to the cost of textbooks and the possible need for librarian support of OER. Two-year and four-year institutions were compared to identify differences that might exist between them. Most students felt that their academic success was negatively impacted by textbook cost, particularly at two-year …

Access And Stratification: One City, Two Dual Enrollment Programs, Clancy Ratliff, Daniel A. Smith

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes and reflects on dual enrollment programs at a two-year college and a four-year research university in the same city and branches into a critique of dual enrollment and an argument for the need for inter-institutional collaboration toward goals of student access and opportunity.

Earning And Learning Research Project: Report To The Department For Education, South Australia, Julie Mcmillan, Shani Sniedze, Rachel Felgate, Petra Lietz

Vocational, adult and professional education research

The aim of the Earning and Learning Research Partnership was to explore the reasons why a substantial proportion of successive cohorts of students in South Australia had not completed the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) or were identified as potential non-completers. The project officially commenced in September 2019 and was completed in August 2020.The research particularly aimed to capture the student voice behind young people’s earning and learning pathway choices, specifically identifying: why students in Years 10, 11, or 12 leave school without a documented “valid” reason (leavers); and why some Year 12 students remain enrolled in high school …

Service-Learning In Catholic Higher Education And Alternative Approaches Facing The Covid-19 Pandemic, Qianhui Tian, Thomas Noel Jr.

COVID-19 and Catholic Schools

Drawing on a review of the literature on service-learning in Catholic higher education and the development of online service-learning, as well as an empirical case study of 2020 Vincentian Service Day at DePaul University, this article examines an alternative way to develop service-learning in Catholic schools in response to the reality and needs of the world in front of us. Service-learning is widely practiced in higher education institutions and plays an essential role in Catholic schools as it integrates students’ faith, morals, and spiritual growth with social justice commitments. School closures due to COVID-19 significantly impede service-learning. However, a successful …

Challenges Of Remote Teaching For K-12 Teachers During Covid-19, Nancy L. Leech, Sophie Gullett, Miriam Howland Cummings, Carolyn Haug

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

During the Coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) remote learning presented many new challenges for K-12 teachers, and likely presented unique challenges for different content areas and grade levels. To investigate this problem, a survey-based quantitative study was conducted. A total of 831 teachers in a midwestern state completed a survey on the challenges of remote teaching. Results found (1) areas expected to present challenges that did not, (2) challenges that surfaced for teachers regardless of the grade level or content they taught, and (3) challenges that were experienced differently by teachers within educational levels and/or content areas. Continued exploration of how …

An Administrator's Perspective On The Novel Coronavirus, Jane Beese, Melissa Mlakar

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

In our current situation, of COVID 19, many school administrators feel helpless and powerless. Bringing students back into the classroom puts leaders in a position where they cannot guarantee everyone’s safety. Leaders are under pressure to keep faculty, staff, and students safe and that responsibility can be overwhelming (National Association of Secondary School Principals, 2020a). Administrators have an obligation to provide an education to students. It is what educators, do, after all. However, school leaders also have an obligation as an employer to make sure our staff is supported and safe. It is hard to believe that leaders can do …

Becoming A Highly Effective Elementary Teacher And How To Support Teachers' Development, Tim Pressley, Riley Isom, Chalon Johnson, Amy Barnes, Laura Mcauliffe

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

As teachers enter the field of teaching, teachers look to continue to develop in order to become highly effective teachers as they are often less effective than teachers with at least some experience (Boyd et al., 2008; Ladd & Sorenson, 2017). This development may occur through the support of mentors, administration, professional development (PD), as well as through trial and error, with the most development occurring during the first several years of teaching (Koedel & Betts, 2007; Rice, 2003). However, not all teachers develop into effective teachers. Some aspects that may affect a teacher’s effectiveness are the classroom environment, instruction, …

Breaking Up The Grade, Thomas R. Guskey

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

To make grading more meaningful, course grades should reflect a range of distinct criteria that make up student learning.

Service-Learning In Catholic Higher Education And Alternative Approaches Facing The Covid-19 Pandemic, Qianhui Tian, Thomas Noel Jr.

Journal of Catholic Education

Drawing on a review of the literature on service-learning in Catholic higher education and the development of online service-learning, as well as an empirical case study of 2020 Vincentian Service Day at DePaul University, this article examines an alternative way to develop service-learning in Catholic schools in response to the reality and needs of the world in front of us. Service-learning is widely practiced in higher education institutions and plays an essential role in Catholic schools as it integrates students’ faith, morals, and spiritual growth with social justice commitments. School closures due to COVID-19 significantly impede service-learning. However, a successful …

American Registry Of Radiologic Technologists Exam Preparation: A Case Study, Sarah E. Harradon

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to investigate the students’ perceptions of preparedness to take the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) certification exam after the completion of a last semester registry preparation course at a small health profession college located in the northeast. In addition to perceptions of preparedness this study explored the effectiveness of the HESI Radiography Exit Exam preparation tool and the relationship between perceptions of preparedness and ARRT exam scores and 1st time pass rates. The problem that initiated this case study was the ARRT exam scores and 1st time pass rates at Radiography Program …

Eight Essential Principles For Improving Grading, Susan Brookhart, Thomas R. Guskey, Jay Mctighe, Dylan Wiliam

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Done well, grading can play a key role in a balanced district assessment system.

Remote Learning Rapid Literature Review, Gill Cowden, Pru Mitchell, Pauline Taylor-Guy

Student learning processes

This rapid literature review identifies effective practice in remote learning and synthesises key evidence relevant to education in Australia during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. It draws upon bodies of literature about education in emergencies, access and equity, distance education, blended learning, and quality teaching and learning using technology. The focus is primarily on Kindergarten to Year 12 schooling in Australia. The literature firstly examines education in emergencies, as this underpins the initial crisis approaches and preparedness for the shift to remote learning. The research in this area has a strong focus on implications for wellbeing. The review is then organised …

Designing Analog Learning Games: Genre Affordances, Limitations And Multi-Game Approaches, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Articles

This chapter explores what the authors discovered about analog games and game design during the many iterative processes that have led to the Lost & Found series, and how they found certain constraints and affordances (that which an artifact assists, promotes or allows) provided by the boardgame genre. Some findings were counter-intuitive. What choices would allow for the modeling of complex systems, such as legal and economic systems? What choices would allow for gameplay within the time of a class-period? What mechanics could promote discussions of tradeoff decisions? If players are expending too much cognition on arithmetic strategizing, could that …