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- Chaturapruek, Sorathan, et al.
(author)
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Studying Undergraduate Course Consideration at Scale
- 2021
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In: AERA Open. - : Sage Publications. - 1924-3642 .- 2332-8584. ; 7:1, s. -16
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- 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.
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| 2. |
- Dalberg, Tobias, 1985-, et al.
(author)
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Major Selection as Iteration : Observing Gendered Patterns of Major Selection Under Elective Curriculums
- 2024
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In: AERA Open. - : Sage Publications. - 1924-3642 .- 2332-8584. ; 10:1, s. 1-17
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Social scientists have long recognized field of study as an important mechanism of gender differentiation and stratification in U.S. higher education, but they have rarely attended to how elective curriculums mediate gender differentiation in major selection. Under elective curriculums, major selection is an iterative process, in which students select courses in stepwise fashion at the beginning of each academic term, and are able to change majors early in their undergraduate careers. We observe how an elective curriculum mediates gendered patterns of major selection, using a novel data set describing 11,730 students at a large public research university. We find (a) gender and intended major are strongly correlated upon college entry; (b) large proportions of students change majors between entry and declaration; (c) because most changes are to academically adjacent fields, gendered patterns in field of study persist through the undergraduate career. Findings suggest the value of an iterative conception of major selection and offer tractable means for intervening in the process through which students select majors.
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