Papers by Matthew Pistilli
purdue.edu
Indiana's Twenty-first Century Scholar program aims to increase access to and success in college ... more Indiana's Twenty-first Century Scholar program aims to increase access to and success in college for low-income students around the state by providing and array of pre-college support services for income eligible students and their families. In exchange for keeping a pledge of good citizenship, students enrolled in the program receive eight semesters of public college tuition (or the dollar equivalent thereof at private institutions). This qualitative study focused on seventh through twelfth grade students enrolled in the program, their parents and/or guardians, and the staff who work in each of the 14 Twenty-first Century Scholar Support Sites. Staff members completed two online surveys, while 123 Scholars and 112 parents and guardians of scholars participated in focus groups. Three interconnected categories related to the services provided to Scholars and their parents/guardians by Site staff members and how those services met the needs of the Scholar population were revealed by the study. The first category centered on the relationships formed between parents, scholars, Site staff, schools, and scholar's peers.
This study focused on the experiences of seven women studying in the Colleges of Engineering, Sci... more This study focused on the experiences of seven women studying in the Colleges of Engineering, Science, or Technology who participated in a learning community during their first year of study at Purdue University, with learning communities defined as linked coursework, shared residence hall space, or both. The purpose was to understand those experiences that contributed to their success at Purdue, with success defined as being retained for further study at the university. Four research questions guided this study: (1) Using learning community participation as a lens, how do female STEM majors perceive their collegiate experience? (2) To what extent and in what ways did learning community participation influence academic and/or social integration? (3) What barriers did female STEM students have to overcome in order to be successful (with success meaning retained)? and (4) What characteristics or knowledge do successful female STEM majors possess and how were those characteristics developed or knowledge learned? ^ A qualitative design called an unfolding matrix (Padilla, 1991, 1994, 1999-2000, 2009) was employed. Students were invited to participate in interviews, whereupon a specific protocol was used. A matrix was completed during each interview. Each subsequent participant was able to see and comment on previous participants' experiences, and then provide their own experiences for consideration. In all, the seven women listed and described 52 distinct experiences or sets of experiences they believed contributed to their success at Purdue University. The matrix completed during the interviews served as the data set for analysis.^ Five assertions emerged from the analysis of the data: (1) Learning communities aid female students in becoming academically and socially integrated to Purdue University; (2) Female students must develop a sense of personal awareness in order to succeed; (3) The transition to and through college comes with a need for female students to learn how to learn on their own, develop intrinsic motivation, and become more independent in general; (4) students must develop good academic behavior sets in order to succeed, and these must be tailored to their individual strengths and abilities; and, (5) Female students must actively seek out and engage with other successful women in their majors, colleges, or fields.^
… ), available from http://www. educause. edu …, 2012
The future of learning is mobile, whether it is a simple delivery technology or something that en... more The future of learning is mobile, whether it is a simple delivery technology or something that enables a new method of instruction not yet possible. This is the future that many of us see. Less clear, however, are the steps necessary for getting us there, given the options for how best to deliver mobile learning applications to students.
Journal of The First-Year Experience …, 2003
The literature, to date, has not addressed the concerns of college seniors in great detail beyond... more The literature, to date, has not addressed the concerns of college seniors in great detail beyond the transition from college to career. The researchers, therefore, created an instrument, the Senior Concerns Survey (SCS), based on the literature and the stated concerns of students in interviews. In the present study,
Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference …, 2012
In this paper, an early intervention solution for collegiate faculty called Course Signals is dis... more In this paper, an early intervention solution for collegiate faculty called Course Signals is discussed. Course Signals was developed to allow instructors the opportunity to employ the power of learner analytics to provide real-time feedback to a student. Course Signals relies not only on grades to predict students' performance, but also demographic characteristics, past academic history, and students' effort as measured by interaction with Blackboard Vista, Purdue's learning management system. The outcome is delivered to the students via a personalized email from the faculty member to each student, as well as a specific color on a stoplighttraffic signal to indicate how each student is doing. The system itself is explained in detail, along with retention and performance outcomes realized since its implementation. In addition, faculty and student perceptions will be shared.
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Papers by Matthew Pistilli