Research on trauma continues to expand, building on the work of scholars, practitioners, advocates, and survivors over the past one hundred years (Courtois & Gold, 2009; Herman, 1997; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014; Webber et al., 2017; Zarse et al., 2019). The considerable existing literature on trauma, and…

Despite efforts of faculty in Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) programs focused on social justice/Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) to provide equitable educational experiences for their students, studies on these programs have shown that students of color continue to face racialized experiences in the classroom (Harris & Linder,…

This study examined ways in which participation in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) influenced aspects of learners' achievement motivation and decisions to enroll in a master's degree program by offering low-cost and low-commitment ways to sample the learning experience. Participants in this study (n = 197) were enrolled in two MOOC courses…

The development of online program options in higher education has prompted the discussion of how well the modality fits the nature of social work education and the Council on Social Work Accreditation (CSWE) educational standards. To examine the relationship between online education and social work education, this research study focused on…

This dissertation presents three separate essays. The first two essays explore the gender wage gap and its dynamics in urban China from 1995 to 2018. The first chapter decomposes the gender wage gap based on the observed wage for workers with a precise measure of the hourly wages. The first chapter examines the observed average gender wage gap in…

This mixed methods explanatory sequential design study explored how classroom experiences in a student affairs assessment, evaluation, and research (AER) course impacted student competency development in AER. Three research questions were addressed: Does graduate students' perceived AER competency change from pre- to post-course? Are changes in…

Mental health impacts on college campuses are on the rise. According to the National College Health Assessment, students reported increased depression and anxiety symptoms that overwhelmed their studies. Recent studies show that 1 in 6 undergraduates felt too depressed to function, 1 in 5 felt overwhelming anxiety, and 1 in 15 seriously considered…

Social work education is an academic discipline that prepares students to support individual, family, and community wellbeing, and to advance policies for social equity. Despite the increasing use of online education for social work, many social work faculty believe that online Master of Social Work (MSW) programs do not adequately prepare…

This study analyzed the effect that shifts in the U.S. News & World Report rankings have on input variables such as admitting grade point average (GPA), percentage of students taking the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), average incoming GMAT score, acceptance rate, tuition rates, average student debt, the proportion of students with…

Disparate student academic outcomes and program access is a problem at Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs in the Northeast United States The current admission committee members at the case university did not know institution leaders' rationale for eliminating the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) criterion. The decision to exclude the…

This research used a one shot, comparative, thematic analysis to listen for, analyze, and explicate: (1) best practices in teaching specialist level advocacy skills at micro, mezzo and macro levels, (2) the field instructors' motivators that affected their prioritization of learning objectives, (3) obstacles to prioritize the teaching of these…

Ethics, and its application in academe and society, is a subject of tremendous importance. Ethics education and courses of study are the foundations for developing ethical public servants, educators, researchers, and leaders. Ethics, while universally recognized as important, is not universally integrated into college curricula, few colleges take…

As we become more advanced technologically in our online educational courses, it is imperative that we also incorporate effective research-based practices such as the use of formative assessment. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of formative self-assessment to academic achievement and self-efficacy in online graduate…

Alumni of selective graduate programs, such as those from top business and law schools, have high lifetime earnings and are overrepresented in influential positions in society. Given limitations in nationally representative datasets, many existing studies of graduate school enrollment in the literature focus only on the United States and collapse…

The present study aimed to describe 21st century literacy skills learning during a master's program focused on Linked Learning that sought to provide career readiness to students. Two research questions guided this study: (1) How do university professors in a Linked Learning graduate program describe their use of 21st century learning Skills in…