This study investigated the use of alternative performance instruction delivery methods on student achievement in a Principles of Marketing course taught at New River Community College during the 1993 fall semester. The study sought to determine if alternative delivery methods of performance instruction would influence students' achievement in the course. The design of the study was quasi-experimental. Two treatment groups were engaged by this study. One group received performance instruction using group-directed lecture methods. The other group received performance instruction using distance-learning methods. The planning and evaluation of course content goals were held constant utilizing an expert system, artificial intelligence (AI) application software suite developed by Instructional Performance Systems, Inc. Delivery of course content goals was controlled, in that, the same instructor taught both sections of the course. Student achievement in the course was measured with teacher developed criterion-referenced mid-term and final examinations. The study tested the null hypothesis that performance instruction delivery methods have no significant effect on student achievement at the 0.05 level. The study was enhanced by the collection and analysis of qualitative student data. A Student Profile Data Survey was developed and piloted. The student data provided the basis to profile the student groups and accent study habits. Descriptive statistics and unpaired t-tests were used to analyze student achievement on the mid-term and final examinations. The analysis found no significant difference in student achievement resulting from performance instruction delivery methods. Descriptive statistics and unpaired t-tests were also used to profile student groups and accent study habits. It was concluded, if course syllabi and evaluation are held constant; and delivery is controlled, one can reasonably expect achievement will be the same for group-directed and distance learners. / Ph. D.

This study examined community college students’ educational goals at the time of first enrollment in college and the status of attainment of those goals two and four years later. A comparison of the traditional definition of success for community college students - on time graduation or transfer to a four-year institution - and a definition reflecting Southern Association for Colleges and Schools criteria for institutional effectiveness was conducted to determine what effect changing success criteria would have numbers of students who are considered successful. Between 1985 and 1989, 11,553 student attending community colleges in southwestern Virginia were tracked to determine the degree to which they attained entry level educational goals. Students who enrolled for the purpose of attaining a credential were more likely to graduate and to exceed their educational goals than their non-degree-seeking counterparts. Non-degree-seekers were more likely to attain their educational goals exactly and then discontinue their community college enrollment. Differences among demographic groups are discussed and suggestions for policymakers are given. / Ph. D.

Virginia's mandated student outcomes assessment program, as created by Senate Joint Resolution No. 83 in 1986, allowed community colleges in the Commonwealth latitude in developing their own assessment strategies. These strategies have developed slowly and with some inconsistency. The purpose of this study is to determine the congruency of beliefs about the implementation of Virginia's student outcomes assessment program between purposefully selected members of the Virginia General Assembly and community college assessment practitioners. Data for this study were derived from the review of public documents, and the execution of a survey instrument, the results of which were used to develop interviews with designated state legislators and community college assessment practitioners. The interviews became the primary data source for the study. Findings indicate that the legislative participants believe that used by all community colleges across Virginia would be more appropriate than approaches specifically geared to individual institutional missions. Practitioner respondents differ on this issue. The legislators generally believe that the use of a standardized testing approach administered across all community colleges could be beneficial. The practitioners beliefs differ, though not markedly, from the legislative group. Legislators are evenly divided on the issue of using assessment results for institutional comparison. The practitioner group express reservations concerning this prospect. There exists modest differences of belief between the groups concerning the appropriation of general funds to support individual community colleges based on assessment results. The study findings point to congruence of belief among legislative and practitioner respondents when considering the implementation of outcomes assessment in the area of general education. Agreement of beliefs is also found among the practitioner and legislative groups in the implementation of assessment guidelines affecting the communication of assessment results with the citizenry, accountability issues relating to discontinuance of programs, quality assurance, etc., and the role of assessment in Virginia’s college transfer processes. / Ed. D.

With the national attention in the 1990’s on quality education and renewed interest in the transfer function of community colleges, the community college faces increased demands from the legislators for educational accountability and the critics who question the two-year college’s ability to maintain the quality of its transfer function at the same time that it provides vocational, community, and developmental education. Among the issues in the growing concern for transfer education, and most significant to the future of the community college, is the inference that the original transfer function has reemerged as a primary determinant of community college quality. Thus, the community college must respond to the critics and demonstrate the efficacy of its transfer function. To examine the influences that contribute to the high academic achievement (GPA 3.0 or greater) of a transfer student from a Virginia community college to Virginia Tech and determine why the high-achieving student succeeds, the researcher utilized the qualitative research method of naturalistic inquiry with interviews and a quantitative research method with a questionnaire, a methodological triangulation for reliability and validity in qualitative research. In this research study of the two-year commuter institution, integration into the academic system appears more important to high-achievement than integration into the social system; moreover, the faculty-student interaction and collegiate impact seem significantly related to student characteristics, both findings of which are supported in the literature. With the originally eligible and originally ineligible more alike than different in entry characteristics, it seems probable that the community college experience is influential for students with the particular characteristics of those in this study. Based on the findings in this study that the community college experience appears to have positive influence on educational aspiration and that the influence varies for different kinds of students, educators must consider different types of faculty~student interaction with different educational outcomes for different types of students--a topic of some significance for the diverse population of the community college. In this study of the community college with its open-door policy to expand the opportunity for the student without academic credentials, forty percent of these high-achievers were originally ineligible for admission to Virginia Tech; however, the combination of their characteristics as self-directed learners and the faculty-student interaction in the community college environment led them to success as high-achievers not only at the community college but also at Virginia Tech. / Ph. D.

Administrators, faculty, and researchers have assumed that advising needs and preferences for advising styles are similar across student population segments and do not consider the relationship of student attributes or the institutional setting to academic advising. Crookston (1972) presented two advising styles--developmental advising, which reflects a concern for the student's total education, and prescriptive advising, which is primarily focused on formal academic matters. In order to better understand the preference for advising relationships among college students, a model of developmental advising was formulated by Winston and Sandor (1984b). However, because of the increased numbers of special student populations such as women and minorities, it is difficult to ascertain the extent to which advising styles are received and desired by most students. / Ph. D.