This digest discusses the challenges facing first-generation students, and offers strategies for helping them to transfer to four-year institutions. A first-generation community college student attends a community college, and his or her parents have not obtained a college degree. Large waves of immigration have affected community colleges; many…

This study presents the results of the 30th annual inventory and utilization study of space at North Carolina institutions of higher education for the 1996 fall semester. Text and 26 tables present data for 113 institutions, including the 16 public senior institutions which comprise the University of North Carolina (UNC), 39 private nonprofit…

Describes a state survey conducted to assess the effectiveness of postsecondary remedial education programs in Texas. Reviews current practices and offers recommendations with respect to student assessment and placement, remedial course offerings, program evaluation, and curricular coordination. (DMM)

As more emphasis is placed upon institutional research that provides information relating to long-term strategic planning, as well as to short-term operational considerations, program evaluation techniques that merely analyze past or current budget and enrollment statistics will become increasingly inadequate. Such techniques are based on data…

Between 2007 and 2010, three types of semester research projects were assigned in BIO 140 Humans and Their Environment, a nonmajors introductory course at Salve Regina University. Specific environmental impact-type assessments were used to foster scientific inquiry and achieve higher scientific literacy. Quantitative and qualitative measurements…

This study explored patterns in L2 writing development by focusing on one of the linguistic features of texts (fluency) from a complex dynamic systems perspective. It investigated whether two English-as-a-foreign-language university students would experience discontinuous change (phase transition) in their writing fluency through repetition of a…

These relationships are complex. Student interests may not be well articulated in conventional organizational frameworks, and it is important periodically to reassess student needs. Student service personnel bear much of the burden for helping students clarify their aspirations. (Author)

Self-determination theory (SDT) underpins research on learner empowerment, but it is rarely discussed in empowerment-related literature. In addition, a motivational measure stemming from SDT has received little visibility in communication research. To address these concerns, this study focuses on motivational theory and measurement in an attempt…

In the context of neoliberal government policymaking in the UK, universities have become increasingly managerial in their approach. Growing market pressures and a commodification of higher education (HE) has had a significant effect on the work of academics, as producers and providers of HE. Human Resource Management -- a management tool that…

This paper reports the results of a study of two-year college faculty relative to Functional Potential (FP), a personality variable forming the core of a model of the person, which describes the degree to which a person is able to tolerate ambiguity, delay gratification, exhibit adaptive flexibility, demonstrate goal directedness, relate to self…

The Partnership Grant Program of the National Center for Academic Achievement and Transfer awards grants to partnerships of two- and four-year institutions to strengthen transfer, especially for low-income, Black, and Hispanic students. It also awards Core Curriculum grants to two-year/four-year partnerships which focus exclusively on curriculum…

Objectives, practices, and characteristics of general education language arts were synthesized to serve as criteria for evaluating the efforts made by public two-year colleges to meet the needs of terminal students in general education language arts. Data obtained from questionnaires revealed that only 192 schools had a communications course which…

This study was designed in order to investigate two potential sources of the anxiety of Turkish learners of English in oral practice:1) an individual student's fear of negative evaluation, and 2) his/her self-perceived speaking ability. A total of 55 first year students enrolling in Anadolu University, Education Faculty, ELT Department…

This study aimed to evaluate how peer-to-peer interactions through writing impact student learning in introductory-level massive open online courses (MOOCs) across disciplines. This article presents the results of a qualitative coding analysis of peer-to-peer interactions in two introductory level MOOCs: English Composition I: Achieving Expertise…

The developmental writing program at Northern Virginia Community College, Manassas Campus, deals with three concerns common to developmental writing teachers at two-year colleges. First, since most developmental writing teachers are unable to empathize with, or understand, their students, the Manassas program begins with exercises which acquaint…