The effects of offering and seizing optional learning opportunities rarely have been investigated. Thus, university instructors have no basis on which to decide whether offering optional learning opportunities to their students would be worth the effort and which students would seize and benefit from them. To target these questions, we designed a…

Despite the ubiquity of prerequisites in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curricula, there has been minimal effort to assess their value in a data-driven manner. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, we examined the impact of prerequisites in the context of a microbiology lecture and lab course pairing.…

Nursing schools face the challenge of improving student academic performance and completion rates. The current supply of newly graduated nurses fails to meet the increasing demands of society. In 2009, Cochise College responded by implementing a major change in their curriculum to improve student retention and academic performance. The problem…

A study determined the effect of college-level trigonometry skills on the final grades of students enrolled in Introduction to AC/DC Circuits, the first course in the vocational electronics program at Seminole Community College (Florida). The literature was reviewed to develop a conceptual framework for the project. A pretest that measured…

The effect of enrollment in prerequisite courses on success in advanced courses was examined in a study of a sample of students who completed a business cooperative experiences program between 1994-1995 and 2001-2002. Of the 163 students in the sample, 80 completed the prerequisite courses (Technology Lab I and II) before the advanced course, and…