Skip to Main Content

Archive

Research Report
September 30, 2024

Exploring the Landscape of College and Community Reentry Partnerships

Now that federal Pell Grant funding has been reinstated for learners who are incarcerated, the field is in flux. Higher education in prison programs are adapting and developing their practices to meet new policy and regulation needs. Two major facets of the revised regulations for Pell funding are particularly critical for college in prison programs, namely the requirement to track and report student data, and the obligation to document how they or their partner organizations provide reentry services.
Research Report
August 22, 2024

US Instructor Survey 2024

Findings from a National Survey

As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, the landscape of higher education continues to evolve. Ithaka S+R's 2024 US Instructor Survey sheds light on how college instructors are adapting, with a renewed focus on diverse teaching and learning modalities. Adapted from the US Faculty Survey we have fielded regularly since 2000, this iteration offers a valuable snapshot of the shifting dynamics in college teaching.
Research Report
August 1, 2024

Governance and Business Models for Collaborative Collection Development

To be effective, library collaborations focused on collection development need to be responsive to the changing landscape of scholarly resources as well as the evolving nature of research, teaching, and learning. The purpose of this report is to further increase our understanding of the governance and business characteristics of collaborative collection development initiatives, and how the attributes of different business models can affect the outcomes of collaborations.
Research Report
July 25, 2024

Perceptions of Academic Freedom in Teaching

Findings from a National Survey of Instructors

Since 2021, people across the political spectrum have become preoccupied with questions of free speech and censorship on college campuses, and state legislators have driven the proliferation of new policies that limit spending and programming related to DEI and alter academic autonomy or shared governance arrangements. Against this backdrop, we included a short block of questions centered on academic freedom in a national survey of US instructors at four-year colleges and universities.
Research Report
July 16, 2024

Exploring Basic Needs Support Across Public and Community College Libraries

Opportunities for Collaboration

There are many intersections between public and community college libraries, both in the populations they serve and their functions within their local communities. Both types of libraries play a crucial role in supporting the diverse needs of their communities, serving as hubs for education, information, and essential services. Maximizing partnerships between public and community college libraries therefore presents a significant opportunity.
Research Report
June 20, 2024

Generative AI and Postsecondary Instructional Practices

Findings from a National Survey of Instructors

Understanding how instructors are (or are not) using generative AI in their classrooms is vital because most college and university guidelines leave decision making about how, when, and if generative AI use is permitted to the discretion of individual instructors. To gain insight into evolving instructional practices, we included a short four-question section dedicated specifically to generative AI as part of a national survey of instructors.
Research Report
June 4, 2024

Assessing the Civic Campus

The Link Between Higher Education and Democracy

This landscape review focuses on the link between higher education, civic engagement, and democratic attitudes and behaviors. We explore three research questions: 1) What is the impact of postsecondary education on civic engagement and democratic attitudes and behaviors? 2) How have researchers defined, operationalized, and measured civic engagement in the context of higher education? 3) How are postsecondary institutions and key stakeholders institutionalizing civic engagement as part of their curricular and co-curricular programming?…
Research Report
May 9, 2024

Removing the Institutional Debt Hurdle

Findings from an Evaluation of the Ohio College Comeback Compact

This report provides findings from the evaluation of the pilot year of the Ohio College Comeback Compact, an institutional debt cancellation program being implemented at eight public institutions in northeast Ohio. Administrative holds preventing re-enrollment leave students unable to realize the benefits of a postsecondary credential. Fortunately, a number of initiatives and policies, including the Ohio College Comeback Compact, have sought to alleviate this barrier for students.
Research Report
May 9, 2024

Second Chances

A Qualitative Assessment of the Ohio College Comeback Compact

While the rise of institution-specific debt forgiveness programs and state-level policies limiting transcript withholding is encouraging, a regional or national approach could benefit returning students on a wider scale. In response, Ithaka S+R developed a regional solution, the Ohio College Comeback Compact, which launched in August 2022, to address the problems posed by institutional debts and provide stopped-out students with an opportunity to complete their credential and have their debt forgiven.
Research Report
April 3, 2024

Between Two Systems

Navigating Censorship and Self-Censorship in Higher Education in Prisons

Building on our previous research on the ways that media review directives and censorship policies may limit or protect student access to intellectual and education material, as well as on the technology students on the inside can access for educational purposes, this report explores how educators in higher education in prison programs navigate censorship and self-censorship and how the relationship between educational programs and departments of corrections may have an impact on the educational experience and learning outcomes of students.
Research Report
March 28, 2024

Censorship and Academic Freedom in the Public University Library

Research libraries are expected to provide and preserve collections in support of their institutions’ research and teaching priorities and to support long-term access to cultural, historical, and scientific works. In today’s polarized political environment, both libraries and universities have been at the heart of controversy. In this project, we examine some of the impacts of this polarization at public research university libraries.
Research Report
March 14, 2024

The Research Data Services Landscape at US and Canadian Higher Education Institutions

While many universities have made substantial investments in research data services and are likely to continue to make further investments, obstacles such as decentralization and inefficiency, insufficient staffing, lack of technical expertise, and ambiguity about the needs of researchers continue to limit the impact of these investments. In light of these persistent challenges, Ithaka S+R revisited our 2020 inventory of data services and expanded our scope to include Canadian universities.
Research Report
January 29, 2024

The Second Digital Transformation of Scholarly Publishing

Strategic Context and Shared Infrastructure

The scholarly publishing sector is undergoing its second digital transformation. The first saw a massive shift from paper to digital, but otherwise publishing retained many of the characteristics of the print era. In this current second digital transformation, many of the structures, workflows, incentives, and outputs that characterized the print era are being revamped in favor of new approaches that bring tremendous opportunities, and also non-trivial risks, to scholarly communication. It is our objective with this paper to examine the…
Research Report
November 9, 2023

Institutional Supports for Students with Stranded Credits

Survey Results from the Ohio College Comeback Compact

As of 2023, 43.6 million borrowers owe more than $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. The burden of debt negatively impacts borrowers' ability to provide for their families, purchase a car, or buy a home. However, there is another, often overlooked, institutional debt that students may owe their former institutions after stopping out. It is estimated that 6.6 million students owe $15 billion in unpaid balances to their institutions.
Research Report
September 19, 2023

Print Revenue and Open Access Monographs

A University Press Study

What happens to print sales when an OA edition of a scholarly monograph is also available on publication? This is the central focus of this report, which is authored by members and representatives from the Association of University Presses and Ithaka S+R. Beyond exploring the question of the role of print sales in OA monograph publishing, we will also touch briefly on how print sales fit into the overall financial equation of a sustainable OA book model.
Research Report
September 7, 2023

Technology in Higher Education in Prison Programs

A Report on Survey Findings

In an effort to make visible the national landscape of access to educational technology in prison education programs, Ithaka S+R launched a national survey in the fall of 2022. The survey asked respondents about student access to technology in their higher education in prison program, collecting demographic information before focusing on four thematic areas: technological devices, learning management systems and software, network connection and internet access, and future technology plans.
Research Report
September 7, 2023

Technology in Higher Education in Prison Programs: Key Findings and Figures

This report includes the key findings from the technology in higher education in prisons survey that Ithaka S+R fielded in 2022. The survey focused on four thematic areas: technological devices, learning management systems and software, network connectivity or internet access, and future information technology plans.
Research Report
August 15, 2023

Of Meetings and Members

The Interconnected Future of Conferences and Scholarly Societies

As the pandemic recedes into memory, societies find themselves at a crossroads. For several years, the decision to hold hybrid or virtual meetings was dictated by outside forces: it has now become a question of societies’ priorities, mission, and values. It is too early to tell whether the virtual meetings of 2020-22 were anomalies, but a casual observer might reasonably describe the “new normal” as nearly identical to the old one. A closer view suggests a more nuanced picture.
Research Report
May 16, 2023

MAAPS Advising Experiment

Evaluation Findings after Six Years

MAAPS is a large-scale randomized-controlled trial designed to validate the effectiveness of intensive, proactive, technology-enhanced advisement in increasing achievement, persistence, and completion of historically underserved students. This final report on the project presents impact findings for the intent-to-treat effect of MAAPS advisement on participating students’ outcomes for the final analytic sample of 10,037 students and at each participating institution after six academic years.
Research Report
April 24, 2023

Common Scholarly Communication Infrastructure Landscape Review

Scholarly communication is the process through which research products and outputs (such as articles, audiovisual materials, data, code, and research methods) are created, assessed, improved, shared, disseminated, and preserved in a variety of modes including through formal and informal publications, conferences, and other academic networking methods. Shared infrastructure is a key enabler for delivering the services that authors and readers need. It is composed of standards, platforms, technologies, policies, and the communities that enable and support them.