IGNOU being one of the largest universities of the world in terms of students' enrollment, not only contributing to the increasing Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) of Higher Education of India in a big way by admitting lakh of students every year, but it is also democratizing the higher education; and promoting life-long education in India. IGNOU is…

As online enrollment increases in the United States, it is important to understand the impact of course modality on student outcomes. In particular, there has been limited research on the effect of course enrollment at Hispanic-serving institutions (HSI). The current study evaluated the effect of online course enrollment on student grades and on…

As college costs have continued to rise, textbooks now average more than $1,200 per student per academic year as of 2020. Traditional textbooks are not only expensive, but also have fixed and frequently outdated content. In this study, we compared pre-service teacher-student outcomes and perceptions of a traditional textbook versus no-cost, online…

While most students who seek academic support succeed in their courses, some still fail or withdraw. What can we learn about them? In this study, 6,299 undergraduates were enrolled in courses supported with Supplemental Instruction (SI), a form of peer-facilitated academic support open to students in challenging courses. Mean final course grades…

This study explores the experience of high-achieving students of color in an honors program at a large research university. Qualitative methods involve surveying students (n = 39) and interviewing a select group (n = 5) in attempts to measure both the frequency and severity of racial microaggression as well as subjective experience relating to…

This study addresses the problem of low-income, first-generation college students who are academically successful, but choose to leave college before finishing due to financial constraints. This study investigates their lived experiences as well as the effects of a peer mentorship program where incoming, first-year, low-income, first-generation…

The problem that was addressed in this study was the digital divide in virtual learning following the outbreak of COVID-19. The outbreak of COVID-19 made the problem of digital divide worse, which gave some students an unfair advantage over others with relation to remote learning. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to…

Objective: This quantitative study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' persistence at a minority-serving, open-access, public, urban community college in New York City. Specifically, the project looked at factors associated with mid-semester college withdrawals during spring 2020 when the college shifted to remote instruction…

The United States is not graduating enough science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors for the increasing number of available employment opportunities and national security needs. The purpose of this study was to quantify the magnitude of STEM attrition at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), a military service academy…

Online courses are often criticized for having lower retention rates than traditional courses, especially introductory courses. This study aimed to determine whether there was a relationship between online and traditional instructor personality traits and course completion rate for introductory course instructors at a higher education institution…

This guide is intended for college financial aid administrators and counselors who help students begin the aid process--filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form, verifying information, and making corrections and other changes to the information reported on the FAFSA. The Federal Student Aid Handbook consists of the…

The pandemic has revived the longstanding debate about the effect of online versus face-to-face instruction on student achievement. The goal of this paper is to provide new evidence on the impact of online versus face-to-face instruction on student learning outcomes, using rich, transcript-level longitudinal data from a public university. We pay…

The first year experience of students studying at higher education institutions has been intensively studied over the past forty years (Nelson & Clarke, 2014). Much has been learnt, but institutions are continuing to face unacceptable levels of student withdrawal. Concerns have been raised that the constructs on which previous studies have…

With ongoing campus shutdowns and online-only classes amid the COVID-19 crisis, uncertainties abound for students and colleges planning for the fall. There is a critical need for real data and reliable information about how students are responding. By leveraging the student-level data that colleges submit multiple times per term to the National…

The next generation of life science professionals will require far more quantitative skills than prior generations. Calculus is important for understanding dynamical systems in biology and, therefore, is often a required course for life science students. However, many life science students do not understand the utility value of mathematics to…