Increasing Success in Higher Education: The Relationships of Online Course Taking With College Completion and Time-to-Degree

Online courses provide flexible learning opportunities, but research suggests that students may learn less and persist at lower rates compared to face-to-face settings. However, few studies have investigated more distal effects of online education. In this study, we analyzed 6 years of institutional data for three cohorts of students in 13 large majors (N = 10,572) at a public research university to examine distal effects of online course participation. Using online course offering as an instrumental variable for online course taking, we find that online course taking of major-required courses leads to higher likelihood of successful 4-year graduation and slightly accelerated time-to-degree. These results suggest that offering online courses may help students to more efficiently graduate college.

Changes in academic performance in the online, integrated system-based curriculum implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic in a medical school in Korea

Purpose: This study aims to examine how students' academic performance changed, based on the test results of 16 integrated courses conducted in 3 semesters at Hanyang University College of Medicine that underwent a transition to online learning after COVID-19 in Korea. Methods: For the 16 required courses that included an integrated system-based curriculum that runs for t3 semesters, the major examination's raw scores were collected for each student. Percent-correct scores were used in the subsequent analysis. We used a t-test to compare grades between 2019 and 2020, and Cohen's D was calculated as a measure of effect size. The correlation of scores between courses was calculated using Pearson’s correlation coefficient.Results: There was a significant decrease in scores in 2020 for 10 courses (62.5%). While most of the integrated system-based curriculum test scores showed strong correlation, with a coefficient of 0.6 or higher in both 2019 and 2020, the correlation coefficient was generally higher in 2020. When students were divided into low, middle, and high achiever groups, low achievers consistently showed declining test scores in all three semesters. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the transition to online classes due to COVID-19 has led to an overall decline in academic performance. This overall decline, which may occur when the curriculum is centered on recorded lectures, needs to be addressed. Further, medical schools need to consider establishing a support system for the academic development of low achievers.

Learning to Swim

As institutions of higher learning increasingly rely on contingent faculty members to carry the load of required courses, more and more new contingent faculty find themselves thrown into the “deep end” of teaching in areas outside of their fields. By focusing on broader learning goals, appealing to the power of story, and emphasizing real-life application by incorporating experiential learning, these faculty members can make almost any course feel like a course they are qualified to teach. Furthermore, they can allow their wonder at learning new material inspire students to embrace unfamiliar topics as well.

A new mathematical model to cover crew pairing and rostering problems simultaneously

Crew scheduling problem includes two separate subproblems, namely, crew pairing and crew rostering problems. Solving these two subproblems in a sequential order may not lead to an optimal solution. This study includes two main novelties. It combines these two subproblems and presents them in a single model. On the other hand, despite previous researches that considered a pairing continuously, the proposed model benefits from the capability of considering one or more days off in a pairing assigned to a crew member. This is extremely useful as it enables the crew to participate in required courses, doing medical checks, etc. Two solution approaches, namely, Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), are used to solve the model. Eventually, the performance of the proposed algorithms is evaluated. Both ended to satisfactory results; however, PSO relatively outperformed GA in terms of solution optimality and computational time.

Embedding Virtual Simulation Into a Course to Teach Parent–Teacher Collaboration Skills

Teacher preparation programs have acknowledged the need to address the topic of collaboration in coursework; however, few educator preparation programs require collaboration courses or address the interpersonal aspects involved in teaching in other required courses. Working with families is essential in the field of special education and pre-service teachers must be given opportunities to develop their collaborative practices in teacher preparation programs. The use of virtual simulation is emerging in the field of teacher education and is a tool faculty can use to provide pre-service teachers a safe environment to practice parent–teacher conferencing skills within courses.

Catholic Studies Programs and Catholic Identity

After the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), the structure of required courses dramatically changed at most Catholic universities. Before the council, it was typical that all students, regardless of their major, were required to take at least eighteen credit hours (six courses) mainly in philosophy and some theology (mostly grounded in the thinking of the thirteenth-century theologian Thomas Aquinas). Once those requirements were dramatically reduced and what was then offered covered more than Christian religions, doubts began to spread among some faculty as to whether the university had lost its Catholic character. By the 1980s, Catholic studies programs began to be created that included more disciplines than theology and philosophy and typically also offered opportunities for the moral formation of students. Controversies erupted between faculty who questioned the academic legitimacy of these programs. This chapter provides an evaluation of the nature and academic legitimacy of these programs.

Ghost of National Final Exams that (still) haunts the Indonesian School Libraries' Information Literacy Activities and Students' Reading Interests

The Indonesian government introduced the compulsory-nation-wide National Exam (called Ujian Nasional in Bahasa Indonesia shortened to UN) since 2005. The systems required the students of class 6,9 and 12 to pass the National Exam in certain courses. This paper limits to class 12 as they will enroll to higher education. For class 12 there are threee compulsory courses, that are Indonesian Language, English and mathematics. As class 12 was divided into three departments (i.e. natural sciences, social sciences and language), each students must participate in the related-courseexams such those who choose natural sciences must take Physics, Chemistry, Biology; for social sciences the students must take Economics, Geography, Sociology while those from language department must take Indonesian literature, Anthropology and selected foreign languages (Chinese n, Japanese, German, Arab language) respectively. As the National Exam are compulsory, then the schools teach the students mostly in those subjects, sometime sacrificing other courses, the students are crammed only the required courses. Indirectly the students supported by the teachers are involved in information literacy activities albeit limited to certain subjects and usually using widely internet and google (a disadvantage for students with limited technological infrastructure and not 24 hours-electricity facilitiy). As being drilled into National Exam required courses, then the students are not really complete information literate person, they just partly information literate. Sacrificing other subjects, the students do not read literary books, they just read the novel excerps(!) This findings supported the acclaimed Indonesian poet Taufik Ismail who denoted that the Indonesian high school students since 1970s do not literary works at all. Apart from the (controversial) National Exam systems, from library point-of-view it is suggested that the school libraries actively took part in the information literacy holistically not partially in order to support the life long learning through information literacy program.

Educating Doctoral Students in Kinesiology to Teach Effectively

Doctoral program graduates, including in kinesiology, may be inadequately prepared to become effective teachers. The purpose of this study was to examine the required courses in research and teaching for kinesiology doctoral students and the related skills and abilities most important for doctoral students to develop to be successful in their first faculty positions. Through a survey, faculty coordinators of graduate programs in kinesiology were asked to identify required courses, the relative importance of skills and abilities in research and teaching, and the preparation levels of doctoral program graduates in research and teaching. Respondents rated courses, skills, abilities, and preparation in research consistently higher than courses associated with teaching. The authors proposed recommendations for preparing a more qualified cadre of kinesiology doctoral program graduates.

The US experience of management programs curriculum design: The recommendations for improving management curricula in Ukraine

Introduction. The paper analyzes the issue of curriculum design of management programs in Ukraine. Taking into account the employers’ dissatisfaction with the skills of management graduates in Ukraine, the author studies the features of curriculum design of undergraduate management programs in Ukraine comparing them with the US ones. Purpose. The purpose of the study was to compare the curriculum design of American and Ukrainian management programs to find out the differences and similarities in order to develop recommendations for making Ukrainian management curricula more relevant to the needs of Ukrainian business community. Methods. The study analyzes the curriculum design of three American and three Ukrainian management programs in higher education. The comparative analysis of American and Ukrainian management curricula included three lines: the analysis of required and elective courses, program contents, and the number of credits. Results. The comparative data received allow to define the five trends in curriculum design of Ukrainian management programs. Firstly, American management programs contain less credits in comparison with Ukrainian ones (3.85 vs. 5 credits per course; required courses: 122.3 vs. 240 credits; elective courses: 76 vs. 30 credits). Secondly, American management programs offer less subjects comparing with Ukrainian analogs – 24 vs 33 subjects per program. The comparative analysis reveals that this variety of disciplines is due to the double subjects in Ukrainian management curricula. Thirdly, the curricula of American management programs provide more subjects related to the development of soft skills, whereas their Ukrainian analogs still more focus on theoretical foundations of management. Fourthly, both types of curriculum assume studying economic theory and organizational behavior theory in-depth, but lack the courses related to the sustainable development issues. Finally, American management programs are more universal and globally focused, whereas Ukrainian management curricula contain a lot of locally-oriented types of courses. Conclusion. The paper allows to conclude that Ukrainian management programs are too overloaded with the same type subjects, credits, and theoretical knowledge. Based on the comparative analysis provided, it is recommended to decrease the number of credits and double subjects, but implement the disciplines related to the development of soft skills and global competencies of Ukrainian future managers.