Gamification and game-based learning have been used in the educational setting as an active learning strategy to increase student engagement. This study investigated the extent of the effect of gamification and game-based learning on student engagement of online Allied Health students in the Cultural and Ethical Influences course at Northwestern…

As the engineering education system continuously evolves to meet the demands of modern industry and society, there is a need for a methodology that would manage and resolve the complexities inherent in engineering educational systems. Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is a structured approach to system design that utilizes models across all…

This dissertation evaluated the efficacy and effectiveness of a first-year freshman seminar course designed to improve self-regulated learning skills and bolster academic success. First-year seminars (FYS) are designed to help at-risk students (as indexed by their admissions criteria) gain the learning and motivational skills they need to succeed…

College students are experiencing high rates of mental health issues since the pandemic impacting their success inside and outside the classroom. This is a cause of great concern for institutions of higher education leaders urgently seeking solutions to support them. In the U.S. (United States), it is estimated that 30% of college students seek…

Technology has become a fundamental aspect of learning, yet many course instructors are hesitant to incorporate various forms of technology into their instructional design. This study sought to determine how course instructors can be assisted and supported to incorporate various asynchronous and synchronous technologies and strategies to course…

The current study examined the impact of a pre-matriculation social belonging intervention on the academic achievement of incoming first-time, full-time college students at a four-year public university in the Midwestern United States utilizing a secondary analysis of existing data. The theoretical framework was viewed through the lens of…

This dissertation explored how effectively first-year writing (FYW) evaluated and selected sources for their researched writing assignments. Though students were taught how to access sources from the library and offered sources on the course management system, most often they obtained sources via the open internet. As mis- and disinformation…

This qualitative study examined how undergraduate engineering students studying in the U.S. experienced failures during their cooperative education (co-op) and how they recovered from them. Six students attending a private research university in the Northeast participated in two semi-structured interviews via Zoom. The narrative inquiry approach…

Form-focused instruction (FFI) can improve students' language output by enhancing form accuracy (Barrot, 2014; Mansouri et al., 2019; Schenck & Baldwin, 2019; Spada, 2014), while the identity theory looks at language learning and the relationship between the language learner and the larger social world (Norton, 2013). Given issues such as…

Advances in technology require the fields of education and training to adapt in order to meet learning and work demands. The academic literature indicates engagement increases learning achievement. Gamified approaches to learning enhance student motivation and engagement, yet empirical evidence to support the implementation into general practice…

When looking at today's Community College graduation rates, dropout rates and time to completion of degrees, it is abundantly clear that a problem exists. This study examined the characteristics of community colleges in New Jersey and student experiences that contribute to the dismal statistics. Mathematics curriculum in P-12 falls short on…

Recent interest has highlighted the need for an increase in the representation of students, particularly traditionally underserved students, in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors. Instructional leadership approaches that foster an active learning environment have emerged as a means of improving performance in introductory…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how faculty describe the impact of their verbal and nonverbal communication on the effectiveness of their feedback for students enrolled in online courses. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit 20 faculty participants at a university in the Midwestern US and taught at least four…

This quantitative quasi-experimental study explored the effectiveness of an in residence research skills plagiarism avoidance workshop. The problem is what effect a research skills plagiarism avoidance workshop would have on the improvement of plagiarism avoidance. Information literacy was discovered as the foundation of why students plagiarize.…

Hackathons, the time-bound collaborative project-based competitions increasingly popular with undergraduate CS students, are both transformative and problematic. On one hand, they are unique opportunities to apply skills learned in the classroom to real-world, interest driven projects that celebrate risk taking, collaboration, and playfulness. On…