A significant demographic shift in community colleges reveals that more than half of enrolled students are adults aged 25 and older. In response, states are instituting reconnect programs aimed at recruiting and reengaging adult learners. Despite these initiatives, existing processes and practices within community colleges often inadequately…

The advising experience of adult learner's academic and social engagement at community colleges. Based on the literature, it was not known how adult learners in an associate's program describe their advising experience with respect to social and academic engagement at community colleges in the southern United States. The purpose of this…

Student retention is a critical factor in higher education that impacts many essential areas. However, the average retention rate among community college students within their first year is only 61%. In addition, demographics for community college students demonstrate the challenges students encounter; for example, over 60% are employed, and 65%…

The purpose of this Executive Position Paper was to research how to design an online, synchronous, asynchronous, or face-to-face training program for higher education instructors to serve the needs of a diverse student population of emergent learners, specifically in the community college sector. The subsequent research resulted in a faculty…

Adult students constitute a large and increasing proportion of community college enrollment across the United States. For personal, economic, and sociological reasons, the success of these students is vital to the students themselves, the institutions they attend, and society as a whole. The purpose of this dissertation was to examine results from…

This study explores the factors, attributes, and commitment that contribute to African American adult student success, retention, and completion in the community college environment. This study explores what factors contribute to African American student retention as opposed to those factors that serve as deficit; literature abounds with reasoning…

This paper presents findings from a qualitative case study that investigates how adult learners experience a student success-rich culture within a community college. The data includes 14 semi-structured interviews with ten adult learners and four institutional-academic representatives, in addition to supporting document analysis of national,…

This mixed-methods descriptive study (with a qualifying survey to determine participants' eligibility) was conducted to investigate whether student engagement has an impact on academic performance for undergraduate nontraditional students in a community college environment. The research population was undergraduate nontraditional students who were…

Despite research and advances in hybrid learning in the field of education, the gap lies in the lack of research focusing on community college students' perceptions of which elements of hybrid classes significantly impact their academic achievement. This problem, often leading to lower completion rates and higher attrition, was particularly…

The current study explores differences in transfer shock between veteran and non-veteran community college transfer students at a land grant institution in a rural state. Analysis includes institutional data for community college transfer students, including those who self-identified as veterans or used veteran tuition benefits from Fall 2015 to…

Although the grit narrative--the idea that individual success is as much a product of passion and perseverance as it is a result of intelligence and talent--has captured the public's imagination, much of the empirical literature has focused almost exclusively on traditional-age college students attending more selective residential universities.…

Higher learning institutions have encountered increasing student-veteran enrollment rates due to the surge of servicemembers discharged from the military in recent years. Community colleges have also experienced increased rates of student veterans choosing two-year institutions either to pursue a technical degree or to enroll in courses…

Many postsecondary institutions already recognize that adults comprise a significant portion of their student body -- or they may be starting to recognize the potential for serving more adults as they face declining enrollments from their traditional student pipelines. These institutions realize that they should have programs and services in place…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to understand how 11 adult learners with ADHD described the academic, social, and institutional factors that influence their persistence at one community college in Arizona. The research questions asked study participants to describe their academic, social, and institutional experiences in…

This mixed methods study explored the self-regulatory processes and how these practices influence academic achievement and career motivation among military student veterans at an urban community college in South Carolina. A quantitative analysis was conducted to explore the self-regulatory learning processes, self-efficacy, academic achievement,…