2019 Student Academic Success Research Grants awarded

The Office of Student Academic Success, in partnership with Digital Flagship and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, recently awarded nearly $200,000 in Student Academic Success Research (SASR) Grants Program funds to Ohio State researchers focused on student academic success.

The funded projects focus on improving course success, retention, or graduation, with an emphasis on historically underrepresented students and other underserved student groups. Each project has clear practical implications for the design, implementation, or scale-up of practices to improve Ohio State student success.

All proposals were rated in terms of their methodological quality and practical importance by reviewers from the offices of Distance Education and eLearning, Diversity and Inclusion, Student Academic Success, Student Life, the College of Education and Human Ecology, Ohio State Newark, and the University Institute for Teaching and Learning.

“The collaboration across the university to support this important research is critical to the overall success of our undergraduate students,” said Beth Hume, vice provost for Student Academic Success and dean of Undergraduate Education.

The winning proposals and primary investigators:

• Instilling Persistence: Investigating Impacts of Short-Term Interventions on Predictors of Long-Term Success.
  Estimate the impacts of instructional interventions which regulate motivation, overcome procrastination, or develop metacognitive ability, in terms of their impact on persistence in Biology.
  Caroline Breitenberger, director of Center for Life Sciences Education.
• Use and Evaluation of a Mastery-based Computer Program in General Chemistry.
  Identify and target pre-requisite skills that students lack and build skills with targeted online homework; assess if and how technology causes cognitive overload.
  Ted Clark, associate associated professor, Chemistry.
• Students’ Perspectives to Transform Undergraduate Chemistry Education.
  Use surveys and focus groups to understand historically underrepresented students’ experiences in chemistry.
  Jennifer Collins, research scientist, Chemistry
• OSU Student In-Term Employment.
  Estimate impacts of during-college employment on retention, graduation and post-college employment.
  Lisa Neilson, research scientist, Center for Human Resources Research
• Improving Numeracy: Learning Math to Promote Academic Success, Health and Wealth.
  Intervention in psychology statistics courses to improve numeric ability and confidence.
  Ellen Peters, professor, Psychology.
• Understanding Drop-in Childcare Needs of Student Parents.
  Determine how student parents currently respond to childcare needs and the influence on academic success and persistence.
  Kelly Purtell, assistant professor, Human Sciences
• First-generation Student Success.
  Extend current study of first-generation students into a second year to track these students’ challenges and successes through sophomore year.
  Vincent Roscigno, distinguished professor, Sociology.
• Investigating the Effects of Learning-to-Learn Course.
  Examine how interventions to improve motivational, dispositional, and strategic aspects of Self-Regulated Learning impact students’ academic performance and retention.
  Chris Wolters, professor of Educational Studies and director of Dennis Learning Center.

Contact:

Shanna Smith Jaggars, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice-Provost, Research and Program Assessment
Office of Academic Affairs Office of Student Academic Success
The Ohio State University
Bricker Hall 381 | 614-688-3283
jaggars.2@osu.edu | osas.osu.edu