There is a great disparity in college-going rates between students from the highest and lowest socio economic quantiles in the United States. This quantitative study looks at messages students receive about college as a way to explore reasons why students choose to attend or not to attend college. [The dissertation citations contained here are…

Socioscientific issues (SSIs), or controversial scientific issues with social implications, influence members of society regardless of demographic. SSIs are contentious and ill-structured, meaning they do not have a definitive answer. To properly equip students with the tools needed to handle SSIs, undergraduate science curricula emphasize…

Individuals rely on accurate information to make important decisions, but in the current environment the vast amount of misinformation present in society is complicating people's thinking. Many people fall prey to a cognitive bias called the continued influence effect, which occurs when they continue to use misinformation even when they have seen…

This dissertation explored how effectively first-year writing (FYW) evaluated and selected sources for their researched writing assignments. Though students were taught how to access sources from the library and offered sources on the course management system, most often they obtained sources via the open internet. As mis- and disinformation…

Some college, no degree (SCND) students are adults aged 25-64 who have earned college credit but no degree (Shapiro et al., 2019). There are currently 36 million adults in the United States with some college but no degree (Lumina Foundation, n.d.; U.S. Census Bureau, 2018). Reengaging this population to complete a degree or credential will assist…

The development of language in a deaf or hard of hearing child is dependent upon early and effective communication access (Marschark, 2018; Marschark & Hauser, 2012; Pittman, Sass-Lehrer, & Abrams, 2016; Scott & Dostal, 2019; Scott & Henner, 2020). For many parents of deaf and hard of hearing children, the most common early…

The enrollment decision-making process of a master of business administration (MBA) applicant contains multiple factors. Social influences from group memberships, marketing ads, and socioeconomic status carry varying amount of influence on the individual's choice for an MBA program. It is unknown what impact informal leaders, interpersonal…

This study applied quantitative research methods by employing a descriptive research design to collect data from Members of the House of the 111th Tennessee General Assembly regarding their use and perceived importance of information sources to detect the existence of potential controversy or areas of disagreement within the member's environment…

Many students who start at the community college with the intention of transferring and earning a baccalaureate degree fail to accomplish this goal. This study, using IPA methodology, explored the experiences of seven community college transfer students currently enrolled at a public 4-year institution to identify how community college transfer…

The concept of health insurance literacy, which can be defined as "the extent to which consumers can make informed purchase and use decisions" (Kim, Braun, & Williams, 2013, p. 3), has only recently become a focus of health literacy research. Though employees have been making health insurance decisions for many years, the Affordable…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between undergraduate student performance on an information literacy assessment activity and their performance in global learning assessment activities for three global learning outcomes: global awareness, global perspective, and global engagement. Global learning is the process whereby…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine how two faculty integrate equity, diversity, inclusion, and social justice (EDISJ) within their work with doctoral education at an AAU institution within two different disciplines. Due to the understanding that doctoral students imitate and emulate behaviors and values of close advisers,…

This study examines behavioral traits to determine what impact they have on average visit duration when interacting with a website, a major part of search engine and webpage performance metrics commonly reported in practice. A task-based design was created to examine participants' interaction with various websites containing a variety of media and…

This study sought to gain a better understanding of how participants made decisions regarding placement for their first-born children for the prekindergarten year. The purpose of this research, to explore participants' decision-making process, was guided by the following research question: "How do parents make decisions to select placements…

School choice is a research topic that is often associated with public funds supporting educational alternatives. While much of the school choice research literature focuses on this category, additional types of school choice merit examination. This study examines how Catholic parents chose high schools for their children within the geographic…