In recent years there has been a proliferation of massive open online courses (MOOCs), which provide unprecedented opportunities for lifelong learning. Registrants approach these courses with a variety of motivations for participation. Characterizing the different types of participation in MOOCs is fundamental in order to be able to better…

Academic performance is a primary predictor of college graduation, yet few studies have examined one of the earliest indicators of academic performance--first-semester grade point average (GPA). Given the considerable public and private investment in ensuring access for underrepresented students, a focus on the role of first-semester GPA for these…

This study explored the interaction between student characteristics and the online environment in predicting course performance and subsequent college persistence among students in a large urban U.S. university system. Multilevel modeling, propensity score matching, and the KHB decomposition method were used. The most consistent pattern observed…

In Quebec's French-language secondary schools, youth originating from South Asia have the highest dropout rate among all immigrant-origin students, whereas in the English sector, their coethnic peers have a more positive academic profile than third-plus-generation students. Using quantitative data, this paper aims to understand the difference in…

The educational system in the United States continues to pose many challenges for law and policy makers. Many of these challenges can be traced back to two landmark cases, "Plessy vs. Ferguson" and "Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka." And, while the U.S. Department of Education developed programs to address many of these…

Prevalence of academic risk (PAR) group profiles provide data enabling empirically based group-specialized prescriptions for targeted academic success interventions to increase student retention, completion, and graduation rates, while improving allocation of institutional resources. Postsecondary student attrition engenders student debt,…

This study investigated the connection between the academic evaluation of Division I FBS football programs and the various social settings that influenced these student-athletes. These social settings were classified as: institutional, departmental and program-specific. The experience of the student-athlete is thought to be impacted by all three…

The researchers examined the effect of a course, Introduction to Life Calling (LDR150), on retention and persistence to graduation at a private, Midwestern university. The course emphasizes self-assessment, student-faculty engagement, personal values, and the student's developing sense of Life Calling. The subjects consisted of 3338 students who…

This is an application of contemporary multilevel regression modeling to the prediction of academic performances of 1st-year college students. At a first level of analysis, the data come from N greater than 16,000 students who were college freshman in 1994-1995 and who were also participants in high-level college athletics. At a second level of…

Every educator's quest is to help students learn in the environment that will allow them to obtain and retain the information presented to them. In the new age of technology, more students are able to choose the environment in which they learn. This study is a quantitative comparative study of the academic performance between online and…

While Alberta enjoys proven high, world-class results in student achievement, raising high school completion rates is one of the top priorities in improving the provincial education system. The 2011-12 targeted high school completion rate is 82% five years after entering Grade 10--a 2.5% increase from the current average rate of 79.5%. The purpose…

This is the final report of the National Evaluation of Student Support Services (SSS). SSS is one of eight federally funded grant programs that are administered as part of the Federal TRIO Programs within the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The SSS program, in particular, focuses on students while they are enrolled in college. In general, SSS…

Research indicates that programs designed to target first year students increase their likelihood of success during that year and their chances of completing an undergraduate education (Bureau & Rromrey, 1994; Conner & Colton, 1999). Theoretically, such programs should help in part because they foster integration into campus communities…