Despite ongoing disparities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) retention, particularly for underrepresented minority (URM) students, minimal work has considered the intersection of social class, STEM education, and student success. STEM programs serve as a popular major choice for students from low-income backgrounds. Yet,…

Most research on anonymity in computer-supported collaborative learning, which has reported both positive and negative outcomes, largely focuses on a fully anonymous login mode. In this context, further research is necessary to finetune the approach to the 'login mode' to optimise the potential benefits while mitigating the drawbacks. This study…

The purpose of this research was to compare the academic achievement of Sichuan University of Science and Engineering students in China before and after receiving learning activities using safety case studies. A pre-experimental research methodology was employed. The sample for this research consisted of one class of 30 first-year students from…

This paper is based on a study that explored a pedagogical approach consisting of interactive story-based tasks used in a first-year undergraduate business statistics course. It addresses the types of understanding students developed for selected statistics topics. Participants were undergraduate business majors required to take the course. Data…

We conduct a randomised control trial at an Italian university to investigate the impact of test anxiety on high-stakes exams. Students are subjected to two different interventions -- silence and music -- designed to influence their pre-test anxiety levels. We monitored and compared individual biomarkers before and after each treatment to measure…

Studies on coherence in the paragraphs produced by English language learners have focused on cohesive devices and their correlation with perceptions of writing quality. Inconsistent findings suggest that other measures of coherence might be at play, one of which is coherence relations. This study aimed to explore coherence relations in learners'…

Students from refugee backgrounds (thereafter 'refugee students') are entering Australian universities in increasing numbers, often via university pathway programs (enabling programs), contributing to the superdiversity in higher education institutions. A growing body of literature acknowledges the academic and socio-cultural challenges faced by…

Persistence and graduation rates for students from low-income backgrounds are much lower than their peers. One high-impact practice aimed at improving success rates is the first-year seminar, but practitioners have expressed a need for guidance on improving the course to support students better. Utilizing a design-thinking framework, we developed…

This study aims to develop a location-based augmented reality (LBAR) Android application and test its effectiveness in supporting orientation programs for newly enrolled students. The application was designed to facilitate easier adaptation to the environment and university life for novice students. Unity, ARCore SDK, and the AR+GPS Unity Package…

Objective: This study examined the disruptions to social life, financial impact, and academic concerns caused by COVID-19 experienced by first-year college students, as well as their associations with depressive symptoms over time. Participants and Methods: Five hundred and thirty freshman college students completed an online survey at baseline…

In this paper, we examine whether early warning signals from accounting courses (such as early engagement and early formative performance) are predictive of first-year progression outcomes, and whether this data is more predictive than personal data (such as gender and prior achievement). Using a machine learning approach, results from a sample of…

The first year of university can be a vulnerable time, especially for students who describe themselves as shy and who may be reluctant to engage socially. Shyness, which can be closely aligned with social anxiety, often reduces opportunities for students to belong. This paper presents the experiences of two students negotiating experiences of…

Appealing to students' affect in academic settings, such as demonstrating chemistry's relevance to their life, is one strategy instructors may use to support students' in learning. This study investigates the types of connections that students make to organic chemistry when responding to an open-ended writing assignment. Students enrolled in an…

While mindfulness intervention research is prevalent, it is limited in (1) relation to college students' grade point average (GPA) and retention and (2) minimum dosage recommended for the intervention. This repeated-measures quasi-experimental nonequivalent control groups study investigated differences in mindfulness, stress, flourishing, GPA, and…

Recently, researchers have proposed to leverage technology-supported data (log files) to investigate temporal and sequential patterns of interaction behaviors in learning processes. There are two major challenges to be addressed: clarifying the positioning of interaction levels and identifying the evolution of the interaction action patterns in…