The mid-20th century push for high school calculus nurtured generations of future STEM professionals. While the growth of high school calculus is often seen as an educational success story, the emphasis on calculus has also exacerbated opportunity gaps along racial and socioeconomic lines, and crowded out other important math topics that are…

This dissertation consists of three empirical studies that explore the educational experiences and trajectories of English learners (ELs) and students with disabilities. The first study uses longitudinal data from four large California school districts to examine the characteristics of long-term ELs (LTELs) and former ELs--those reclassified as…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine if automatic enrollment in exercise-promoting courses on a college campus, with a choice to opt out, would increase enrollment. Method: In a simulated course selection paradigm, 317 college students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: optimal default (automatic enrollment in an…

In order to help undergraduate students towards successfully completing their degrees, developing tools that can assist students during the course selection process is a significant task in the education domain. The optimal set of courses for each student should include courses that help him/her graduate in a timely fashion and for which he/she is…

Michigan Merit Curriculum (MMC) is a statewide college-preparatory policy that applies to the high school graduating class of 2011 and later. Using detailed Michigan high school transcript data, this article examines the effect of the MMC on various students' course-taking and achievement outcomes. Our analyses suggest that (a) post-MMC cohorts…

Traditional e-learning systems lack the personalization feature to guide learners for selecting the most suitable courses needed. Choosing appropriate courses in the seminal years is important for a future learner who depends on such decisions, as selecting the wrong courses means a mismatch between learner's capability and personal interests.…

In an effort to promote undergraduate students' attitudes toward general education courses, the "Think Beyond the Major" campaign prioritized the design and creation of the campaign messages. These efforts produced materials that were supported in improving attitudes toward, and communication about, general education courses among…

Curriculum plays an important role in the training of gifted teachers. This situation is confronted with situations such as constantly updating and radically changing teaching undergraduate programs. One of the complementary elements of the programs is electives. The Turkish Language Teaching Undergraduate Program, in which interdisciplinary…

The mission of higher education is a topic of continual debate among politicians, intellectuals, and employers. As the cost of higher education continues to rise, critics maintain that institutions are not properly preparing students for life after college. Many critics have argued that students are spending too much time participating in…

In a survey of instructors of human sexuality courses at 58 US universities and colleges, for 51 institutions the female/male ratio of enrolled undergraduate students ranged from 2/1 to 38/1, and typically 3/1 to 6/1. Most courses were offered in departments of psychology or health, which usually have high F/M ratios for majors. However, the high…

In recent decades, open, online learning environments have become progressively more popular and well-funded. An integral aspect of this open learning movement is the transition of a substantial amount of control of the learning process from designers and instructors to the users engaging with the environment. With heavy investments coming from…

This report presents findings from two studies on Advanced Subsidiary (AS) level trends in 2018. The first part of the report describes national trends in AS level entries from analyses of data published by Ofqual. This updates the previous quantitative analysis of AS level trends in 2017 (Vitello & Williamson, 2018). The rest of the report…

This report presents findings from an ongoing research project monitoring the impact of the Advanced Subsidiary (AS) and Advanced (A) level reforms in England that came into effect from September 2015. Three studies were conducted in the spring of 2017, during the second year of teaching of decoupled AS and A levels. The first study analysed…

The diversity in reasons that students have for enrolling in massive open online courses (MOOCs) is an often-overlooked aspect while modeling learners' behaviors in MOOCs. Using survey data from 11,202 students in five MOOCs spanning different academic disciplines, this study evaluates the reasons that students enrolled in MOOCs, using an…

This paper describes a multiple criteria approach based on a hybrid method of Collaborative Filtering (CF) and ContentBased Filtering (CBF) for discovering the most relevant criteria which could affect the elective course recommendation for university students. In order to determine which factors are the most important, it is proposed a genetic…