Undergraduate medical education aims to train the students to develop the required clinical skills and preparation for the residency. The validity of the assessment on clinical competence is primarily ignored or uncompleted, especially in the clinical clerkship. The current study was multifaceted and accomplished multiple evaluation and research…

Higher education institutions across the United States have increasingly faced an uncertain future as student populations shift, financial pressures mount, and skepticism rises regarding the value of higher education (Seltzer, 2018). As a result, university leaders find themselves endeavoring upon a blind venture of adapting the various corporate…

The review of the literature indicated that a notably smaller number of nontraditional students persist to graduation than do traditional students. There is a significant body of scholarship regarding the experiences of nontraditional students; however, only a few studies have specifically examined persistence. Sparse research exists on the…

This dissertation explores the dynamics of undergraduate socialization within a STEM Intervention Program (SIP), specifically the STEM Scholars Program (SSP), with a particular emphasis on comparing the experiences of first-generation and continuing-generation college students. The study employs a longitudinal design and uses random intercept…

Required gateway courses in higher education present ongoing challenges to student persistence, retention, and degree completion. Adaptive learning technology (ALT) offers personalized support and generates learning analytics that can inform faculty teaching and course design practices. This qualitative case study examined faculty experiences with…

Despite an extensive amount of research examining students' perceptions of alternative laboratory experiences, little focus has been aimed at the perceptions of adult learners. This two-phase mixed-methods study investigated the preferred at-home laboratory experience, and the factors that played a significant role in the user experiences, of…

To equip students for effective, long-term cross-cultural ministry during their undergraduate training in institutions of biblical higher education, missions educators should consider whether their training approaches are holistically integrated, relationally oriented, and fundamentally caring. Although such characteristics are suggested in the…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how online full-time faculty define, implement, and invest in social presence. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit 15 full-time online faculty participants at a private Christian university in the Southwest. The participants of this study met specific criterion, which included…

Technical degrees, community college baccalaureates, and applied degrees do not have standard definitions and their value to industry is not well known. The purpose of this study was to use an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach to collect the perceptions and expectations of employers toward a single proposed degree offering in Ohio.…

While it is widely accepted that teacher quality is one of the most influential factors in predicting positive student outcomes such as academic success, identifying the key attributes and indicators of a quality teacher has been challenging. Due to mounting evidence that a teacher's pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) impacts both their practices…

The purpose of this study was to examine how institutional mission is expressed in the physical environment. Theoretical frameworks from institutional identity, campus ecology, and organizational strategy literature inform the paradigm of this inquiry. Content analysis was utilized to examine the mission statements and campus master planning…

This study explores the promise of student success in undergraduate education that exceeds its standard definition and measurement as retention and graduation rates. The research paradox framing this dissertation is: "In what ways can universities support conceptions of undergraduate student success that escape measurement?" This paradox…

Students who have a disability are at risk for criminal justice involvement. Such involvement can lead to negative outcomes during their elementary, middle, and high school years. Furthermore, the negative consequences associated with criminal justice involvement for students with disabilities can extend well into adulthood. The aim of this…

First-generation, African American women constitute a small representation in STEM careers in the United States. Rewarding careers offered to STEM majors are many times inaccessible to first-generation African American women. Access to and successful matriculation in higher education is significantly different for first-generation (FG) African…

Every demographic in the American education sector has been impacted by the forced migration from face-to-face to online learning caused by COVID-19. This research looks at six faculty members' perceptions regarding their views on social presence and what influences or drives their instructional practices at Nichols College. Social presence is a…