Learning centers and academic support programs are often idealized entities campuses look to for student success, retention, and engagement. By untethering our thinking about program boundaries, identities, and alliances and radically reforming, we can generate interest, passion, and opportunities across campus. The force of redistributing…

Our study used a case-control matching design to assess the influence of a voluntary tutoring program in improving first-year students' Grade Point Averages (GPA). To evaluate program effectiveness, we applied case-control matching to obtain 215 pairs of students with or without participation in tutoring, but matched on high school GPA and…

Research indicates that the fear of public speaking is an extraordinarily common phobia and that a significant portion of the population experiences some form of anxiety over public speaking. Although there is a great deal of research available on the etiology of public speaking anxiety, there is far less research available on interventional…

This study focused on the impact of Supplemental Instruction (SI) on student achievement in first semester Calculus for transfer students over a three-year period. Transfer students participating in SI achieved dramatically higher passing rates and course grades than did non-SI transfer students, despite no significant differences in academic…

Many universities have Common Book programs, but few of them are driven by clear goals and little research about the effectiveness of programs exists. The current study examined social and academic correlates of self-reported common book readership. As expected, upper-level students who read their entire common book as freshmen reported a stronger…

Many learning center administrators understand the need to evaluate the effectiveness of their tutoring programs, but they do not have much free time to design and conduct meaningful research. This article presents a method of evaluation that can be used to determine whether students were able to demonstrate understanding after a tutoring…

By examining one writing center's role in student success, this project offers two examples of the way writing centers impact student engagement. This analysis models a methodology that writing and learning center directors can utilize in order to foster effective communication with stakeholders. By conducting data-driven assessment, directors can…

A summer English camp language immersion program, which began in 2003, provided instruction by native English speakers to Thai college students via collaboration between Prince of Songkla University in Thailand and Ball State University in Indiana, USA. During this program, Thai students were exposed to English formally through classroom…

Peer mentoring programs are designed to address problems experienced by new students to assist them in making the transition to university study. The University of New South Wales offers such a program to new undergraduate students. Feedback on the program is obtained from participants through questionnaires and is used to identify problems and to…

Describes the standards and guidelines developed for learning assistance programs by the Committee for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS), and those for program components by the National Association of Developmental Education (NADE). Suggests how they can be used to identify needs and improve existing services. (VWC)

Discusses how the sources of research-based information in developmental education have increased in recent years except in the area of program evaluation. Describes the differences between program evaluation and research and argues for the need to standardize the criteria used. Concludes with a list of practical ideas for conducting program…

Describes the Conditional Acceptance Program (CAP), an intervention program geared towards underprepared, underachieving entering college freshmen. Identifies key program components while establishing the primary theoretical basis or rationale for each, and encourages the reader to critically evaluate and reflect upon various and integrated…