Opening the door to research: nurturing early scientific belonging among undergraduate students through low-barrier academic experiences.

Purpose: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming various sectors, including education, and significantly impacting students' academic experiences from school to college. This study explores how BAMS undergraduate students perceive the use of AI and AI-based tools for educational purposes and assess their prakriti. Method: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted among undergraduate BAMS students of Pt. Khushilal Sharma, Govt. Ayurveda College and Institute campus, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh State, Central India, 200 undergraduate students aged 18 to 30. The collected data were analyzed using the software IBM SPSS Statistics Version 29.0.2.0(20). Data analysis used descriptive statistics (frequency, percentages, mean, standard deviation, etc.) as appropriate and inferential statistics (reliability, validity, and regression). Result: Among 200 undergraduate students, 33% were male and 67% were female. The mean age of students was 23.3±1.92(SD) years. 40% students belonged to Vatapittaja, 34% to Pittakaphaja, 22% to Kaphavataja, and 4% to Vatapitttakaphaja prakriti. The finding indicated that 78.5% of students were familiar with AI concepts. ChatGPT, Grammarly, and Google Assistant emerged as the most frequently used AI tools. Only 6.5% of students use AI tools daily for academic purposes. Most of the students were satisfied with using AI tools for study purposes. Conclusion: The surveyed students had little formal or informal experience with AI tools and limited awareness of AI's potential applications in education. However, they generally held positive opinions about ChatGPT, Grammarly, and AI and were hopeful about AI's future role in medical education and health care.

In today’s educational landscape, active learning is often overlooked during lectures, seminars, and tutorials. The aim of this study was to investigate perceptions of online and face-to-face lecture formats and their impact on the learning experiences of undergraduate dental students in Years 3–5. This qualitative study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of different lecture formats at the Institute of Dentistry for undergraduate dental students in Years 3–5. There were two specific questions asked to dental undergraduate students with additional free-text questions. In total, 120 of 221 undergraduate students participated in this study between October 2019 and February 2020, and only 42 participants included the free-text comments. Three core themes related to the blended learning approach were identified: (1) scheduled versus recorded lectures, (2) duration of academic lectures, and (3) neurodiversity and learning experiences. The results showed that the learners perceived the traditional didactic lectures as the least effective format. There is not a “one fits all” lecture format that would accommodate a neurodiversity-based approach that focuses on the strengths, abilities, and interests of students. Hybrid lecture formats in combination with online teaching coupled with small group tutorials could be suggested. There is a unique challenge in the post-COVID-19 era for both educators and learners due to the lack of clinical practice and heavy reliance on online methods of teaching in Dentistry. Therefore, the implication of these results on the planning and financing of programmes could be discussed in Higher Education.

BackgroundDespite the critical role of faculty diversity in the persistence and academic experiences of undergraduate students as well as in the development of engineering innovations, women of color (WoC) faculty are still underrepresented in engineering programs across the United States.Purpose/HypothesisThis study identifies whether the demographic composition of undergraduate engineering students is correlated with the representation of WoC faculty. It also highlights the institutional‐ and departmental‐level factors that contribute to the race–gender diversification of the engineering professoriate.Design/MethodInformed by organizational demography as the theoretical framework, the methods include linear and logit regression analyses. Data come from the American Society for Engineering Education, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, and the American Community Survey, and include engineering departmental‐level observations across 345 institutions over 12 years.ResultsEngineering departments that award more bachelor's degrees to women African American/Black undergraduate students are more likely to employ relatively more African American/Black women faculty. This positive relationship is also found among Asian Americans and Hispanics/Latinas.ConclusionsResearch findings demonstrate the relationship between engineering undergraduate composition, as well as other departmental‐ and institutional‐level factors, and the prevalence of WoC faculty. The findings highlight important areas for stakeholders and academic administrators to consider when developing strategies and programs to diversify the composition of engineering faculty.

Coronavirus disease 2019 has impacted upon the role and safety of healthcare workers, with the potential to have a lasting effect on their wellbeing. Limited research has been conducted during previous pandemics exploring how student healthcare workers are impacted as they study and train for their professional careers. The aim of the current study was to examine the specific impact of COVID-19 on the academic, clinical and personal experiences of healthcare students. Undergraduate students across three year groups within the School of Health Sciences at Ulster University completed online Qualtrics surveys at three timepoints during one academic year (2020/2021). Quantitative survey data was downloaded from Qualtrics into SPSS Version 25 for descriptive analysis of each cross-sectional sample. Qualitative survey data was downloaded into text format, which was thematically analysed using content analysis. 412 students completed the survey at Time 1 (October 2020), n = 309 at Time 2 (December 2020) and n = 259 at Time 3 (April 2021). Academically, the pandemic had mostly a negative impact on the learning environment, the development of practical skills, the assessment process and opportunities for peer learning and support. Students reported increased stress and challenges managing their workload and maintaining a sense of motivation and routine. Clinically, they felt unprepared by the university for placement where the pandemic had an increasingly negative impact over time on learning and skill development. In terms of personal experiences, despite the majority of students taking steps to keep physically and mentally well, negative impacts on friendships, mental wellbeing and concerns for family were reported. The pandemic had not impacted upon career choice for most students. Consideration must be given to the development of practical skills so students feel prepared for their professional careers given the practical nature of their roles. Programme coordinators should adopt a holistic approach to student wellbeing.

Previous research about undergraduate students with nontraditional college experiences has focused primarily on students’ demographic characteristics, their deficits compared to residential students, and their risk for attrition. This case study conducted at a university branch campus in the Midwest examined undergraduate college experiences at a campus where nontraditional college experiences are typical. Case study findings revealed that college students were defined by their rich and detailed biography of prior life experiences, successes and challenges for student transition, and experiences with academic and social engagement. Findings also revealed students’ strong sense of motivation and ability to thrive and succeed in college. Abstract Approved: __________________________________ Thesis SupervisorApproved: __________________________________ Thesis Supervisor __________________________________ Title and Department __________________________________ Date ACADEMIC AND SOCIAL EXPERIENCES OF UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGE STUDENTS AT A BRANCH CAMPUS: A CASE STUDY by Kristi S. Mindrup A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies (Higher Education and Student Affairs) in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa

The purpose of this case study was to understand how a service-learning course affects the academic transition of undergraduate-level international students attending a private university in the northeastern United States. To achieve this purpose, three research questions were developed as a foundation for this investigation: a) What do undergraduate international students learn from a service-learning experience that shapes their academic transition? b) How do undergraduate international students view their academic experience in their home country after participating in a service-learning program? c) How does a service-learning experience contribute to the English language proficiency of undergraduate international students? Data included eight semi-structured in-depth interviews, eight classroom presentation observations, field notes, and document review. Data was analyzed using descriptive and in vivo methods, axial coding, comparative analysis, and a series of coding strategies. Participants represented a variety of demographics of the site institution, including country of origin and gender. Findings show that as a result of a service-learning experience undergraduate international students assimilate to academic expectations in the United States by valuing the application of knowledge learned in the classroom to real world contexts, engaging in collaborative learning environments, and adapting to critical thinking expectations by analyzing biases, withholding judgement, and practicing patience. Data shows that for undergraduate international students who did not speak English as their primary language, service-learning provided an opportunity for students to practice and improve their language skills, and develop linguistic confidence and self-esteem. Data illustrates that undergraduate international students reflected on their academic experiences in their home country and characterized it as teacher centered, more demanding, and less flexible when choosing an academic path. Additionally, data shows that after participating in service-learning, students became aware of social inequities which led to a desire to participate in future volunteering/service-learning. From these findings, three salient conclusions were formed. First, a service-learning environment fosters cognitive, linguistic, and social skills. Second, a service-learning course presents an internal conflict between empowering and self-motivated U.S. education approach to rigor and demands in home countries. Third, service-learning expands worldview that leads to future civic action.--Author's abstract

Exposure to research is known to play a positive role in undergraduate education. However, robust research responsibilities are oftentimes not formally incorporated into a student’s academic experience until master level studies. Further, a variety of intimidation factors often inhibit many undergraduate students from participating on a research team. In this case study, the research team evaluated a unique group of undergraduate researchers who matriculated to the same university after beginning to participate in research as concurrently enrolled students. Following matriculation, each student continued to participate in research throughout the entirety of their undergraduate studies. All of the study’s students were STEM majors and undertook this research, both prior to and following matriculation, in the same lab and under the same mentor. This arrangement removed many of the common barriers to students participating in undergraduate research, such as the intimidation of working with strangers, including graduate students, and unclear expectations for undergraduate lab students from faculty. Consequently, the unique circumstance presented in this work affords the opportunity to more fully explore the influence that a strong long-term mentor and extended participation in research have on students’ post-graduate decision making.

The purpose of this paper is to describe student experiences as a research assistant on the Health Care Choices Project, a study of the use of complementary therapy by older adults living in rural areas. The goal of this project, headed by a doctorally prepared nurse faculty member, was to “explore the use, cost, and satisfaction with complementary therapy by older adults in rural communities” (Shreffler, 1999). The research group recruited both undergraduate and graduate students from three university campuses to participate in the project. Undergraduate students were primarily recruited to assist with telephone interviewing, piloting, media campaigning, and to further their own academic experience. Graduate students participated in data collection, data processing, and data analysis and were able to apply their work to degree completion. Key Words: Nursing Research, Health Care, Complementary Therapies, Student

College Student Satisfaction Typology and Its Relationship With Engagement Patterns Jihee Hwang (bio) and Felix Wao (bio) College student satisfaction and engagement are important indicators of the quality of student learning experiences and outcomes in higher education. Researchers have found student satisfaction to be positively related to student persistence and academic success (Kuh, 2009; Strahan & Credé, 2015). On the other hand, student engagement "represents the time and effort students devote to activities that are empirically linked to desired outcomes of college and what institutions do to induce students to participate in these activities" (Kuh, 2009, p. 683). The extent to which students express satisfaction with their educational experience and overall success is influenced by the extent to which they are engaged in the college experience (Korobova & Starobin, 2015). Therefore, understanding the level of student satisfaction and how this relates to engagement patterns is important for practitioners at institutes of higher education to foster an institutional environment which students are both engaged in and satisfied with various aspects of their college experience (Webber et al., 2013). One way to achieve a better understanding of the closely related concepts of student satisfaction and engagement is to uncover the dynamics between them—only partially addressed by researchers to date (Webber et al., 2013). Using student satisfaction as the sole data source provides an incomplete picture of what students experience on campus, because student satisfaction surveys pertain only to students' personal perceptions and evaluations of their experiences. Student satisfaction should be examined as a multifaceted construct rather than as a single dimension (Strahan & Credé, 2015). Using a global satisfaction measure (with questions such as "Are you satisfied with your institution overall?") as a foundation for making institutional decisions is problematic. For example, students may have had a very poor experience with parking spaces, which may have an unduly negative impact on their satisfaction overall even when their academic advising experience was satisfactory; thus, disaggregating multifaceted dimensions of student satisfaction is important to better understand students' experiences and viewpoints (Thomas & Galambos, 2004). We classified student satisfaction groups based on 5 dimensions of satisfaction measured by a home-grown Student Satisfaction Survey (SSS) and examined students' engagement patterns in relation to the groups identified. We focused on two research questions: Based on data collected from the SSS, can students be classified into groups that have distinctive satisfaction patterns? How do satisfaction groups differ in their engagement patterns? METHOD Data Collection and Sample The data used in this study were drawn from the Student Satisfaction Survey (SSS) and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) administered at a large research university located in the Midwest. The SSS [End Page 118] instrument consists of 25 items measured using a 5-point Likert scale. It is administered every spring semester via email. In Spring 2016, 3,114 undergraduate students responded, yielding a 16% overall response rate. In the same semester, the institution also participated in the NSSE: 1,314 first-year students and 2,029 senior students completed that survey, yielding an overall response rate of 28%. The final sample for this study comprises first-year and senior students who responded to both the SSS and the NSSE (N = 1,185: 505 first-year students and 680 senior students). This sample was derived in two steps. First, of the students who responded to the SSS, only undergraduate students were included in order to identify clusters of undergraduate student satisfaction. For the second stage of the analysis, the satisfaction clusters to which the undergraduate students belonged were considered in relation to their NSSE responses. The NSSE is designed to collect data from first-year and senior undergraduate students, as both these groups of students are regarded as being in critical transition, that is, at a point of entry and a point of exit, respectively (Gardner & Van der Veer, 1998; Hurtado et al., 1996). For this reason, we focused on the satisfaction typology and engagement patterns of first-year (FY) and senior students (SR). Variables To identify student satisfaction variables, we performed an exploratory factor analysis for the 25 items included in the SSS, which resulted in 5 scale items: academic experiences, academic advising, campus involvement, campus diversity, and student support...

Meta-cognitive self-regulation strategies (MSS) have a positive impact on students' academic performance, helping them to implement plans and adjust their behaviour in the learning process. However, most of the research has been con-ducted on undergraduate students (USs), and less on postgraduate students (PSs). There is also a lack of research on the differences in MSS between PSs and USs during academic learning. The present study investigated the variance in MSS and hypothesised that PSs would score higher in self-regulation than USs. 451 PSs and 2011 USs in the study and completed the meta-cognitive self-regulation section of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The results of the Welsh’s between-subject t-test revealed that PSs reported higher self-regulation strategies than USs on MSLQ. This difference could be attributed to age-related variations, where self-regulation strategies tend to develop with age. It could also be influenced by academic experience, as self-regulation strategies tend to improve with more experience. Alternatively, it may be a combination of both factors. This study built upon prior research and explored how PSs are more conscious of utilizing MSS compared to undergraduates.

This study aims to identify the factors that explain undergraduate students’ adjustments to emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 crisis. The participants were 390 undergraduate students from four academic colleges in Israel who responded to the role adjustment to online learning questionnaire and the motivated strategies for learning questionnaire. The quantitative findings showed low adjustment rates to ERT, moderate use of metacognitive strategies, and moderate environmental and personal distractions. Adjusting to ERT was related to gender, age, academic year, environmental and personal distractions, and metacognitive strategies. The findings highlight the different barriers that affected undergraduate students’ adjustments to ERT during the first semester after the COVID-19 pandemic began. The rapid changes to teaching-learning educational platforms are challenging higher education institutes (HEIs) to improve their support for diverse students from different backgrounds and academic experiences.

This paper attempts to unpack the teaching and learning experiences of academics and students when a new way of teaching radiation physics was introduced. In an attempt to articulate the University of Wollongong’s commitment to the enhancement of the teaching/research nexus and to the development of learning communities, staff of the School of Physics in the Faculty of Engineering at University of Wollongong (UOW) implemented an action research project teaching scientific computing methodologies used in radiation physics to a combined laboratory class of postgraduates and undergraduates. The design of the practical laboratory classes took account of the expected heterogeneous computing skills and different knowledge of radiation physics of undergraduate and postgraduate students. Based on an earlier study, it was presumed that postgraduate students would be in a good position to support undergraduates. We illustrate how broad-based conceptions of the value of learning communities and their role in fostering the teaching/research nexus may be challenged by an internationalised student body. In this case, the previous patterns of undergraduate and postgraduate enrolments, which the pilot study had canvassed, did not hold true; almost all of the postgraduate students were international students, only recently arrived in Australia. This, along with other factors, meant that learning outcomes and students’ responses to the innovation were not what were expected. We suggest a path forward, both for the specific subject in which the innovation occurred, and for other similar attempts to bring together academics, postgraduate and undergraduate students in a nascent learning community, in the light of ongoing trends towards internationalisation.

This paper attempts to unpack the teaching and learning experiences of academics and students when a new way of teaching radiation physics was introduced. In an attempt to articulate the University of Wollongong’s commitment to the enhancement of the teaching/research nexus and to the development of learning communities, staff of the School of Physics in the Faculty of Engineering at University of Wollongong (UOW) implemented an action research project teaching scientific computing methodologies used in radiation physics to a combined laboratory class of postgraduates and undergraduates. The design of the practical laboratory classes took account of the expected heterogeneous computing skills and different knowledge of radiation physics of undergraduate and postgraduate students. Based on an earlier study, it was presumed that postgraduate students would be in a good position to support undergraduates. We illustrate how broad-based conceptions of the value of learning communities and their role in fostering the teaching/research nexus may be challenged by an internationalised student body. In this case, the previous patterns of undergraduate and postgraduate enrolments, which the pilot study had canvassed, did not hold true; almost all of the postgraduate students were international students, only recently arrived in Australia. This, along with other factors, meant that learning outcomes and students’ responses to the innovation were not what were expected. We suggest a path forward, both for the specific subject in which the innovation occurred, and for other similar attempts to bring together academics, postgraduate and undergraduate students in a nascent learning community, in the light of ongoing trends towards internationalisation.

The first overarching goal of this doctoral dissertation was to develop and measure a new construct termed academic communication. Accordingly, Study 1 focussed on item development, pilot testing, and examining the psychometric properties of the newly developed Academic Communication Inventory (ACI). Undergraduate students (N = 642, Mage = 19.5) completed the ACI (assessing general communicative behaviours) along with other measures to investigate external validity. Results demonstrated that the best fitting structure of the ACI was a two-factor solution, consisting of the subscales: (1) communication with instructors; and (2) communication with peers. Study 2 assessed measure invariance across educational context (i.e., blended courses, online courses, offline courses), as well as gender differences in communication. Participants were undergraduate students (N = 1074, Mage = 20.3) who completed the ACI (assessing course-specific communicative behaviours), with 21% subset completing follow-up questionnaires (participants from Study 2 were also used in Studies 3 and 4 for different research purposes). Multi-group factor analyses suggested that the ACI could be used as both a general and course-specific measure of academic communication (i.e., the ACI was invariant across course contexts). Moreover, females and males reported different communication levels with instructors and peers. Study 3 focused on the utility of the ACI, by examining the links between social anxiety, communication, academic experiences (i.e., engagement, classroom connectedness, student satisfaction) and

Social interactions and communication between individuals have been completely transformed by digital technology (DT). People from all around the world can now communicate with each other thanks to social media platforms. The main focus of this study is on interpersonal communication motives (ICM) in social networks (SNs), aiming to examine how Ethiopian undergraduate students socialize in relation to digital technologies (DTs). A concurrent design with a mixed approach was utilized, including self-administered questionnaires and focus group discussions (FGD) during the data collection process. The students' ICM were used to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences and perspectives towards digital socialization (DS) in SNs. A total of 312 undergraduates aged 18 to 27 participated in the study, with 202 being male and 110 female. The results of the investigation highlighted the significance of SNs in shaping undergraduate students' ICM. The findings demonstrate the benefits of SNs in facilitating students' socialization process by providing a platform for interaction, communication, and relationship-building. Interestingly, there were no significant variations in ICM in DS using SNs based on gender. By exploring how students socialize within SNs, this study aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the subject. Educational institutions and policymakers could leverage these findings to understand the advantages of incorporating SNs into students' academic experiences, ultimately enhancing their socialization process and overall well-being.