Continuing Education Students Research Articles

Physical home-learning environments of traditional and non-traditional students during the COVID pandemic: exploring the impact of learning space on students’ motivation, stress and well-being

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced higher education institutions to implement their programs in an online setting, different groups of students were influenced to different extents. In many cases, the main locus of learning moved to students' homes, and their learning experiences were suddenly contextualized in their residential situation and immediate physical learning environment. The present study consequently examines the role of physical learning environments on different factors influencing students’ learning when pursuing their study from at home. It contrasts the situation of traditional students in a higher education institution and non-traditional students in an academic continuing education institution, which address target groups with different living conditions and needs in learning support. Data were collected via an online survey sent to students enrolled in these two institutions, with a total of 353 students participating during a timeframe impacted by COVID-related lockdowns. We found that stress and well-being is strongly linked to the quality of the surrounding environment of the learning place, whereas perceived motivation is more strongly related to the quality of the learning place itself. How strongly students are affected by these factors is moderated by their overall socio-spatial context. Academic continuing education students are more resilient to sub-optimal physical learning environment than traditional students. Altering the design of the immediate learning environment consequently can help to mitigate factors that negatively impact students’ well-being and learning motivation, which is particularly important for traditional students, who primarily dedicate their time to pursuing their studies.

Does benevolent leadership consistently lead to employees' voluntary behaviors?

PurposeBenevolent leadership is a leadership style in which leaders show consideration for their employees' work and life. Empirical studies have shown inconsistent relationships between benevolent leadership and employees' voluntary behaviors. Therefore, this study examined benevolent leadership's mediating (gratitude) and moderating (trust) mechanisms.Design/methodology/approachOverall, 792 questionnaires were collected from Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) and continuing education students at a public university in Taiwan. The research model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis and the PROCESS module.FindingsBenevolent leadership influenced three voluntary behaviors of employees directly and indirectly through enhanced gratitude. Emotional trust moderated the relationship between work care and employee gratitude such that the positive relationship was stronger for employees with higher emotional trust levels.Practical implicationsBenevolent leadership is an effective leadership style that cares about employees' work and lives, enhancing their gratitude and engagement in voluntary behaviors.Originality/valueThe mediating effect of gratitude and the moderating effect of trust provide a possible explanation for the inconsistent relationships between benevolent leadership and voluntary behaviors.

Design of Remote Labs for Continuing Education Students in Engineering Domain

Design of Remote Labs for Continuing Education Students in Engineering Domain

Research on the Innovation of Ideological and Political Work of Adult Education Students with Zhejiang Characteristics

The ideological and political work of adult higher continuing education students is an extremely complex systematic project. It is a new attempt completely different from the ideological and political work of full-time students in ordinary universities. There is no direct reference model. To implement, refine, and make features and achievements in this work, we need to fully grasp the current situation and characteristics of students, adhere to the working concept of coordination, integration and innovation, make good use of systematic concepts and methods, supported by digital information technology, build a fresh scene model of education, so as to cultivate practical talents with both morality and talent who can go down, stay and use.

First-Generation College Students and Family Support: A Critical Review of Empirical Research Literature

The majority of empirical literature on first generation college students (FGCSs) in the U.S. asserts that because their parents did not attend college, FGCSs are lacking important resources to be successful in college. However, this results in a deficit-based approach to the study of FGCSs that tends to highlight the differences between first-generation and continuing-education students. However, FGCSs possess a wealth of resources from parents and families that make them successful, and that are often ignored in research. Asset-based approaches to the study of FGCSs are becoming more frequent in the form of books, book chapters, and white papers; however, published empirical research has yet to adopt this approach. As a result, a deeper understanding of FGCSs’ experiences is essential to advancing diversity and equity in higher education. To begin to address this gap, a systematic literature review of empirical studies following the PRISMA framework was conducted on first generation college students and family support; the literature was critically reviewed and future directions for the field were identified. Applying a critical, cultural, and familial lens to the study of first-generation college students will contribute to reframing the research narrative towards an asset-based narrative.

Digital Proficiency and Psychological Well-Being in Online Learning: Experiences of First-Generation College Students and Their Peers

The study examines the role of digital proficiency in relation to psychological well-being of a vulnerable population—first-generation college students (FGS)—and their counterparts, continuing-education students, in online learning during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Informed by positive computing and FGS studies, this paper empirically tests a model of three key influencing factors by using a data sample (n = 309) collected from a minority-serving university in the U.S. in April 2020. Our data analysis confirms that FGS underperformed in digital proficiency, compared to their peers. Moreover, digital proficiency had a significant effect on individual psychological well-being, regardless of a student’s generational status. Our paper contributes to the positive computing research by empirically demonstrating the association between users’ technology competence and psychological well-being. Practically, our findings highlight the importance of implementing educational programs and policies to promote the digital skills and well-being of underserved students such as FGS in college education.

Development of a lean manufacturing simulation laboratory for continuing education students

The objective of the article is to establish the significance of a simulation laboratory especially simulation exercises for continuing education students in lean manufacturing course. Subsequently, identify the influence and analysis of these simulation exercises in exploring, understanding and implementing lean strategies in various contexts. The research is carried out through the following steps: enhancing the course handout and course outcomes, identifying the various lean concepts and proposing relevant exercises, mapping the course outcomes with the proposed exercises, identifying the appropriate simulation tool and developing the proposed exercises, deciding the mode of simulation laboratory offering, offering the selected critical exercises in simulation laboratory, conducting a critical review of simulation exercises with a team of experts and performing a comparative study on the student performance. The study has identified that there was a significant improvement in the performance of the students after participating in the simulation laboratory, especially in achieving the course outcomes. This was established by the analysis of the various examination scores, feedback on simulation exercises and instructors. This attempt is the first of its kind to analyse the student performance after incorporating simulation laboratory in a lean manufacturing course. The focus is on evaluating student performance based on the scores in the examinations. A population of 488 students enrolled in a masters’ degree programme is considered in the analysis 234 (without simulation lab) and 254 (with simulation lab).

A Committed Journey Towards Your Career: the Mediating Effect of Perceived External Employability

Career plateau has been a major concern for many seasoned employees because they often stay in the same position longer than expected and lack job challenges over time. This phenomenon is now considered a normal career development stage in life. The purpose of this study is to test the effects of career plateau (hierarchical and job content) on career commitment, along with the mediating effect of perceived external employability. We test the hypotheses with survey data collected from a convenience sample of 472 white-collar employees who had full-time jobs and were enrolled as Executive MBA and continuing education students in five large universities in Taiwan (77% return rate). Based on structural equation modeling analysis, the results showed that both hierarchical and job content plateau had significant negative effects on career commitment. Also, perceived external employability partially mediated the negative relationship between hierarchical and job-content plateau and career commitment. The findings of this study provide insight for career management scholars and practitioners by promoting a better understanding of suitable career management practices for more ‘seasoned’ employees who are valued for their knowledge, experience and expertise. Drawing from career motivation theory, we fill the gap of testing the mediating effect of perceived external employability to link hierarchical and job content career plateau to career commitment as career-related outcomes.

An impact of simulation labs on engineering students' academic performance: a critical Investigation

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the impact of simulation laboratory on continuing education engineering students’ academic performance.Design/methodology/approachThe investigation consists of establishing the student learning levels then mapping the student learning levels (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation) through program outcomes with appropriate evaluation components. 270 continuing education students enrolled during six years were selected to be observed as part of this study. These students were divided into two subgroups, one with 135 students who were offered simulation lab (G2) and the other 135 students were not offered simulation lab (G1) in this investigation. Subsequently, a comparative analysis was carried out on these two groups to assess the student performance in multiple evaluation components with respect to student learning level and program outcome achievement.FindingsIt was identified that student performance in the application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation learning levels has improved for the group with simulation lab, and no change or minimal change was observed for the group without simulation lab. It was revealed that the simulation lab practice problems needs to be aligned with the theoretical concepts in the course to get a better performance from the students.Originality/valueThe study was conducted in one of the leading institutes with 270 students’ performance observed over a period of six years. It is the comprehensive work done on a complete program with data collated over a period of six years in multiple courses and multiple assessments.

Automatic Challenge Generation for Teaching Computer Security

Computer Security is an increasingly important area, considering the sophistication and increase of threats present in the digital world. The need for information protection contrasts with the lack of professionals and the limited space dedicated to the area in Information Technology (IT) courses. Games and competitions have been used to motivate Computing students to improve their practical knowledge on the subject and also to foster the interest of potential students and professionals in Security. The creation of these games requires specialized knowledge to develop new problems, since the novelty of these games is important to reach the desired level of difficulty and to ensure competitiveness. This work proposes the use of randomization to generate problems and entire competitions in an automated way, obtaining exclusive instances of problems for each player. A tool for generating challenges was developed as proof of concept to evaluate the proposal. Competitions with automatically generated problems were held with undergraduate and continuing education students, at two different institutions. The performance in the competitions and the perception of satisfaction, interest and learning of the involved students were analyzed. The results show that the automatic generation of challenges is feasible and the use of competitions to teach Computer Security is motivating and effective for didactic purposes.

Adult Noncredit Students’ Priorities and Satisfaction

Background. Adult Student Priorities Survey (ASPS) from Ruffalo Noel Levitz was utilized to examine the level of importance and the level of satisfaction of continuing education students in allied health care and English as a second language (ESL) programs at Kingborough Community College, Brooklyn, NY. Method. Mean scores for both “importance” and “satisfaction” items were calculated by summing participants’ ratings (1-7 Likert-type scale) and dividing them by the number respondents. Mean scores for each scale were also calculated by summing all respondents’ scale scores and dividing them by the number of respondents. Gaps between importance and satisfaction were calculated by subtracting the score for satisfaction from the score for importance. The mean scores of allied health care students were compared with mean scores of ESL students. Results. The highest gap score was observed for academic services (0.91) followed by service excellence (0.85) as reported by the allied health care group, showing that students reported high importance but low satisfaction. There were no statistically significant differences between the average score of the two groups, indicating that the ratings were similar for the groups. Conclusion. Based on our findings, simple fixes such as extending registration times, having additional college and career advisors on staff, and training existing staff on customer service skills have the potential to increase enrollment and revenue, thereby giving us the resources to offer additional classes and programs in response to student needs.

Effect of Achievement, Learning Motivation, Environmental School of Interest in Continuing Education Students

The problem now facing in education is how to improve the quality of education are generally associated with high or low learning achievements obtained by the students. Various attempts have been made by the manager of education in order to improve student achievement, one of them by making changes to the curriculum and changes in the learning process in schools. But the reality of student achievement is not in accordance with what was expected. Based on the results of previous studies by this research that distinguishesthis study with previous research is the object of the study was conducted in Office Administration student at the State University of Jakarta. Data analysis techniques used in this research is multiple linear regression analysis using the program statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) for Windows version 22 with the number of respondents 200.

Ted Benfey receives HIST Award

Otto Theodor “Ted” Benfey, emeritus professor of chemistry and the history of science at Guilford College, is the recipient of the 2019 HIST Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry by the American Chemical Society Division of the History of Chemistry. The award includes a plaque and $1,500. Benfey is a leader in chemical education and the history of science. He has written 7 books on chemistry and the history of chemistry, 14 monograph chapters on the history of chemistry, and 89 articles and reviews on chemistry and the history of science. He is credited with strengthening the chemistry curriculum at Guilford College. He started a program offering evening classes to continuing education students, and he enhanced the college’s ties with chemical industry. In 1988, Benfey took over as editor at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, where he oversaw the publication of Chemical Heritage. Benfey will receive the award

The Threat to the University of Iowa Labor Center Is a Threat to Labor and Working-Class History

The Threat to the University of Iowa Labor Center Is a Threat to Labor and Working-Class History

Impact on the quality of life and Self-Esteem of the continuing education students according to the five elements

Impact on the quality of life and Self-Esteem of the continuing education students according to the five elements

In the News

Welcome to the May 2017 issue of C&RL News. While the literature on pedagogy and library services may trend more towards aspects of educating traditional college students, the changing populations at many institutions require an additional focus on continuing education students. In this issue’s Perspectives on the Framework column, Carrie Ludovico of the University of Richmond writes about “Seeing the world through adult eyes” when applying the concepts in the Framework for Information Literacy.

Higher education reform and language for business and entrepreneurship

This article defines the language learning levels needed for degree-seeking students and for continuing education students at a French-speaking African institution to achieve minimal working proficiency on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and for full working proficiency. It describes a short course on American language and civilisation aimed at taking students who are independent language users to minimal working proficiency; the same activities also allowed students to work toward full working proficiency. Cultural competence activities were developed and tailored to focus on the United States and Africa. The Test of English for International Communication was adapted for testing and outcomes assessment.

Transparency policy and students’ satisfaction and trust

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse the effectiveness of the transparency policy carried out by a public university in terms of the impact on students’ satisfaction and trust. The loss of trust suffered by public institutions means that they are trying to identify the existing formulae so that this can be restored, and this includes transparency. In universities, certain changes in their situation mean that the demand for transparency policies is even greater. Design/methodology/approach – To carry out the transparency survey, data were collected using 6,180 valid questionnaires among the degree, postgraduate and continuing education students of the UNED. The statistical behaviour of the constructs included in the model was analysed by developing the structural equation model with SmartPLS. Findings – The results of this research show that transparency does have both a direct effect on trust and an indirect effect that is mediated by satisfaction. This latter indirect effect comes out stronger than the direct one. Thus, satisfaction emerges as a key factor for any research on the relationship between transparency and trust. Originality/value – This paper verifies the impact of the transparency policy on the satisfaction and trust towards a public university’s services.

Developing Strategies for Sustainably Managing Archaeological Collections

Developing Strategies for Sustainably Managing Archaeological Collections

Doing a Literature Review in Nursing, Health and Social Care Coughlan Michael et al Doing a Literature Review in Nursing, Health and Social Care168pp £18.99 Sage 9781446249611 1446249611

THIS BOOK provides a practical guide for those carrying out a literature review in nursing, health and social care. Given that undergraduate and continuing education students can find critical literature reviews challenging, the sequential format and clear information should guide students through the minefield.