Studying Undergraduate Course Consideration at Scale
Elective curriculums require undergraduates to choose from a large roster of courses for enrollment each term. It has proven difficult to characterize this fateful choice process because it remains largely unobserved. Using digital trace data to observe this process at scale at a private research un...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2021-02-01
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| Series: | AERA Open |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858421991148 |
| _version_ | 1818949805991264256 |
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| author | Sorathan Chaturapruek Tobias Dalberg Marissa E. Thompson Sonia Giebel Monique H. Harrison Ramesh Johari Mitchell L. Stevens Rene F. Kizilcec |
| author_facet | Sorathan Chaturapruek Tobias Dalberg Marissa E. Thompson Sonia Giebel Monique H. Harrison Ramesh Johari Mitchell L. Stevens Rene F. Kizilcec |
| author_sort | Sorathan Chaturapruek |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Elective curriculums require undergraduates to choose from a large roster of courses for enrollment each term. It has proven difficult to characterize this fateful choice process because it remains largely unobserved. Using digital trace data to observe this process at scale at a private research university, together with qualitative student interviews, we provide a novel empirical study of course consideration as an important component of course selection. Clickstream logs from a course exploration platform used by most undergraduates at the case university reveal that students consider on average nine courses for enrollment for their first fall term (<2% of available courses) and these courses predict which academic major students declare two years later. Twenty-nine interviews confirm that students experience consideration as complex and reveal variation in consideration strategies that may influence how consideration unfolds. Consideration presents a promising site for intervention in problems of equity, career funneling, and college completion. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T09:08:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9d79696a9184444a863755d7fc02e282 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2332-8584 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T09:08:32Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | AERA Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-9d79696a9184444a863755d7fc02e2822022-12-21T19:45:38ZengSAGE PublishingAERA Open2332-85842021-02-01710.1177/2332858421991148Studying Undergraduate Course Consideration at ScaleSorathan ChaturapruekTobias DalbergMarissa E. ThompsonSonia GiebelMonique H. HarrisonRamesh JohariMitchell L. StevensRene F. KizilcecElective curriculums require undergraduates to choose from a large roster of courses for enrollment each term. It has proven difficult to characterize this fateful choice process because it remains largely unobserved. Using digital trace data to observe this process at scale at a private research university, together with qualitative student interviews, we provide a novel empirical study of course consideration as an important component of course selection. Clickstream logs from a course exploration platform used by most undergraduates at the case university reveal that students consider on average nine courses for enrollment for their first fall term (<2% of available courses) and these courses predict which academic major students declare two years later. Twenty-nine interviews confirm that students experience consideration as complex and reveal variation in consideration strategies that may influence how consideration unfolds. Consideration presents a promising site for intervention in problems of equity, career funneling, and college completion.https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858421991148 |
| spellingShingle | Sorathan Chaturapruek Tobias Dalberg Marissa E. Thompson Sonia Giebel Monique H. Harrison Ramesh Johari Mitchell L. Stevens Rene F. Kizilcec Studying Undergraduate Course Consideration at Scale AERA Open |
| title | Studying Undergraduate Course Consideration at Scale |
| title_full | Studying Undergraduate Course Consideration at Scale |
| title_fullStr | Studying Undergraduate Course Consideration at Scale |
| title_full_unstemmed | Studying Undergraduate Course Consideration at Scale |
| title_short | Studying Undergraduate Course Consideration at Scale |
| title_sort | studying undergraduate course consideration at scale |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858421991148 |
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