Digest No. 04 – June 2018 – CIC Digest of Recent Research

Digest No. 04 - June 2018

Trade-offs: Online vs. Paper Course Evaluations

What is the most effective way to evaluate teaching in the classroom? Edgar Treischl and Tobias Wolbring address this question through a series of well-designed experiments that flesh out important answers regarding the delivery mode (online vs. paper) of course evaluations and its subsequent influence on the course ratings themselves. Results indicated that response rates for paper-based evaluations were significantly higher than those for online evaluations, but the gap between these rates decreased if students were initially emailed an invitation to evaluate courses and given time in class to complete the course evaluations. In addition, results indicated that paper-based evaluations trended toward more positive pictures of teaching than those administered online.

Understanding Innovation in Higher Education

With many innovations occurring on CIC campuses (see Hearn and Warshaw 2015), it is important to frame these initiatives in ways institutional stakeholders understand and ultimately implement. This article by Yuzhuo Cai provides such a framework. Conceptual in nature, the article synthesizes the research on innovation and provides a compelling analytic rubric for examining the efficacy of innovations in addressing many of the issues that college and university leaders face.

Taking Too Many Difficult Courses at Once Threatens Graduation Rates

How does course-taking influence degree attainment and graduation rates? This longitudinal study was designed to address the course-taking patterns among undergraduates and their influence on a host of outcomes, mostly related to whether students graduated or not. The goal of the research was to demonstrate the efficacy of analyzing transcript data as a means of predicting graduation trajectories and how this technique may be more accurate when compared with similar and more traditional techniques that model graduation rates as a function of socioeconomic, demographic, and pre-college background information.

Name Racism Openly: Race and Rhetoric in Presidents’ Statements

How do college and university presidents communicate with the campus community about issues concerning racialized incidents on campus? This study examines the public messaging practices of 18 senior administrators who made statements in responses to racial incidents that occurred over a three-year period, from 2012 through 2015. Through rhetorical analytic strategies, Eddie Cole and Shaun Harper concluded that presidents often issue descriptive statements about the racial incident itself and equally descriptive and sometimes editorial statements about the individual or group that perpetrated the incident. Often omitted from statements are descriptive or editorial comments about systemic racism or its location and expression through sustained and reproduced institutional racist practices. The authors argue that such an omission may isolate and even address the incident, but may reproduce a sustained discriminatory campus narrative.

Rankings Reconsidered: Placing Student Engagement at Risk

In a study that examined the relationship between institutional rankings and the National Survey of Student Engagement’s (NSSE) assessments of student-faculty engagement, John Zilvinskis and Louis Rocconi found either no relationship or a modest, negative association. The study examined indicators used by U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, and Washington Monthly, which are widely used by the public. Results indicated that the higher the ranking, the fewer engagements between faculty members and students.

Does Interfaith Engagement Drive Students to Abandon Their Faith or Non-Faith Traditions?

This study explores interfaith engagement and its association with a construct called self-authored worldview commitment (SAWC), a learning outcome addressing how a student develops an “informed, critical understanding of his or her worldview, would describe him or herself in ways consistent with such an understanding and would relate to others in a manner also consistent with that understanding” (Mayhew and Bryant Rockenbach 2013, p. 64).

Redirecting Work as Learning? Helping First-Generation Latino Students Succeed

How might work offer distinctive opportunities for Latino first-generation college students to acquire the skills and resources needed to navigate successfully in the often confusing college environment? Although this case study examines a sample of students from a large public institution, the authors carefully craft an argument that may be of relevance to the CIC community.

For Every Vice, There’s a Virtue: How Students Use Social Media as a Vehicle for Activism

What role does social media play in teaching and learning? In building community? In spurring responsible activism? These questions underscore the current investigation of students’ use of social media as a vehicle for activism, specifically regarding sexual violence on campus.