Anat Gal EDU 671 Instructor Young October 27, 2014

 Challenges.  Major concerns and reasons when going back to school.  Main factors when choosing a school.  Major needs when going to school.

 Education changes lives.  Transfer students loss due to increased competition and accreditation changes.  Supporting our partners and their transfer students.

 167 agreements with community colleges around the US.  Increased competition.  Accreditation changes.  Loss of trust with our partners.  Manpower challenges.

 Signing new agreements.  Building relationships.  Building transfer guides.  Marketing.  Attending transfer fairs.  Conducting webinars.  Face to face visits.  Specific programs pathways.

 Transfer students are diverse learners.  167 community college partners.  Academic Partnership team.

“By definition, an action research area of focus and research questions must be answerable and in the researcher’s locus of control” (Mills, 2014, p. 218). Transfer.

 “A key characteristic distinguishing reentry adults from other college students is the high likelihood that they are juggling other life roles while attending school, including those of worker, spouse or partner, parent, caregiver, and community member” (Ross-Gordon, 2011, para 3).

 The working adult student.  Peers.  Friends.  Classmates.

 Learning about the working adult student.  FERPA regulations.

 Is price a major factor when choosing where to go to school?  What role do transfer credits play when deciding where to transfer.  Does the transfer guide make it easier for transfer students.  What are the three main factors in choosing the right school for the working adult?  What are the three main challenges when going back to school for working adults?  When going to school what support did you get from your school and what support you needed that you feel you did not receive?

 Findings.  Recording a webinar to be posted on the Transfer page.  Expending the team.  Office hours.  Student support.

 “A recent survey showed that more than 8 million non-traditional students -- defined as those 23 and older -- are now enrolled in the nation's colleges” (Schepp, 2012, para. 1).

 Creating a webinar introducing articulation agreements and the Transfer Guide to be posted on the Transfer Page.

 Expend academic partnership team.  Expend articulation team.  Implement office hours with community college partners.  Develop and conduct webinars with community college partners.  Implement monthly conference calls with transfer students.

 Develop.  Conduct.  Implementation.

 Legality.  Budgetary.  Change.

 FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act).  Beneficence principle.

 Mix-method data collection approach.  Qualitative and quantitative data.

 Budget.  Manpower.  Recording software.  Flexibility.

 Likert scale (using Survey such as survey monkey).  Survey or questionnaire.  Structured formal interviews.  Focus groups.

 Education changes Lives.

 Deggs, D. (2011). Contextualizing the perceived barriers of adult learners in an accelerated undergraduate degree program. The Qualitative Report, 16(6), Retrieved from  Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). (2014). U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from  Hood, L., Hunt, E., & Haeffele, L. M. (2009). Illinois post-secondary transfer students:  experience in navigating the higher education transfer system. Planning and Changing,  40(1), Retrieved from   Mills, G. E. (2014). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher (5th ed.). Boston, MA:  Pearson Education, Inc.  Roksa, J., & Calcagno, J. C. (2010). Catching up in community colleges: Academic preparation  and transfer to four-year institutions. Teachers College Record, 112(1),  Retrieved from  U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (1979). Ethical principles and guidelines for the  protection of human subjects of research. The Belmont Report. Retrieved from   Schepp, D. (2012). Top 6 reasons adult college students drop out. AOL Jobs. Retrieved from  Shepherd, J., & Nelson, B. M. (2012). Balancing act: A phenomenological study of female adult learners who successfully persisted in graduate studies. The Qualitative Report, 17(20),  Retrieved from  Ross-Gordon, J. M. M. (2011). Research on adult learners: Supporting the needs of a student  population that is no longer nontraditional. Association of American Colleges & Universities. Peer Review. Retrieved from research/periodicals/research-adult-learners-supporting-needs-student-population-no