Field-based education is an integral component of undergraduate geoscience curricula and provides educational and social benefits associated with enhanced learning. But field excursions can too often end up as simple show-and-tell events and fall short of implementing effective teaching practices and achieving desired student learning gains.…

In the article "Understanding Writer Center Use among Community College Students," Christina Savarese addresses the reasons students use the writing center, understanding those reasons, and using them to identify ways the writing center administrators and tutors can better serve their student population. Additional research findings…

The present mixed-methods study provides insight into how students in higher education describe and form multiplex relationships in a cohort of students attending a commuter college, thereby improving our understanding of the complex relationships within student groups and their relation to learning. The main aim was to understand the student…

Universities spend significant time and energy establishing a sense of community for their students. University personnel strive to increase school community ties for commuter students who travel back and forth from home to campus under the assumption that these increased ties will predict academic success. In an effort to understand those…

The pedagogy of a servicelearning course is applied in a large urban commuter university to explore the impact of a service-learning course on upper-level students. The study population was engaged in an inmate re-entry program, and students were placed in nonprofit re-entry agencies. Results show changes in students' perception of offenders…

The article addresses how a traditional Public commuter college library in the Bronx began making strides to automate student ID barcodes so online library access was granted without in person registrations. How does a barcode number get generated for an individual student and what offices need to be included in automating a library account? The…

Nature-based instruction offers students the benefts of experiential learning while spending time in nature. Research supports nature-based learning (NBL) with younger students (Pre-K-12), yet there is a dearth of research focused on students in post-secondary education. To advance research in higher education, an NBL project was launched with 16…

Objective: To examine health behaviors associated with overweight/obesity by race/ethnicity at a diverse urban college. Participants: 270 undergraduates (77.0% female; 26.7% non-Hispanic white) and median body mass index (BMI) of 23.1 kg/m2. Methods: A questionnaire about health-related behaviors as part of the "Get Fruved" project was…

Preparing educated and active citizens is one of the primary goals of higher education, yet colleges and universities may neglect civic engagement due to the prioritization of labor market preparation. Drawing on neoinstitutional theory, this paper examines the missions, infrastructure, activities, and outcomes related to civic engagement across…

General Chemistry is a course where students are expected to nurture the development of their fundamental concepts in chemistry. Students begin general chemistry with alternative conceptions about the topics and fragmented knowledge structures. Majority of students who successfully complete the general chemistry course sequence continue to hold…

This study examines the impact of a situated learning class framework on student learning and sense of belonging in a first-year introductory computer programming course offered at an urban commuter campus. The framework provided students opportunities to engage in hands-on activities embedded in authentic contexts facilitated or led by students…

A commuter campus library hosted an art exhibit in November 2019 to increase engagement levels of local high school and university students and to involve them in scholarly activities. The exhibit displayed student, faculty, and staff submissions on campus. The library space on campus features comfortable seating and desktop computers, with a…

Student retention is important to any university, especially keeping commuter students who are traditionally less anchored in campus life. Even more at risk, given the leaky STEM pipeline, are STEM commuter students. In 2016, Valparaiso University launched the Establishing Practices Integrating Commuter Students (EPIC) program, centered around…

Institutions of higher education are increasingly focused on student outcomes such as persistence. This study investigated factors that contribute to a sense of belonging, a key contributor to persistence, in business students attending a small 4-year public commuter campus in the Midwest. A survey was administered to students in an introductory…

While a growing body of research supports active, student-centered approaches to teaching, the implementation of such methodologies in the undergraduate STEM classroom has not been widespread. In an effort to increase student success in an introductory course for biology majors, we developed Biology Boot Camp, a peer-led program based on active,…