Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Education Policy Studies, 2006. / "Title from dissertation home page (viewed July 5, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-08, Section: A, page: 2823. Adviser: Bradley A. U. Levinson.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2399. Adviser: Paul Thurston. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-115) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2494. Adviser: Stanley Ikenberry. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-224) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experience of undergraduate students who use online social networks such as Facebook while serving in paraprofessional roles on campus. The researcher conducted a qualitative study to address a primary research question: What is the interplay between college students&rsquo; participation in online social networks and campus-based paraprofessional roles? The study identified themes that can be used to understand this student experience. These themes contribute to the growing theoretical understanding of how online social networks and paraprofessional roles impact the college student experience.</p><p> A semi-structured interview protocol was devised in light of pertinent literature in the areas of college students in paraprofessional roles, peer mentoring, and computer-mediated relationships. Eleven resident assistants at a large, public research university in Central Pennsylvania agreed to participate in semi-structured interviews to discuss their experiences. They were asked to describe their involvements as resident assistants and users of Facebook. Participants discussed how they understood how their employment as resident assistants and their use of Facebook influenced each other, and their overall experience in their paraprofessional roles.</p><p> Through data analysis, three themes emerged: Facebook functionality and use, relationships, and discretion. Participants spoke of dynamic and complex experiences in their roles that were amplified by Facebook. The researcher proposed a Model for Online Social Network Mediated Role Conflict that describes tensions that represent the experience of paraprofessional staff members who use online social networks. Implications for practice and recommendations for additional research are provided.</p>

<p> This analysis contributes conceptually to the field by investigating how campuses both originate and respond to academic innovation by locating the focus of the study in the center of curricular decision-making and action&mdash;the academic department. </p><p> This study applies an organizational perspective to academic innovation directly by combining three ideas to conceptualize and measure departmental qualities. The research design proposes that (1) academic innovation is the result of a direct behavior taken by an actor&mdash;in this case, departments are collective actors and changes in academic programs require collective decision-making; (2) actor behaviors are often cyclical or routine and changes in behavior can be measured through these routines&mdash;in this case, departments routinely offer courses; (3) innovation requires feasibility in actor knowledge, capability, and skill&mdash;in this case, departments collectively contain faculty capability, course knowledge, and administrative skill. </p><p> The significance of departmental factors in a robust inferential model provides evidence that departments draw on technical knowledge and skills through course development and prior programmatic experience. Although enabling environments contribute, external conditions do not create organizational change. Program innovations occur within a campus, beginning at the department level. This study makes the case that context matters, but that its relative impact is mediated by the core characteristics of the collective actor that makes decisions and takes action.</p>

<p><i>Legum Magister</i>, or LL.M., degrees have come under increasing criticism in recent years in the United States. Observers have accused law schools of offering these and other graduate law degrees simply to increase revenue, and argue that they provide no value to graduates as they are not respected in the traditional legal services market. Despite these negative appraisals, the number, size, and types of these programs have continued to grow rapidly. While much has been written criticizing this growth, almost nothing has been written on how and why these programs came into existence, even though a number of law schools claim that their programs were founded over a century ago. As graduate law programs continue to blossom and law schools attempt to address the rising tide of criticism aimed at them, law school leaders would be well advised to examine the origin and history of these degrees. Is it possible that law schools have been hoodwinking innocent lawyers into getting a useless degree for decades? Who were these degrees originally intended for and who ultimately chose to matriculate into these programs? What were the curricula for these programs like? </p><p> Through historical analysis and archival research, this case study of the development of graduate law programs at the University of Pennsylvania reveals that they were founded in response to a perceived need to make the study of law more scholarly, and to ensure that law school training was not wholly confined to the necessities of legal practice. These programs arose amidst a drive toward professionalization and standardization at the turn of the twentieth century that was visible across a wide sector of American society, and reflected one aspect of the long simmering tension between those who viewed law as a scholarly enterprise much like philosophy or political science, and those who viewed it as a trade, to be mastered like medicine or engineering. This disagreement persists to the present day and an examination of the origins of graduate programs vividly illustrates that the study of law has meant different things to different people from the earliest days of legal education. </p>

<p> This case study examined co-curricular portfolios and transcripts at two institutions to investigate the use of co-curricular portfolios, how they are developed, how institutions utilize them, and how they shape student learning. This research contributed to the literature by documenting evidence of student learning, describing how students and institutions utilize these programs, and providing in-depth comparative analyses of two cases. Five assessment frameworks and the conceptual framework of Preparation for Future Learning were used to analyze the data gathered. </p><p> Twenty-four students, four administrators, and one faculty member participated in interviews on two campuses where co-curricular involvement is documented by portfolios or transcripts. The findings indicated evidence of intrinsic student gains in the areas of self-awareness, pride and self-confidence, and transfer of learning; as well as extrinsic benefits including enhanced remembering and marketability. In addition, findings related to institutional perspectives described design and practice recommendations, practicality benefits, and challenges in implementing these programs.</p><p>

<p> Technological developments in the workplace in the United States have led to a demand for highly skilled laborers in the workforce. Hence, adult students return to college to earn four-year college degrees or obtain certifications in order to meet the demand for highly skilled positions. Thus, colleges and universities must find learning models that best meet the needs of adults. The problem addressed in this research study focuses on adult learners&rsquo; experiences and whether or not technology paired with immediate intervention services in the developmental English language courses meets their needs by improving their learning outcomes. Hence, adult participants were asked in face-to-face interviews what experiences best served them. A random, purposeful, and heterogeneous sample of first-year adult learners, exclusively ranging from 25 to 60 years of age, was recruited. A basic qualitative research methodology was used in this study, which involved semistructured interviews with the adult participants, the open and axial coding of the responses of the participants, and the interpretation of the coded responses. Themes then began to emerge from the coded data collected from the interviews. The interpretation of the coding revealed that the adult participants in the study testified that the computerized program was user friendly, helped them develop computer skills, and was a superior learning tool. They also testified that the immediate intervention and personal attention of the instructor and computer lab staff assisted them as adult learners with their concentration, encouraged them to attend four year colleges, provided them with in-service training, and helped them in the development of their careers. Briefly, the findings show that students appreciated computer-learning programs because they could develop computer skills and also acquire basic skills by accessing hypermedia/multimedia and game stimulation on computers, which they found user-friendly. It was clear that students felt that they made significant progress in their English development because they had support services readily available to them. Further, since they were independent adult learners, it was evident that they preferred to self-pace and self-regulate their learning. It is hopeful that the examination of the findings of the study will generate new strategies for improving students&rsquo; learning experiences.</p><p>

<p> Research on college choice decisions of high school students has increased over the past forty years but has generally centered on demographic characteristics such as race, gender, or socio-economic status of students. There has been little research on the influences on the college choice decisions of high academically achieving students from rural areas. Nationally, 27% of rural high school students attend four-year colleges, compared to 37% of students who come from urban or suburban areas. In addition, 73% of students choose to attend college within their home state. However, preliminary data from one rural school system in North Carolina showed that over a two-year period, 96.45% of students who attend high school in that county school system remained in the state of North Carolina for college. This data implies that rural high school students remain in state for college at a higher rate than students from urban and suburban areas and do not seek admission to highly prestigious colleges around the United States to which they may be attractive candidates for admission. </p><p> Seven to nine students and the faculty member or members who works most closely with students during their college search were interviewed from one rural high school each in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia to determine their perceptions of the influences on their college choice processes. Focus group sessions were held with the student participants at each of the high schools to insure the accuracy and understanding of data and to expand on themes identified during the coding of data. </p><p> This study found that rural students face a variety of barriers in their college search processes. These barriers, both real and perceived, worked to lead rural students to choose in state colleges that were in proximity to their homes. Rural students and the high school faculty who work with them often work with incomplete or inaccurate information of the opportunities available to students outside of their own states of residence.</p><p>

<p> Contemporary social issues, such as poverty, inequality, and climate change, exceed the capacity of a single sector to solve and require the collaboration of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. In this context, universities play a unique and increasingly comprehensive role in educating students, generating new knowledge, and advancing the social and economic conditions in their communities. </p><p> Over the past decade, explosive growth has occurred in social entrepreneurship and social innovation initiatives on university and college campuses. Whether offered through a center, initiative, or program, a groundswell of curricular, co-curricular, and convening activities has emerged that educates and engages students, faculty, and a range of stakeholders in the pursuit of solving pressing social issues in innovative ways. </p><p> Using qualitative research methodology and a grounded theory approach, the purpose of this study was to explore the broad phenomenon of and the proliferation of university-based social impact centers in the United States. Through the perspectives and lived experiences of 43 social impact leaders, from multiple higher education institutions, this study developed a grounded theory model which explains the forces driving the emergence and evolution of the university-based social impact centers. The phenomenon can be explained by these &ldquo;windows of opportunity&rdquo; where internal, external, and cultural forces intersect, interact, and overlap with one another, within institutional-specific contexts, to produce new centers. While each institution boasts a unique culture and contextual characteristics, the data demonstrated that mission-driven students, market pressures on higher education institutions, and donor support were the most significant forces driving the expansion of social innovation on college campuses. Akin to the double-bottom line, it was both mission and markets that catalyzed the university-based social impact phenomenon. </p><p> While the social impact phenomenon initially evolved out of elite graduate business schools, it has expanded cross-campus into public policy schools and central administrative units, and across all institutional types. Social impact education now expands across and down the curriculum and co-curriculum. Some universities now even have multiple social impact initiatives within their own institutions. Participants described the need to differentiate themselves and to compete for resources, students, and attention given the plethora of existing civic and socially-oriented programs on their campuses. </p><p> This study filled a distinct gap in the literature by studying university-based social impact centers, framed in the broader historical context of the evolutionary role of university engagement in their communities, coupled with the recognition of the realities of contemporary market pressures on higher education institutions. Social impact centers exhibit the intersectionality of a host of issues plaguing higher education, such as resource constraints, access, academic silos, specialization, and bureaucracy versus innovation. Finally, social impact centers are a microcosm of the tension that exists between the marketization of higher education and the pressure to hold true to public purposes&mdash;and ultimately, whether or not institutions can effectively mediate those two pressures.</p><p>