Engaging Students in Community College: Learning Communities and Student Groups

Completion rates in higher education have historically been low. Colleges and universities have tried many different programs, offerings, degrees, schedules, and more to encourage their students to stay enrolled, complete their programs, and graduate. One such offering is the learning community, a grouping of incoming students into cohorts with specialized schedules and services. Another offering is Voluntary Student Groups. This study examined how group membership, in either LCs or VSGs, affected academic self-efficacy. Academic self-efficacy is a predictor of retention and completion and was thus a logical variable for this study. The purpose of this quantitative study was to compare the academic self-efficacy in students participating in Learning Communities and Voluntary Student Groups. This study found that membership in Learning Communities was correlated with aspects of academic self-efficacy such as connection to the college and connection to peers while membership in Voluntary Student Groups is weakly correlated with connection to peers but no other areas of self-efficacy. Keywords: Learning Community, Voluntary Student Groups, academic self-efficacy

Grantor dc:publisher

Creighton University

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Davis, Judith R.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Liebertz, Scott

• Academic Self-Efficacy
• Learning Community
• Voluntary Student Groups

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright is retained by the Author. A non-exclusive distribution right is granted to Creighton University and to ProQuest following the publishing model selected above.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://cdr.creighton.edu/handle/10504/156072

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:cdr.creighton.edu:10504/156072