When a global crisis impacts nearly every industry, education is always one of the most impacted as students and faculty must frantically try to maintain their educational programs throughout uncertain times. Beyond the educational courses themselves being shifted online or to hybrid approaches, there must be a focus on the impact on students as well. With newfound ways of learning, new online environments, and new methods for teaching, students are greatly impacted by the changing face of education. The traditional ways in which students have been served and assisted have changed rapidly, and to make matters even more challenging, students must handle both living in a time of crisis while adapting to swift educational transformations. The dissemination of best practices and maintaining student success during global crises is an area of research that is not only growing in interest but is critical in pandemic times. Strategies for Student Support During a Global Crisis reflects on how educational professionals have worked with students during global crises, how serving and teaching students have been impacted, and the best practices for student success in both online education and hybrid formats. The chapters will include topics such as mentoring models, teaching methods, educational technologies, teacher insights, academic support services, and more. This book is ideal for educational professionals, leaders, school administration, teachers, teacher educators, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the best strategies for supporting students and promoting student success during global crises.

Even as the number of students attending college has more than doubled in the past forty years, it is still the case that nearly half of all college students in the United States will not complete their degree within six years. It is clear that much remains to be done toward improving student success. For more than twenty years, Vincent Tinto’s pathbreaking book Leaving College has been recognized as the definitive resource on student retention in higher education. Now, with Completing College, Tinto offers administrators a coherent framework with which to develop and implement programs to promote completion. Deftly distilling an enormous amount of research, Tinto identifies the essential conditions enabling students to succeed and continue on within institutions. Especially during the early years, he shows that students thrive in settings that pair high expectations for success with structured academic, social, and financial support, provide frequent feedback and assessments of their performance, and promote their active involvement with other students and faculty. And while these conditions may be worked on and met at different institutional levels, Tinto points to the classroom as the center of student education and life, and therefore the primary target for institutional action. Improving retention rates continues to be among the most widely studied fields in higher education, and Completing College carefully synthesizes the latest research and, most importantly, translates it into practical steps that administrators can take to enhance student success.

Universal Design in Higher Education looks at the design of physical and technological environments at institutions of higher education; at issues pertaining to curriculum and instruction; and at the full array of student services. Universal Design in Higher Education is a comprehensive guide for researchers and practitioners on creating fully accessible college and university programs. It is founded upon, and contributes to, theories of universal design in education that have been gaining increasingly wide attention in recent years. As greater numbers of students with disabilities attend postsecondary educational institutions, administrators have expressed increased interest in making their programs accessible to all students. This book provides both theoretical and practical guidance for schools as they work to turn this admirable goal into a reality. It addresses a comprehensive range of topics on universal design for higher education institutions, thus making a crucial contribution to the growing body of literature on special education and universal design. This book will be of unique value to university and college administrators, and to special education researchers, practitioners, and activists.