The use of community service to promote learning and civic responsibility in higher education has blossomed since the 1980s. The problem addressed in this study was that although the X University initiated the required community service program in 2004, it had not assessed the effectiveness of the program from students' perspectives. Using Kolb and Kolb's conceptual framework on experiential learning, a qualitative case study was used to evaluate the perceptions of 13 4th-year students who had participated in the required community service program during their 1st-year of study. The research questions were focused on students' perceptions on how community service influenced their attitudes towards philanthropy. Data were coded and themes developed using key words from the interviews. Findings from 1-on-1 interviews revealed 4 themes: support for effective community service programs, students' personal growth and development, giving back to society with gratitude, and students' self-awareness in attitude towards the needy. The study results indicated that, the required community service program made a change in participants' lives and influenced their attitudes towards being sensitive to people with need. It is also likely to make them more philanthropic and affect positive social change. The resulting project consisted of an evaluation report recommending the reassessment of how the program is introduced to 1st-year students. Potential social change impacts include improved student experiences, as well as helping other universities in Kenya to learn from X University's experience to introduce similar community service programs.

Retention of students through the completion of the nursing degree is a problem that exists at local Texas nursing programs, adding to the nursing shortage at local Texas hospitals. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to identify the best practices used by a local Texas college with graduation rates above the benchmark of 85% set by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The study framework was based on Bandura's theory of self-efficacy and Tinto's theory of student retention. The research questions for the study focused on reasons the college maintained a high retention rate, best practices currently used, changes to best practices, which best practices contributed to student retention, and additional best practices that could be implemented. The boundaries for the case study included current dean's ambassadors, traditional faculty, and recent dean's ambassadors who graduated within 3 months of the project study. The case study method of qualitative research used 30 minute Skype or telephone interviews to collect personal perceptions and opinions from 5 participant volunteers from a 2-year or 4-year nursing program. Data analysis included grouping similar in vivo codes together into major and minor themes. The results of my project study revealed best practices used at the college included faculty availability, faculty support, office hours, mentoring, tutoring, and retention counselors. Only 1 participant had knowledge and was familiar with the term self-efficacy. Based on these results a faculty professional development project was created to provide information on academic self-efficacy in the form of a 3-day, evidence-based workshop. This project may lead to positive social change by providing faculty information that may be used to plan and refine a curriculum on self-efficacies, which could benefit nursing students and increase retention.

Literature examining the impact of the student learning accountability movement on faculty perspectives is insufficient, as little is known about how faculty perceive the requirements related to federal, state, and institutional accountability initiatives. This case study investigated the threat posed by the accountability movement on the stability of faculty engagement, while exploring how faculty perceptions of the movement will impact institutional and state policy. Using Levin's system of accountability as the framework for this study, the central research question explored how understanding faculty perspectives on the student learning accountability movement could promote policy within an institution. Data were gathered via a qualitative survey of 140 instructional faculty and from 21 semi-structured interviews with instructional faculty, accountability specialists, and state coordinating board officials. Data from the surveys and interviews were inductively coded, and then analyzed through detailed categorical aggregation. Findings indicated a discord with what Levin calls the feedback loop in an accountability system. Transparency related to institutional governance, not distinctively academic freedom and faculty engagement, was found to be a key component of a successful accountability system. Results of the study contribute to positive social change by providing higher education institutions with practical recommendations to address accountability pressures through a model for a faculty-driven accountability system.

Registered Nurses use clinical documentation to describe care planning processes, measure quality outcomes, support reimbursement, and defend litigation. The Connecticut Department of Health, guided by federal Conditions of Participation, defines state-level healthcare policy to include required care planning processes. Nurses are educated in care planning process standards, however no policy-required competency verification processes in academia or employers exists. Guided by the advocacy coalition framework, the purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine if the quality of nurse coalition actors’ clinical documentation, a relatively stable parameter, would increase after attending policy-centered structured education. Data were extracted from 272 electronic medical records (136 pre - 136 post attendance) and mean quality scores were computed using the Müller-Staub Q-DIO scale from 17 nurse coalition actors. A two group dependent t test was used to examine quality score differences and linear regression was used to isolate process education subsections that significantly predicted post mean score improvements. Findings indicate a statistically significant difference between pre and post education quality scores (p < .001) and improvement drivers of the post-education quality scores were identified in the subscales of ‘diagnosis as a process’ (p < .001) and ‘interventions’ (p < .001). Implications for positive social change include recommendations to state-level policy makers to mandate confirmation of graduating nurses’ documentation quality and to install continuing education requirements as a condition of bi-annual license renewal; each area acting to reduce non-compliant clinical documentation in light of federal Conditions of Participation rules.

A number of studies have sought to identify factors influencing STEM students’ success in colleges and universities (Crisp et al., 2009; Excelencia, 2011; Hagedorn & Purnamasari, 2012). However, there are few qualitative studies focusing on students’ perspectives and how they make meaning of their experiences as participants in a mentoring program. The main purpose of this research was to explain the perceptions of Latino students in a STEM Mentoring Program at Miami Dade College. Because this study sought to gain an in-depth understanding of how students involved in a mentoring program make meaning of their experiences, the type of qualitative research that fits this inquiry was a single case study. This study was undertaken to address these questions: (a) How do STEM students make meaning of mentorship? (b) How do STEM students construct their experiences in the Program? (c) To what extent do gender and ethnicity play a role in how students make meaning of their mentoring experiences? (d) What do students identify as important for succeeding in a mentorship program? The major findings of this study were: (1) For the participants, a formal mentoring programs offers various forms of academic support, but they found interpersonal support with informal mentors; (2) For the participants, in a formal mentoring program a career match between mentor and mentee is essential; (3) For the participants, the required number of meetings in a formal mentoring program was burdensome, but other required activities were important; (4) For the participants, the peer mentoring experience was important and self-fulfilling; (5) For the participants, the gender or race of the mentor was insignificant, but some believed that sharing the same cultural background made them feel more connected with their majors; and (6) For the participants, encouragement and emotional support from their families was important, but only those with college-educated parents received the academic and financial support necessary important to succeed in college; (7) For the participants, a mentoring program will be successful if there are opportunities for building community among students and faculty, but ultimately, what matters for success are the personal characteristics of students. This study was significant because it provided insight into what students understand are key experiences of being in a mentoring program, and it also identified the kinds of institutional support students themselves thought would help in STEM careers. This information can help institutions of higher education plan and administer effective mentoring programs in STEM or even other fields.

Abstract Much warranted attention over the past few decades has been devoted to the problem of retaining women faculty in academe, particularly in areas where they poorly represented such as in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This study uses descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling techniques to test an existing model of general faculty departure intentions (Zhou & Volkwein, 2004) on three samples of faculty (a) women faculty, (b) women faculty in STEM, and (c) women faculty in non-STEM fields. Findings revealed that although several significant pathways to intention to leave for women faculty in STEM and in non-STEM fields were identified, the tested model is not an overall good fit of the data for any of the three samples, implying the need for new models of faculty departure intentions specifically for women in STEM and non-STEM disciplines. Implications for practice, theory, and future research are discussed.

This thesis is a quantitative research design that examines the upward mobility of women administrators in campus recreation. The purpose of this study is to examine the career mobility of women currently working in the administration of campus recreation. A criterion sampling method was used to select women currently holding administrative level positions in campus recreation as well as solicit participation using the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) Member Database. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 18.0) was utilized to analyze the data. For the quantitative data, basic descriptive statistics were performed which included means, standard deviations, and frequencies. For the research questions Pearson Chi Square tests, ANOVA tests, and Tukey’s Post Hoc test were conducted. The respondents’ narrative comments were analyzed objectively for common themes. A total of 348 women administrators successfully completed the e-survey, generating a 45.7% response rate. Some significant findings from this study include: (1) The current study supports the literature of previous studies in that women in different sport industry segments are experiencing the same barriers to career mobility; (2) Women still perceive the same challenges as women over 30 years ago; (3) The status of women has increasingly changed as women continue to make inroads into the campus recreation profession, however women’s perceived career development remains unchanged.

This bounded case study describes the readiness of a Southeastern State University System to support the growth of online learning. Structured as a case study, the view provided of the Southeastern State University System in this moment in time provides a contextually rich view of the phenomenon of change within a university system. The study answers the following questions regarding the change towards online course delivery: Does the Southeastern State University System have a primarily transformational or transactional orientation? What are the key change facilitating factors within the Southeastern State University System? What are the key change restraining factors within the Southeastern State University System? The key change facilitating factors identified as part of the first phase of the study included: motivation to change, job/task requirements and organizational culture supportive of change. The perspectives of the administrators regarding facilitating factors differed, as did views on if the organizational culture was supportive of change. The CIO interviewed described a variation in perspectives regarding online learning based on institutional categories and missions, which was reflected in the interviews. The key change restraining factors were identified during the survey phase of the study as: change related systems, emotional impact of change and change mission and strategy. Financial incentives, both for the institutions and the individuals involved in online or blended activities was identified in the interviews. However, the CIO interviewed outlined a perspective that the funding model for collaborative programs in the university system was flawed. A perceived lack of change mission strategy was common through the interviews, with signs pointing towards improvement within the system, with a new focus on online learning as part of an initiative to have more college graduates within the state. This study provides a snapshot of the state of a university system as it adapts to the changing environment of higher education. The study describes the application of an established organizational change and development model to the study of online learning, which provides future researchers with a framework to investigate online learning at a university system level.

This thesis is a quantitative research design that examines the upward mobility of women administrators in campus recreation. The purpose of this study is to examine the career mobility of women currently working in the administration of campus recreation. A criterion sampling method was used to select women currently holding administrative level positions in campus recreation as well as solicit participation using the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) Member Database. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 18.0) was utilized to analyze the data. For the quantitative data, basic descriptive statistics were performed which included means, standard deviations, and frequencies. For the research questions Pearson Chi Square tests, ANOVA tests, and Tukey’s Post Hoc test were conducted. The respondents’ narrative comments were analyzed objectively for common themes. A total of 348 women administrators successfully completed the e-survey, generating a 45.7% response rate. Some significant findings from this study include: (1) The current study supports the literature of previous studies in that women in different sport industry segments are experiencing the same barriers to career mobility; (2) Women still perceive the same challenges as women over 30 years ago; (3) The status of women has increasingly changed as women continue to make inroads into the campus recreation profession, however women’s perceived career development remains unchanged.

As a best practice, many postsecondary institutions in the United States use internships to provide students the option of maximizing their classroom learning with practical experiences. These experiences are not only intended to enhance students’ classroom learning but also to increase their employment marketability upon graduation. The internship process involves three stakeholders—the institution, the students, and the employers—and is often managed by curricular and co-curricular departments. However, the manner in which the program is structured varies from institution to institution and even within the institution. Thus, understanding which structures of undergraduate student internship programs are most effective as an academic component of experiential learning is critical for the overall success of the internship programs. This mixed-methods case study research was designed to examine the Mass Media Arts Department internship structure at the selected institution to identify the components most effective in the students’ experiential learning experience. The study investigated the alignment between the institution’s academic and co-curricular programs, as well as their participating interns’ preparedness and their partner employers readiness. The study also examined the industry’s best practices used by other institutions and recommended by national professional associations to align these variables. Based on the findings of this study, the following four emergent themes were identified to effectively align and integrate the curricular and co-curricular departments, the interns, and the employers: (a) program structure, (b) student preparation, (c) employers’ relations, and (d) program evaluation. Future researchers can further examine these emerging themes to improve the relationship between student preparation as part of human capital and the roles of faculty and administration in aligning internship program processes.