Existing research explains academic course failure with two contrasting narratives; one narrative is negative, and the other is more hopeful. To reconcile these contrasting narratives, this study explored students' perspectives on failing a course. The findings offer practical implications for higher education policy, student-faculty/staff…

The problem that was addressed through this study is the declining student degree completion rate for a public state baccalaureate institution in a northwestern state over the six-year period of 2014 to 2020. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if completion of an undergraduate degree within six years could be predicted by the…

Purpose: This study aims to examine students' experiences of sexual harassment (SH) in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ghana as well as their coping strategies. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted the cross-sectional descriptive survey research design and used the convenience sampling technique to sample 926 students from four…

In order to better understand how play can be used as a learning tool to teach students in college writing courses, this dissertation examines how play is used in the undergraduate college writing classroom. Using a qualitative case study and narrative inquiry, instructors and students in the University of Minnesota's (UMN) Writing Studies…

Background: The purposes of this study were to (1) longitudinally examine US college and university COVID-19 dashboard content and (2) explore county-level population health and COVID-19 community indicators where colleges with large undergraduate enrollments were located. Methods: We identified 10 colleges with the largest undergraduate…

Objectives: Sleep problems are highly prevalent among college students and are linked to a multitude of detrimental consequences, among which are heightened perceived stress and symptoms of depression. The present study investigated the effect of poor sleep quality on the immune function of college students. A serial mediation model was developed…

Ensuring postsecondary education is affordable for Kentuckians is a top priority of the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) and higher education institutions. Maintaining access to life-changing postsecondary credentials benefits both individuals and the state alike. This inaugural report on undergraduate student debt demonstrates that…

In 2016, the North Carolina legislature implemented the North Carolina Fixed Tuition Program. This policy ensures that, once enrolled, an undergraduate student's tuition rate at any of the state's four-year public colleges will not increase for eight consecutive semesters of enrollment. While touted as an effort to increase affordability by…

Despite the important role organic chemistry plays in a wide range of industries, the undergraduate organic chemistry course sequence is considered to be difficult for and feared by students. Although work has been done to identify and address student difficulties within the cognitive and psychomotor domains, little work has focused on…

Higher education has increasingly been called upon to develop interdisciplinary programs -- particularly in STEM fields -- that prepare students to address multi-faceted, real world problems. While the tensions between disciplinary cultures and interdisciplinary programs have been previously studied, relatively little is known about the…

This qualitative research study explored how undergraduate students at a public four-year land grant university can co-create a sense of belonging through an appreciative inquiry (AI) process. The study employed a strengths-based and generative approach to investigate the experiences of students within the same student organization, focusing on…

Collaborative tutor training can help tutors tackle challenges in providing peer assistance. This study follows educational design research approach. The purpose of this study are twofold. This study investigates how collaborative tutor training can be facilitated through Community of Inquiry guided instructional design and explores how tutors…

This phenomenological study explores Black male students' lived experiences with racial microaggressions and the subsequent perceptions of their mental health while attending a predominately white institution (PWI). Data is collected through a focus group and semi-structured in-depth interviews with 15 Black male participants from a northeastern…

A person-centered approach identified five empirically unobserved student profiles of first-time full-time university students who shared similar academic patterns, performance measures, and demographic characteristics. "Honors" and "Flourishing" classes tended to graduate within 6 years of attempting their first-college…

Contributing to research on undergraduate students' thinking about problem solving tasks, the present study reports on students' reasoning about two initial-value problems i.e. first-order linear ordinary differential equations with initial conditions. A qualitative analysis of task-based interviews and work written by 34 students revealed that…