Contextual multi-armed bandits have previously been used to personalize student support messages given to learners by supplying a model with relevant context about the user, problem, and available student supports. In this work, we propose using careful feature selection with relevant domain knowledge to improve the quality of student support…

College students often need to seek academic help, especially in online environments. Students may choose from variety of options for help, including their instructor, the internet, and friends. Current research efforts fail to fully explain undergraduate students' source selection process available in a real-world context. A holistic,…

This study identifies factors that influence undergraduate students' selection of a source of help. Learners engage in intentional decisions to seek help from human and non-human sources to resolve gaps in knowledge. Previous research in academic help-seeking assumed learners sought only human sources of assistance, resulting in a narrow…

In a project about dropout among young adults in general adult education and initial vocational education and training (IVET), it was assumed that the ability to make rational decisions has a positive impact on completing an educational programme. A central part of decision-making is the ability for goal orientation, which we have defined as…

Objective: Graduate students are more likely to experience mental illness than their peers in the general population. One potential source of support for personal issues and/or mental illness is a graduate student's faculty advisor. Although the relationship between faculty advisors and graduate students can positively influence the success and…

The purpose of this study is to understand the decision-making process that graduate students engage in when deciding whether to withhold or disclose information about mental health to their academic advisors. Guided by the principles of the phronetic iterative approach and Communication Privacy Management Theory, a thematic analysis of open-ended…

In this exploratory study, we took as our point of departure Lori Salem's (2016) call to investigate the factors that affect students' decisions to visit the writing center. Rather than exploring student decision-making through a sociological lens, as Salem does, we drew on insights from social psychology to understand students' motivations. We…

College students face a significant risk of mental health issues that influence their academic performance, persistence, and personal safety. The COVID-19 global pandemic has heightened mental health risks for college students due to social isolation and shifts from in-person to virtual learning models. In 2019 and the beginning of 2020, 75% of…

Graduate students often face choices about which resources to use to help them succeed in their programs. These choices likely differ among students, in part, due to different perceptions of resource value. However, little is known about why particular resources might be considered highly valuable to students, thus driving choice. Utilizing…

This study examines how cultural values may impact East Asian parents seeking educational services for their child. Using the lens of acculturation theory to analyze qualitative and quantitative data, findings reveal a complicated relationship between racial identity and the special education space. The quantitative data substantiates a…

Independent students pursue higher education without financial, practical, and sometimes emotional support from family. For these students, asking for assistance when needed is key for college persistence. Decisions around help-seeking are shaped by multiple factors but are often portrayed as a solely individual decision. This study examined…

Recently, group learning has been introduced in various countries as part of educational reform. While there are various approaches to group learning, the focus of this study is on collaborative learning, which is based on mutual help-seeking and consultation. This requires teachers' decision to integrate collaborative learning into their…

In the present study, I examined the cultural beliefs and norms that are associated with the help-seeking decisions of abused Black Jamaican and African American women in the United States. I conducted in-depth interviews with 21 women residing in the northeastern and southeastern United States. Thematic analyses revealed that among both groups of…

Collaboration is an important aspect of computing. In a classroom setting, working with others can increase a student's motivation to attempt more challenges, reduce the difficulty of complicated concepts, and bring about greater overall success. Despite extensive research in other domains, there has been minimal exploration within computing on…

The present study examined the degree to which a large group of incoming college students (N = 2,290) had experienced economic constraints and marginalization across their lifetimes, before starting college. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to identify groups of students whose lifetime experiences differed based on economic constraints and…