2019 was a bit different from previous years for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) Research. Since they had six larger-scale research projects (of which several were calendared over the summer months), they did not want to overly burden their members with surveys. This resulted in four 60-Second…

Thanks to engaged members and research partners, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) was able to engage in research and produce reports on several topics again in 2021. AACRAO Research completed four 60-Second Surveys and six comprehensive reports. Other research-supported work included: facilitating…

This article focuses on coordination between governance actors in higher education. The object of the study is a department at a public university, seen as a multi-project environment. The purpose of this article is to illustrate and analyze project governance as a tool that allows departmental management to coordinate with the authorities, the…

The movement toward proficiency-based learning is gaining momentum at secondary schools across New England and beyond. Proficiency-based learning is the system of instruction, assessment and grading based on demonstration of skills that meet performance standards or "proficiencies." The goal of proficiency-based learning is to better…

Distance librarians often do not have the opportunity to engage face-to-face with users of library services. Without this personal interaction, it can be difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of library services in meeting the needs of the distance learners. Distance librarians may not realize it, but most have a wealth of information at their…

Grades are the fundamental currency of our educational system; they signal academic achievement and noncognitive skills to parents, employers, postsecondary gatekeepers, and students themselves. Grade inflation compromises the signaling value of grades and undermines their capacity to achieve the functions for which they are intended. We challenge…

Colleges and universities across the country are seeing their bond ratings drop and their budgets shrink. Employers complain that college graduates are not prepared for the workplace, and many students find themselves saddled with considerable debt and no job to show for it. These are trying times for parents, for students, and for institutions.…

"Research Library Issues" ("RLI") is a quarterly report from ARL (Association of Research Libraries), CNI (Coalition of Networked Information), and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). This issue includes the following articles: (1) Rebalancing the Investment in Collections (H. Thomas Hickerson); (2)…

Much has been written about school-university partnerships including their general intent to positively impact student learning through the continuous professional development of classroom teachers. This article, which offers an in-depth description of the growth of a school-college partnership, follows the development of a partnership between a…

Over recent years, educational institutions have been making increasing use of virtual environments to set up collaborative activities for learners. While it is recognized that teachers play an important role in facilitating learner collaboration online, they may not have the necessary skills to do so successfully. Thus, a small-scale professional…

Many educational researchers across the United States have found that inquiry-based learning (IBL) supports the development of deep, meaningful content knowledge. However, integrating IBL into classroom practice has been challenging, in part because of contrasting conceptualizations and practices across educational fields. In this article, we (a)…

Oral communication skills are essential for engineers today and, as they are included in accreditation criteria of educational programmes, their teaching and evaluation deserve attention. However, concrete aspects as to what should be taught and evaluated in relation to oral communication skills have not been sufficiently established. In this…

This paper discusses students' experiences with the use of identification codes in a graduate course delivered asynchronously via the Internet. While teaching an introductory masters level graduate course in distance learning, the authors discovered that the learning management system, Moodle, was programmed to display identification codes rather…

With growing international interest in diversifying sites for pedagogical work within the doctorate, doctoral programmes of different kinds are being developed in different disciplinary, institutional and national settings. However, little is known about how the pedagogical work of these programmes is designed and enacted, and with what effects.…

This article provides a personal perspective about the development of the seminal papers associated with the Community of Inquiry Framework. The framework and its construction are described. The main part of the paper explores the evolution of the framework and its associated methodology. Finally, research associated with the validation of the…