The purpose of this quantitative, comparative study was to determine the relationship between retention and academic success of students who participated in a College to Career Navigation exploration course and students who did not participate in the course at a rural, community college serving a 14-county area in the Southeast U. S. Archival data were collected from the participating community college’s student information system. Other data examined for this study included the student’s gender, at-risk status, and age. Retention data of the first-year, full-time students were collected and measured in accordance with the enrollment requirements of the community college’s governing board. Data for academic success were collected and measured by student’s cumulative final GPA. Chi-square tests of independence and independent sample t tests were used to analyze the relationship of the College to Career Navigation exploration course with outcomes that measured student success. Overall findings from the chi-square tests indicated, that participants of the College to Career Navigation exploration course had significantly higher retention rates than those students who did not participate in the College to Career Navigation exploration course. The independent sample t tests indicated students who participated in the College to Career Navigation exploration course at significantly higher cumulative GPAs than those who did not participate in the course.

California community college leaders are looking for strategies to sustain facilities and maintenance operations because the governor only approved the allocation of $87.5 million in the 2014-2015 Budget Act for facilities maintenance operations. Guided by the change and strategy theories, the purpose of this multicase study was to explore the strategies that a select group of college leaders have used to sustain or improve their facilities maintenance operations. The data collection process included a review of college planning documents and semistructured interviews with 10 senior administrators from 3 large California community colleges who have used strategies to address sustaining or improving their facilities maintenance operations. Saldana coding and an inductive analysis process were used to identify themes. Triangulation was employed to increase the trustworthiness of interpretations. The analysis revealed the central role of planning as the strategy leaders should employ to improve institutional success. Funding was an additional theme leaders regarded as the issue that most often undermined planning and effective maintenance operations. All participants acknowledged the need for the integration of planning and funding to create institutional success. These findings suggest that community college leaders who use planning, funding strategies, maintenance strategies, and who empower people to sustain facility and maintenance operations can improve the teaching-learning environment. When community college leaders transform the teaching-learning environment, they enable student success. Student success increases the earning power of students that contributes to social change by expanding the tax-base and creating greater economic development.

Despite the many health benefits, physical activity participation among those between 18 to 24 years is in significant decline during the college-age years. Postsecondary education has been identified as an ideal environment where young adults should be targeted for physical activity participation. However, a limited number of studies have assessed the effectiveness of college-level health education and physical education program interventions to increase physical activity levels among college students. The purpose of this study was to examine current physical activity levels of college age students who have completed a college-level health education course and laboratory to gain a better understanding for developing and improving interventions targeted at increasing physical activity behaviors. The study employed a quantitative method using the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire, Exercise Motivation Inventory-2 and the Processes of Change Physical Activity Questionnaire 4.1, each designed specifically to assess leisure-time physical activity behaviors and identify patterns, habits, and how shifts in physical activity behavior occur. Study subjects included candidates who had completed a college-level health education lecture course and laboratory. Study findings showed no statistical significance regarding attitudes or behaviors about physical activity regardless of gender, class standing, or age. Although data analysis for this study provided no statistical significance, the findings are consistent with peer-reviewed literature, which suggests course-based physical activity programs only have been found to be minimally effective on long-term behavior change for increasing physical activity among college age students.

At a small for-profit college located outside of New York City, declining classroom attendance over the last few years has become a serious concern in the business program. Poor attendance is one of the major causes for enrollment dropping and poor student retention. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify factors that influence student attendance. The study was based on Tinto's (1975) model of student integration and Nora and Cabrera's (1996) student adjustment model, which relates environmental influences on student retention. The research questions were used to investigate why students attend or do not attend classes, and strategies to improve classroom attendance. Data collection included semistructured face-to-face interviews with a purposeful sample of 16 students, 3 teachers in the business program, and 3 administrators. Textual analysis of the data, and a qualitative data analysis software program was used to manage and analyze the qualitative data. The data analysis revealed the following themes: academic reasons, social influences, and financial challenges. These findings led to the development of a 3-day professional learning workshop for teachers, students, and administrators to improve class attendance. This study also has the potential to foster positive social change by providing strategies that facilitate retention and higher graduation rates, resulting in students graduating with a degree and skills to find better employment opportunities.

Local history knowledge informs citizens of the political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of their communities. Community colleges are uniquely situated to address citizens' educational needs because of their historic mission to serve local people. The problem at a rural college located in a southeastern region of the United States was the perception of a lack of local history in the curriculum. Dewey, Schon, Brookfield, and Mezirow's perspectives on reflection guided this case study. Two research questions focused on how faculty and staff at the college perceived the role of local history and its relationship to the curriculum and how local history could be included in the curriculum. Using a qualitative case study approach, 12 faculty, administrators, and staff were selected through purposeful and maximum variation sampling. Qualitative data collected from open-ended questions and history and humanities course syllabi were inductively analyzed and coded towards an emergent approach. The most important findings related to (a) the high value of local history knowledge to educators, students, and communities; (b) the abundance of internal and external resources to address local history in the curriculum; and (c) the desire of faculty to participate in future reflective activities designed to improve teaching and learning. Based on these findings, a position paper was developed for administrators, faculty, and staff, which included 3 recommendations: curriculum review, community partnerships, and professional development and faculty reflective practices. This study identified strategies and resources that may more effectively support students' learning outcomes and developmental needs, in relation to local history knowledge, which positions the institution to employ the curriculum as a vehicle to encourage citizens to actively participate in a democratic society.

Although instructors at a Western Caribbean university use technology in the instructional process, they rarely use social media tools for teaching and learning. This exploratory qualitative case study addressed faculty members' perceived role of social media technology tools in higher education instruction at the local university. The conceptual frameworks that guided this study were the theory of planned behavior and the technology acceptance model. Ten faculty members at the local university were selected through a purposeful sampling process and were interviewed. Interview transcripts were organized using an iterative coding process and were analyzed for recurring themes. Trustworthiness was established through peer review, member checking, peer debriefing, and triangulation. The themes that emerged from the interviews revealed factors that encouraged the use of social media tools such as freedom in learning, growth in inferential skills, ease of communication, or access to a repository of online lessons. In addition, factors that discouraged the use of social media were also discovered, such as unreliability of the tools, hindrance to cognitive growth, or the increased number of cyber bullies. The resulting project consisted of a white paper that will disseminate the findings from this study to stakeholders with the goal of initiating a collaborative process focused on the use of social media tools in instruction. Recommendations from this project study may help to implement and integrate social media tools in instruction. The project contributes to social change through faculty members' stronger understanding of both those factors that encourage the use of social media tools and the barriers that prevent their effective use in instruction.

Nurses deal more effectively with cultural diversity when they have an ethnorelative orientation toward cultural difference and commonality on the Intercultural Development Continuum, which was the theoretical framework of this study. Scholarly literature shows limited knowledge on what fosters nurses' intercultural development. Thus, this quantitative, retrospective study was the first investigation in health care in Switzerland conducted on nursing students' orientation on the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and the relationship to student demographic variables. The sample for this secondary data analysis consisted of the IDI results from nursing students enrolled between 2010 and 2016 at the largest nursing college in Switzerland (N = 3,410) where the systematic integration of the development of intercultural competence into the curriculum began in 2010. Descriptive statistical analysis indicated that the students' developmental orientation (DO) toward cultural difference and commonality represented a mindset of minimization (M = 86.3, SD = 13.7), whereas the orientation gap between the DO and the students' perceived orientation (PO) was high (M = 32.5), indicating that students believe they have higher intercultural competence than they have. Chi-square-tests revealed significant relationships between gender, age, and time living in another country and the students' PO and DO. The paired samples t test demonstrated a higher end of program DO (p = .01) compared to beginning DO scores, suggesting the program provided challenges that met the students' level of readiness for cultural development. The findings may affect positive social change by providing knowledge on contributors to development of intercultural competence that educators can use.

The issue of limited part-time teacher professional development and its effect on adult learners' success at an adult education center in the northeast United States was addressed in this study. At the research site, almost 50% of the teaching staff are adjuncts. Professional development opportunities have been limited, with only 1 opportunity recorded during the 2014-2015 school year. When teachers are provided appropriate and relevant support for the curriculum and student needs, they realize their own craft growth, with measureable student achievement as a result. Knowles's adult learning theory served as the conceptual framework and provided structure for exploring and understanding nontraditional students. Using a qualitative exploratory case study design, the research questions focused on part-time teachers' perception of professional development on their teaching and instructional practice. Purposeful sampling was used to select 8 adjuncts to participate in semistructured interviews. Data analysis involved an inductive study of coded data retrieved and explored 5 themes: barriers to delivering an excellent teaching plan, teacher knowledge of student needs, administrative concerns, sense of community, and professional development needs. Themes were examined to develop a 3-day adult education training program. Implications for positive social change at the local level include information for educational administrators to design and promote appropriate and relevant professional development opportunities for adjuncts. This advancement of ongoing professional development could improve teaching and learning for adjuncts that may result in their craft improvement, positively impacting their nontraditional students.

Diversity is a positive aspect of a student's educational experience. Current literature supports the value of diversity, confirming that skills are developed within a diverse learning environment that prepares students to thrive in a competitive global economy. The leadership at University X (UX) had implemented various initiatives to improve diversity, yet the problem addressed in this study was that students perceived differently, citing that diversity growth lacked progress. The goal of this single case study was to bring forth change with a specific intervention created to elevate diversity and a positive campus climate. Maslow's hierarchy of needs was used to explore the perceptions of 8 students regarding diversity progress at UX. Research questions focused on why students perceived little progress had been made toward diversity and how the culture could support diverse students. Face-to-face interviews yielded data analyzed through a descriptive approach, generating findings baring 2 central themes: communication and the existing cultural environment. The resulting project consists of a position paper proposing 2 bold strategies for infusing diversity and inclusion on the campus. Strategy 1 outlines a communication plan designed to facilitate review of UX's guiding documents, along with a regular, ongoing method for communicating to the campus. Strategy 2 proposes the implementation of a university wide cultural sensitivity training for campus membership to heighten cultural awareness. This project contributes to social change by raising knowledge and recognition of cultural diversity that will help perpetuate student persistence, intercultural competency, quality social interactions, a positive racial climate, and well-developed cognitive and leadership skills within the student body.

The increased enrollment of adult learners in colleges and universities that offer online programs has provoked a need for skilled online adjunct faculty. Administrators at online universities in the Mideastern region of the United States have sought to better understand the relationship between formal evaluations and teaching practices of the online adjunct faculty. Guided by the theory of adult learning, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between formal evaluations of the teaching practices of online adjunct faculty and their professional development. A correlational study was completed to determine the association between online adjunct faculty's perceptions of formal evaluation processes, attitudes about teaching and, decisions to make changes in instructional behavior. This study also addressed the association between formal evaluations and online adjunct faculty's willingness to participate in professional development opportunities. Online adjunct faculty with 1 or more years of online teaching experience at a local university who had experienced a formal evaluation participated in this research. A Spearman correlation analysis indicated a positive association between online adjunct faculty teaching practices and their perceptions of the quality of formal evaluations. A Spearman correlation analysis also indicated a positive association between online adjunct faculty willingness to seek and take advantage of professional development and their perception of the quality of formal evaluations. The project study supports strategies for developing and implementing evaluative processes that measure effective teaching practices and encourage professional development for online adjunct faculty. Formal evaluative processes can affect social change by ensuring the maintenance of quality academic standards at online universities.