Low-income, first-generation (LIFG) student college enrollment has been steadily increasing over the last decade. This group of marginalized students is typically overlooked as needing additional support as they often lack any visual indicators of their LIFG status. LIFG students arrive on campus with unique goals, stories, and challenges but…

The success of an ePortfolio initiative is dependent on the willingness of departmental leaders and faculty members to collaborate in the design of ePortfolio curricular and programmatic policies. This qualitative research study examined faculty members' perceptions of an ePortfolio initiative designed for preservice teachers within a community…

The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to evaluate the impact of an ePortfolio initiative within a community college teacher preparation program in relation to its intended student learning outcomes and offer recommendation for further improvement. In this study, we sought to discover the extent to which the ePortfolio program served…

College student personal technology use in the classroom, namely cell phones and laptops, has become rampant. This review of literature examines research concerned with the impact of student unstructured technology use in the face-to-face college classroom and academic performance (learning). Student motivations for and descriptions of use are…

Designing effective student retention programs is of critical importance from both a completion and a monetary standpoint. However, oftentimes colleges attempt to use nationally developed models rather than institutional-specific data to identify potential factors involved in student attrition. At a Midwestern community college, research…

Six college students, who were career and technical education (CTE) transfer students in the state of Nevada, were interviewed Spring Semester of 2009. The study used a hermeneutic phenomenology framework as the method to identify those predisposition variables that heavily influenced the students in their decision to transfer to a senior…

The present study examined the efficacy of clickers in a community college classroom. Specifically we sought to compare the effects of clicker technology on perceived knowledge and exam scores with the effectiveness of essays and pop quizzes. One hundred students completed surveys measuring presemester motivation to take psychology and baseline…

Do high school students who are predisposed to enroll in dual-credit courses already possess high levels of motivation or college and academic self-efficacy? Students in this study reported being academically motivated, but they did not report high levels of confidence in their ability to perform certain college-associated tasks. Of 52 items…

This article adds to existing literatures on "developmental students," or those placing into non-credit-bearing reading and/or writing classes, by exploring their own personal experiences of attending community college. The findings of this qualitative study, based on a set of semistructured interviews with 18 developmental students in…

The study explores how alumni can help community colleges in Southern Appalachia to create greater access for people in groups which are traditionally under-served by higher education. Semi-structured interviews conducted with alumni program directors and admissions officers at seven community colleges in the Southern Appalachian Region explore…

The current study evaluates whether a mentoring program can increase self-esteem and internal locus of control in underrepresented community college students. The primary goal of the mentoring program was to facilitate Compton Community College (CCC) students' successful transfer to a four-year university by fostering relationships with mentors…