Increasing numbers of student veterans in the United States are transitioning into a higher education culture that reflects major differences from the military culture. Higher education leaders need to understand what these students require and what will help them transition smoothly into higher education. The purpose of this quantitative case…

Coupled with the most recent national data set, this study investigated the college persistence behavior of first-generation students and found that they were most likely to withdraw from college during their second year. Moreover, this study unpacked the time-varying nature of academic and social integration. The effect of social integration on…

Student performance in a flipped classroom with an animation-based content knowledge development system for the bottom third of the incoming first year college students was compared to that in a traditional lecture-based teaching method. 52% of these students withdrew from the traditionally taught General Chemistry course, compared to 22% in a…

This set of Web Tables is the first in a series of four that together provide key information about 2011-12 first-time postsecondary students' characteristics and their 6-year retention, persistence, attainment, withdrawal, stopout, and transfer rates. The series draws on data collected for the 2012/17 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal…

Text mining presents an efficient means to access the comprehensive amount of data found in written records by converting words into numbers and using algorithms to detect relevant patterns. This article presents the fundamentals of text mining, including an overview of key concepts, prevalent methodologies in this work, and popular software…

This paper explores how expectations and post-secondary education (PSE) path disruption decisions are affected by a learning process that students experience once enrolled in a PSE program. An unexpected change in grades, between high school and first year PSE program, serves as an informative signal on how well their academic performance and…

As providers of higher education begin to harness the power of big data analytics, one very fitting application for these new techniques is that of predicting student attrition. The ability to pinpoint students who might soon decide to drop out, or who may be following a suboptimal path to success, allows those in charge not only to understand the…

Entry into higher education (HE) is recognised as a challenging time for undergraduates as they negotiate the norms and practices of new academic communities and foster relationships with peers and academics. Given the significance of this time period, our University has piloted a new four-week module that immerses students in their discipline and…

What can be learned from the college transcripts of beginning postsecondary students who first enrolled in the 2003-04 academic year and were followed over a 6-year period ending in 2009? The Web Tables presented in this report provide an overview of classes taken and credits earned by a nationwide sample of first-time beginning postsecondary…

It is evident that the failure rate is higher among online students than in-class students at Hopkinsville Community College. An analysis of the academic records of students who enrolled in online courses for the first time at Hopkinsville indicated a 13% higher withdrawal and failure rate than those who took in-class courses over the same period…

The problem facing many higher education institutions is the ability to engage freshmen students during the first semester of college in order to sustain their enrollment. This study assessed the effectiveness of a freshmen learning community as a retention strategy at a small, rural, and public community college. The purpose of this ex post facto…

The acquisition of programming skills specially in introductory programming courses poses an important challenge for freshmen students of engineering programs. These courses require students to devote a sustained effort during the whole course and a failure to do so may contribute to not passing the course. However, it is difficult for the…

Approximately half the students who enroll at an institution will complete a bachelor's degree within six years (Kuh, Cruce, Shoup, Kinzie, & Gonyea, 2008). The majority of the students who decide to leave their initial institution do so during their first year (Tinto, 1993). Tinto reported that the withdrawal rate is highest during the first…

Objective: To assess the outcome of late registration for college classes and early class withdrawal. Method: Computerized 2007-9 school record data on 7,200 college students were analyzed to evaluate the effect of late class registration on the class grade--relative to the average class grade--and on class withdrawal. Assessed by multiple…

Many institutions of higher education face a common challenge--retaining students in a time when higher education is of most importance. Students must be prepared to compete in today's fast growing global market. Students are dropping out of college at an alarming rate due to the lack of academic readiness. The main area of academic deficiency is…