A study examined, through extensive interviews, the academic, social, and racial experiences of high-achieving black students in a merit-based scholarship program for minority students in math, science, and engineering. Interviews focused on academic experiences in and outside the classroom, social interactions and relationships with…

Rapid changes in technology make it necessary for adults of all ages to use written information in new and more complex ways. For example, learning how to operate computers, filling out complicated tax forms, and comparing price labels when shopping for groceries are just a few of the many tasks that are important parts of peoples lives. Every…

Two-year colleges used to be a small part of higher education, but they now enroll almost half of all entering college students. This report suggests new data is needed on this evolving sector of academe, including: (1) What are the unseen barriers in two-year-colleges?; (2) What are the unseen college options?; (3) What are the implications of…

This paper examines the status of postgraduate family medicine training in rural settings in Canada and identifies problems and how they are addressed. Specifically, a survey of 18 university programs examined the portion of family medicine block training that is done in a rural practice setting within the 2-year postgraduate family medicine…

This report presents findings of a longitudinal study of student experiences and how they relate to college outcomes. The study was begun in 1994 and followed approximately 550 students attending the six daytime faculties at York University (Ontario) to the end of 1998. Data included yearly student surveys, focus group meetings conducted with…

In a society characterized by change, people are faced with many opportunities to acquire practical knowledge outside the traditional environment of academic institutions using the same basic evaluation criteria and guarantee the validity and reliability of assessment. A prior learning assessment (PLA) program has the following economic benefits:…

Health administration students attending a college or university in Los Angeles, California, participated in a study of the effect of cooperative education. Three groups of students were selected. Group 1 consisted of undergraduate minority students--five males and five females (19-28 years old) with no prior health related work experience. Groups…

A study determined the effectiveness of computer-aided drafting (CAD) and standard drafting instruction on the ability of students with differing visual-haptic perceptual styles to solve orthographic projection problems. A 2x2x2 factorial design was chosen to compare two levels of perceptual style with two levels of treatment and two levels of…

The Master of Arts in Professional Writing (MAPW) offered by Carnegie Mellon University (Pennsylvania) is designed for students who want careers as document designers in industry and government, where they will plan, write, and evaluate computer manuals and on-line documentation, training and instructional materials, technical reports, and a wide…

Academic, personal, and attitudinal/behavioral predictors of black and white students' college performance were studied, along with the effect of differences in the quality of college experiences. The sample of 4,094 students and 706 faculty from 30 southern and eastern colleges completed the Student Opinion Survey/Faculty Opinion Survey, the…

A major problem in assessing off-campus experiential learning is the need to structure the learning process and document the learning outcomes. This report describes the procedure developed by the University of California at Los Angeles, that logically analyzes the learning that is taking place and therefore helps to shape and improve subsequent…

Alumni attitudes concerning their college experience, present work, and present recreational activities were analyzed in relation to the time in college, using a semantic differential format. Four items were used for each type of rating, one evaluative, another activity-oriented, and two potency oriented. The evaluation dimension concerns the…

During the 1978 winter term, the Learning and Evaluation Service of Michigan State University initiated, in collaboration with the Council for the Advancement of Experiential Learning (CAEL), an institutional development program in field experience education. Purposes of the study were to describe the nature and extent of field experience…

The trend to fewer and larger farm units means fewer individuals will actually have the opportunity to engage in farming, yet increasing numbers of farm students are interested in farm and agriculture-related careers. Five background and experiential factors thought to be predictors of the initial expectation to farm were tested via mail surveys…

In a study of student adjustment to university life, excerpts are presented of interviews with 18 mature age unmatriculated women who returned to formal education at the University of New South Wales in 1975. The women were aged between 25 and over 40, half had children, and they were generally middle class. They were not selected by a random…