Bridge Program Research Articles

Making an Online Summer Bridge Program High Touch

Making an Online Summer Bridge Program High Touch Melissa Eblen-Zayas (bio) and Janet Russell (bio) Summer bridge programs are designed to ease the transition to college by providing students with academic skills and social resources during the summer between high school graduation and college. Research shows that bridge programs are potentially effective at increasing retention and academic success of at-risk students by providing an early orientation to the college experience and connecting these students with each other and the community (Thayer, 2000; Institute of Education Sciences, 2016); however, bridge programs can be expensive for institutions to operate, and the students who might benefit most from participation may not be able to commit to being on campus full-time during the summer. We developed a hybrid program to achieve many of the goals of a traditional summer bridge program, but with a flexible implementation that allowed students to remain at home to meet employment or family obligations. The 6-week summer portion of the program was entirely online, followed by on-campus, face-to-face weekly course meetings in the 10-week fall term. Students earned 6 credits for completion of the entire (summer and fall) program (typical courses at our institution carry 6 credits), and there was no cost to students to participate. For our residential, small liberal arts college, a bridge course that opened with a completely online portion was paradoxical—How do you create a high-touch, online program that captures key elements of what is a mostly residential and face-to-face experience for students? We had two main goals for the design and implementation of the 6-week summer online portion of the program: for participating students (a) to review and strengthen the quantitative skills seen in high school math classes, and (b) to connect with the college community before arriving on campus in the fall. As these goals suggest, this program blended elements of academic affairs and student affairs to create a rich learning experience built on research-based suggestions for supporting first-generation students (Pascarella, Pierson, Wolniak, & Terenzini, 2004), although the program was not limited to first-generation students. GROUNDING OUR PROGRAM IN THE LITERATURE The academic focus of this program was strengthening and reviewing quantitative skills. Research has shown that there are large disparities in the math preparation of students that can be traced back to early [End Page 104] educational periods that impact whether students are well-positioned for 2-year or 4-year college experiences (Lee, 2012), and for some demographic groups, college enhances quantitative literacy disparities (Baer, Cook, & Baldi, 2006). Even at selective liberal arts colleges similar to ours, there are significant retention and achievement gaps for students in quantitative fields (Brown, Coffey, Rachford, & Sambolín, 2017). Every student at our institution is required to complete three courses that include a quantitative reasoning exploration component; yet students’ high school preparation in quantitative topics up through precalculus varies immensely, and the college offers no remedial courses in math or quantitative reasoning. Because this program did not target students with particular academic interests (e.g., potential STEM majors), our goal was to review quantitative skills and also showcase the relevance of these skills to a variety of disciplines and career paths. First-generation college students are often unaware of the range of possible curricular and career options, but they benefit from explicit discussion of the possibilities (Parks-Yancy, 2012; Tate et al., 2015). Students were invited to participate based on ACT and SAT math scores that suggested they could benefit from quantitative skills review. Over 100 students were invited to apply, approximately 30–40 students followed through with an application, and we selected 20 students to participate, primarily based on a quantitative skills assessment and how students’ areas of needed improvement matched with the quantitative topics addressed by the program. The program topics were chosen based on conversations with faculty members in multiple disciplines, as well as assessments of students’ quantitative skills from previous years. We did not target particular demographic groups in our invitation or in our selection process, but the percentage of students eligible for U.S. Department of Education TRIO Student Services Support who participated in the...

Building Bridges and Borders with Deficit Thinking

Abstract: In this paper, we look at a high school to college transition program intended to prepare Latinx youth living in Arizona, a southwestern US border state, to negotiate, if not cross, borders, including those associated with accessing college. Purposefully, we problematize the at-risk discourses that reify the nature of these border landscapes within neoliberal framings aimed at explaining educational patterns of Latinxs and that infuse the college bridge program we examine. We demonstrate that while the program provides social and cultural capital, as well as additional temporary academic supports that high school students need to navigate college-going processes, it is also embedded with deficit perspectives that frame Latinxs as at-risk because of their culture, ethnicity, and language, or conversely, disregard their heritage entirely. Finally, we offer recommendations for future research of bridge and transition programs. We argue for turning examinations upside down to resituate and reconsider, and potentially dismantle, the enactments of at-risk deficit thinking, which still undergird many programs aimed at mediating borders experienced by Latinxs in the US.

Summer Bridge Inventory

This study used a mixed methods approach to investigate various adjustment issues of participants in a summer bridge program for engineering students at a predominantly White insitution (PWI) in the mid-southeastern region of the United States. Specifically, the academic, social, personal-emotional, and goal commitment and institutional attachment subscales of the Student Adaption to College Questionnaire (SACQ) were utilized for this purpose. The Summer Bridge Inventory (SBI) that was employed in this research revealed the summer bridge participants' opinions about the strengths and weaknesses of the program and its related activities.

“Bridges to Nowhere”

While institutions continue to use and develop summer bridge programs (SBPs), the influences of SBPs remain unclear. The purpose of this current note is to highlight existing literature on SBPs for historically underrepresented students and provide recommendations for building and sustaining successful SBPs.

Critical Reflections of Pre-Service Teacher Education Student Participation in Service-Learning: A Pilot Study

This pilot study explored the effects of participation in a service-learning initiative on first-year pre-service teacher education student development. The focus of the service-learning was a combination of problem-based learning and immersive activities, pairing pre-service teacher education students with an early high school-to-college bridge program established within a public urban high school in the Northeastern United States. Through examining pre-service (6) student interviews as well as content analysis of individual student journaling and researcher observations, three themes emerged that contribute to pre-service student development: (i) exposure, (ii) involvement, and (iii) learning from experience. Students who participated in the service-learning expressed perspective taking in relation to engaging and being responsive to school-aged youth. This in turn may enhance pre-service student views of their own personal growth; preparation for future work as teachers; and continued awareness and promotion of benefits to community engagement and applied learning.

Automatic Bridge Bidding Using Deep Reinforcement Learning

Bridge is among the zero-sum games for which artificial intelligence has not yet outperformed expert human players. The main difficulty lies in the bidding phase of bridge, which requires cooperative decision making under partial information. Existing artificial intelligence systems for bridge bidding rely on and are thus restricted by human-designed bidding systems or features. In this work, we propose a pioneering bridge bidding system without the aid of human domain knowledge. The system is based on a novel deep reinforcement learning model, which extracts sophisticated features and learns to bid automatically based on raw card data. The model includes an upper-confidence-bound algorithm and additional techniques to achieve a balance between exploration and exploitation. Our experiments validate the promising performance of our proposed model. In particular, the model advances from having no knowledge about bidding to achieving superior performance when compared with a champion-winning computer bridge program that implements a human-designed bidding system.

Supporting the Academic Needs of Students in Higher Education: A Collaboration between Occupational Therapy and Disability Services

Time is often reported by students in postsecondary education as a barrier to academic success. For individuals with challenges to learning, time can place an even greater demand on students’ performance. The contribution of the occupational therapist as are source to a postsecondary academic support team can facilitate the development of productive habits and daily routines necessary for a successful college experience for students seeking accommodations through Access and Disability Services. Purpose: Contribute information supporting factors that influence the academic success of students seeking accommodations in postsecondary education to the body of knowledge in occupational therapy and higher education. Seek a better understanding based on student experience how an individual’s habits and daily routines, associated with time spent in activities related to their role as a college student within a typical day, supports a balance of activities necessary to foster the success of students with disabilities in postsecondary education Aim of the Study: The purpose of this study is to explore how temporal factors influence student performance from the perspective of undergraduate students experiencing challenges to learning. Methodology Research Design: Interpretive phenomenological qualitative study Convenient Sample of Participants: Students ages 18-28 enrolled in postsecondary education at Elmhurst College who receive services through Access and Disability Services. Students must have a high school diploma or GED and qualify under Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, ADA Amendments Act of 2008, or the Bridge program. Results Results will be determined through semi-structured interviews with students receiving Access & Disability services at Elmhurst College, which will then be transcribed by the researchers. The information gathered in the interviews will be transcribed and then analyzed to form the results for this study. Conclusions Through an extensive literature review it was found that student’s needs in a post secondary setting are not always met even when services are available and utilized. This interpretive phenomenological qualitative study was carried out to obtain a better understanding of student needs in relation to overall academic performance. After collecting and analyzing results from this study the researchers hope to demonstrate evidence to support the use of occupational therapy in community-based academic settings while adding to the body of knowledge for the profession. Implications for Practice A main focus of the AOTA Vision 2025 is to expand occupational therapy services on an individual, population, and community level in order to make a bigger impact with our unique expertise. The researchers hope the results of this study can provide support for occupational therapy services in a postsecondary community setting where it is not currently being utilized. Furthermore, that this data will show the benefit of occupational therapy services for the individual students, the coordinators, and the organization as a whole. This research was client-centered by getting a better understanding of the individual student’s lives and areas of need to enable better academic engagement.

ACS receives $2.3 million grant to help make graduate education more inclusive

The American Chemical Society has been awarded a $2.3 million grant over five years from the National Science Foundation as part of an alliance of scientific societies to increase the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in graduate education in the physical sciences. The Inclusive Graduate Education Network is a five-year, $10 million grant led by the American Physical Society (APS). “We realized that this transition between undergraduate and graduate school was a particularly problematic one and that we were losing almost a factor of two of these minority students who are getting bachelor’s degrees but not going on and getting Ph.D.s,” says Ted Hodapp of APS, who is overseeing the APS Bridge Program, which has shown success in bridging the gap in the field of physics. ACS, the American Geophysical Union, the American Astronomical Society, and the Materials Research Society are now joining forces with APS to apply the

Transformative Learning in Teacher Education

This article describes a partnership between teacher education candidates in a small, rural, private university and students in a large, public, urban junior/ senior high school. This partnership utilized technology and used a Literature as a Bridge (LAAB) program to foster discussions designed to be vehicles of learning for all participants. The objectives of this program were to 1) have urban youth see higher education as an option for their future by giving them experience with college students, college expectations, and a college campus, 2) increase cultural competence by providing opportunities for teacher candidates to work with culturally and ethnically diverse students with experiences different from their own, and 3) allow literature to be a vehicle to bridge diverse groups. The dynamic relationship between teacher candidate and high school students set the stage for transformational learning for both the teacher candidates and the junior/senior high school students.

Building Bridges for Asthma Care: Reducing school absence for inner-city children with health disparities

Children with asthma are at increased risk for experiencing health and educational disparities because of increased school absence. School nurses are well positioned to support asthma management and improve school attendance. We sought to implement and assess the effect of the Building Bridges for Asthma Care Program on improving school attendance and measures of asthma control. Children with asthma (age, 5-14years) in the Denver Public School System (n=240) and the Hartford Public School System (n=223) were enrolled in the Building Bridges Program during the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years and followed until the end of the second school year. The primary outcome was school absence, with secondary outcomes, including asthma control, measured based on Childhood Asthma Control Test or the Asthma Control Test scores and rescue inhaler use. Participants experienced a 22% absolute decrease in school absenteeism, the number of children with an Asthma Control Test/Childhood Asthma Control Test score of less than the control threshold of 20 decreased from 42.7% to 28.8%, and bronchodilator use greater than 2 times per week decreased from 35.8% to 22.9% (all changes were significant, P<.01). Children enrolled in the Building Bridges for Asthma Care Program experienced reduced school absence and improved asthma control.

The cardiac care bridge program: design of a randomized trial of nurse-coordinated transitional care in older hospitalized cardiac patients at high risk of readmission and mortality

BackgroundAfter hospitalization for cardiac disease, older patients are at high risk of readmission and death. Although geriatric conditions increase this risk, treatment of older cardiac patients is limited to the management of cardiac diseases. The aim of this study is to investigate if unplanned hospital readmission and mortality can be reduced by the Cardiac Care Bridge transitional care program (CCB program) that integrates case management, disease management and home-based cardiac rehabilitation.MethodsIn a randomized trial on patient level, 500 eligible patients ≥ 70 years and at high risk of readmission and mortality will be enrolled in six hospitals in the Netherlands. Included patients will receive a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) at admission. Randomization with stratified blocks will be used with pre-stratification by study site and cognitive status based on the Mini-Mental State Examination (15–23 vs ≥ 24). Patients enrolled in the intervention group will receive a CGA-based integrated care plan, a face-to-face handover with the community care registered nurse (CCRN) before discharge and four home visits post-discharge. The CCRNs collaborate with physical therapists, who will perform home-based cardiac rehabilitation and with a pharmacist who advices the CCRNs in medication management The control group will receive care as usual.The primary outcome is the incidence of first all-cause unplanned readmission or mortality within 6 months post-randomization. Secondary outcomes at three, six and 12 months after randomization are physical functioning, functional capacity, depression, anxiety, medication adherence, health-related quality of life, healthcare utilization and care giver burden.DiscussionThis study will provide new knowledge on the effectiveness of the integration of geriatric and cardiac care.Trial registrationNTR6316. Date of registration: April 6, 2017.

Designing a bridge program for internationally educated accountants in an era of resource constraints

ABSTRACTInternationally educated professionals (IEPs) encounter significant barriers to entry to their professions upon immigrating. Obtaining education in the new country is an effective means of improving their positions. While universities emphasize the need to attract and serve adult learners and a more diverse clientele, the specific needs of immigrants are rarely reflected in institutional policies. I discuss our pilot program for internationally educated accountants (IEAs), its elements, and best practices. Our program was very successful, but may be beyond the reach of many universities due to financial or personnel constraints. I therefore include a cost/benefit framework to analyze each program feature. With this information, institutions may be able to partially implement a program, maximizing the benefit given their resources. Furthermore, some of the program elements could also be useful for international students, domestic students who will work alongside international colleagues, or domestic students who will work internationally themselves.

Academic self-efficacy in a twenty-first-century Australian university: strategies for first-generation students

ABSTRACTA major consideration for educators and curriculum developers is finding ways to maximise outcomes for all students. Increased diversity within student cohorts as a result of the Federal Government’s Bradley Review has seen a greater percentage of first-generation students enrolled in tertiary education courses than ever before. Accepting prior evidence for the positive relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic outcomes, this study has sought to evaluate academic self-efficacy using Bandura’s self-efficacy theory for students (N = 1806) from an Australian university boasting high rates of first-generation student enrolment. Furthermore, the effects of bridging program participation were examined within the first-generation cohort. Students completed an online cross-sectional survey and a qualitative methodology was employed. Data were analysed using SPSS® software and Hayes Process Tool©. As hypothesised, and consistent with the literature, all four sources of academic self-efficacy mediated the relationship between generational status and academic self-efficacy. Also, consistent with the literature and hypothesis, first-generation students reported lower levels of academic self-efficacy than counterparts with familial tertiary education backgrounds. Inconsistent with the literature, however, students within the first-generation cohort (N = 1134) who had participated in bridging programs reported lower academic self-efficacy than those who had not. Overall, the mediation model supported previous research and added an incremental knowledge of academic self-efficacy when applied to first-generation students. The anomaly between previous literature and the reported academic self-efficacy of first-generation bridging program participants has warranted further investigation and is the topic of a current evaluation by the authors.

Setting Students Up for Life Long Success through Innovative Summer Bridge Programs and First Year Seminars

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; The transition from high school to college can be a frightening and challenging experience for many students. This process can be even worse for first-generation, immigrants, English language learners and other disadvantaged groups. To ease the transition and reduce attrition, higher education institutions have developed a variety of summer bridge programs and first-year seminar models. Although both interventions have been widely promoted, not many studies have focused on the impact of a combined summer bridge program and a first-year seminar on the same group of students. This paper will describe John Jay College’s Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge (SEEK) innovative summer bridge program and first year seminar course and how they have increased first year student retention and success.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

Experiential Learning in Circles of Safety: Reflections on Walls to Bridges and Dewey’s Theory of Experience

This paper discusses a Winnipeg-based community-university partnership structured as a set of interlinked “Circles of Safety” to support criminalized women while incarcerated and after their release. The four Circles include university, community, social co-operatives, and corrections; these circles contain the action research activities we are undertaking to provide greater safety for women transitioning from prison into the community. The motivation for our prison education program, which draws on the American Inside-Out Program and the newer Canadian Walls to Bridges Program, comes from these four directions and is energized by a belief in the human right to education. This paper argues that the success of both American and Canadian programs is explained by an approach to prison education that is complementary to John Dewey’s principles of educative experience, specifically principles based on continuity and interaction. Adapting and extending Dewey, the Circles of Safety model described in this paper maintains the value of experiential learning, which is defined as learning in situations that begin with the experience that the learners already have and subject matter that is within the scope of their ordinary life-experience, leading to their formation of purpose.

Step by step process from logic model to case study method as an approach to educational programme evaluation

Logic models and case study approach to programme evaluation have proven effective in evaluating educational programmes. However, there is no article that has described a step by step process of how a logic model can inform the choice of a case study methodology. In this article, we used the clinical components of a bridging programme in Canada to illustrate the step by step process of logic model to case study methodology. We provided a background to the bridging programme, steps for designing programme evaluation logic model, and subsequently described how programme evaluation would inform the choice of case study methodology. We further described case study methodology ranging from stating the evaluation questions, epistemological position, study proposition and unit of selection, sampling techniques/types, data collection and analysis. In closing, we provided highlights of how to link the evaluation process back to the logic model developed.

RESEARCH OF COST EFFECT OF OPENNESS AND DECK MATERIAL IN SUSPENSİON BRIDGES

Recently, the following rapid development of the national economy and the advancement of communication and transportation, the construction of Long-Span Suspension Bridges have been increasing gradually. Long-Span Suspension Bridges are greatly preferred by engineering designers rather than other bridges equipped with construction supporting systems, not only for economic reasons, but also Long-Span suspension bridges are in the possession of advanced construction techniques when we deal with long distances, for Long-Span suspension bridges acquire supporting constructions features rigged with main cables and ropes. Long-Span suspension bridges are bridge constructions included with cable systems and under strong nonlinear factor effects, which the more the suspension increases, the more the bridges construction lightens, and the more the flexibility grows. There is a lot differences shown in the cost of the Suspension bridges according to different opening. The effect of the deck material is like the effect of the openness. The cost of the suspension bridge in the world is to be discussed too, so the cost is to investigate the effect of opening the drawbridge. The cost of suspension bridges in the world is very controversial, so investigating the financial effect of openness and deck material on suspension bridges is required. In this study, a three-dimensional model of the main cable, suspension rope, deck and tower elements of suspension bridge system by using CSI Bridge Program was constructed and numerical analysis was carried out. The standards used in analysis and design are used the AASHTO LRFD standard, which is common in the world. Suspension bridges of 250, 500, 750, 1000, 1500, 2000 meters were analyzed and designed in different deck material and openings. The material and cost of the suspension bridges have been investigated. The costs according to the openness and deck material of Suspension bridges have been shown by the obtained results.

RESEARCH OF COST EFFECT OF OPENNESS AND DECK MATERIAL IN SUSPENSION BRIDGES

Recently , the following rapid development of the national economy and the advancement of communication and transportation, the construction of Long-Span Suspension Bridges have been increasing gradually. Long-Span Suspension Bridges are greatly preferred by engineering designers rather than other bridges equipped with construction supporting systems, not only for economic reasons, but also Long-Span suspension bridges are in the possession of advanced construction techniques when we deal with long distances, for Long-Span suspension bridges acquire supporting constructions features rigged with main cables and ropes. Long-Span suspension bridges are bridge constructions included with cable systems and under strong nonlinear factor effects, which the more the suspension increases, the more the bridges construction lightens, and the more the flexibility grows. There is a lot differences shown in the cost of the Suspension bridges according to different opening. The effect of the deck material is like the effect of the openness. The cost of the suspension bridge in the world is to be discussed too, so the cost is to investigate the effect of opening the drawbridge. The cost of suspension bridges in the world is very controversial, so investigating the financial effect of openness and deck material on suspension bridges is required. In this study, a three-dimensional model of the main cable, suspension rope, deck and tower elements of suspension bridge system by using CSI Bridge Program was constructed and numerical analysis was carried out. The standards used in analysis and design are used the AASHTO LRFD standard, which is common in the world. Suspension bridges of 250, 500, 750, 1000, 1500, 2000 meters were analyzed and designed in different deck material and openings. The material and cost of the suspension bridges have been investigated. The costs according to the openness and deck material of Suspension bridges have been shown by the obtained results.

Breaking New Ground: McHenry County College Developmental Mathematics Approach

ABSTRACTFocusing on the Developmental Mathematics program installed by McHenry County College (MCC), this case study examines an integrative approach to reducing student dependency on developmental math. Facing the challenge of bridging the gap between K-12 and college readiness, MCC established a summer bridge program to help alleviate summer brain drain and help students acclimated themselves to the college classroom environment. College and high school faculty collaborated to create a more fluid transition for students by aligning coursework and targeting specific needs of students. With an articulated mission of preparing students for future success in postsecondary education this program tremendously benefits students by saving time and cost by skipping developmental math courses. Especially for institutions that are experiencing developmental education reform and implementing the completion agenda, this case study provides practical implications to ensure student success and institutional effectiveness.

Effectiveness of a Summer Bridge Program at McLennan Community College

In this quantitative research study, student performance data were collected from 2014–2016 summer bridge program participants to examine the relationship between participation in the MCC summer bridge program and selected student outcomes by comparison to a matched group of students who did not participate in the program. The research questions addressed in this study were as follows: To what extent did participation in a summer bridge program improve participants’ TSI scores? To what extent was participation in a summer bridge program related to DE placement results? To what extent did the average number of credit hours accumulated differ between students who participated in a summer bridge program and those in a comparison group that did not? The results from the three research questions revealed that students who participated in the MCC summer bridge program experienced some success in select outcomes, although other outcomes still need to be improved to increase student achievement in all objectives.