Cyclical program reviews (CPRs), also called periodic or academic reviews at institutions of higher education, are undertaken to ensure that academic programs meet a variety of objectives related to teaching and learning, as well as professional credentialing, quality assurance, and institutional requirements. Preparing, reviewing, and…

We developed a framework for characterizing an institution's quantitative skills/reasoning support ecosystem to consider how various activities contribute to student success in areas connected to students' quantitative preparation. Through discussions with faculty and staff stakeholders at eight selective small liberal arts colleges, we…

The faculty composition in U.S. higher education has changed significantly over recent decades (AAUP, 2020; Hurlburt & McGarrah, 2016b; Schuster & Finkelstein, 2006). What was once a faculty model dominated by tenured and tenure-track faculty has shifted to majority contingent. As of 2020, contingent faculty composed nearly 70% of the…

As colleges confront challenging circumstances, the prospect of small, private college closures remains pertinent. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of displaced employees due to college closure. For this study, Schlossberg's (1981) transition theory was used as a foundational lens. Although there…

Decades of research indicate that formative assessment promotes achievement (Black & Wiliam, 1998a; Hattie & Timperley, 2007) and that we must learn more about how to implement formative assessment effectively in higher education settings (Bennett, 2011; Kingston & Nash, 2011; Morris et al., 2021) where most instructors deliver…

Using a collaborative autoethnographic approach, four administrators who previously were simultaneously employed in a small, private university in the State of Florida examined perceptions of continuous-improvement initiatives from their varied viewpoints as administrators who also had experience teaching at the collegiate level. Supervision of…

In fall 2019 the Access Services and User Engagement librarians at the Woodbury University Library undertook to identify campus library marginal and nonusers among faculty and students. We administered an online survey and conducted follow-up, one-on-one interviews in an effort to understand: (1) Why some Woodbury community members visit the…

Collaboration between academic and student affairs fosters meaningful student engagement, supports academic achievement, and facilitates a robust campus community. Although these partnerships can be challenging to develop, small institutions occupy a unique position in higher education, as these collaborations are highly valued as fundamental to…

This ethnographic study answers the following overarching research question: How do faculty perceive community college transfer students' academic preparedness and ability to academically succeed at a small, private university? Using data collected from faculty interviews, analysis yielded salient themes: 1. The faculty perception of academic…

What do you do when employees want sustained, in-person, dialogic learning opportunities, but the realities of their work prevent participation in such learning events? Microlearning can offer an important solution to this conundrum but also requires careful navigation between design recommendations, learner preferences, learning objectives tied…

The problem with retention has led researchers to study the causes of attrition and ways to improve successful outcomes. Students define having positive faculty-student relationships that are therapeutic as a way to enhance successful academic outcomes. The problem that was addressed in this study is that there is a limited understanding of…

This quantitative study sought to identify faculty perceptions about job satisfaction at one small, private university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and the connection to intent to stay at the same institution. This study was a conceptual replication study, patterned off Rhone's 2010 doctoral dissertation study, "Faculty…

The researcher investigated how university faculty in graduate education programs incorporated multiple intelligences (MI) theory into their teaching strategies and acknowledged the interconnectedness of andragogy and MI theory. The researcher addressed the significant shift in teaching paradigms from traditional methods to approaches that foster…

Due to the unequal geographical distribution of HE institutions in many national HE systems, living in a rural or remote area and attending HE can be mutually exclusive. The implication is that those who remain in a rural area beyond school age do not study at the undergraduate level. In discussions of rural stayers, HE is therefore understood as…

This study explores faculty beliefs about teaching and learning in different institutional settings and over time. This study surveyed faculty at two Canadian universities, one research-intensive, the other teaching-intensive, using a conceptual replication of a survey originally administered in 1976. Some results differ from the original survey,…