{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/110672"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/110672","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Ask for help: Online help-seeking and engagement for college students traditionally underrepresented in STEM","abstract":"Help-seeking is a successful self-regulated learning strategy that is essential for student success. Still, students, especially those traditionally underrepresented in STEM (UR-STEM) and, in particular, chemistry (UR-Chem), may be reluctant to employ it. Students with longstanding under-representation in STEM and chemistry are non-males, first-generation college students, and AHN students (i.e., African American, Hispanic, Native American). Understanding UR-STEM students’ help-seeking in online courses is crucial for developing equitable learning environments where students can engage with a community of inquiry. This research explored help-seeking in an online college-level STEM course discussion forum in two separate investigations, utilizing different analytic techniques. The first investigation used social network analysis to examine various forum engagement measures concerning course improvement and UR-STEM status. Findings demonstrated that help-seeking was predictive of improvement, thus lending support for the utility of help-seeking for favorable learning outcomes. The second investigation explored the nature of help-seeking and help-giving in the discussion board with particular attention to UR-Chem students. Findings revealed that requests for help were equally responded to regardless of how explicitly students appealed for help. Furthermore, we found that UR-STEM students requested and responded to help similarly and received help at greater rates than their non-UR-Chem peers. Results suggest that online courses may mitigate barriers to help-seeking.","abstract_html":"Help-seeking is a successful self-regulated learning strategy that is essential for student success. Still, students, especially those traditionally underrepresented in STEM (UR-STEM) and, in particular, chemistry (UR-Chem), may be reluctant to employ it. Students with longstanding under-representation in STEM and chemistry are non-males, first-generation college students, and AHN students (i.e., African American, Hispanic, Native American). Understanding UR-STEM students’ help-seeking in online courses is crucial for developing equitable learning environments where students can engage with a community of inquiry. This research explored help-seeking in an online college-level STEM course discussion forum in two separate investigations, utilizing different analytic techniques. The first investigation used social network analysis to examine various forum engagement measures concerning course improvement and UR-STEM status. Findings demonstrated that help-seeking was predictive of improvement, thus lending support for the utility of help-seeking for favorable learning outcomes. The second investigation explored the nature of help-seeking and help-giving in the discussion board with particular attention to UR-Chem students. Findings revealed that requests for help were equally responded to regardless of how explicitly students appealed for help. Furthermore, we found that UR-STEM students requested and responded to help similarly and received help at greater rates than their non-UR-Chem peers. Results suggest that online courses may mitigate barriers to help-seeking.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Williams-Dobosz, Destiny"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Educational Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Perry, Michelle","Bosch, Nigel","D'Angelo, Cynthia"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-09-17T02:34:27Z","date_published":"2021-09-17T02:34:27Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:52Z","subjects":["help-seeking, STEM"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2021 Destiny Williams-Dobosz"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110672","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Perry, Michelle","Bosch, Nigel","D'Angelo, Cynthia"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Williams-Dobosz, Destiny"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2021-09-17T02:34:27Z","2023-09-17T02:34:57Z","2021-04-15","2021-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Educational Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["help-seeking, STEM"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2021 Destiny Williams-Dobosz"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110672"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Help-seeking is a successful self-regulated learning strategy that is essential for student success. Still, students, especially those traditionally underrepresented in STEM (UR-STEM) and, in particular, chemistry (UR-Chem), may be reluctant to employ it. Students with longstanding under-representation in STEM and chemistry are non-males, first-generation college students, and AHN students (i.e., African American, Hispanic, Native American). Understanding UR-STEM students’ help-seeking in online courses is crucial for developing equitable learning environments where students can engage with a community of inquiry. This research explored help-seeking in an online college-level STEM course discussion forum in two separate investigations, utilizing different analytic techniques. The first investigation used social network analysis to examine various forum engagement measures concerning course improvement and UR-STEM status. Findings demonstrated that help-seeking was predictive of improvement, thus lending support for the utility of help-seeking for favorable learning outcomes. The second investigation explored the nature of help-seeking and help-giving in the discussion board with particular attention to UR-Chem students. Findings revealed that requests for help were equally responded to regardless of how explicitly students appealed for help. Furthermore, we found that UR-STEM students requested and responded to help similarly and received help at greater rates than their non-UR-Chem peers. Results suggest that online courses may mitigate barriers to help-seeking.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2023-05-01","The student, Destiny Williams-Dobosz, accepted the attached license on 2021-04-14 at 16:45.","The student, Destiny Williams-Dobosz, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2021-04-14 at 16:52.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2021-04-15 at 16:47.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #16335 on 2021-09-16 at 17:03:10","Made available in DSpace on 2021-09-17T02:34:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 WILLIAMS-DOBOSZ-THESIS-2021.pdf: 1033166 bytes, checksum: a71095e3adbec90f531cf7032a270dbd (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4220 bytes, checksum: eb766a3a894828f5c890f867db91775f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2021-04-15","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 118515 Lift date: 2023-09-17T02:34:57Z Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","U of I Only"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Ask for help: Online help-seeking and engagement for college students traditionally underrepresented in STEM"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Perry, Michelle","Bosch, Nigel","D'Angelo, Cynthia"],"dc:creator":["Williams-Dobosz, Destiny"],"dc:date":["2021-09-17T02:34:27Z","2023-09-17T02:34:57Z","2021-04-15","2021-05"],"dc:description":["Help-seeking is a successful self-regulated learning strategy that is essential for student success. Still, students, especially those traditionally underrepresented in STEM (UR-STEM) and, in particular, chemistry (UR-Chem), may be reluctant to employ it. Students with longstanding under-representation in STEM and chemistry are non-males, first-generation college students, and AHN students (i.e., African American, Hispanic, Native American). Understanding UR-STEM students’ help-seeking in online courses is crucial for developing equitable learning environments where students can engage with a community of inquiry. This research explored help-seeking in an online college-level STEM course discussion forum in two separate investigations, utilizing different analytic techniques. The first investigation used social network analysis to examine various forum engagement measures concerning course improvement and UR-STEM status. Findings demonstrated that help-seeking was predictive of improvement, thus lending support for the utility of help-seeking for favorable learning outcomes. The second investigation explored the nature of help-seeking and help-giving in the discussion board with particular attention to UR-Chem students. Findings revealed that requests for help were equally responded to regardless of how explicitly students appealed for help. Furthermore, we found that UR-STEM students requested and responded to help similarly and received help at greater rates than their non-UR-Chem peers. Results suggest that online courses may mitigate barriers to help-seeking.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2023-05-01","The student, Destiny Williams-Dobosz, accepted the attached license on 2021-04-14 at 16:45.","The student, Destiny Williams-Dobosz, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2021-04-14 at 16:52.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2021-04-15 at 16:47.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #16335 on 2021-09-16 at 17:03:10","Made available in DSpace on 2021-09-17T02:34:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 WILLIAMS-DOBOSZ-THESIS-2021.pdf: 1033166 bytes, checksum: a71095e3adbec90f531cf7032a270dbd (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4220 bytes, checksum: eb766a3a894828f5c890f867db91775f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2021-04-15","Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 118515 Lift date: 2023-09-17T02:34:57Z Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system","U of I Only"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/110672"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2021 Destiny Williams-Dobosz"],"dc:subject":["help-seeking, STEM"],"dc:title":["Ask for help: Online help-seeking and engagement for college students traditionally underrepresented in STEM"],"dc:type":["text","Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Educational Psychology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:52Z"}