Latino degree attainment and skill development are important to the nation's need for a competitive workforce and strong civic leadership. To help Latino students enter and be competitive in the workforce, trendsetting institutions are adapting their efforts to support students' strengths and meet their needs. Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs)…

Lower courts are beginning to grapple with challenges to students' Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure as it relates to the digital environment, cell phones in particular. Recently, lower courts in several states have applied standards set forth decades ago to decide cases involving searches of students' mobile…

Research indicates that when instructors interact with students online their academic engagement increases, yet there is little research on student peer interactions and its effectiveness in terms of academic engagement. This study evaluates peer deliberations on a collaborative website for students enrolled in an American politics course at two…

The low retention rates of students in science technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and STEM-related majors threaten the ability of the United States to maintain its prominence in science and technology and meet economic demand (Executive Office of the President, President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2012). One…

The purpose of this study was to identify factors influencing the intercultural development of U.S. and international study abroad students and their experiences in a collaborative online international learning pre-departure study abroad intervention. Garrison, Anderson, and Archer's (2000) Community of Inquiry model influenced the seminar design…

The notion of linearity is perhaps the most fundamental idea in algebraic thinking. It sets the transition to functions and culminates with the instantaneous rate of change in calculus. Despite its simplicity, this concept poses complexities to a considerable number of first semester college algebra students. The purpose of this observational…

To develop information literacy skills in chemistry and biochemistry majors at a primarily undergraduate institution, a multiyear collaboration between chemistry faculty and librarians has resulted in the establishment of a semester-long capstone project for Organic Chemistry II. Information literacy skills were instilled via a progressive…

The impetus to incorporate instruction on the efficient and responsible practice of chemical information literacy into the undergraduate chemistry curriculum has become exceptionally urgent. At Rider University, Chemical Information Instruction (CII) has accordingly evolved from face-to-face sessions into online modules to embed information…

Federal disabilities legislation (the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act," or IDEIA of 2004) continued the movement of disabled ("differently-abled") persons from segregated public educational institutions to fully integrated general education classrooms, with appropriate accommodations for the…

This case study presents a cocurricular initiative at the Margery Somers Foster Center at Rutgers University Libraries in New Brunswick, NJ. The initiative resulted in an interview workshop for the course Knowledge and Power, a "mission course" of the Douglass Residential College. This discussion-based workshop uses visual and multimedia…

This paper argues that narratives, specifically literature and memoir, offer a way to build empathy and understanding by moving readers to deeper levels of text interpretation and critique. The paper examines a new literacy framework, Life Histories, that uses talk, collaboration, writing, and performance to understand the complex relationships…

Neelu Sinha, Laila Khreisat, and Kiron Sharma describe how learner-interface interaction promotes active learning in computer science education. In a pilot study using technology that combines DyKnow software with a hardware platform of pen-enabled HP Tablet notebook computers, Sinha, Khreisat, and Sharma created dynamic learning environments by…

"Catalyst" is a publication of the U.S. Department of Education's Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Redefining Resources For Prevention; (2) Message From Kevin Jennings, OSDFS Assistant Deputy Secretary; (3) Environmental Management…

The rapid evolution of System-on-Chip (SoC) challenges academic curricula to keep pace with multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary system thinking. This paper presents a curricular prototype that cuts across artificial course boundaries and provides a meaningful exploration of diverse facets of SoC design. Specifically, experimental contents of a…

Electronic readers may be ushering in a watershed moment in personal reading, with the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, and Barnes & Noble Nook duking it out for market dominance (and with the iPad warming up in the wings). But how do these contenders fare in the academic marketplace? When it comes to meeting the demands of academic reading,…