Forecasting Undergraduate Majors Using Academic Transcript Data

Committing to a major is a fateful step in an undergraduate education, yet the relationship between courses taken early in an academic career and ultimate major selection remains little studied at scale. Using transcript data capturing the academic careers of 26,892 undergraduates enrolled at a private university between 2000 and 2020, we describe enrollment histories using natural-language methods and vector embeddings to forecast terminal major on the basis of course sequences beginning at college entry. We find (I) a student's very first enrolled course predicts major thirty times better than random guessing and more than a third better than majority-class voting, (II) modeling strategies substantially influence forecasting accuracy, and (III) course portfolios varies substantially within majors, raising novel questions what majors mean or signify in relation to undergraduate course histories.

A Guided Scratch Visual Execution Environment to Introduce Programming Concepts to CS1 Students

First-year computer science (CS1) university students traditionally have difficulties understanding how to program. This paper describes research introducing CS1 students to programming concepts using a Scratch programming language guided visual execution environment (VEE). The concepts addressed are those from an introductory programming course (sequences, variables, operators, conditionals, loops, and events and parallelism). The VEE guides novice students through programming concepts, explaining and guiding interactive exercises executed in Scratch by using metaphors and serious games. The objective of this study is, firstly, to investigate if a cohort of 124 CS1 students, from three distinct groups, studying at the same university, are able to improve their programming skills guided by the VEE. Secondly, is the improvement different for various programming concepts? All the CS1 students were taught the module by the same tutor in four 2-h sessions (8 h), and a qualitative research approach was adopted. The results show students significantly improved their programming knowledge, and this improvement is significant for all the programming concepts, although greater for certain concepts such as operators, conditionals, and loops than others. It also shows that students lacked initial knowledge of events and parallelism, though most had used Scratch during their high school years. The sequence concept was the most popular concept known to them. A collateral finding in this study is how the students’ previous knowledge and learning gaps affected grades they required to access and begin study at the university level.

From the Modern Synthesis to the Molecular Synthesis: updating how we teach and assess evolution by natural selection

Evolution by natural selection is recognized as both the most important concept in undergraduate biology and the most difficult to teach. Unfortunately, teaching and assessment of evolution have been impaired by legacy approaches that focus on Darwin's original insights and the Modern Synthesis' integration of Mendelian genetics, but ignore or downplay advances from what we term the Molecular Synthesis. To create better alignment between instructional approaches and contemporary research in the biosciences, we propose that the primary learning goal in teaching evolution should be for students to connect genotypes, phenotypes, and fitness. To support this approach, we developed and tested assessment questions and scoring rubrics called the Extended Assessing Conceptual Reasoning of Natural Selection (E-ACORNS) instrument. Initial E-ACORNS data suggest that after traditional instruction, few students recognize the molecular synthesis, prompting us to propose that introductory course sequences be re-organized with the molecular synthesis as their central theme.

Embedding Activism in a STEM EdD Program

This article shares an example of how one STEM EdD program embeds activism throughout their program. The authors share examples of readings and assignments across the program geared towards helping students think about and enact activism within the STEM disciplines. The STEM EdD mission offers insight into the foundations of the program. Then, specific examples from the following courses or course sequences are given: Action Research, Project-Based Learning, Research Methods in STEM Education, Advanced Readings in Mathematics Education, and Principles of Engineering in STEM Education. A conclusion offers some final thoughts about the ongoing development of the STEM EdD program to help our students grow as graduates who focus on equity and diversity in STEM education.

Combined Training of Candidates, Scholars, And Psychotherapists: A Model of Psychoanalytic Education for the Twenty-First Century

A new model of psychoanalytic education is proposed that will meet the challenges of educating candidates in a new century. Prospective candidates have varying opinions about the value of analytic training, opinions that reflect economic and cultural conditions different from those facing previous generations. Overall, today’s graduate-level students hold less favorable attitudes toward psychoanalysis than did their counterparts in the past. The proposed model calls for combining analytic candidates, psychotherapy students, and academic scholars for two years in a Psychoanalytic Studies Program (PSP), after which candidates take their subsequent years of training in a cohort made up exclusively of analytic candidates. A curriculum that focuses on the core concepts in psychoanalysis allows students in all three categories to learn the foundational knowledge of psychoanalysis that once was widely taught in graduate mental health programs. The philosophy that underlies the model and the structure and orientation of the course sequences are presented. Implementatiion of the model having shown positive results, its strengths and limitations are evaluated against the traditional model, in which candidates and psychotherapy students are educated separately.

Instilling Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value in Entrepreneurial Minded Engineering: Concepts for a Course Sequence in Dynamics and Controls

Extant literature illustrates that complementary efforts, such as Entrepreneurially Minded Learning, add an important dimension to the training of the next generation of engineers and innovators, providing them with multiple perspectives and a pathway for linking technical concepts to societal challenges. Nationwide initiatives, such as the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), have focused specifically on infusing Entrepreneurially Minded Learning into curriculum content and delivery, training both faculty and students to have the know-why in addition to the know-how of engineering topics. KEEN has established a framework that supplements engineering skills already taught in classrooms with outcomes that support the development of an entrepreneurial mindset. The framework is rooted in fostering the 3Cs of entrepreneurial mindset: Curiosity, Connections, and Creating Value. In this study, we contribute a series of concepts infusing KEEN-inspired modules into a three-course sequence in Dynamics and Controls. We provide an overview on each of the modules, highlighting the KEEN framework objectives. We present postcourse student questionnaire responses illustrating student perception of entrepreneurial mindset and the 3Cs as it relates to engineering and addressing technological challenges. We provide lessons learned and sufficient detail of all modules for replication in other Dynamics and Controls course sequences as well as supporting student data.

Prosopography, Networks, Life Course Sequences, and so on. Quantifying with or beyond Bourdieu?

This article focuses on the importance of quantifying Bourdieu’s “research programme”, linked with the concepts of field, habitus, and capital. It presents possible ways of doing statistics within this framework and argues that continuous methodological development should be pursued. To support this argument, the article highlights the methodology and empirical results of a doctoral dissertation on the Swiss field of economic sciences. It stresses the relevance of using a prosopographical strategy and advocates further development of multiple correspondence analysis, and the use of sequence analysis and social network analysis. The main contributions of these methods concern the investigation of subgroup profiles in fields, the trajectories of accumulation and conversion of capitals and the structure of social capital. When asking whether or not we should think with or beyond Bourdieu when suggesting new methodological developments to his programme, this article argues that we ought to think beyond his strict written work, but still within his theoretical framework, which proves particularly relevant to the study of power relations among individuals.

Instructor Satisfaction in University of California Extension's On-line Writing Curriculum

This article describes instructor satisfaction in 14 online courses in freshman-level composition and literature, business writing, and English as a Second Language offered in the University of California (UC) Extension’s online program. The courses chosen for this case study reflect UC Extension's entire ALN program, in that they comprise a broad selection of college- and professional-level courses organized in course sequences and certificate programs. The paper reviews UC Extension’s ALN program, describes course and instructor selection criteria, and discusses such issues as course production and costs, instructor support, the transfer of teaching skills, instructor computer literacy, and instructor compensation. The results of an informal instructor survey also are discussed. Obstacles to adoption, effective and problematic practices, and critical programmatic and individual course factors gleaned from this analysis are outlined.

Purposeful Course Scheduling

Almost half of undergraduate students in the United States enroll in community colleges, unfortunately community colleges face a harsh reality of low completion and graduation rates. Delgado Community College in New Orleans is the largest community college in Louisiana serving over 25,000 students annually. There are numerous reasons for the low completion rates for community colleges that include financial, family, academic, scheduling conflicts and lack of resources contribute to the challenge of improving program completion. The West Bank campus of Delgado established an innovative and comprehensive scheduling program designed to significantly increase the number of students enrolled and to increase student progression in specific degree programs. Purposeful course scheduling combines 1) career alignment through academic advising, 2) course sequences and rotation, and 3) blocking time for specific types of courses.