The purpose of this study is to explore and understand any correlation between a mother having postpartum depression and her now college-level child having a mental illness. The research question posed for this study was: Is there a correlation between maternal postpartum depression and the development of mental illnesses in college students? Studies have shown that there is a correlation in early childhood development, but there are deficits when it comes to long-term follow-up. Data for this study was collected via online surveys on SONA UCF. The results from the Chi-square test imply a strong association (p = .007) at n=85. Since many college students presently suffer from an array of mental illnesses, it is crucial to trace it back to the roots of the problem.

Objective – Views surrounding COVID-19 are divided. The objective of this thesis is to investigate if views surrounding COVID-19 can be inferred based on college-level demographics. I explore the views of undergraduate students at the University of Central Florida. Methods – A link to the questionnaire created through Qualtrics was sent out to university leaders asking them to distribute it accordingly among their respective undergraduate populations. Students (N=149) responded to questions about issues related to COVID-19, college-level demographics, and political attitudes. The data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential analysis. Results – Students still viewed COVID-19 as a serious issue (79%). (44%) were concerned about issues other than the direct health implications and (28%) viewed the public response as an overreaction. Seniors were more likely to say it is important to know others’ vaccination status. Those in the College of Engineering/Computer Science were most supportive of Trump’s handling of COVID-19 and viewed the pandemic as less serious. They were also less supportive of vaccine mandates and less likely to change their behavior than Arts and Humanities students. Only the CDC received majority support as a helpful source of information about COVID-19. Conclusions – Further research needs to be undertaken using a larger and more representative sample to better understand how college-level demographics interact with political behavior. The CDC should be the chief source of information regarding public health. And schools should address the different concerns students have about the pandemic while also making sure students who disagree with public health measures have avenues to express their opinion.

Undergraduate enrollment in colleges and universities has grown and changed drastically over the past 2 decades, with a significant portion of this growth coming from the increased number of nontraditional students who have made the decision to make their way onto college and university campuses to pursue a college degree. Due to these changes, many institutions of higher education have had to rethink the way they have historically operated. In an attempt to better meet the needs and demands of adult nontraditional students, colleges and universities have reviewed their existing programs and instituted programs that allow for the awarding of academic credit for prior learning. For those institutions of higher education involved in the prior learning assessment (PLA) process and interested in providing a quality program, an increased emphasis and focus should be on the importance of determining what a learning activity is, and more importantly, what constitutes college-level learning. This study focused on the identification and profiling of prior learning assessment (PLA) processes in Texas public universities offering nontraditional baccalaureate degree programs, the identification of commonalties among such programs, and the determination of program quality based on established standards. The instrument utilized in this study was designed on Urban Whitaker's 10 Standards of Good Practice. The population consisted of those public institutions of higher education in Texas that offer the Texas CIP code 30.9999.40 - Applied Arts and Sciences - baccalaureate degree. A within-stage mixed-model methodology was used. Open-ended questions were used to strengthen the data obtained from the quantitative portion. This research study suggests that, although there are similarities with regards to the types of PLA processes used in the awarding of PLA credit, many of the organizations could benefit from an evaluation of their current policies, procedures, and/or common practices related to the process of awarding credit via prior learning assessment as they relate to overall quality.

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No description available.

We designed an experiment to evaluate change in students' spatial skills as a result of specific interventions. Our test subjects included high school students in earth science classes, college level non-science majors enrolled in large enrollment introductory geoscience courses and introductory level geoscience students. All students completed spatial tests to measure their ability to mentally rotate three-dimensional objects and to construct a three-dimensional object from a two-dimensional representation. Results show a steady improvement in spatial skills for all groups. They also indicate that students choosing science majors typically have much higher spatial skills as they enter college. Specific interventions to improve spatial skills included having a subgroup of the non-science majors and high school students complete a suite of Geographic Information System (GIS) activities. The intervention at the high school level was more extensive and resulted in significant improvements in both categories of spatial ability. At the college level, the non-science majors that received the intervention showed no significant difference from those that did not, probably because the time spent on the intervention was too short. The geoscience majors had nearly three times the improvement of non-science majors in both categories of spatial ability attributed to hands-on weekly laboratory experiences. These results reveal a wide range of abilities among all groups of students, and suggest that we evaluate teaching strategies in all courses to ensure that students can interpret and understand the visual imagery used in lectures.

L’histoire des femmes et l’histoire du genre se sont développées conjointement depuis plus d’une trentaine d’années. Pourtant, elles ne sont pas encore pleinement reconnues par les institutions universitaires, et encore moins par les institutions collégiales, les progrès historiographiques dans ces domaines étant exclus du cursus enseigné. Du moins, c’est ce que nous avons observé au niveau collégial au Québec, à la suite d’une évaluation de la trame narrative des manuels francophones et anglophones utilisés pour le cours Histoire de la civilisation occidentale. En effet, grâce à une analyse des chapitres couvrant la période moderne, soit de 1500 à 1800 environ, des manuels les plus utilisés pour l’enseignement de ce cours, nous avons pu établir que l’histoire des femmes et l’histoire du genre ne sont pas intégrées et qu’une différence existe entre la trame du manuel francophone et celle du manuel anglophone. Nous avons constaté que le seul cours d’histoire obligatoire au niveau collégial, qui tend à former des citoyens et des citoyennes éclairé(e)s ainsi qu’à transmettre une culture générale de base, exclut la moitié de la population de leurs enseignements. Aussi ce mémoire propose-t-il trois façons de remédier à cette situation. / Women and gender history have developed in conjunction for more than thirty years. Nevertheless, these domains are still not fully recognized by the university institutions, and even less by the college institutions, as the historiographical advances in these areas are being excluded from the curriculum. Indeed, this is the situation we have observed at the college level in Quebec, following an evaluation of the narrative transmitted by French and English textbooks used in the History of western civilization courses. In fact, thanks to an analysis of the chapters covering the early modern period, which ranges approximately from 1500 to 1800, in the most often used textbooks for the teaching of this course, we were able to establish that the history of women and the history of gender are not integrated in the narrative and that a difference exists between the narrative of the French and English textbooks. We observed that the only mandatory history course at the college level, which endeavours to form enlightened male and female citizens as well as to transmit a basic general culture, excludes half of the population of their teachings. Thus, this work proposes three solutions to remedy this situation.

L’histoire des femmes et l’histoire du genre se sont développées conjointement depuis plus d’une trentaine d’années. Pourtant, elles ne sont pas encore pleinement reconnues par les institutions universitaires, et encore moins par les institutions collégiales, les progrès historiographiques dans ces domaines étant exclus du cursus enseigné. Du moins, c’est ce que nous avons observé au niveau collégial au Québec, à la suite d’une évaluation de la trame narrative des manuels francophones et anglophones utilisés pour le cours Histoire de la civilisation occidentale. En effet, grâce à une analyse des chapitres couvrant la période moderne, soit de 1500 à 1800 environ, des manuels les plus utilisés pour l’enseignement de ce cours, nous avons pu établir que l’histoire des femmes et l’histoire du genre ne sont pas intégrées et qu’une différence existe entre la trame du manuel francophone et celle du manuel anglophone. Nous avons constaté que le seul cours d’histoire obligatoire au niveau collégial, qui tend à former des citoyens et des citoyennes éclairé(e)s ainsi qu’à transmettre une culture générale de base, exclut la moitié de la population de leurs enseignements. Aussi ce mémoire propose-t-il trois façons de remédier à cette situation. / Women and gender history have developed in conjunction for more than thirty years. Nevertheless, these domains are still not fully recognized by the university institutions, and even less by the college institutions, as the historiographical advances in these areas are being excluded from the curriculum. Indeed, this is the situation we have observed at the college level in Quebec, following an evaluation of the narrative transmitted by French and English textbooks used in the History of western civilization courses. In fact, thanks to an analysis of the chapters covering the early modern period, which ranges approximately from 1500 to 1800, in the most often used textbooks for the teaching of this course, we were able to establish that the history of women and the history of gender are not integrated in the narrative and that a difference exists between the narrative of the French and English textbooks. We observed that the only mandatory history course at the college level, which endeavours to form enlightened male and female citizens as well as to transmit a basic general culture, excludes half of the population of their teachings. Thus, this work proposes three solutions to remedy this situation.

During the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase by postsecondary institutions in providing academic programs and course offerings in a multitude of formats and venues (Biemiller, 2009; Kucsera & Zimmaro, 2010; Lang, 2009; Mangan, 2008). Strategies pertaining to reapportionment of course-delivery seat time have been a major facet of these institutional initiatives; most notably, within many open-door 2-year colleges. Often, these enrollment-management decisions are driven by the desire to increase market-share, optimize the usage of finite facility capacity, and contain costs, especially during these economically turbulent times. So, while enrollments have surged to the point where nearly one in three 18-to-24 year-old U.S. undergraduates are community college students (Pew Research Center, 2009), graduation rates, on average, still remain distressingly low (Complete College America, 2011). Among the learning-theory constructs related to seat-time reapportionment efforts is the cognitive phenomenon commonly referred to as the spacing effect, the degree to which learning is enhanced by a series of shorter, separated sessions as opposed to fewer, more massed episodes. This ex post facto study explored whether seat time in a postsecondary developmental-level algebra course is significantly related to: course success; course-enrollment persistence; and, longitudinally, the time to successfully complete a general-education-level mathematics course. Hierarchical logistic regression and discrete-time survival analysis were used to perform a multi-level, multivariable analysis of a student cohort (N = 3,284) enrolled at a large, multi-campus, urban community college. The subjects were retrospectively tracked over a 2-year longitudinal period. The study found that students in long seat-time classes tended to withdraw earlier and more often than did their peers in short seat-time classes (p < .05). Additionally, a model comprised of nine statistically significant covariates (all with p-values less than .01) was constructed. However, no longitudinal seat-time group differences were detected nor was there sufficient statistical evidence to conclude that seat time was predictive of developmental-level course success. A principal aim of this study was to demonstrate—to educational leaders, researchers, and institutional-research/business-intelligence professionals—the advantages and computational practicability of survival analysis, an underused but more powerful way to investigate changes in students over time.

The SCANS report issued in 1990 brought national attention to concerns about lagging competencies of US workers and their lack of preparedness for the high-performance workplace. Since the SCANS report, several national and statewide efforts have attempted to identify skill sets appropriate for success in the changing workplace. Recent discussion has included skill sets appropriate for college graduates. This study was designed to determine perceptions of Maryland community college chief academic officers and department chairs toward one such skill set, the Maryland Skills for Success, and whether they are appropriate learning expectations for associate degree completers. The Maryland Skills for Success (MSS) are comprised of five skill goals: (1) learning skills, (2) thinking skills, (3) communication skills, (4) technology skills, and (5) interpersonal skills. Three to five 'learning expectations' elaborate what students should be able to accomplish under each skill goal to be successful in future work and learning. The study involved a survey of 293 chief academic officers and department chairs at the 18 community colleges across Maryland. A 75 percent response rate was achieved. The survey assessed the extent to which respondents agreed that: (a) the Maryland Skills for Success are appropriate expectations for associate degree completers, (b) students currently achieve MSS expectations, (c) respondent's courses and programs contain specific learning objectives that require students to learn and perform such skills, (d) all Maryland community colleges should teach and assess a common set of higher-order knowledge application skills. Respondent ratings indicated that the Maryland Skills for Success represent valid learning expectations for associate degree completers. Deans were more favorable toward the MSS than were department chairs, and were more confident that students were required to learn and perform learning expectations similar to those listed in the MSS. The department chairs were also divided into groups to determine attitudinal differences by disciplines. The department chairs were more likely than the deans to agree that students currently achieve the MSS learning expectations. Most chair groups somewhat disagreed their courses and programs contained specific learning objectives requiring students to learn and perform the skills represented in the MSS. Of the chair groups, the English/fine arts/humanities, and the technologies/health care groups tended to produce significantly higher ratings than other chairs and supported the notion of Maryland community Colleges teaching and assessing a common higher-order knowledge application skill set. Based on respondent ratings, the communication, thinking and interpersonal skill sets in the MSS have the best chance of gaining acceptance by colleges interested in integration of purposeful teaching and assessment of a higher-order skill set across the curricula. Respondent ratings also indicated that it is unlikely that the colleges would undertake a common initiative to teach and assess a common skill set like the MSS without intervention from the state. Respondents expressed distrust of bureaucratic intervention, were somewhat concerned about the difficulty of teaching and assessing the entire skill set, and felt that the skill sets were too broad to be feasibly taught. Recommendations include the need for extensive faculty development and the provision of incentives from the state educational agencies to provide support for colleges interested in teaching and assessing a common higher-order knowledge application skill set. / Ed. D.