Faculty and Staff Research Presentations on Student Success

Forum 1: "Retention Among College Students on Academic *Warning"

• April 13^th, 2021, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
• Project Description: Academic warning* is a mechanism to identify students that are at higher risk of institutional departure. In order to move the dial on postsecondary student retention, a mixed-methods study was conducted to predict first-time freshmen students’ placement on academic warning*, their risk of institutional departure, and factors that support their academic recovery and persistence. In the quantitative analyses, factors predicting academic warning* and subsequent institutional departure included student demographic characteristics, pre-entry and post-entry academic indicators, and academic major change. The study also explored the experiences and perceptions of students placed on academic warning* who were able to recover and persist.
• Researcher:
  • Lizzet Rojas - Academic Affairs | Advanced Studies in Education and Counseling

*Note: terminology changed to "academic warning" per request to comply with updates to student record policy. 5/23/22

Forum 2: "Finding the Right Path to Graduate"

• ​April 14^th, 2021, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
• Project Description: One of the key objectives of this project is to provide the University with strategies to improve student graduation rates and to help students find the right path to graduate. This study will utilize both econometric modeling as well as machine learning approaches. The econometric approach will help us to better understand major switching and its consequences. It will also aid our machine learning approach in building a predictive model. The results from econometric and machine learning will help to build an early recommendation system on major switching for student success.
• Researchers:
  • Sam Min - Professor, Marketing
  • Eunho Park - Assistant Professor, Marketing
  • Praveen Soni - Professor, Marketing

• Forum 3: "Abating Attrition"
  • ​April 15th, 2021, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
  • Project Description: This project seeks to determine the causes and antecedents to student attrition at The Beach. Our research questions for this project surround issues related to identification. In particular, we are interested in knowing (1) who the students are that decide to leave our campus. We are also interested in knowing (2) why they are leaving and what we can do about it from the standpoint of institutional intervention.
• Researchers:
  • San Bolkan - Professor, Communication Studies
  • Kerry Klima - Senior Director of Assessment and Educational Partnerships
  • Don Haviland  - Department Chair, Educational Leadership
  • Kaitlyn Stormes - Research Technician, College of Liberal Arts

• Forum 4: " Identify and Support Diverse Pathways to Timely Graduation in CNSM"
  • ​April 16th, 2021, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
  • Project Description: The goal of the proposed project is to utilize social-cognitive traits (attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions) in conjunction with demographics, admission and student success data to identify cohorts of CSULB first-year biology students with similar needs in order to design support structures that ensure their major retention and timely graduation.
• Researchers:
  • Ann Kim - Assistant Professor, Human Development
  • Jen-Mei Chang - Professor, Mathematics and Statistics
  • Raisa Hernández Pacheco - Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences
  • Dessie Underwood - Department Chair, Biological Sciences

• Forum 5: "CSULB Student Enrollment: A Dynamic Model with Projections"
  • ​April 21st, 2021, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
  • Project Description: This proposal is to develop a software program to help decision makers during the enrollment planning process by predicting student progress through their programs and how it will impact overall enrollment at the university.
  • Researchers:
  • Lisa M. Star - Associate Professor, Civil Engineering and Construction Engineering Management
  • Mehrdad Aliasgari - Associate Professor, Computer Engineering and Computer Science
  • Jason Deutschman - Associate Director (Academic Advising), College of Engineering
  • Feike Leij - Lecturer, Civil Engineering and Construction Engineering Management

• Forum 6: "High-Impact Practices at CSULB: How (and for whom) Do They Promote Student Success?"
  • ​April 22nd, 2021, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
  • Project Description: The overarching goal of the proposed study is to examine the role that three types of HIPs---academic internships, unpaid undergraduate research, and service learning —play in CSULB student success, including persistence and timely graduation.
• Researchers:
  • Kelly Young - Professor, Biological Sciences
  • Kimberly R. Kelly - Associate Professor, Human Development
  • Claudia Lopez - Assistant Professor, Sociology
  • Brian Trimble - Assistant Professor, Art Education
  • Beth Manke - Interim Dean, Student Success

• Forum 7: "Who drops out from CSULB and what factors predict their attrition?"
  • ​April 23rd, 2021, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
  • Project Description: The goals of this project are to identify (1) who drops out from CSULB, and (2) critical predictors of student attrition in the first two years at CSULB. Our research questions will be addressed by a large sample of students who have not yet registered for courses months after the registration period begins. An analysis of the university data will also identify clusters of students who have greater chances of dropping out from CSULB.
• Researchers:
  • Hiromi Masunaga - Department Chair, Advanced Studies In Education & Counseling
  • Debra Satterfield - Professor, Design
  • Tianni Zhou - Associate Professor, Mathematics and Statistics