Issues of instruction and assessment at community colleges are influenced by the high percentage of classes taught by adjunct faculty. In 2014 for the Virginia Community College System, part-time instructors comprised 70.3% of instructional faculty. This dissertation describes the instruction and assessment technique choices of adjunct instructors…

The rate at which data is produced and accumulated today is greater than at any point in history with little prospect of slowing. As organizations attempt to collect and analyze this data, there is a tremendous unmet demand for appropriately skilled knowledge workers. In response, universities are developing degree programs in data science and…

Information literacy is of paramount importance to any successful research program. Information techniques and skills should be infused throughout a student's undergraduate curriculum rather than being the focus of a single course. To this end, we have created several courses, beginning in the first year, where students review current scientific…

The Appropriation Act directs the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) to make a report annually to the governor and the chairs of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees on the annual change in total charges for tuition and fees approved by the boards of visitors at Virginia public institutions of higher education…

James Madison University faculty team-teach an interdisciplinary mathematical modeling course for mathematics and biology students. We have used two different project-based approaches to emphasize the mathematical concepts taught in class, while also exposing students to new areas of mathematics not formally covered in class. The first method…

The Applied and Industrial Mathematics program partners applied mathematics students with businesses, governments, laboratories, and agencies to solve real problems. We will discuss the logistics of the program and give advice on starting and running similar programs. We also give a detailed example of a specific project, namely our work with the…

This paper examines primarily the courses in the accounting major and a portion of the business core of the best thirty accounting programs in the United States as identified by the Accounting Degree Review. A thorough examination of each school's web site has been conducted to gather current (2014) information concerning the requirements for a…

§ 23.1-909 requires the Secretary of Education and the Director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) to report, by October 1, 2016, their progress toward development of a plan for a "combined cooperative degree program" whereby any enrolled undergraduate student at any public or private nonprofit institution of…

Principles of Peer Leadership is an undergraduate course developed through the collaboration of leadership educators with colleagues from residence life and fraternity/sorority life to provide instruction to undergraduate students serving in peer leadership positions across campus. The course comprises online and recitation components to connect…

Technology & engineering teacher preparation programs at colleges and universities in the United States have been in a state of decline since the 1970's. In the fall of 2013 a study was conducted to compare the required curricula of the 24 undergraduate programs that maintain enrollment of 20 students or more in order to determine what a…

Legislation introduced in 2015, including Senate Bill 806, sought to amend the "Code of Virginia" regarding fixed four-year tuition and other costs. Eventually, Senate Bill 1183 was incorporated into Senate Bill 806; the substitute amendment directed the board of visitors of each four-year public institution with an in-state…

Calls to increase the number of undergraduate STEM credential recipients have largely failed to differentiate between sub-baccalaureate and four-year credentials at the undergraduate level, which is problematic for workforce development. In this paper, the authors develop a classification system for sub-baccalaureate STEM credentials that is…

Inquiry-based learning is a topic of growing interest in the mathematical community. Much of the focus has been on using these methods in calculus and higher-level classes. This article describes the design and implementation of a set of inquiry-based learning activities in a Math for Liberal Arts course at a small, private, Catholic college.…

This study examines key aspects of the cost-effectiveness of private nondoctoral (PND) colleges as providers of baccalaureate degrees and explores how states might feasibly make better use of these colleges to produce more degrees efficiently. The study looks at degree production and cost in the PND sector relative to other higher education…

Staff provides this baseline report as a summary of its preliminary considerations and initial research in fulfillment of the requirements of HB2320 from the 2015 session of the General Assembly. Codified as § 23-7.4:7, this legislation compels the Education Secretary and the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) Director, in…