College students experience negative sexual health outcomes such as sexually transmitted infections (STI) and unintended pregnancies. Increasing their use of clinical sexual health services may help reduce these poor outcomes. Currently, little is known about the sexual health service utilization of college students in Alabama or the factors that…

The reasons for success and well-being, and therefore of inequality, are numerous. A large number of systemic factors influence who succeeds or fails, who is healthy or sick. These factors, many of which are hard to understand or measure, interact in important and surprising ways. In contrast, humans tend to choose simple explanations of the…

This evaluation was chosen to address the desire of students to see themselves and their lived experiences in their coursework at University College, the location of this study. The purpose was to complete a utilization-focused evaluation that assessed first, the formal and informal practices involved in the course development process within an…

Instructors of post-secondary level courses sought novel ways of conveying content to a diversifying set of students. Likewise, the growth of computing and information technologies opened more avenues for instruction. Constructivist theories of education gained support in instructional efficacy. Instructors needed to balance the need of covering…

Transparent design has been promoted as a teaching pedagogy to promote student success, especially among marginalized student populations. This study seeks to understand the impact of participation in a transparently designed course on low-income students self-reported levels of academic self-efficacy and employer-valued skills in Washington…

In the City of Chicago, a collaboration between the City Colleges, the Chicago Public Schools, the philanthropic community and the mayor's office has berthed a unique program called the Chicago Roadmap for Success (The Roadmap). The Roadmap aligns resources to ensure that more students have more access to college. One of the keystone features of…

For too long, the debate about Ebonics has been about the validity of the language and not about how the perception of the language impacts those that speak it. Ebonics has been considered inappropriate and inadequate as a language in institutions of higher education since the moment Black people in the United States were allowed access. However,…

The lived experiences of Black/African American male students at a suburban community college in North Carolina were explored in this qualitative narrative study. Institutional data from the North Carolina Community College System revealed these students had the lowest percentages of persistence toward degree completion and of graduation. In an…

This dissertation is split into two objectives: (1) to better understand the effect of relative humidity (RH) on charge transfer between metal electrodes and water droplets and (2) to assess the impact of The Design of Coffee, a general education, introductory chemical engineering course, on non-STEM students' ability to understand fundamental…

Previous literature suggests that students who feel unsafe in their academic settings experience harmful academic, social, and psychological ramifications. With an alarming increase in school shootings, violence, and media coverage, the political discourse surrounding gun violence and strategies to ensure safety on college campuses has become…

The 21st-century global economy has significantly changed the landscape of the American workplace. Apprenticeship training programs are gaining momentum as a postsecondary training approach to fill growing worker shortages for industry-specific needs and prepare workers for new or expanding industries (Fitzpayne & Pollack, 2018; Freyer et al.,…

Since the implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the largest student veteran enrollments have taken place at community colleges. Student veterans are considered "at-risk students" due to their high attrition rates in higher education. There is a lack of literature regarding the experiences of staff responsible for providing support…

Learner-teacher partnerships (L-TPs) increasingly feature in student engagement research in further and higher education (FHE). This flourishing literature raises important questions about such partnerships, for example, what is their purpose? what roles do partners play, who leads in a partnership and how? Various purposes and roles have been…

Students' prior knowledge may affect their learning of content in a compulsory Indigenous Studies course. Notably, non-Indigenous pre-service teachers' prior knowledge may bring conceptions and misconceptions to their formal Indigenous Studies education, potentially influencing their engagement with and/or resistance to concepts affecting their…

The Brønsted-Lowry acid-base model is fundamental when discussing acid and base strength in organic chemistry as many of the reactions include a competing proton transfer reaction. This model requires evaluating chemical stability "via" a consideration of electronic granularity. The purpose of this study is to identify students' mental…