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Developing an Electronic Repository for Undergraduate ThesesLevy, Foster, Pyles, Rebecca, Szarejko, Celia, Wyatt, Linda 01 January 2012 (has links)
Undergraduate honors theses represent an intellectual asset that a university should recognize and manage as such. However, when theses were submitted exclusively in print copies, the work often faded into obscurity, forgotten by all but the student and mentor. While theses for advanced degrees have been accessible for many years via interlibrary loan or abstract services, similar access options have been unavailable for undergraduate theses because these works are most often associated with and maintained by the institutional honors program without involvement or support from the institution’s library system. At best, an index of undergraduate theses might be available to the public, but print copies—often the only versions of theses—are traditionally housed in honors and are difficult, if not impossible, to obtain.
As undergraduate honors theses have become more commonplace and as online access to research has become virtually universal, honors programs do a disservice to their students, faculty, and the public if they do not provide access to the original scholarship produced by undergraduates. Furthermore, introducing undergraduates to electronic publication provides educational value by exposing them to the publishing demands they will likely encounter in their future education and professional careers. Two additional benefits to students are that an electronic publication saves the student time and expense in producing their final work and, most importantly, makes their work available worldwide to potential research partners and employers.
An electronic thesis repository provides several instruction-based opportunities to advance learning. For example, courses within an honors college often enroll students from a variety of disciplines. In research methods courses, students can easily examine examples of theses to familiarize themselves with the writing styles and formatting in their discipline. Similarly, in a colloquium-style course that addresses diverse topics, students can use the repository to become familiar with research approaches and writing styles outside of their discipline; this is a particular advantage for undergraduates because, as they progress in their course of study and certainly once they begin graduate or professional programs, they rarely have time for this type of cross-disciplinary interaction. In addition, faculty in diverse disciplines can assign repository reviews, either in courses or when mentoring honors students, to demonstrate the level of scholarship expected in honors thesis work. Although these goals could be accomplished using hard copies, our current students are more comfortable with and more likely to access electronically available materials.
East Tennessee State University (ETSU) has made undergraduate theses available to the campus community and general public through an electronic repository and catalog maintained by the university library. The electronic system we implemented and others of similar quality provide a user interface developed for manuscript submission, review, and approvals. This type of system takes students’ research experience to a final level of completion and assures that they learn how to navigate a process analogous to manuscript submission. Because adapting our institution’s system for graduate theses and dissertations was not a feasible option and we could find no general guidelines to direct our efforts, we developed our own undergraduate honors thesis repository, and we hope that our efforts in this process will provide insights and guidelines for other institutions.
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Online First-Generation Students: A Qualitative Study on RetentionDearden, David Michael 01 January 2019 (has links)
Higher education institutions face several complicated and difficult challenges and one of those challenges, student retention, has been around for many years. Tinto (2006), a major researcher on college retention whose research has spanned over four decades, suggested that one of the most widely studied areas of higher education is student retention. Since the inception of higher education, institutions have explored and researched retention strategies to combat attrition. Many of the strategies and theories that address retention focus solely on the campus-based student. With the growth of technology, online education has become a new avenue toward earning a college degree, especially for first-generation students. While it has provided first-generation students with new opportunities and flexibility, it also creates new challenges for institutions (Sileo & Sileo, 2008). This new avenue has shifted the way in which higher education institutions approach an old challenge, but within a new environment.
The rapid growth of enrollment in online courses and degree programs suggests it is important for institutions to understand the factors that directly influence the retention of online students. According to research by Willging and Johnson (2004), online students are twice as likely to withdraw or drop out of their courses in comparison to students enrolled in an on-campus course. This qualitative study, using the modified Delphi method, will look at the implemented retention practices within higher education institutions to address the retention of first-generation students who engage in online learning.
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Understanding Planned Change Among Remote Nonfaculty Employees in Higher EducationLubin, Erin 01 January 2017 (has links)
Implementing planned change in online university divisions with remote nonfaculty employees is a unique challenge. The problem that compelled this study was the need to understand the challenges of implementing planned change for a group of geographically remote nonfaculty employees who served as field team members (FTM) in an online university's support division. The purpose of this research was to explore change from the perspectives of remote FTM, their managers, and the division's Vice President to better understand and suggest research-derived strategies to make change initiatives more meaningful and inclusive. The qualitative ethnographic design was informed by systems theory, Tuckman and Jensen's theory of group dynamics, Burke-Litwin's model of organizational change, and Lewin's change theory. The 13 participants had a minimum of 9 months in their respective positions. Semistructured focus group interviews were combined with individual interviews to address research questions focusing on organizational factors, team dynamics, leadership dynamics, remote experiences, and organizational climate. Each participant group identified its own set of priorities that need to be addressed for positive change to occur. Additionally, change management should include communication strategies and collaboration to reduce change barriers. A policy recommendation was developed based on the findings proposing strategies to better implement and manage planned change. The purposeful inclusion of geographically dispersed employees in change processes will help shape positive perceptions, thus making change initiatives more meaningful and inclusive for remote team members.
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Nonacademic staff participation in university governance : a faculty perspectivePersson, Dorothy M 01 January 1985 (has links)
No description available.
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The Effects of Parental Involvement on Students' Eighth and Tenth Grade College Aspirations: A Comparative AnalysisBrasier, Terry Gale 08 February 2008 (has links)
Following scholarly calls (e.g., Crosnoe, 2001; Perna & Titus, 2005) for studies related to studentsâ academic trajectories, the purpose of this study was to examine whether the relationship between studentsâ college aspirations and parental involvement differs between the eighth grade and tenth grade years, two critical time periods during which students typically initiate and subsequently reassess future college plans. Utilizing base-year and first follow-up data from the restricted-use version of the National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS: 88/90), results from fixed-effects logistic regression analyses indicated that parental involvement has a significant positive effect on the likelihood of students having high college aspirations (desire to finish college) during both the eighth and tenth grade years. Additionally, a cross-model hypothesis test indicated that the magnitude of the relationship between students' college aspirations and parental involvement is significantly weaker during the tenth grade year. In conclusion, findings from this study provide statistical support for previous claims that the relationship between college aspirations and parental involvement weakens as students ascend through the educational pipeline. Results from this study imply that scholars should view the relationship between studentsâ college aspirations and parental involvement as dynamic, rather than static, as students ascend through the secondary school grades and, coincidentally, the student college choice process. Additionally, this studyâs findings imply that future revisions to federal, state, and school-level parental involvement policies such as Section 1118 of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 should emphasize proactive forms of parental involvement (e.g., participation in school activities, school-related discussions with students), in addition to motivational forms of parental involvement (e.g., expressed levels of encouragement and expectations for educational attainment), throughout the secondary school years.
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Civic Responsibility and Research Universities: Ideology, Culture and ActionThornton, Courtney High 13 April 2006 (has links)
Civic responsibility is an important ideal of higher education that is rarely considered through a cultural and theoretical lens. Swidler?s (1986) framework linking ideology, culture and action provided a means of studying civic responsibility at two research universities, the University of Virginia (UVA) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). The purposes of the study were (a) to understand dominant institutional beliefs about civic responsibility at two research universities, and (b) to understand how their institutional cultures contribute to unique institutional approaches to civic responsibility, specifically for the areas of student involvement and development. This ethnographic study examined campus ideologies and cultural forms that addressed five dimensions of civic responsibility: (a) knowledge and support of democratic values, systems and processes, (b) desire to act beneficially in community and for its members, (c) use of knowledge and skills for societal benefit, (d) appreciation for and interest in those unlike self, and (e) personal accountability. Data collection involved interviews, field observations and document analysis at both campuses. Student questionnaires and site summary reviewers were used to ensure trustworthiness of the findings. Data was analyzed for each site independently, and then a cross-site analysis was conducted. The ideologies, cultures and actions specific to the two institutions aligned with Swidler's framework and yielded two unique institutional approaches to civic responsibility, namely the "test bed" and "role model" approaches. The significance of the findings from the cross-site analysis are multi-fold, with implications for both organization studies and student development.
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Examining the Intersection of Gender, Race and Class: A Study of African American Women Presidents at Four-Year Colleges and UniversitiesWright , Gwendolyn 25 April 2008 (has links)
This study identified that African American women presidents have been disproportionately underrepresented in leadership positions in higher education due to a historical and contemporary system of hegemony within higher education that has limited their access to positions of power. The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which gender, race, and class constructed as an intersectional paradigm influences the professional and personal development of African American women throughout their life experiences. Black feminist standpoint theory and critical race feminism are used as the theoretical frameworks within which the relevant social, historical and contemporary events that influenced black women's development and experiences in higher education are analyzed.
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Mothers, Workers and Students: Examining the experiences of single mothers transferring from community colleges into universities.Robinson, Emily Erin 20 April 2010 (has links)
Single parent households are on the rise, and female headed households are more likely to live in poverty than other single parent households (Holyfield, 2002). Many single mothers who do not have an undergraduate degree see education as a way out of poverty (Holyfield, 2002; Heller & Bjorklund, 2004). This research was undertaken to highlight areas where universities are assisting single mothers to attain a degree. This qualitative study utilized semi-structured in depth interviews of 16 single mothers who transferred from community college to a university. Three themes emerged regarding the educational experiences of single mothers who work and attend college. The first theme, âFinding my way to and through collegeâ; highlights their motivating factors, their support network(s) and their feelings of pride. The second theme, âStruggle for legitimacy as a parenting studentâ focuses on the challenges that confront mothers as students: invisibility within the institution, and the fact that motherhood is a full time job which she cannot neglect. The final theme, âStriving for balance between multiple rolesâ centers around how they cope with their multiple obligations: knowing herself (honoring abilities as well as limits), and overcoming time scarcity (by managing multiple priorities). Women in this study were challenged by financial need not met by aid packages, finding appropriate child care, insensitive instructors and class schedules which made working difficult. These women were proud of their academic accomplishments and felt supported by institutional recognition of success. They were also supported by student health, counseling services and academic support programs.
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Religion, Spirituality, and Popular Culture: Where College Students Learn About Religion and SpiritualityOfstein, Jennifer Beth 14 May 2007 (has links)
This study aims to assess if students are learning about religion and spirituality from popular culture, and if it subsequently affects their understanding of their own religious or spiritual identity, or the religious and spiritual identities of others. Utilizing the theoretical frameworks of Perry?s (1970) scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development, Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule?s (1986) theory of Women?s Ways of Knowing, and Gerbner?s et al. (1978) Cultivation Theory, I assessed whether students are affected by participating in popular media and if they identify the media as an authority in their own understanding of religion and spirituality.
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The Effects of Part-Time Faculty on First Semester Freshmen Retention: A Predictive Model Using Logistic Regression.Hinz, Derik Michael 08 June 2005 (has links)
This study used data from five years of first-semester entering freshmen cohorts (1999-2003) from North Carolina State University to assess the effects of exposure to part-time faculty upon student retention. A logistic regression model containing high school gpa, total first year hours attempted, gender, SAT verbal score, SAT math score, and percent faculty exposure was found to be a significant (p<.0001) predictor of second year retention. While the percentage to which first-year students were exposed to part-time faculty instruction was significant (p<0.0253) in predicting retention, it had no real impact upon the odds ratio (0.996) of being retained.
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