Revenue, cost, tuition, and scholarship data at private liberal arts colleges from 2003–2013 are used to estimate how each college's net revenue per student varies with student enrollment. Our empirical specification assumes that colleges simultaneously pick their optimal net tuition and cost of instruction. The estimates allow us to identify the enrollment level that maximizes the return on the college's provision of educational services. Thirty-seven percent of the colleges have enrollments within one standard deviation of their profit maximizing enrollment. Another 11% are more than one standard deviation above the profit maximizing level; they increase access to students but not revenue. Compared to the profit maximizing colleges, the institutions with enrollments beyond their profit maximum have stronger endowments and enroll more low-income students. Although no schools were below their shut-down enrollment, 13% were within one standard deviation of their minimum enrollment and may be vulnerable to tuition revenue shock.

WHAT IS SKETCHNOTING? Visual, non-linear note taking or knowledge sharing. Visualizing complex information and concepts.

We examined how the experiences—academic, financial, social, and personal—and relationship factors of military-connected students attending a 4-year institution are associated with their academic success. This multi-institution study highlights the demographic characteristics, experiences, and campus relationships that are associated with military-connected students’ GPA.

A responsive case study evaluation approach utilizing interviews and focus groups collected student and faculty perspectives on examined how instructors and students utilized a newly redesigned active learning space at Iowa State University and the relationship of this design with environmental and behavioral factors of student engagement. The findings demonstrate how classroom design affords engagement through low-cost learning tools and a flexible, open, student-centered space afforded a variety of active learning strategies. In addition, this case study highlights the importance of conducting assessment on classroom redesign initiatives to justify and improve future classroom spaces.

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the design concept of framing and the ways in which student affairs practitioners can apply the process of reframing in their work with students and in their assessment efforts. Similar to the way designers use frames to define the problem situation, students can be prompted and coached to view their curricular and co-curricular learning experiences in new ways. This chapter applies learning sciences theory and design concepts to student affairs assessment practice, beginning with the importance of reframing for student affairs and student learning. The chapter then employs transformative learning theory and Fink's taxonomy to understand and explain the use and importance of reframing. The authors utilize literature from the design and architecture fields to describe and illustrate the concept of reframing, drawing parallels to how student affairs practitioners can apply these concepts to assess and improve student learning.

This paper describes relationships between tuition discounting (TD), net tuition revenue, and other institutional characteristics at four-year, liberal arts institutions. TD, a practice whereby institutional grants are used to subsidize a student’s educational expense, has become a common practice at four-year institutions. TDs impact on enrollments, financial aid, and budgets continues to increase, raising concerns about the long-term sustainability of the practice. Drawing upon Breneman’s (1994) economic theory of four-year private institutions, this research examined trends in student characteristics, enrollment, institutional grants, and net tuition revenue (NTR) and the relationship between TD practices NTR. Analyzing panel data of four-year, small, liberal arts colleges from 2003-2012, results illustrated that over the 10-year period, enrollment, tuition, and number and amount of institutional grant aid increased; average yield and SAT average score decreased. NTR has increased but lags behind increases in tuition and gross tuition revenue. Additionally, there is a point at which TD practices do not generate additional revenue. The results highlight the importance of financial aid officers and institutional leaders to examine the effectiveness of their current tuition discounting practices, the demand for their institution, and strategies for improving enrollment and retention.

The number of military-connected students enrolling in community colleges has increased dramatically in the past decade, and this trend is expected to continue. This research focused on examining factors that contribute to the academic success of community college students. Specifically, the purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the demographic characteristics; campus relationships; and financial, academic and personal experiences that are associated with grade point average (GPA) and intent to return for military-connected students at seven community colleges. Identifying as a Student of Color (any race or ethnicity other than White) and experience meeting professors’ academic expectations were negatively associated with cumulative GPA, and feeling academically prepared to enter the institution was significantly and positively associated with intent to return. The results provide further evidence of the relationships among demographic and academic experiences and academic success. The authors offer recommendations for serving military-connected students at community colleges.

Background. It is well recognized that current graduate education is too narrowly focused on thesis research. Graduate students have a strong desire to gain skills for their future career success beyond thesis research. This obvious gap in professional skill training in current graduate study also leads to the common student perception that professional skills beyond academic knowledge should only be gained after completion of thesis research.

Purpose. A new program is being developed to rigorously integrate professional skills training with thesis research. The approach is to establish learning communities of Graduates for Advancing Professional Skills (GAPS) to incorporate project management skill training from industry into academic research. The GAPS program seeks to address two fundamental education research questions: How can project management skill training be integrated with thesis research in graduate education? What is the role/value of learning communities in enhancing the training and retention of professional skills and the effectiveness of thesis research? Our proposed solution is that graduate student learning communities engaging in a blended online and classroom approach will promote learning of professional skills such as project and time management in thesis research activities. The purpose of this session is to establish the connection between project management and thesis research, and demonstrate the beginning progress of the GAPS program towards.

Methodology/approach. The following progress is being made to establish GAPS learning communities through which to teach and practice professional skills. A website has been developed to introduce the program, recruit participants, provide information on the online modules, and survey results of participants’ current levels of knowledge and skills related to project management. A new course, “Introduction of Project Management for Thesis Research”, has been added to the course catalog and open to enrollment for students from different majors. In addition, learning modules including project charter, scheduling, communication, teamwork, critical path method, and lean concept are developed. Case studies and examples have been developed to help students learn how to utilize project management skills in their thesis research.

Conclusions. The concept of integrating professional skills training with thesis research through learning communities has been demonstrated. There are multiple advantages of this approach, including efficient utilization of the current resources, and faculty buy-in. Preliminary data from the first cohort are being collected and analyzed to identify students’ needs, benefits of the program, and areas of improvement for future cohort iterations.

Implications. The GAPS program will improve professional skill training for graduate students through communities of practice. This new learning model has the potential to fundamentally change the culture of graduate education. We believe the method demonstrated here can be broadly applied to different engineering majors, and even broadly to all thesis research.

Multiculturally competent student affairs educators are required to effectively meet the needs of today’s diverse student population. However, little is known about how educators acquire these skills. This study examined the multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills gained by student affairs educators through their participation in NCORE, an experiential conference exploring race and ethnicity. Results of the study have implications for graduate preparation programs and professional development opportunities for student affairs educators.

Effective assessment practice requires clearly defining and operationalizing terminology. We illustrate the importance of this practice by focusing on academic “undermatching”—when students enroll in colleges that are less academically selective than those for which they are academically prepared. Undermatching has been viewed as a potential obstacle in the United States’ goal of increasing degree attainment but operationalizing undermatching is difficult. Using ELS: 2002, a national dataset from the U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2014), we developed eight operationalizations of undermatching by altering three commonly used variables. We then compared the number and demographics of students who were identified as undermatched. Differences in operationalizations resulted in significant differences in undermatching by gender, race, parental education, and socioeconomic status. Results of this study illustrate the importance of the need to operationalize terminology used in assessment carefully and consistently.