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 Traditional textbooks are not only expensive, but also have fixed and frequently outdated content.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…

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…

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…

While free primary education (FPE) has made significant strides towards schooling for all Kenyan children, and dropout rates have been notably reduced, a regional disparity clearly persists. This means that many children in arid and semi-arid regions and informal settlements in urban areas leave school before completion. The purpose of this…

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…

Issues associated with school absenteeism have attracted considerable attention and have long been one of the focal points of government strategies for school improvement. Pupil non-attendance is not a new phenomenon and featured prominently in Her Majesty's Inspectors' reports from 1839. This paper outlines the patterns of and influences on…

Historically, most investigations involving stress have assumed its undesirability, and deleterious effects have been identified across a variety of domains. Recently, however, researchers in management and health have differentiated between types of stress, and revealed a more complicated picture as a result. Specifically, stressors perceived as…

Course withdrawals have significant cost and curricular implications for both students and institutions. Yet within the retention literature, little is known about the context or impact of course withdrawals. This study examines course withdrawals of first year students from a sample of nine universities. Data reveal that demographic and…

Anatomy and physiology (AP) are subfields of biology that are gatekeeper courses for the health professions. This exploratory study used multilevel binary logistic regression to determine if age/gender and race/ethnicity were used as predictors of success, while the term offered and the identification number were specified as random effects. Two…