The Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative and Green River Regional Educational Cooperative received an Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant from the U.S. Department of Education to implement the Creating College and Career Readiness (C3R) initiative. The initiative offered a suite of software developed by WIN Learning (WIN) to support…

Distance learning is expanding rapidly in universities. While theoretical and qualitative literature stress the critical role of effective interpersonal interactions in motivating students and facilitating learning in online environments, quantitative evidence on the benefits of increased interpersonal interactions on student learning outcomes is…

Whether through the use of online-only or hybrid/blended formats, colleges and universities across the country are increasingly utilizing online platforms as a medium for the delivery of instruction. At the same time, we know little about how student learning outcomes are related to students' engagement with online instructional formats. In…

A shortcoming of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is the lack of substantive integration of hands-on activities into online classrooms. We conducted a randomised control trial (RCT) in a MOOC where we sent the treatment group at-home lab kits with which they could perform experiments in their own homes. In our intervention research, we found…

UTRPP addressed the i3 Development Grant Absolute Priority 1, Subpart 2: Increase equitable access to effective teachers or principals for low-income and high-need students. UTRPP infused comprehensive, job-embedded professional development (PD) for participating Residents and other teachers; established triads and quads to support Residents; and…

In the 2014 study, "Interactive Online Learning on Campus: Testing MOOCs and Other Platforms in Hybrid Formats in the University System of Maryland," researchers examined the impact of using hybrid forms of interactive online learning in seven undergraduate courses across seven universities in Maryland. Hybrid forms of interactive online…

As the need for educated workers in the workforce grows at the national and state level, educating low-skilled adults is one way of addressing the skills gap. Adult education programs offer low-skilled adults an opportunity to increase basic academic skills and prepare for college and career. Today, transitioning students from adult education…

The nation's community colleges play a central role in producing a more educated workforce and promoting social mobility. They serve about 40 percent of all college students and, not surprisingly, they serve a disproportionate number of low-income and underrepresented students. But most students who enter these colleges do not graduate--only about…

Learning communities have been a part of the higher educational landscape since the 1980s. Despite their widespread use, research regarding their effectiveness with enhancing retention is sparse. This study describes a freshmen curricular learning community linking courses required for all business majors. Retention for students taking courses in…

This research study was specifically designed to examine the relationship of a learning communities program, as a standard treatment effect, on the academic performance and retention of college freshmen during the Fall 2008 through Fall 2011 academic semesters, and specifically for a university comprised of higher levels of underrepresented…

At the college level, the effectiveness of active-learning interventions is typically measured at the broadest scales: the achievement or retention of all students in a course. Coarse-grained measures like these cannot inform instructors about an intervention's relative effectiveness for the different student populations in their classrooms or…

Hinds Community College (HCC) engaged in a study that produced the transitional program. This program was in response to high rates of attrition of the college's freshmen classes because of poor academic performance. This dissertation evaluated the effectiveness of the transitional program's main component-the learning community created by placing…

This study examined the effects of two types of course delivery systems (learning community classroom environments versus stand-alone classroom environments) on the achievement of students who were simultaneously enrolled in remedial and college-level social science courses at an inner city open-enrollment public community college. This study was…

This paper presents the findings from a follow-up quantitative analysis of the Community College of Baltimore County's Accelerated Learning Program (ALP). The results suggest that among students who enroll in the highest level developmental writing course, participation in ALP is associated with substantially better outcomes in terms of English…

The second annual implementation report for the Accelerating Opportunity (AO) initiative in four states finds that: (1) colleges aligned pathways and supports with local needs; (2) students were satisfied with AO; (3) AO instructors grew more adept at team teaching; (4) colleges struggled to recruit adult education students; (5) states and…