US Universities Research Articles

Lecture Capture, Transcripts, and Captioning in US Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine: Descriptive Cross-Sectional Survey

AbstractThis study describes lecture capture, transcription, and captioning services at US Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (COMs). An anonymous online survey was sent to Deans or Directors of Curriculum at all 34 fully accredited COMs, with 21 (62%) responding. Results showed widespread lecture recording (95%), but of those, there were varied transcript and caption offerings: 7 (33%) provided both, 5 (24%) offered closed captions only, and 3 (14%) offered transcripts only. Overall, 71% offered at least one service. These findings indicate the prevalence of these lecture services at US COMs and will assist COMs in benchmarking their practices.

Family and consumer sciences graduate research productivity in 2023

AbstractFamily and consumer sciences research from graduate theses and dissertations and the resulting degrees have been reported annually in the Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal since 1992. Requests for the 2023 data began in September 2024 when 528 email invitations were sent to contacts at 163 US universities and colleges with family and consumer sciences programs. Forty‐six institutions responded with data and reported that 1550 graduate degrees were conferred collectively, with 1027 non‐thesis master's degrees, 241 master's theses, and 282 dissertations completed. This review reports graduate degree completion and highlights topical trends of the theses and dissertations completed by reporting programs.

De Viva voz: An Intersectional Approach to Assessing Student Experience and Fostering Equity at HSIs

ABSTRACT This research project outlines students’ perceptions of belonging, equity, visibility, representation, and culture at their Hispanic Serving Institution. In Latin America, the saying “De viva voz,” emphasizes acknowledging voz [voice]. Through an intersectional framework, this work acknowledges students’ voices, identities, and lived experiences as foundational to identify the barriers at an HSI at the Mexico-United States borderlands region. In doing so, we are able to propose a series of strategies that respond to the cultural context of the university, and the needs of students in order to eliminate structural barriers. Further, this paper explores what it means to be an HSI and the tenuous relationship between Hispanic culture and students at a US university. The implications of this research project add to the body of the literature that challenges homogeneous notions and conceptualizations of HSIs limited to enrollment of Hispanic and Latinx students. In doing so, “De viva voz” names and challenges the historical forms of discrimination and erasure that Latinx, students of color and other minoritized populations have endured in university settings. Moreover, this work models student-centered research practices for other Hispanic Serving Institutions interested in promoting intersectional practices to improve campus climate and foster belonging, equity, inclusion, and diversity.

Perceptions of Faculty and Students in Online Learning: Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly changed how universities provide education -- teachers switched to online teaching methods, while students quickly adapted to the online learning environment. This study adopts the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework to examine differences in student and faculty perceptions of online learning due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Student and faculty perceptions can be used to evaluate and ultimately improve the quality of education. This study used survey methods and data collection instruments with a Likert scale sample of 150 students and 150 faculty from a US university. This study’s results indicate a significant difference between perceptions of pedagogy, technology challenges, and difficulties in online Zoom courses. Furthermore, the authors provide practical implications for educators and administrators to navigate the rapid growth in online learning.

Exploring the Decision-Making Process of International Students: Factors Influencing their Choice of US Colleges

The United States is the top destination for international students seeking higher education. These students encounter various factors that shape their decisions throughout the college application journey. This research aims to pinpoint the main variables that influence international students’ choices to study in the US. Important factors include the reputation and rankings of universities, tuition costs, geographic location, personal recommendations, unique connections, and the complexity of the admissions process. Despite facing challenges like strict immigration policies and lengthy visa application procedures, US universities continue to attract students due to their global prestige and the numerous opportunities they provide for personal and professional development. The study sheds light on the preferences and considerations of international students when choosing colleges in the US. By doing so, it offers valuable insights for higher education institutions to improve their support services and refine recruitment strategies, ultimately enhancing the experiences and outcomes for international students.

Mental Health Symptoms Among US College Students Before, Early, and Late Into the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Analysis

PurposeTo study how COVID-19 stress-related factors and changes in psychosocial resources during the pandemic contributed to changes in mental health symptoms among first-year college students during the pandemic. MethodsUsing data on 339 first-year students (ages 18–20) at a large public university in North Carolina, we evaluated changes in anxiety and depression symptoms from before to early and later stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, we estimated longitudinal associations of chronic stress, COVID-19 stress/stressors and psychosocial resources with anxiety and depression symptoms using a first-difference model. ResultsWe found that mental health symptoms increased significantly 4 months into the pandemic. Eighteen months into the pandemic, depression symptoms had returned to prepandemic levels, but anxiety symptoms had not. Chronic stress, social isolation, and distanced learning were significant risk factors; resilience was significantly protective. Results varied by the presence/absence of moderate-severe anxiety/depression symptoms prepandemic. DiscussionMental health symptoms for first-year college students were at already high levels prepandemic and have not improved 18 months into the pandemic. Colleges may help address this growing mental health crisis through bolstering social connectedness and resilience.

Opportunity's Calling: Perceived Inequality and Causal Beliefs About Socioeconomic Status Linked to Civic Engagement

ABSTRACTAlthough objective states of inequality often stifle civic engagement, subjective perceptions of inequality can stimulate it. Across two studies using a nationally representative US sample (Study 1, n = 1053) and a US university student sample (Study 2, n = 604), we found that the perception of inequality was positively associated with civic engagement. We further explored the mediating pathways linking this association. We found that perceived inequality is positively associated with the belief that socioeconomic status (SES) is attained through opportunity (e.g., social connections). In turn, opportunity belief was negatively associated with acceptance of inequality which was likewise negatively correlated with civic engagement. Our findings suggest opportunity belief may be a key mechanism activated by perceived inequality that links it to civic engagement. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

Language Teacher Agency and Identity in Internationalized Higher Education: An Ecological Perspective

ABSTRACTSubstantial literature has focused on language teacher agency and identity in relation to learners in classrooms. Relatively little research exists regarding the nature of language teacher identity shaped by contextual factors brought on by the internationalization of education. To address the gap in the literature, this study explored how student teachers in a TESOL program negotiate their language teacher agency and identity in the ecosystems of an internationalized institution of higher education while contributing to different ESL programs. While pursuing an MA degree in TESOL with a teaching opportunity at an Intensive English program for non‐matriculating students or an ESL service program for pathway program students at a US university, seven student teachers participated in semi‐structured interviews, which were triangulated with the student teachers’ portfolios of lesson plans and reflection papers. The analysis demonstrated the student teachers’ agentic beliefs, choices, and practices in relation to contextual factors in the nested ecosystems of internationalized higher education, such as international students’ needs in the microsystem, training opportunities in the mesosystem, institutional policy and practice in the exosystem, and broad cultural norms in relation to language education in the macrosystem.

Teaching Statistics for the Social Sciences Using Active Learning: A Case Study

US college students are typically required to take at least one mathematics or statistics course, either as part their major area of study, or as a general education requirement. College mathematics requirements are an obstacle for many college students. Active learning, a pedagogical approach that places emphasis on students’ collaborative work, has been shown to increase student learning and course success in STEM fields of study and in mathematics courses. Active learning has also been shown to be adaptable to courses involving computer software and programming, such as introductory statistics. This case study is based on the author’s experience implementing an active learning model in an introductory statistics course for students majoring in sociology and related social sciences. Results indicate that the active learning approach was adaptable to the structure and particular learning goals of the course. Students perceived greater learning relative to other courses despite doing less work outside of class, and attributed this to the active learning structure of the course. These findings align with more systematic studies on the impacts of active learning in science and mathematics courses.

‘I believe I was able to help…’ preprofessionals’ positionings in reflective writing

This paper explores reflections written by advanced undergraduates at two US universities. Using theories of languaging and positioning to frame our analysis, we found students used language in their written reflections that distanced themselves from the actions that occurred (and their control over those actions) and mitigated their agency when they recounted their experiences in professional spaces: we observed repeated instances of weaker lexical choices (e.g. helping someone instead of teaching someone) and syntactic structures including periphrasis in causatives (e.g. allowed me to…) and modals (e.g. I was able to…). We suggest students deployed these linguistic features strategically to position themselves as novices and thus less responsible for outcomes in these settings. In discussing our findings, we query the significance of socialization into professional communities for students, and in turn, we consider how we as instructors and mentors have invited students to position themselves in their written reflections.

A Study on the Characteristics of Real Estate Education in Korean Universities through Text Mining-based Curriculum Analysis

Text mining is a method of analyzing text data to derive the characteristics or status of a described object. Since an educational program's curriculum reflects the content and goals it aims to teach, text analysis of the curriculum can reveal the characteristics of the program. This study employs text mining techniques to analyze the curricula of real estate education programs at Korean universities and proposes strategies for future development. The paper presents three main findings: First, by analyzing the curricula of universities in the UK and US that offer real estate education, the study identifies the unique characteristics of each country’s approach, reaffirming previously identified differences between them. Second, real estate education at Korean universities features an eclectic curriculum that incorporates elements of both UK and US real estate education, resulting in diverse curricular offerings across institutions. Lastly, for individual Korean universities, the study provides guidelines for the development of their departmental education by indicating which UK or US universities have the most similar or different curricula.

Past Bullying Experiences and Depression in College Students: A Moderated-Moderation Model of Parental Monitoring and Family Support

This study examined the association between past bullying victimization and college students’ depressive symptoms, which included mediation (self-esteem) and moderated-moderation (parental monitoring and family support) analysis. This study sample ( n = 362) was collected from South Central and Midwest colleges in the United States. Previous K–12 bullying victimization had a positive association with later life depression among college students which was partially explained by lowered self-esteem. Only a moderate or low level of parental monitoring in the context of high family support buffered the negative impact of past bullying victimization on college students’ depression. However, with low family support, parental monitoring rather increased depression. The transitional period to college life may require restructuring family relationships, and parents excessively monitoring their emerging adult child may not be ideal for mental health among college students who experienced bullying victimization.

Gender and race disparities in the evaluation of COVID-19 impact statements for tenure and promotion candidates

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted research productivity for many faculty members. As a result, many US universities began asking promotion and tenure candidates to create COVID-19 impact statements in hopes of mitigating the negative impact of these disruptions on tenure decisions. However, little is known about how such impact statements might be evaluated by promotion and tenure committees. This study examined whether such statements might be evaluated differently based on the gender and racial/ethnic categories of the faculty that submit them. Specifically, current US faculty were asked to evaluate hypothetical tenure dossiers that varied in race/ethnicity (Black/Latinx/White) and binary gender (Male/Female). Results indicated that female candidates were evaluated more favorably than male candidates. Specifically, participants thought that female candidate’s disruptions were more understandable, that their COVID-19 impact statements should be given more weight, and that they were more likely to vote to promote female candidates. There were no significant differences across candidates by race/ethnicity. The unexpected pattern of results suggests more research is needed to understand why such patterns emerged.

Machine learning predictive models to guide prevention and intervention allocation for anxiety and depressive disorders among college students

AbstractCollege student mental health has been a critical concern for professional counselors. Anxiety and depressive disorders have become increasingly prevalent over the past decade. Utilizing machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence (AI), we developed predictive models (i.e., eXtreme Gradient Boosting [XGBoost], Random Forest, Decision Tree, and Logistic Regression) to identify US college students at heightened risk of diagnosable anxiety and depressive disorders. The dataset included 61,619 students from 133 US higher education institutions and was partitioned into a 90:10 ratio for training and testing the models. We employed hyperparameter tuning and cross‐validation to optimize model performance and examined multiple measures of predictive performance (e.g., area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC], accuracy, sensitivity). Results revealed strong discriminative power in our machine learning predictive models with AUC of 0.74 and 0.77, indicating current financial situation, sense of belonging on campus, disability status, and age as the top predictors of anxiety and depressive disorders. This study provides a practical tool for professional counselors to proactively identify students for anxiety and depressive disorders before these conditions escalate. Application of machine learning in counseling research provides data‐driven insights that help enhance the understanding of mental health determinants, guide prevention and intervention strategies, and promote the well‐being of diverse student populations through counseling.

AI‐assisted research collaboration with open data for fair and effective response to call for proposals

AbstractBuilding teams and promoting collaboration are two very common business activities. An example of these are seen in the TeamingForFunding problem, where research institutions and researchers are interested to identify collaborative opportunities when applying to funding agencies in response to latter's calls for proposals. We describe a novel deployed system to recommend teams using a variety of Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods, such that (1) each team achieves the highest possible skill coverage that is demanded by the opportunity, and (2) the workload of distributing the opportunities is balanced among the candidate members. We address these questions by extracting skills latent in open data of proposal calls (demand) and researcher profiles (supply), normalizing them using taxonomies, and creating efficient algorithms that match demand to supply. We create teams to maximize goodness along a novel metric balancing short‐ and long‐term objectives. We evaluate our system in two diverse settings in US and India of researchers and proposal calls, at two different time instants about 1 year apart (total 4 settings), to establish generality of our approach, and deploy it at a major US university. We validate the effectiveness of our algorithms (1) quantitatively, by evaluating the recommended teams using a goodness score and find that more informed methods lead to recommendations of smaller number of teams and higher goodness, and (2) qualitatively, by conducting a large‐scale user study at a college‐wide level, and demonstrate that users overall found the tool very useful and relevant.

The Nitty Gritty of Stress and Mental Health: The Role of Grit in Moderating the Relationship Between Stress, Anxiety, and Depression

ABSTRACT College students in the United States contend with unprecedented mental health difficulties. College-specific challenges and stressors associated with emerging adulthood exacerbate these mental health struggles. In the ABC-X model of stress, cognitive appraisal or perception mediates the relationship between stressful events and degraded mental health. In this model, a resource, such as grit, may strengthen student resilience. Using data collected from 844 US college students, the path analysis results identified the mediation effect of the perception of stress on the association between college life challenges and mental health difficulties (depression and anxiety). These mediation effects were not significantly affected by the level of grit. However, the relationships between the perception of stress and both anxiety and depression were weaker at higher levels of grit. The implications of these findings, relative to grit interventions and attrition, are considered.

Group Rapport Building in an Institutionaized Face-To-Face Interaction: a Case Study

When people are engaged in any interaction, they are likely to respond to each other's verbal and nonverbal cues. This responsiveness is a critical factor in the notion of rapport. In this paper, the author argues that the same human dynamics that govern everyday conversations are at play between participants in institutionalized conversations such as classroom discourse. The purpose of this study is to develop critical aspects of "conversational involvement" (Duranti, 1986; Goodwin, 1986; Gumperz, 1982; Tannen, 1985) as rapport-building devices and to provide observable phenomena that characterize rapport with participants' verbal and nonverbal cues in informal and formal conversation. In this study, nine people participated: a Korean professor of an elementary Korean language class at a major US university and eight undergraduate students whose first language is English. Three fifty-minute classroom sessions were videotaped, and segments that illustrated the teacher's and students' behaviors that facilitated rapport were transcribed and qualitatively analyzed. The author recorded the frequency of the teacher's verbal and nonverbal cues that appeared to foster rapport. This study found that the teacher shared small talk in informal before-class conversations by bringing up insignificant details about daily life. The teacher played the role of teacher during class by directing a lesson. However, she continued to utilize various rapport-building devices through selected verbal and nonverbal cues to engage her students in the conversation. In this classroom, as in everyday conversation, the participants demonstrated their desire to listen to, be responsive to, and be influenced by individuals in a certain way. The participants were part and parcel of achieving their goals in the classroom. The participants created a certain alignment to achieve their goals and signal that they were involved in the interaction. Then, the students would be able to learn the target language more through the involvement of the classroom activity, which is one of the outcomes of good rapport.

Public understanding of preprints: How audiences make sense of unreviewed research in the news.

News reporting of preprints became commonplace during the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the extent to which the public understands what preprints are is unclear. We sought to fill this gap by conducting a content analysis of 1702 definitions of the term "preprint" that were generated by the US general population and college students. We found that only about two in five people were able to define preprints in ways that align with scholarly conceptualizations of the term, although participants provided a wide array of "other" definitions of preprints that suggest at least a partial understanding of the term. Providing participants with a definition of preprints in a news article helped improve preprint understanding for the student sample, but not for the general population. Our findings shed light on misperceptions that the public has about preprints, underscoring the importance of better education about the nature of preprint research.

Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among Autistic Transgender or Gender-Nonconforming US College Students

Suicide risk is a global public health crisis, with suicide ranking as a consistent leading cause of death among adults in the US. Autistic individuals and transgender or gender-nonconforming (TGNC) individuals represent populations with notably elevated rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs). To characterize suicidal thoughts and behaviors among TGNC and autistic individuals, using a large, nationally representative sample. This study is a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from students at colleges and universities throughout the US who participated in the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment from 2019 to 2023. Autistic and TGNC identities were self-reported by participants. The frequency of intersectionality of autism and TGNC identities and whether those who had intersectional marginalized identities had increased likelihood of STBs were examined. STBs were self-reported by participants. A series of moderated regression analyses were performed to examine how the interaction between autism and possessing a marginalized gender identity (ie, TGNC status) was associated with STBs. The sample included 41 507 college students with a mean (SD) age of 23.35 (6.83) years. A total of 2410 participants (5.81%) identified as being TGNC. Overall, 326 TGNC participants (13.53%) also identified as autistic, whereas 625 of those who identified as cisgender (1.58%) also identified as autistic. Gender identity and autism were associated with greater odds of STBs. For suicidal ideation, gender identity had an odds ratio (OR) of 3.34 (95% CI, 2.99-3.73), and autism had an OR of 2.06 (95% CI, 1.76-2.42). For suicide attempts, gender identity had an OR of 2.74 (95% CI, 2.13-3.52), and autism had an OR of 2.39 (95% CI, 1.62-3.52). A significant interaction existed for attempts (OR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.27-0.97); nonautistic cisgender individuals had the lowest attempt rate. This cross-sectional study addresses the dearth of information on how intersectionality in gender and autism status impacts the risk of STBs, and the results confirm the elevated risk of STBs among TGNC and autistic populations. Interventions are needed to support college students with these identities.

Academic success centers at us universities as an effective factor in ensuring the quality of higher education

The aim of the work is theoretical analysis of the peculiarities of the activity of the Academic Success Centers in the U.S. universities. The methodological basis of the study are official websites of Academic Success Centers, scientific articles by Ukrainian and American researches and analytical reports. Results. The article is devoted to a review of the activities of Academic Success Centers in U.S. universities. It is found that there is no single definition of «Academic Success Center» due to the variety of services offered. It is determined that Academic Success Center is a structural institution that provides academic and social-psychological support to students, helps to reveal their potential and prepare them for a career. The author emphasizes the technologies of support for students of higher education institutions. The main support technologies are tutoring, mentoring, academic coaching and Supplemental Instruction. It is proven that these technologies contribute to the improvement of the academic achievements of students and increase students’ retention rate of the educational institution. Special emphasis is placed on the interaction of the Center with freshmen, who most often face a number of problems in a new academic environment for them. The Centers provide academic advising for students on choosing courses. Academic advising lasts from admission to graduation at the university. Moreover, Academic Success Centers provide an opportunity not only to learn, but also to teach. Seniors have the opportunity to become tutors, mentors and academic coaches. A special feature of Centers is career guidance work with applicants. Universities organize meetings of future first-year students with students, graduates, teachers and administration of the institution to provide complete information about admission, studies and further employment prospects. Conclusions. The conducted study proved the need for further thorough research of the basic principles and areas of activity of centers of academic success in US universities in order to introduce better experience into educational practice.