Adults represent a vital and growing undergraduate demographic, bringing diverse experiences and expectations to the educational environment, yet their unique needs are often underserved. Adult learners face challenges beyond attending classes or completing homework (Bellare et al., 2023). This study examines the interplay between satisfaction,…

This Dissertation in Practice applied an improvement science approach to address an actionable problem of practice in higher education: lack of assessment of student satisfaction with academic advising. The study took place in a school within a public university in the Southeastern United States. A pre-intervention assessment of the current state…

The present dissertation project investigated relationship enhancement following a brief self-disclosure task (i.e., the Fast Friends Procedure; FFP) via self-report and observational data. Thirty-three undergraduate couples dating for less than six months asked and answered questions that required increasingly higher levels of self-disclosure for…

The community of inquiry (CoI) framework is commonly used to study online learners' engagement and satisfaction. However, few studies have examined CoI's ability to predict online undergraduate students' end-of-course grades. The purpose of this quantitative hierarchical multiple regression study was to determine the ability of the CoI framework…

This research study addressed student satisfaction levels encountered in undergraduate online student modalities. This quantitative nonexperimental correlational study aimed to analyze the influence online instructors perceived servant leadership traits have on the student satisfaction levels of undergraduate online learners and understand what…

International student enrollment at American higher education institutions has grown mostly unabated since tracking began in 1948, but has not been met with a corresponding investment in programming to assist students during their transition or their enrollment stateside. In the interest of providing better support to international students, this…

Undergraduate general chemistry courses are often perceived in a negative light by students. Student attitudes towards chemistry play a significant role in their success in chemistry and retention in STEM altogether. Research has shown in K-12 classrooms that care-based instruction strategies can help to improve student attitudes towards…

This study investigated whether instructional modality in an undergraduate degree program, either traditional on-campus or asynchronous online, and racial/ethnic group could predict students' reports of satisfaction with the institution, retention year-over-year, and graduation within an eight-year award rate. Data from surveys and enrollment…

The level of supervision an intern receives during an internship has been shown to impact the quality of the student learning experience. However, there is evidence that unpaid undergraduate interns receive less supervision due to a variety of factors. The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to understand the relationship that university funds…

This study explored the relationship between student perceptions of transactional distance between themselves and their teachers and their sense of community presence as measured by the Community of Inquiry Questionnaire (Arbaugh et al., 2008), use of self-regulated learning skills as measured by the Online Student Learning Questionnaire (OSLQ)…

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Current Population Survey (2019), 13 percent of full-time college students were employed fewer than 20 hours per week, 17 percent were employed 20 to 34 hours per week, and 10 percent were employed 35 hours or more per week. Despite the prevalence of student employment, few studies have…

Every year, 600,000 formerly incarcerated people return to society, and over forty-four percent will be incarcerated again within a year. As advocates work to improve the conditions of reentry, recent efforts have focused on higher education as the ticket to long-term freedom for formerly incarcerated people. Any success of these efforts hinges on…

This study examined the relationship between life satisfaction and perception of educational and career-related barriers. Perceived barriers threaten career development and can subsequently enhance negative appraisals of personal worth and ability. Coping efficacy, an individual's belief or confidence in their ability to manage and overcome…

The COVID-19 pandemic forced a global move to distance education, and many keep using different aspects and tools for online learning. Online course enrollments are growing steadily among graduate and undergraduate students. Satisfaction with online courses is becoming a top priority for many colleges and universities. The competition for online…

Despite college rankings' popular yet controversial nature, there is little known about the relationship between college rankings and students. Prior literature suggests that students who make use of rankings are more privileged, yet there lacks a comprehensive analysis surrounding the types of students who place importance on rankings in more…