Mapping High-Impact Practices to Advising Research Briefs
Kinzie, J., Keup, J., Holmes, B. Hilliard, K.
National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition2024.
Mapping High-Impact Practices to Advising is a research brief series published by the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition in collaboration with the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) with grant funding from the Advising Success Network. This four-issue series explores a range of novel connections between advising and HIPs, elaborating on the multiple ways advising can be transformative in undergraduate education.
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Can Shorter Surveys Motivate Nonrespondents to Respond? A Randomized Controlled Experiment with College Students
Sarraf, Shimon
In Atlanta, GA: , 2024.
During the spring 2023, NSSE conducted a randomized controlled experiment with nonrespondents to assess the impact of administering shorter surveys on response rates and question completion. This poster documents the experiment's major findings and concusions.
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Expanding our knowledge of LGBQ+ faculty
BrckaLorenz, A., Fassett, K., Merckle, R., & Chamis, E.
Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, , , 2023.
Most research about queerness at colleges and universities has been aimed at examining the student experience. Research on queer faculty often has quantitative limitations, has grown outdated, or is qualitative in nature, but from this work, we know that the experiences of queer faculty are often difficult. Through a large-scale, multi-institution, multiyear investigation of LGBQ+ faculty, this study gives an overview of the academic lives of these understudied academics. We investigate who they are, what institutions employ them, and different ways they contribute to undergraduate education. With this story, we hope to strengthen the voices of qualitative studies and encourage higher education to think more broadly about notions of diversity and identity.
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How do university faculty feel about grading? Insights from a control-value theory perspective
Schwab, C., Frenzel, A. C., BrckaLorenz, A., Jaeger, J., & Stupnisky, R.
Studies in Higher Education, , , 2023.
Research on faculty emotions is scarce, despite their evident relevance for faculty well-being, higher education quality, and student outcomes. The present studies aimed to investigate six discrete emotions (enjoyment, pride, boredom, anxiety, anger, frustration) faculty may experience during grading. Study 1 compared faculty emotions for grading with emotions for research and teaching (US sample, Nâ??=â??1226). Mean comparisons showed that grading generally elicited less positive and more negative emotions than research and teaching. Study 2 further examined faculty emotions for grading through the lens of control-value theory, by identifying emotion-specific appraisal patterns in two countries (US, nâ??=â??244 and Germany, nâ??=â??201). Multiple linear regressions revealed that the most consistent predictor for grading emotions across both samples was cost, in terms of the extent to which faculty perceived grading as a thankless task that kept them away from more meaningful tasks. Our findings further point to the important role of facultyâ??student relationships and faculty membersâ?? confidence in their grading ability for eliciting grading emotions. This study extends existing research on emotions in higher education by considering grading as a relevant emotion-inducing task, and by applying control-value theory to a new context in two countries, thereby contributing to the question of this theoryâ??s generalizability. Practical implications of our findings entail that universities should aim to improve the circumstances of grading and equip their faculty with the means to handle their grading duties well, to optimize their somewhat worrisome emotional experiences in this context.
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International studentsâ?? career preparation
Oktafiga, D., Zhu, Y. & BrckaLorenz, A.
In M. Mohamad & J. Boyd International Student Support and Engagement in Higher Education: Exploring Innovative Practices in Campus, Academic and Professional Support Services Routledge, 2023.
International students (ISs) are a significant and growing student group with unique needs. We use 2015â??2019 National Survey of Student Engagement data that includes over 4,000 ISs, senior undergraduate college students in the United States from other countries studying at more than 450 colleges and universities. We describe these ISsâ?? future career plans, how prepared they are in terms of career-related skills and abilities, and how internships and other career preparation experiences relate to these skills and abilities. Findings indicate that ISsâ?? country of origin, major, and participation in internships play an important role in understanding studentsâ?? confidence in the use of selected skills and abilities. We will provide detailed information about the IS landscape and the benefits that career services would bring to them, with implications for practice and future research that include finding effective ways to balance ISsâ?? academic and social lives.
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Teaching development opportunities & faculty teaching practice at four-year institutions
Fassett, K., Hiller, S. C., BrckaLorenz, A., & Nelson Laird, T.
College Teaching, 71(3), 165-175, 2023.
To contextualize the myriad of teaching development efforts available to faculty, this large-scale study of nearly 4,500 faculty at four-year institutions broadens our understandings of who participates in teaching development practices, how their participation relates to their institutional environments, and how their participation connects to their use of effective teaching practices. Results show some notable patterns by academic field, social identity, the type of courses taught, and institutional characteristics. The overview of educational development participation in this study gives strength to positive findings from smaller-scale research studies and provides a solid base for more specific studies of these practices.
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Understanding international student experiences and career preparation challenges through COVID-19
Zhu, Y., Gopal, K., & BrckaLorenz, A.
In A.W. Wiseman, C. Matherly, & M. Crumley-Effinger Internationalization and Imprints of the Pandemic on Higher Education Worldwide Emerald Publishing, 2023.
College support and career development are two significant challenges international students encountered during the pandemic, and these two factors have an enormous impact on the internationalization of higher education. The data for this study came from the 2020 to 2021 administrations of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) that includes over 500 international students enrolled at over 120 four-year colleges and universities in the United States. These students specifically responded to an open-ended item asking them what they think institutions should do better to assist their academic achievement and career goals. This study takes an in-depth look at international studentsâ?? qualitative responses about ways that institutions could better support their preparation for future careers. Using theories of cultural wealth and ecological systems to understand the unique experiences of international students during the pandemic offers an opportunity to help students not just in times of crisis but more holistically as they continue to pursue their higher education experiences in the United States. Ultimately, the authors provide recommendations for higher education professionals working with international students to better support their studentsâ?? career development and overall college experience.
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