Higher Education Commons^™

How Do We "Raise" Ethically Minded Computer Students?, Elizabeth Milonas

Publications and Research

Intelligent technology is increasingly being woven into the fabric of everyday life. It is becoming more and more a seemingly necessary and somewhat trusted component of society for both personal and non-personal day-to-day interactions. Developing such intelligent systems requires technical expertise, such as an in-depth knowledge of natural language processing or machine learning. However, in addition to technical expertise, a deep awareness and understanding of ethics and societal impact are also essential. Mastering knowledge of ethics and societal impact falls on the shoulders of computer professionals and programmers, whose role is to design and implement the decision-making component of intelligent …

Teaching With Oer During Pandemics And Beyond, Jennifer Van Allen, Stacy Katz

Publications and Research

Purpose – Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning materials openly licensed so that others may retain, reuse, revise, remix or redistribute (the 5Rs) these materials. This paper aims to raise awareness of OER by providing a rationale for using these learning materials and a strategy for educators to get started with OER during the collective crisis and beyond. Design/methodology/approach – Using a broad research base and anecdotes from personal experience, the authors make the case that OER improves student access to learning materials and improves the learning experience in both PK-12 and higher education contexts. Findings – The authors define …

Librarians In Dissertation Deposit: Infusing An Institutional Ritual With Scholarly Communication Instruction, Roxanne Shirazi, Jill Cirasella

Publications and Research

Most doctoral students are required to produce a dissertation that makes an original contribution to their field of study in order to fulfill their degree requirements. The scholarly nature of this requirement informs how students and faculty approach doctoral research, but universities often treat the dissertations themselves merely as student records, not scholarly contributions. Librarians, however, are uniquely situated to work with graduate students as emerging participants in the scholarly communication ecosystem and help them prepare their dissertations for an outside audience. Librarians have the expertise to advise students with questions regarding copyright, licensing, fair use, and authors’ rights, as …

Economics Of Higher Education Productivity, Uchenna K. Oparah

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

How does spending affect academic outcomes in higher education institutions? Postsecondary schools incur costs to provide services to its student body. In this study, I introduce multiple outcome variables, a two-stage production function, and current-year expenditures on core services to evaluate how school spending affects academic outcomes.

The empirical analysis includes 28 group sample parameter estimates from four outcome variables, the pooled sample, and group samples for each of six sectors. The fixed effects/instrumental variable (FE-IV) instructional expenditure parameter estimates were positive for 20 of the 28 group samples. The sign and size of the estimated academic output effects varied …

Maryland’S Historically Black Institutions: In Pursuit Of Equity In Higher Education, Maureen Samedy-Cooke

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 2013, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court of Maryland ruled in The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education et al. v. Maryland Higher Education Commission et al., that through the practice of offering duplicative academic programs at Maryland’s Historically Black Institutions (HBIs) and their Traditionally White Institutions (TWIs), Maryland has practices in place that perpetuate a segregated higher education system, a violation of the United States Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This dissertation examines the effect of duplicative academic programs on racial enrollment in Maryland’s Historically Black Institutions. The study draws …

A Quantitative Examination Of Black And Hispanic Students’ Time-To-Graduation, Ferdinand A. Verley Ii

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What factors influence Black and Hispanic students’ time-to-graduation, and is it different for their special opportunity program peers? Using theoretical lenses including intersectionality, class struggle, justice, and sociological practice, this dissertation employs data from a large urban public university system to examine the relative impact of demography, academic preparedness, and financial background on students’ time-to-graduation performance.

Time-to-graduation, operationalized in this dissertation as the duration of years before a student earns a bachelor’s degree, for full-time students often represents an investment of time at the expense of earning a wage or salary in the job market. The economic gain that accrues …

Campus Design And The Community College Experience: An Exploration Of Stress, Belonging And Scholarly Identity, Vanita Naidoo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This mixed methods research study examines factors that influence the development of scholarly identity at a community college campus. It uses survey methods and a focus group with undergraduate students at the Bronx Community College (BCC) campus to examine how campus design relates to a sense of belonging, the process of reflection, and the development of a scholarly identity. Academic attrition and low performance are challenges at urban community colleges. The study aims to address how campus design, specifically green space, impacts undergraduate students at a community college. It seeks to better understand the experience of the diverse student population …

Diversity Rhetoric And Practice: A Critical Examination Of “Diversity” In Graduate Education, Tellisia M. Williams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this research is to investigate the built environment, educational policy, place making, and personalized lived experiences of doctoral students of color in “diverse” academic spaces. I critically examine the linkages and gaps in institutional policies of diversity and inclusion in relation to the narratives of doctoral students of color enrolled at the Urban Public University (pseudonym). I use qualitative methodology of Environmental Autobiography to capture the narratives. My dissertation demonstrates the importance of Critical Race Theory (CRT) by prioritizing the embodied knowledge making and experiences of people of color. This work challenges dominant ideologies of diversity and …

The Objectives Of Public Higher Education In New York City Through The Lens Of Language, John-Nicholas Parker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper displays the objectives of public higher education in New York City and their relation to changes in the city. Public higher education in New York City relies on the support of the public. This paper details adjustments to the lexicon of the school in response to changing demographics and historical events by examining statements provided by the school during different periods. Changes to the lexicon relating to class, gender, race, ethnicity, and military service are examined in relation to their historical context. Sources examined in this paper include commission reports, student newspapers, and mission statements. The paper finds …

Mission Adrift: The Impact Of Managerialism On Graduate Social Work Education, Carolyn Hanesworth

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Neoliberal policies have led to the installation of managerialism, or the application of business practices and principles in institutions of higher education. Although much is known about the impact of managerialism on faculty in the overall academy, very little is known about its impact in specific disciplines, particularly in the United States. Using semi-structured interviews, this dissertation investigates how social work faculty experience and negotiate managerialism in the traditional pillars of teaching, service, and scholarship.

This study found that managerialism leads universities to place new and increased demands for productivity, efficiency, and accountability on social work faculty. Respondents report major …

Learning To Fail? Student Experiences In Remedial Mathematics In Community Colleges, Margaret P. Fay

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Referral to remedial coursework in mathematics is a significant barrier to degree attainment for community college students, which in turn has serious consequences for their employment and earning prospects. Students are placed into remediation when they are deemed unprepared to engage in college-level coursework, most often based on a score on a placement test. Nationally, 59% of community college students are placed into remedial math courses. Of these, only 49% complete remediation and gain access to college-level coursework. Because a college-level math course is often a degree requirement, many students who fail to complete remedial math courses are forced to …

Creating A Charrette Process To Ignite The Conversation On Equity And Inclusion, Erika R. Carlson, Leslie Craigo, Peter P. Hoontis, Elisabeth Jaffe, Lynn Mcgee, James Sayegh

Publications and Research

The gaps in graduation and retention rates between ethnic and gender groups continue to be a foremost area of focus at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), The City University of New York (CUNY). Equity and inclusion is also a critical concern as it relates to faculty and staff. At BMCC, a college-wide initiative, Designing for Success, is seeking to improve declining retention and graduation rates. At its core is the question, “Have we designed our operations to produce these results?” The answer is, “Yes”. BMCC’s Designing for Success strategic planning process seeks to re-design administrative processes and teaching in …

A Single, Narrowly Focused Create Primary Literature Module Evokes Gains In Genetics Students’ Self-Efficacy And Understanding Of The Research Process, Alison Krufka, Kristy Kenyon, Sally G. Hoskins

Publications and Research

Exposure to primary literature using CREATE tools has been shown to have a positive impact on students’ self-efficacy and beliefs when incorporated into semester-long courses taught by extensively trained faculty. However, it is unknown whether similar benefits can occur with a brief exposure to CREATE in an otherwise traditionally taught course. We hypothesized that students who experienced a short-term CREATE module taught by faculty with minimal training in this pedagogy would make gains in scientific literacy and self-efficacy while also experiencing epistemological maturation. To test this hypothesis, we compared sections of students who experienced the CREATE module with sections of …

Departments And Disciplinary Gatekeeping: The Sociolinguistics Of Spanish In Us Academia, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

In his contribution, José del Valle looks at the intersection of the sociolinguistic study of Spanish in the US and the transformations of Spanish language departments in higher education. Del Valle traces the history of the institutionalization of Spanish teaching and study and its effects on linguistic research’s position within Spanish departments. Shifts in approaches to the use of language in social practice, and the growing demands on language units to act as service departments for language learners, has isolated scholars in those institutional homes from broader integration into sociolinguistic research.

Streamlining Time Spent In Alternative Developmental Mathematics Pathways: Increasing Access To College-Level Mathematics Courses By Altering Placement Procedures, Marla A. Sole

Publications and Research

Developmental mathematics, which is designed to prepare students for college-level mathematics courses, can be a barrier to students’ success. In the United States, the majority of students placed into developmental mathematics courses fail to complete the developmental sequence. Alternative mathematics pathways offer some benefits when integrated with “just-in- time support” or expedited instruction on specific prerequisite concepts needed solely for the current lesson. This study compares two statistics courses taught at a public community college: a complete course taught in one semester and a two-semester version with just-in-time developmental content integrated into the course. The study found that students placed …

Learning To Use Mathematics Vs Mastering Basics, Bukurie Gjoci

Publications and Research

This paper bestows the literature support for the need of innovative curriculum and instruction approaches of College Mathematics courses offered to students in need of remediation. One such curriculum is presented here. Designed in agreement with AMATYC (2018)-IMPACT’s vision, this innovative curriculum & instruction approach aims to create student-centered learning environments, engage students in written and oral communication and meaningful use of technology. It immerses students into subject’s big picture, explaining its components implicitly and narrows the gap between school and out-of-school mathematics.

This is Part 1 of the research project aiming to explore the use of top-down instructions when …

From Diversity To Inclusion: Challenges And Opportunities At An Urban Community College, Vanessa Marie Bing, Jason Hendrickson, Wendy Nicholson

Publications and Research

Diversity is and has been heralded as a cornerstone among high-impact practices within adult education in the United States. It embodies a larger ethos and culture within a campus, including the demography of the student body, staff, and faculty, as well as institutional memory. Yet, diversity is not enough. Inclusion is undervalued, which goes beyond taking solace in bringing together diverse bodies within the room; rather, inclusion requires an institutional response that ensures that these high-impact practices are fully realized. This paper examines the efforts undertaken at an urban community college where the student body reflects racial and cultural diversity …

Implementing Information Literacy (Il) Into Stem Writing Courses: Effect Of Il Instruction On Students’ Writing Projects At An Urban Community College, Miseon Kim, Mercedes Franco, Dugwon Seo

Publications and Research

The purpose of this study was to implement information literacy (IL) into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) writing courses at an urban community college, investigate if students’ information literacy (IL) skills were improved through library one-shot instruction, and determine if there was an association between IL skills and students’ writing performance. Students in the experimental group attended the library instructional class and students in the control group had no library class. Students’ research papers were scored using the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) Information Literacy VALUE Rubric to grade the effectiveness of the library instruction (Association …

The Impact Of Undergraduate Research And Student Characteristics On Student Success Metrics At An Urban, Minority Serving, Commuter, Public Institution, Sheila I. Baron, Pamela Brown, Tammie Cumming, Michelle Mengeling

Publications and Research

Challenges to establishing and maintaining undergraduate research programs include how to demonstrate impact as evidence for future funding, establish eligibility criteria when resources are limited, and assess new components. To address these challenges, undergraduate researcher GPA, credit accumulation and time to graduation were evaluated longitudinally, at an urban, public, minority and Hispanic serving, commuter college. Students who participated in undergraduate research and matched peers were also compared. Evaluation revealed that all groups benefited from participation in undergraduate research, whether they had full- or part-time status, were STEM or non-STEM majors, or participated in single or multiple semesters of research. Addition …

Taking Your Teaching To The Next Level Through The Use Of Oer, Nicole N. Williams

Publications and Research

Faculty creation, adaptation, and adoption of open educational resources (OER) can be used to enrich every aspect of the professor-student teaching relationship. Adding to the body of OER available allows faculty to rethink every aspect of what they teach and refine how they present that information. Having the ability to edit and adapt existing OER provides faculty with the benefits of collaboration, but without the scheduling concerns that often plague collaborative efforts. OER creation can be as simple as licensing handouts and presentation slides for sharing, or as involved as redesigning an entire course. Putting one’s own stamp on OER …

Creating And Using Open Educational Resources (Oer) In Reading And Writing Classes, Christine E. Hutchins

Publications and Research

Creating her own assignments using openly licensed course materials allows this professor and her students to be more creative and to take greater advantage of digital resources.

Open To What? A Critical Evaluation Of Oer Efficacy Studies, Ian Mcdermott

Publications and Research

This selective literature review evaluates open educational resources (OER) efficacy studies through the lens of critical pedagogy. OER have radical potential as transformative tools for critical pedagogy or they can serve as a cost-free version of the status quo, inclined toward propagating austerity. This review analyzes studies published since 2008 with regard to cost, access, pedagogy, commercialization, and labor. These criteria are used to make explicit subjects indirectly addressed, if not ignored completely, in the existing literature. Typically, ample attention is paid to a study’s design and methodology but the underlying institutional infrastructure and decision-making process is unexamined. What emerges …

Spatial Distribution Of Chinese Language Education And Historical Development Of Chinese Language Pedagogy In Higher Education In The United States, Jing Zhao

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project includes two major components: an interactive digital map that displays the geographical distribution of Chinese language programs in colleges and universities in the United States, their program starting years, the types of such universities and colleges, and their names and states; and a multimedia essay on the evolution of Chinese language pedagogy in colleges and universities in the United States. Data has been collected on the program start year, school names, states where schools are located, school types, and whether the school had been funded by two federal sponsored language programs: the National Defense Education Act in …

Faculty Advisement And Helpfulness And The Retention Of First-Semester Associate Degree Nursing Students, Janice Summers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The retention and success of nursing students are essential to address the expected growth in demand for healthcare services. By focusing on success, rather than remediation, nursing students are empowered to reach their full potential. Nursing faculty advisement and helpfulness are essential components of nursing student retention. Guided by the Jeffreys Nursing Universal Retention and Success (NURS) conceptual model, this quantitative descriptive multi-site research study appraised first-semester associate degree nursing (ADN) students’ perceptions of nursing faculty advisement and helpfulness and the restrictiveness or supportiveness of other variables as they related to course completion. Jeffreys Student Perception Appraisal-Revised (SPA-R2) tool was …

Asians Applying For Postsecondary Success: Students, Schools, And Socioeconomic Status, Avery M.D. Davis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Higher education recruitment rates are rapidly declining as schools are stymied by dynamic demographic shifts and a competitive ecosystem. Despite the constant realities of this challenge for tertiary institutions, the complexities of the interplay for demographics, student motivation, parental influences, and school environments during the postsecondary education application process is often overlooked. This thesis analyses how these four domains impact Asian American students within the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) in terms of the number of postsecondary schools to which they apply? This study examines a sample (N = 662) of the ELS by employing multivariate regression analysis on the number …

Supporting Institutional Objectives By Embedding Mission-Critical Competencies In Credit-Bearing Library Instruction: A Review And Case Study, Derek Stadler, Alexandra Rojas

Publications and Research

This article reviews scholarship of incorporating institutional objectives in academic courses and proposes a method to embed mission-critical competencies in a library instruction course. Few academic institutions focus their mission or core competencies on digital communication. LaGuardia Community College delineates three competencies in its mission: inquiry and problem solving, global learning, and integrative learning. Students exhibit command of these competencies in written, oral, or digital communication. The College defines the digital communication ability as successful collaboration and interaction using online tools, such as discussion boards, either to stage written exchange, or to capture video or oral discussions. Through participation in …

Exploring Innovative Ways To Incorporate The Association Of College And Research Libraries Framework In Graduate Science Teacher Education Eportfolio Projects, Alison Lehner-Quam, Wesley Pitts

Publications and Research

This article investigates ways in which student voice informed design research into information literacy instruction in a year-long graduate science education ePortfolio culminating project. Library and science education faculty partnered in a two-year project to create communities of secondary science education students, in two cohorts, who used the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education to support their own research and reflections into information literacy. The overarching goal was to improve the course design to help science teachers develop their professional competencies in information literacy to conduct research to support their practice. Examination of students’ responses to research experiences …

Presence: Hope And 21st Century American Academia, Aaron Barlow

Publications and Research

Observations on American higher education that first appeared as blog posts, these were sparked by the progress of the author's own academic career from adjunct to full professor, a progression that also included six years as the Faculty Editor of "Academe," the magazine of the American Association of University Professors.

Understanding How Perceptions Of Power And Identity Influence Student Engagement And Teaching In Undergraduate Art History Survey Courses, Rebecka A. Black

Art History Pedagogy & Practice

Student engagement in undergraduate art history survey courses has been a concern of art historians for decades. In this article I discuss my dissertation study in which I explored how perceptions of student and teacher identity, acting within classroom power dynamics, influence student engagement and pedagogy in undergraduate art history survey courses. Through concept mapping, interviews, and observations of three instructors and nine students in undergraduate art history survey courses at a public university in southeastern Texas, I explore perceptions of students and instructors regarding self, each other, course content, teaching style, and expectations of one another to understand how …

The Metacognitive And Exploratory Use Of The Concept Map For Thematic Art History Papers In The Survey Course, Leda Cempellin

Art History Pedagogy & Practice

This article examines how the introduction of pedagogical interventions in the art history survey class, made by using concept maps beyond an initial brainstorming phase and rather as an active-learning strategy in aid to developing thematic papers, impacts students’ perception of their usefulness. The qualitative and quantitative data gathered included two questionnaires, one submitted periodically throughout the semester and one after the concept map and term paper were completed. Additionally, this study presents a visual analysis of three sample sets of students’ concept maps to illustrate the levels of deep, surface, and non-learning. The results reveal that assigning students the …