University Research Articles

Looking back to move forward: comparison of instructors’ and undergraduates’ retrospection on the effectiveness of online learning using the nine-outcome influencing factors

This study delves into the retrospections of undergraduate students concerning their online learning experiences after the COVID-19 pandemic, using the nine key influencing factors: behavioral intention, instruction, engagement, interaction, motivation, self-efficacy, performance, satisfaction, and self-regulation. 46 Year 1 students from a comprehensive university in China were asked to maintain reflective diaries throughout an academic semester, providing first-person perspectives on the strengths and weaknesses of online learning. Meanwhile, 18 college teachers were interviewed with the same questions as the students. Using thematic analysis, the research identified 9 factors. The research revealed that instruction ranked highest among the 9 factors, followed by engagement, self-regulation, interaction, motivation, and others. Moreover, teachers and students had different attitudes toward instruction. Thirdly, teacher participants were different from student participants given self-efficacy and self-regulation due to their variant roles in online instruction. Lastly, the study reflected students were not independent learners, which explained why instruction ranked highest in their point of view. Findings offer valuable insights for educators, administrators, and policy-makers involved in higher education. Recommendations for future research include incorporating a more diverse sample, exploring relationships between the nine factors, and focusing on equipping students with skills for optimal online learning experiences.

The influence of environmental factors on the job burnout of physical education teachers in tertiary education

This study takes environmental factors and individual factors as variables to explore the deep internal mechanism of the impact of a comprehensive environment on higher education physical education (PE) teachers’ job burnout. Little research has been done on how environmental factors affect the internal mechanism of college and university PE teachers’ job burnout through individual factors (e.g., professional pressure and teaching efficacy). In this study, the participants were 231 PE teachers from seven comprehensive universities, and four questionnaires were administered to measure the participants’ job burnout, perceived overall environment, teaching efficacy, and occupational stress. Research has found that environmental factors have a significant negative impact on occupational stress, and occupational stress plays an important mediating role between environment and occupational burnout. Research has shown that differences in external environments lead to varying levels of personal stress among college physical education teachers, which in turn affects their level of occupational burnout. The study concludes that a good social, working, and living environment helps to reduce the work pressure on PE teachers, improves their sense of teaching efficacy, and inhibits the occurrence of teachers’ job burnout.

Incremental Reorganization at a Regional Comprehensive University: A Case Study

This paper will discuss a series of incremental reorganizations, prompted by a variety of simultaneous challenges, which presented opportunities to reconfigure staffing to update or add services and meet new needs.  This paper will also discuss how best to approach staffing re-organizations for increased chances of success.

Going Dewey: Reclassifying a Curriculum Materials Collection

Library staff developed a project to reclassify the Curriculum Materials Collection of a specialty library on the campus of a regional comprehensive university from its custom classification system derived from those developed during the 1960s and 1970s to Dewey Decimal Classification. While this system had the advantage of browsability for patrons who were familiar with previous use, its unusual nature made training patrons and staff challenging. The transition to Dewey is expected to ease training and use, enhance resource sharing, and allow student teachers to transfer their library skills to their new schools.

Exploring the stability of the gender gap in faculty perceptions of gender climate at a rural regional university.

Increasing awareness of gender barriers and biases in academic institutions is an essential component of institutional change strategies to promote equity and inclusion. There is an established perception gap in recognizing gender inequities in the workplace, whereby men faculty under acknowledge the stressors, barriers, and biases faced by their women faculty colleagues. This study explored the gender gap in faculty perceptions of institutional diversity climate at a rural comprehensive regional university in the United States. In addition to gender, differences across academic discipline and time were explored using 2 (men and women) x 2 (STEM and other) x 2 (2017 and 2022) between-groups ANOVAs. Results revealed a gender gap that persisted across time and perceptions of stressors, diversity climate, student behavior, leadership, and fairness in promotion/tenure procedures, with marginalized (women) faculty consistently reporting greater barriers/concern for women faculty relative to the perceptions of their men faculty colleagues. These findings are largely consistent with the extant literature and are discussed both with regard to future research directions and recommendations for reducing the perception gap and addressing institutional barriers to gender equity.

How Regulatory Focus Associates With Chinese EFL Learners’ L2 Grit: The Mediating Effects of Achievement Emotions

Despite the rekindled interest in emotions and individual differences in second language acquisition (SLA) under the influence of positive psychology, the interrelationships among regulatory focus, L2 grit and achievement emotions remain under-researched. Drawing on structural equation modeling (SEM) approach, this study aimed to examine the predictive effects of regulatory focus on L2 grit through the mediation of achievement emotions. A total of 1043 non-English major undergraduates from a comprehensive university in central China participated in the study. Data were collected with a questionnaire adapted from three published scales and analyzed using multiple regression and multiple mediation analysis with a 1000-bootstrap method. Results showed that all three psychological constructs under investigation were correlated with each other and regulatory focus had an indirect predictive effect on L2 grit, which was mediated by achievement emotions. As with the mediating effect of achievement emotions, enjoyment and boredom had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between promotion focus and L2 grit, whereas hope and anxiety had a full mediating effect on the relationship between prevention focus and L2 grit. The findings are discussed in relation to the identified mediating mechanism for regulatory focus and L2 grit in boosting L2 learning motivation among Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners.

Serving Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Students: Examining How Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander- Serving Institutions Build Students’ Capacities

This study examines how Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) serve Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA&NHPI) students. Through a two-site case study of a community college on the west coast and a regional comprehensive university on the east coast, this study details the processes that are undertaken to serve and enhance the educational experiences of AA&NHPI students by building their capacities. Findings suggests that federally-funded AANAPISIs design and implement their programs in a manner that reflects the lived experiences and realities of AA&NHPI students through academic coursework, co-curricular programming, and research opportunities, in an intentional and strategic multilayered process, which resembles a developmental nested design focused on five thematic domains. Implications for policy, practice, and research are also offered to advance the work of AANAPISIs.

Fostering equitable engagement: A mixed-methods exploration of the engagement of racially diverse students in a comprehensive college transition program.

Fostering equitable engagement: A mixed-methods exploration of the engagement of racially diverse students in a comprehensive college transition program.

The Knowledge Landscape and Local Characteristics of Learning Engagement Research in China:A Bibliometric Analysis Based on CNKI and CSSCI

The study of learning engagement has been fruitful since it entered the vision of Chinese scholars at the end of the 20th century. Taking 2, 389 and 199 valid citing documents from CNKI and CSSCI Database respectively, and the corresponding 4039 cited documents from the latter as the analyzed samples, and comprehensively using bibliometric method and traditional bibliographic method, this paper describes and presents a four-dimensional knowledge picture containing the accumulation history of literature on learning input research in China, main research teams, knowledge base and hot topics of learning engagement research in China, and refines local characteristics based on this. It is found that: (1) Chinese learning engagement research has generated five attributes in its process of development: the process of document accumulation has gone through two stages of “budding period and growth period”; the main research team is composed of scholars from comprehensive universities and normal colleges and universities; the research content has formed the distribution of “multi-action mechanism exploration, less theoretical concept construction”; the research method shows a decreasing law of “more quantitative research, less qualitative research”; research objects presents the characteristics of “focusing on higher education and running through the three stages of primary education, secondary education and higher education”. (2) Chinese learning engagement research has obtained many heterogeneous findings in the comparison: mainly including the development of tools that are closer to Chinese educational practice and the findings that are more in line with the experience of Chinese learners.

Optimization Analysis of Human Resource Management Strategies of Nantong University, a Local Comprehensive University in China

This study analyzes the current situation and challenges of Nantong University amid the rapid development of higher education, addressing aspects such as faculty structure, administrative management efficiency, and promotion mechanisms. Through questionnaire surveys and field research, coupled with SWOT analysis and various theoretical methods, a comprehensive analysis was conducted on Nantong University’s internal and external environment. The study proposes an improved comprehensive development strategy and implementation measures, which include updating management concepts, strengthening professional training, optimizing employment conditions, and improving salary systems. Ultimately, this study provides practical strategies for human resource management and the transformational development of Nantong University and other local comprehensive universities.

The Perceptions of Tourism Students Towards Blended Learning: A Case From a Comprehensive University in South Africa

This paper explores tourism students’ perceptions of blended learning (BL) and examines the correlations between BL statements, student academic performance (AP), and the level of satisfaction with blended courses (BCs). A questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 166 randomly selected tourism students in a comprehensive University in South Africa. For data analysis, IBM SPSS Statistics 29.0 (IBM Corporation, 2022) software was used. The results indicate that most tourism students had positive perceptions of BL based on their degrees of AP and satisfaction with the BC. Most tourism students claim that they are not comfortable completing assignments and taking assessments online. The results further reveal that students they are frequently disappointed with the assessment approach of online discussions. The study recommends that the university studied conduct a variety of reform programmes geared at strengthening tourism lecturers’ BL abilities (such as upgrading online assessment methodologies and lecture design). To encourage learning involvement, tourism lecturers could improve students’ perceptions of the BL platform in their instructional design. This will gradually improve tourism students’ low perceptions of BL, as identified in this study.

Teacher-student relationships and mental disorders of undergraduate and graduate students in online education: A moderated mediation model of mobile phone addiction and hometown setting

To solve the problem of distance education and cope with emergencies, online education has become one of the common educational methods in recent years. ObjectsThis study aimed to explore the relationship between the teacher-student relationship (TSR) and mental disorders of university students in online education. Measures2032 full-time undergraduate and graduate students from a comprehensive university in China participated in the online survey. The Chinese version of the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale-21 Items, the Chinese version of the Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI), and the 7-item Teacher-Student Relationship Perception Questionnaire were administered to the students. ResultsWe found that higher quality of perceived TSR and a lower level of mobile phone addiction were associated with better mental health among undergraduate and graduate students during online education. Mobile phone addiction mediated the relationship between TSR and mental disorders, and hometown setting moderated the relationship between TSR and mobile phone addiction. Specifically, a higher quality of perceived TSR was associated with a lower level of mobile phone addiction. In addition, for students with low-quality perceived TSR, those who came from rural areas had a higher level of mobile phone addiction than those who came from urban areas. In contrast, when students had high-quality perceived TSR, the differences between students from urban and rural areas in mobile phone addiction were insignificant. ConclusionThe results of this study are of great significance in improving the mental health and mobile phone addiction of undergraduate and graduate students during online education and reveal the urban-rural differences in the impact of TSRs during online education.

Early prediction models and crucial factor extraction for first-year undergraduate student dropouts

PurposeThis study aimed to use enrollment information including demographic, family background and financial status, which can be gathered before the first semester starts, to construct early prediction models (EPMs) and extract crucial factors associated with first-year student dropout probability.Design/methodology/approachThe real-world samples comprised the enrolled records of 2,412 first-year students of a private university (UNI) in Taiwan. This work utilized decision trees (DT), multilayer perceptron (MLP) and logistic regression (LR) algorithms for constructing EPMs; under-sampling, random oversampling and synthetic minority over sampling technique (SMOTE) methods for solving data imbalance problems; accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve and area under ROC curve (AUC) for evaluating constructed EPMs.FindingsDT outperformed MLP and LR with accuracy (97.59%), precision (98%), recall (97%), F1_score (97%), and ROC-AUC (98%). The top-ranking factors comprised “student loan,” “dad occupations,” “mom educational level,” “department,” “mom occupations,” “admission type,” “school fee waiver” and “main sources of living.”Practical implicationsThis work only used enrollment information to identify dropout students and crucial factors associated with dropout probability as soon as students enter universities. The extracted rules could be utilized to enhance student retention.Originality/valueAlthough first-year student dropouts have gained non-stop attention from researchers in educational practices and theories worldwide, diverse previous studies utilized while-and/or post-semester factors, and/or questionnaires for predicting. These methods failed to offer universities early warning systems (EWS) and/or assist them in providing in-time assistance to dropouts, who face economic difficulties. This work provided universities with an EWS and extracted rules for early dropout prevention and intervention.

Investigating Chinese students’ motives for intercultural interactions in a Chinese internationalized university

ABSTRACT This study explores the motives of host students’intercultural interactions in a Chinese academic context, which advocates internationalization of education. Three hundred and sixteen Chinese university students in an internationalized comprehensive university who reported that they had intercultural interactions responded to a self-designed questionnaire about their motives to interact with international students. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) identified five factors: Communication Experience, Cultural Exchange, Help-Seeking, Language Enhancement and Task Fulfillment, which explained a total variance of 72.083%. The second study sought to test and verify that survey, and two hundred and five valid Chinese university student questionnaires were analyzed. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that the derived five-factor structure fit the data well. Similarity structure analysis (SSA) of the second dataset was then conducted to visually detect the interrelated structure of the five factors. These factors suggest that the broad motivations for using English in intercultural interactions match those of foreign language learning. These findings can contribute to both future research designs and ways that relevant parties might promote intercultural interactions toward building intercultural competence.

Development, Delivery, and Evaluation of Mental and Emotional Well-Being of College Health Education for Physical Education Students

The study examines the mental and emotional well-being of physical education students at Guangdong Vocational College of Posts and Telecommunications. The research uses a descriptive-comparative design and three questionnaires. The majority of students are 17 years old or more, with a higher percentage of females. The study found no significant difference in student respondents' assessments of how their teachers deliver the comprehensive college health education program in terms of mental and emotional well-being. However, there was a significant difference in assessment when considering the course, with students pursuing education having a higher mean score and liberal arts students having a lower mean score. Teacher respondents, all full-pledge master's degree holders, had a high mean of 3.60 in terms of mental well-being, indicating that students have learned essential skills through self-reflection and emotional expression. Both male and female teachers have the same evaluation of their students' mental and emotional well-being in relation to the comprehensive college health education program.

Translation as a Learning Strategy Utilized by the Chinese Students in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Class

The purpose of this study is to explore the learning situation and attitude of Chinese students in using translation in foreign language learning, hoping to guide students to use translation scientifically and learn foreign language knowledge well. During the study, 250 junior students from a comprehensive University  and a professional foreign language University  in Hebei Province were investigated and studied by means of questionnaire survey, interview method and case analysis method, so as to clarify the basic data such as the strategies and frequency of using translation in the process of foreign language learning, and analyze the students' learning attitude and translation skills based on the data feedback. The final research results show that students' use of translation in foreign language learning has a certain relationship with knowledge reserve, learning ability and learning depth. They should be rational when using translation, and should not over-rely on translation, otherwise it will have the opposite effect.

Student engagement in a differentiated higher education system in Ethiopia: a multilevel analysis

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine effects of classroom-level and student-level factors on student engagement in the context of a higher education system vertically differentiated into research, applied and comprehensive university types.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a cross-sectional multilevel design to explain student engagement based on class and student variables. Specifically, the study collects data from 656 students and 61 randomly selected teachers at both levels and uses multilevel modeling to explain relationship patterns.FindingsThe results show that institutions vary significantly in student engagement scores. In addition, while a significant variation is found at the student and classroom level, the effects of academic achievement, instructional quality, teaching experience and teacher qualifications on student engagement vary across classrooms in institutions. However, the interaction effect of classroom and student-level variables on student engagement remains non-significant.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this lies in the explanation of student engagement using classroom and student level factors in a vertically differentiated higher education system using multilevel modeling. Student engagement varied in classrooms research universities applied and comprehensive universities.

Death anxiety, sense of meaning in life, and willingness to body donation among nursing students in anatomy course: An explanatory sequential mixed study

BackgroundAnatomy education is a fundamental part of clinical nursing, but anatomy courses may lead to a range of psychological changes, such as death anxiety and sense of meaning in life. Such experiences and changes may influence student's willingness to donate their body. There is insufficient evidence on whether anatomy courses bring about these changes, and the reasons behind experiences are unclear. Focusing on these changes is essential to improve anatomy education in nursing and to promote the mental health of students in the nursing field. ObjectivesTo explore changes and underlying reasons for death anxiety, sense of meaning in life, and the willingness to donate a body before and after anatomy courses. DesignAn explanatory sequential explanatory mixed-methods study. ParticipantsA total of 60 students completed quantitative surveys and 16 students from the sub-samples of the quantitative stage were included in the qualitative interviews. All students were from a comprehensive university in Changsha, Hunan Province, China. MethodsData were collected from September 2022 to April 2023, including two rounds of questionnaire surveys and one interview. The questionnaires included sociodemographic data, the Death Anxiety Scale (CT-DAS), the Meaning of Life Scale (MLQ), and a body donation willingness question. Interviews were conducted based on the research objectives. The statistical methods included descriptive statistics, z-tests, and thematic analysis. ResultsQuantitative results showed a decrease in emotional dimension of death anxiety (z = −2.534, P < 0.05) and an increase in body donation willingness (z = −3.183, P < 0.05). Qualitative analysis revealed cognitive experience and value assessment may relate to the changes. Based on the two themes, the reduction of death anxiety in emotional dimension can be further attributed to four factors: demystification, instrumentalization, desensitization, and respect and gratitude towards donors. The increase in willingness to donate bodies can be further attributed to two aspects: increase in knowledge of body donation and the affirmation of the value of donation. ConclusionThe study found that students experience a decrease in death anxiety in the emotional dimension and an increased inclination to donate their bodies after anatomy courses, which may be related to cognitive experience and value assessment. Future nursing anatomy education could delve deeper into these two perspectives and support students to positively cope with death anxiety and rethink body donation through enriching death education activities such as donor memorial ceremonies. These results provide a basis for designing anatomy courses and improving the psychological well-being and professional competence of nursing students.

Subsidy from State Public Universities and Solidarity Support in Mexico from 2012 to 2021

The present research is a documentary study that analyzes the trend in annual subsidies granted to the Mexican higher education system in the period from 2012 to 2021, generating an overview of the government’s budget to higher education institutions and its current impact on the system by considering national public spending at both the federal, state and private levels. In addition, it establishes the budget granted in these years to different types of institutions such as State Public Universities (UPES), State Public Universities and Solidarity Support (UPEAS), as well as Technological Universities (UT) and Polytechnic Universities (UP). The institutions have been affected over the years, since the budget granted has not represented an increase in management for the operation of the investment of the universities, as a result, various support programs have had to be sought to cover their recurrent costs which are not sufficient for their teaching operations, research, extension of culture and institutional services and on certain occasions had to resort to intervention with own resources. In conclusion, in 2012 a total of $ 193,145,10 million current pesos was awarded, However, in 2021 there were only $270,487.30 million pesos corresponding to the support granted nationally to all higher education institutions as a whole, which implies greater expenses for universities throughout the states.

Female university students’ fertility intentions and their psychosocial factors

BackgroundRaising the birth rate can effectively increase the resulting labour supply and minimise the adverse impact of an ageing population on high-quality economic development since the demographic dividend is rapidly declining. The Chinese government has a “three-child” policy in place, yet the fertility rate is still falling. This study intends to investigate the present fertility intentions of female university students and assess the extent to which feminism has affected their intentions. It will next investigate the degree to which and the mechanisms by which the psychosocial factors have an impact on those intentions.MethodsA cross-sectional survey of female university students was conducted in Nanjing, China, from February to March 2023. To assure the representativeness of the sample, a technique of stratified proportional sampling, PPS sampling, and convenience sampling was utilized. A total of 1124 valid samples were acquired from female university students in 15 comprehensive universities. The data were mined and analysed by SPSS (version 24.0) and AMOS (version 24.0) software.ResultsOverall female university students’ fertility intentions are low at this stage, with more than half (53.55%) of them having no clear desire to have children. The level of feminist identity significantly negatively affected the Intensity of desire to have children (-0.32) and child-number desires (-0.7). Psychosocial factors had a greater degree of influence on fertility intentions. The direct effect of the level of feminist identity and the perception of fertility hindrances on childbearing desires was -0.63 and -0.50 respectively, and the direct effect of the perception of fertility supports on childbearing intentions was 0.79.ConclusionThe level of feminist identity is significantly and negatively related to childbearing desires. Psychosocial factors have a greater degree of influence on fertility intentions, with the level of feminist identity, the perception of fertility hindrances and the perception of fertility supports all significantly impacting fertility intentions. The findings of this study emphasise the importance of the government providing a full range of social security and employers providing better employee benefits to promote a fertility-friendly society.