Federal and state policies affecting higher education, like the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1832, Brown vs. Board of Education, and Higher Education Act of 1965 have posited change regarding the proliferation of diversity and expansion of access (Thelin, 2011). I analyzed BOT policies for enrollment and conducted a socio-diagnostic CDA on the…

The connections we establish in college are transformative and redirect our lives to make lasting impacts on others around us and in the world. Student affairs and academic support services can make the difference in whether students drop out, fail academically or succeed in their college and career aspirations and realize a personal vision for…

This study addresses the persistent challenge of student retention in higher education by investigating the often-neglected role of staff in shaping student belonging and success, with a specific focus on open-enrollment, dual-mission institutions in Utah. Recognizing the complexities introduced by shifting student demographics and the growth of…

This action research study aimed to explore the reasons for low course completion and retention rates for students who take developmental English courses at an open-enrollment private university in New England and develop support methods that address the reasons for these low rates. The problem of low course completion rates and retention rates…

Pre-enrolment self-assessments are a promising way to address student commitment and retention in an early stage. Such assessments aim to inform study decisions by evoking reflection and providing advice for further preparation. Though these assessments require a solid validation process, so far the consequential validity aspect tends to be…

In the wake of the Supreme Court's ban on race-conscious admissions, the pursuit of diversity and equity in higher education is increasingly under threat. While access to higher education has improved overall for historically underrepresented students, the quality of that opportunity remains uneven, particularly along the lines of race/ethnicity…

Postsecondary students increasingly enroll in online courses, which have the potential to further democratize higher education by expanding access for historically underserved populations. While a number of studies have investigated student outcomes in online courses, past data limitations have hindered robust examination of a potential mechanism…

The question of who is the basic writer threads the history of Basic Writing, characterizing many disciplinary tensions and concerns. When traced to Basic Writing's beginnings as part of open admissions at CUNY, the question often links to Shaughnessy's "Errors and Expectations" as a telling of basic writers' language deficiencies. This…

With a regulation made in 2001, vocational and technical secondary education graduates were given the right to enroll to vocational colleges without taking the national central exam. However, this regulation was repealed in 2016. If the students are placed in an associate degree program in the same field, additional points are added to the points…

This study models graduation rates at 4-year broad access institutions (BAIs). We examine the student body, structural-demographic, and financial characteristics that best predict 6-year graduation rates. A Bayesian model averaging approach is utilized to account for uncertainty in variable selection in modeling graduation rates. Evidence suggests…

The search for a common model of instruction in first-year composition began in the 1960s when composition first began to separate from literature in college English departments. Because writing is essentially a methods course with no standard curriculum as one might find in physics or economics, common model has been elusive. A sign that…

Curriculum design, teaching methods, assessments and range of academic support need to be inclusive in Open Access Enabling courses. The findings of this study confirm a correlation between student access to online learning materials and a positive impact on grades in science courses. More specifically, students who frequently use the online…

Massive Open Online Courses based on the principles of connectivist educational pedagogy known as connectivist MOOCs (c-MOOCs) have been carried out with great success during the last years with hundreds of registered participants. Examples are CCK08 (2008), PLENK2010 (2010), MobiMOOC (2011), EduMOOC (2011), Change11 (2011/12), and LAK12 (2012).…

In order to practice physical therapy, physical therapist assistants (PTAs) must graduate from an accredited academic program and pass the National Physical Therapy Examination for Physical Therapist Assistants (PTA-NPTE). The primary objective of academic programs is to prepare students to successfully complete these two milestones to become…

Open access is central to the Community College mission. For this reason, any restriction in online enrollments should not be undertaken lightly. This study uses institutional data gathered from a large, urban community college to examine a policy aimed at increasing student retention in online courses by restricting those eligible to enroll based…