Recent scholarly discussions about massive open online courses (MOOCs) highlight pedagogical and practical issues that separate MOOCs from other learning settings, especially how theories of learning translate to MOOC students' motivation, participation, and performance. What is missing from these discussions is the purpose of the MOOC. We report…

Despite considerable research on student retention and persistence, college graduation rates remain modest. This article proposes the concept of student identity centrality, which is defined as the extent to which being a student is important to one's self-image or identity. This study found student identity centrality was positively related to…

Relationships between cultural factors (ethnicity and religiosity) and dimensions of students' attributions for their success and failure (locus of control, stability, personal control and external control), along with motivational goals (learning, performance approach, performance avoidance, and work avoidance), self-efficacy, intelligence…

A specially designed Life Goals Scale was administered to 303 university students (200 women and 103 men) to assess the relative importance of life goals and relationships. Results indicate that university students place a high value on heterosexual relationships and are willing to sacrifice most other goals for the relationships. (AF)

This paper reports on a study which investigated socioeconomic, academic, and psychosocial factors that might affect enrollment and persistence rates of black women in science and health careers. An overview is presented of women in science, black women's status in science, role models and support groups, other factors affecting persistence, and…