General Chemistry is a course where students are expected to nurture the development of their fundamental concepts in chemistry. Students begin general chemistry with alternative conceptions about the topics and fragmented knowledge structures. Majority of students who successfully complete the general chemistry course sequence continue to hold…

As enrollment in online graduate education increases, retention continues to be problematic for many colleges and universities across the United States. Non-traditional students, who represent the majority of online graduate student enrollment, have unique issues related to persistence considering they often must juggle the demands of graduate…

Research on community impacts from service-learning has been scarce, yet this area is worth exploring in order to understand how and why service-learning can make a difference. The current research sought to validate a conceptual framework (Lau & Snell, 2020), which categorizes the impacts of service-learning on community partner organizations…

Student retention is a wide-reaching issue that causes a concern to postsecondary institutions and policy-makers. This research aimed to examine the impact of a geo-spatial factor--distance to the closest metropolitan area--on student retention from a multi-institutional perspective, through the data collected from the Integrated Postsecondary…

This narrative inquiry study explored how higher education impacted undergraduate students' retention, focusing on first-generation college students (FGCS) of color at an urban public R1 university in the mid-South. A key objective was to understand these students' challenges today and how the intersection of their identities influenced their…

This study explores factors that contribute to college students' subjective well-being (SWB). Using the experience sampling method, the investigators collected data from an urban university in a mid-western state in the United States. We analyzed 963 experience sampling forms from 21 college students. Results showed that participants' SWB was…

Examined in this study is the question of whether students in STEM courses perform better and have more positive perceptions than students in non-STEM courses, when both are offered in the blended format. As part of a blended learning initiative, 6 STEM and 8 non-STEM university courses were redesigned using the blended format. Students (n=318)…

Each community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnership may incur "ripple effects" -- impacts that happen outside the scope of planned projects. We used brainstorming and interviewing to create a roadmap that incorporated input from nine CBPR participants and five community/academic partners to retrospectively assess the ripple…

Right-to-work (RTW) laws neither provide opportunity for gainful employment nor a higher standard of living. In truth, by ending a union's ability to charge administrative fees to employees who benefit from their collectively bargained contract, these laws aim to weaken unions and silence workers. They are designed to help employers, not workers.…

This study measured competencies and conceptual knowledge developed by undergraduates who participated in a 2-month interdisciplinary research project at a large urban university in Southeast US. Working in groups, students chose a shared topic of significant interest and examined it through the combined lens of multidisciplinary insights toward a…

This study examines how students from rural areas in Bangladesh face particular challenges in adapting to university dormitories in urban areas. There has been an increase in the number of students migrating from rural areas of Bangladesh to the cities for pursuing higher studies. These students face numerous challenges to adapt themselves to a…

Based upon Paulo Freire's theory of humanizing pedagogy and informed more recently by Freirean scholars Lilia Bartolomé and Maria del Carmen Salazar, this practice-based article provides two immersive learning experiences in which learners engage and question their educational histories, beliefs, and values, reflecting upon and unpacking their…

Objective: To determine barriers and opportunities to health insurance enrollment among an undergraduate students at a large urban university. Participants: Participants were 31 college students enrolled in 4-year and community colleges in the City University of New York (CUNY), and six health services and insurance enrollment specialists who…

To further live our mission, Marquette has launched many new initiatives over the past five years that strategically connect our university to our community. In this paper, we will highlight three of these initiatives. The first relates to connecting the anchor institutions in our neighborhood through an effort called Near West Side Partners. The…

The concept of the anchor institution, and its subsequent mission, was first considered in the mid-1990s, a time during which the dominant academic culture of higher education was driven by the "public good regime." The decades since have seen the emergence of the public engagement knowledge regime, and the academic capitalist regime.…