Quantitative reasoning takes on different meanings based on experience and background. Across the curriculum students have various needs for their quantitative reasoning experience. As a result, at our university students have a range of choices that more closely fit their future needs. Seven different departments across campus offer quantitative…

As academic librarians become aware of the challenges textbook expenses pose to student success, they have increased efforts to provide free access to required course materials. Librarians at Illinois State University initiated a program to license course-assigned e-books, surveying participating students and faculty regarding their perspectives…

In this paper, we report the results of a 3-year, quasi-experimental study comparing students' engagement and deep learning of course materials between students who took an undergraduate engineering course that used a video game approach to a control group. The video game, EduTorcs, provided challenges in which students devised control algorithms…

Active, student-centered approaches to teaching and learning in university classrooms have been given greater focus in recent years. Consequently, the use of flipped classrooms in American universities has proliferated considerably. Evidence suggests that flipped classrooms have been successfully employed in agricultural coursework, such as…

The retention rate in online classes is significantly lower than traditional classes especially in subjects like accounting. More than 40% of the students who were enrolled in online Accounting 101 courses either dropped or failed the course (internal data, 2020). There is a need to identify best practices to increase retention in online classes…

Community college enrollment has significantly declined since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between the spring 2020 term and the spring 2022 term, community college enrollment declined by nearly 17 percent nationwide. This alarming trend has posed a threat to the well-being of community colleges and the students they serve, which includes…

In serving as a training ground for future communication educators, the basic course is uniquely placed to explore issues of communication pedagogy. Communication pedagogy is a domain of study that informs communication teachers of the best practices in teaching communication competencies. As a basic course director in the Department of…

The focus of each Technology Solutions for Adult Basic Skills Challenges column begins with a common challenge facing adult basic skills practitioners. This article examines a technology solution to two large and related challenges: student engagement and student persistence, which, from a program or school perspective, is often described as…

All disciplines have particular ways of knowing, common practices, and means of using language that mediate and potentially support engagement with the discipline. For multilingual learners, language demands of a discipline can be a closed door or a facilitated entryway. Drama and theater arts, the focus of our article, are often marginalized in…

In 2018 the Office of Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL) conducted an evaluation of the Illinois Community College Board's (ICCB) program review process, focusing on the career and technical education (CTE) programs. The purpose of program review is to support community colleges in decisionmaking and planning as related to…

Building a general education program from scratch for a population of first generation and underserved students provided both a challenge and opportunity. Faculty who had limited previous experience teaching and assessing first year students engaged in study of the best practices and research. Faculty designed a four-year general education…

There are many voices today discussing the necessity of changing the ways we teach, for example, Gen Y studies about the way students learn, employers' lists of skills they say current graduates need, and colleges that desire to always improve how they deliver information. These have led to classes where the learning styles are more hand-on, less…

Qualitative analysis of reflective essays by first-year students in an academic skills course documented outcomes related to the Association of College and Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Student narratives showed how novices encounter the clusters of concepts described in the Framework as…

Addressing the importance of international student engagement on campus and creating friendships with host-country nationals during their time abroad, this small-scale study explores the question of, "Are there trends in how or through what means international students are making connections with co-national, multi-national, or host-national…

The purpose of this study was to learn more about the Hispanic students attending Northeastern Illinois University, a four-year institution in Chicago, IL, and their student success. Little is known descriptively and statistically about this population at NEIU, which serves as a Hispanic-Serving Institution. In addition, little is known about…