Higher Education Commons^™

The Consequences Of The Election For Higher Education., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

“So, now what?” That is the question some people are asking when it comes to higher education after one of the longest and most contentious presidential elections in American history. The question comes up not only because of the results, but also because higher education is facing one of its most grave situations in its history due to, among other things, decreasing funding, exorbitant student debt and bad press.

So what can we expect in the months and years to come based on the platform and statements issued by the leaders of the upcoming administration? Here is a sample.

Higher Education Losing Ground In Public Opinion., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

How To Peel A Prologue: Sensory Reading In Practice In Two 90-Minute Lessons, Nicola Blake

Publications and Research

This essay provides rich examples of sensory reading in practice. It provides strategies for peeling a prologue, a methodology that engages developmental readers through active reading and writing examples. The strategies can be built on and extended to larger pieces of work. The essay is also a good example of scaffolding and using graphic organizers in a developmental writing community college classroom.

Student Evaluations Of Instructors May Be Flawed., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

For years, one of the most standard practices in

higher education has been what’s called “student

evaluation of teaching,” also known by its acronym

SET. This is a process that is carried out in just about

every college and university course every semester or

term. They are used essentially to measure how effective

a teacher is by surveying student satisfaction.

And the results of these surveys are used to make

many important decisions, such as whether or not

faculty members should be granted tenure – or even

keep their jobs.

A new study, however, is challenging the conventional

wisdom that …

College Libraries Eye Tradition In Era Of Change., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

One could argue that universities originated

from places like the Library of Alexandria, established

23 centuries ago in Egypt. Libraries like

the one in Alexandria attracted the most talented

intellectuals.

They contained not only a large number of

papyrus scrolls but also served as botanical gardens,

collections of art and places of residence

for scholars.

When modern universities were built, libraries

occupied a distinctive place where students and

faculty went on an almost daily basis to seek the

information they needed for their studies. But

over the last few decades their role has transformed

and lessened. One reason for this …

What Democrats Have Planned For Higher Education., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

The Democrats have made a number of concrete

promises regarding higher education if they win

the presidential elections. They promise concerted

actions against sexual assaults on campuses that

include comprehensive support for survivors, fair

judicial processes that prevent the use of cultural

biases against females as “inciters,” and increased

prevention efforts through education programs.

The Clinton campaign also promises support for

net neutrality, the idea that Internet service providers

should enable access to all content and applications

regardless of the source without favoring or blocking

particular products or websites. The Democratic plan

also proposes expanding availability of fiber-optic

broadband Internet …

How Higher Ed Will Fare Under Gop President., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Last week we reported that when it comes to

higher education, the Republican platform for this

election was a single paragraph with no real details

of what they propose to do for the next four years.

Given that, the only thing we can do to discern what

their policies will be for the sector is to analyze their

speeches and past policies and stances.

For example, during their Cleveland convention

Republican leaders propose to decouple accreditation

from federal financial aid. That means that a lot

of colleges and universities will feel no pressure to

maintain a minimum of standards and …

What The Candidates Promise For Higher Ed, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

With the general elections just one month away it is

time to look at what the candidates for president of the

United States and their party platforms offer in terms of

higher education. Let’s start with the Republican party.

Donald Trump has not said much on the issue and his

party platform on higher education is confined to one

paragraph. “When student loan debt exceeds the nation’s

credit card debt, we must recognize that our higher education

system is on an unsustainable path. The Republican

Party supports an education system that provides families

with greater transparency and more information so …

Funeral In The Classroom: A Failed Teaching Practice?, Nicola Blake

Publications and Research

The author introduces the idea of performative annotation as a powerful teaching tool to engage students in a shared experience of reading and understanding a piece of text. Orality and performance are shared constructs that provide opportunities for students to demarcate moments in a text that resonated with them. The nature of this activity is called into question because of the deeply emotional responses students have towards the experiential learning activity of recreating a funeral in the classroom. This article assesses what went wrong with the activity and offers suggestions on how to make space for performative annotation prior to …

Mobile App Usage Assessment In The Academic Library, Rebecca Arzola, Stefanie Havelka

Publications and Research

This column discusses different approaches, and methods to assess app usage. In the following we exemplify mobile strategies and initiatives set up by some universities that libraries can adopt.

What The Death Of Moocs Has Taught Us., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

One of the loudest hypes in the history of higher

education has been all the chat about MOOCs.

The idea of Massive Open Online Courses was

launched five years ago when Stanford University

announced that by using Internet-based technologies

they would be able to offer college classes

for free.

Imagine, a world-class university offering a free

education from the comfort of your home, one that

didn’t require any admission tests or high school

transcripts. The possibilities were so exciting that

immediately there was talk about the final revolution

in higher education – the end of colleges and

universities as we …

Learning From Australia’S Funding Of Higher Ed., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

One of the most controversial issues in higher education today is its cost, particularly for the students who end up carrying the burden of heavy college loan debt. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the total U.S student loan debt was $1.26 trillion in 2016, which is more than the total credit card debt in the country.

Despite Changes, College’S Role Remains The Same., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In these times of continuous change and challenges

to higher education, it is not a bad idea to ponder

whether or not its fundamental mission has changed.

Most people accept that the main mission of colleges

and universities is the transmission of knowledge.

Whether that knowledge is used to learn

skills, get a better job, or simply for advancement of

intellectual growth, that is and has always been the

mission of higher education.

Principles And Practices Fostering Inclusive Excellence: Lessons From The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’S Capstone Institutions, Patricia Marten Dibartolo, Leslie Gregg-Jolly, Deborah Gross, Cathryn A. Manduca, Ellen Iverson, David B. Cooke Iii, Gregory K. Davis, Cameron Davidson, Paul E. Hertz, Lisa Hibbard, Shubha K. Ireland, Catherine Mader, Aditi Pai, Shirley Raps, Kathleen Siwicki, Jim E. Swartz

Publications and Research

Best-practices pedagogy in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) aims for inclusive excellence that fosters student persistence. This paper describes principles of inclusivity across 11 primarily undergraduate institutions designated as Capstone Awardees in Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) 2012 competition. The Capstones represent a range of institutional missions, student profiles, and geographical locations. Each successfully directed activities toward persistence of STEM students, especially those from traditionally underrepresented groups, through a set of common elements: mentoring programs to build community; research experiences to strengthen scientific skill/ identity; attention to quantitative skills; and outreach/bridge programs to broaden the student pool. This paper …

Extreme Poverty Affects Many College Students., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

One of the most painful realities of higher education in the 21st century – and one that gets very little attention – is the fact that some college students live in extreme poverty, oftentimes sleeping in libraries, cars, or temporarily with friends. Despite the extreme conditions under which they live, or in many cases because of them, these students still seek the education and training needed to be able to get a job and move out of poverty. Some colleges and universities are taking steps to help.

Study Abroad Scholarships A Good Use Of Taxes., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

There is little doubt that an international experience

is one of the most life-changing events for a college student.

That is what one hears from students when they

return, particularly from those who have never even

been abroad in their lives. Cost is usually mentioned

as the major barrier for Americans to have such an

experience. And this barrier can be particularly high for

minority and first-generation college students.

Yet, there is a little known but very successful federal

program known as The Benjamin A. Gilman International

Scholarship Program that serves to help U.S. college students

interested in going abroad.

Scandals Are Threatening Higher Education., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Among the unfortunate curses affecting the

image of higher education are the scandals taking

place with unrelenting regularity. Whether

they have to do with athletics, sexual assaults,

murders, cheating, hazing, or corruption, the

media are echoing those scandals, sometimes

in excruciating detail. In some cases, like the

“Sandusky affair” that made headlines for

months and tarnished the reputation of Penn

State University and its renowned football coach

Joe Paterno, these scandals have a lasting effect

on public opinion.

We in academia have always been worried

about the effect of these scandals on an issue

very important to colleges and universities …

Cultivating Minority Scientists: Undergraduate Research Increases Self-Efficacy And Career Ambitions For Underrepresented Students In Stem, Anthony Carpi, Darcy M. Ronan, Heather M. Falconer, Nathan H. Lents

Publications and Research

In this study, Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) is used to explore changes in the career intentions of students in an undergraduate research experience (URE) program at a large public minority-serving college. Our URE model addresses the challenges of establishing an undergraduate research program within an urban, commuter, underfunded, Minority-Serving Institution (MSI). However, our model reaches beyond a focus on retention and remediation toward scholarly contributions and shifted career aspirations. From a student’s first days at the College to beyond their graduation, we have encouraged them to explore their own potential as scientists in a coordinated, sequential, and self-reflective process. …

Should The New England Education Research Organization Start A Journal In The Age Of Audit Culture? Reflections On Academic Publishing, Metrics, And The New Academy, Edward Lehner, Kate Finley

Publications and Research

A large regional educational research association can straightforwardly establish a scholarly journal associated with its annual meeting. However, this work underscores the complicated scholarly ecosystem that an association enters when publishing a journal. The social sciences’ scholarly literature exists in a related series of networks that could be described as a type of “audit culture.” Within audit culture, two major academic publishers, Elsevier and Thomson Reuters, have established competing, yet strikingly collinear, journal metrics systems: Scopus and Web of Science, respectively. These and other bibliometrics systems are used to assess, order, and rank the supposed value of a researcher’s work. …

Should College Students Assessed As Needing Remedial Algebra Take College-Level Statistics Instead?, Alexandra W. Logue

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Review: The New Celebrity Scientists. Out Of The Lab And Into The Limelight. Fahy, Declan. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In the last couple of decades, we have seen the widespread ascendancy of the

phenomenon of celebrity in society. Celebrities as a cultural manifestation are not

necessarily something new. We saw that notion in the twentieth century being

exploited by Hollywood through their “star system” as well as by sports teams

hungry to increase their revenues. Now that phenomenon has expanded into areas

that we would not have imagined decades ago, and one of them is in the field of

science. With the advent of social media and the relaxation of social views

regarding stereotypes, we have seen the rise …

Review: Posner, Richard A. Divergent Paths: The Academy And The Judiciary. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2016., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Legal education in the United States has been controversial in the last few years

due to its cost, decreasing enrollments, and doubts about its practical value. Until

the mid-nineteenth century legal training was essentially technical in nature. At

that time many lawyers—like Abraham Lincoln—could afford to study the law by

themselves without even attending law school and then, by passing the bar exam,

were admitted in the legal profession.

Using Student-Developed Narratives To Improve Learning And Engagement In Computer Problem-Solving Courses, Candido Cabo, Reneta Lansiquot

Publications and Research

In our Computer Systems major, we require all students to take a problem-solving course (PS) to prepare them for subsequent courses in computer programming. As part of the PS course, students learn basic procedural programming concepts such as input, sequencing, selection (if/else), repetition (for and while loops), and output, using flowchart interpreters like Visual Logic (www.visuallogic.org). When trying to solve flowcharting problems, students have difficulty translating word problems into computer algorithms. Moreover, most problems proposed to students are closely related to mathematics and accounting, and our students are not well prepared in mathematics. Partly for this reason, students are often …

Integrating Creative Writing And Computational Thinking To Develop Interdisciplinary Connections, Candido Cabo, Reneta Lansiquot

Publications and Research

A typical college curriculum does not make it easy for students to establish connections between required general education courses and courses in their majors. Intentional linking of courses from different disciplines using interdisciplinary pedagogical strategies allows students to make those connections while developing the interdisciplinary skills which will benefit their college and post-college careers.

In addition to communication, critical thinking and reasoning, and collaborative skills, it has been recently argued that computational thinking (i.e., the application of computing concepts and methods to solve problems) should also be a part of a twenty-first century liberal education for a broad range of …

Should Students Assessed As Needing Remedial Mathematics Take College-Level Quantitative Courses Instead? A Randomized Controlled Trial, Alexandra W. Logue, Mari Watanabe-Rose, Daniel Douglas

Publications and Research

This data set is for Should Students Assessed as Needing Remedial Mathematics Take College-Level Quantitative Courses Instead? A Randomized Controlled Trial (Logue, Watanabe-Rose, & Douglas, 2016).

A Tale Of Two Campaigns: City Tech’S ‘No More 24!’ And Psc-Cuny’S Strike Authorization Vote, Carole Kennedy Harris

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Flipped Information Literacy Sessions For Business Management And Education, Madeline Cohen, Alison Lehner-Quam, Jennifer Poggiali, Robin Wright

Publications and Research

This presentation reports the results of a quantitative study of flipped classroom approaches to information literacy instruction in business and education classes. The presenters used pre- and post-tests to assess learning objectives for students in traditional class sessions and flipped sessions. The findings of our study show a statistically significant improvement in student achievement on pre-tests for those students in the flipped group, but no statistically significant difference in learning outcomes on the post-tests. We discuss the implications of these and other results, as well as the design and execution of the classes.

The Art Of Cheating In The 21st Millennium: Innovative Mechanisms And Insidious Ploys In Academic Deceit, Steven M. Lipson, Laina Karthikeyan

Publications and Research

Cheating is rampant throughout academia, with no hard evidence suggesting that such pedagogic deceit will wane. Cheating is most insidious on the college level, where such academic deceit has evolved from perhaps its basic pattern of merely peeking at another student’s examination, to planned deceit employing sophisticated subterfuges and interplay between two or more co-conspirators. Importantly, cheating per se may not necessarily be student initiated, but fostered by college/university staff for purposes of institutional or personal financial gain. Statistical studies (e.g., demographics) in complement with sociological and psychological factors associated with cheating have been previously described. This review does not …

From Marginality To Mattering: Linguistic Practices, Pedagogies And Diversities At A Community-Serving Senior College, Andrea Springirth, Hannah Göppert

Publications and Research

The cultural diversification of colleges and universities which initially targeted the needs of a specific minoritized group raises questions concerning the inclusion of every individual and the maintenance of the advances which have been made for the original population. This paper provides insight into the challenges and merits at the intersection of linguistic and racial/ethnic diversification within CUNY’s Medgar Evers College. Historically tied to the Black Campus Movement, the college is committed to being an agent of social transformation for the surrounding community. Aiming to understand the perspectives on language and diversity of the key stakeholders at the college, a …

Hostos Online Learning Assessment: A Survey Of Student Perceptions, Kate Wolfe, Sarah Hoiland, Kate Lyons, Carlos Guevara, Kristopher B. Burrell, Jacki Disanto, Sandy Figueroa, Aaron Davis, Iber Poma, Wilfredo Rodriguez, Linda L. Ridley

Publications and Research

The Office of Education Technology (EdTech) at Hostos Community College and faculty members from various departments created the Hostos Online Learning Assessment (HOLA) Task Force to design a survey for gathering and assessing data about students’ perceptions of their online learning experiences. The task force wanted to utilize the survey results to identify strengths and weaknesses in online instruction and student preparedness for the online learning environment. Student perceptions of online learning are integral to building upon current best practices and also gauging the preparedness of the students for the online learning environment, particularly in an urban, Hispanic-serving community college. …