Strategies to Increase Course Completion Rates in Lower-Level, High-Enrollment Classes

With an increase in performance-based funding based on credit hours, retention, and graduation rates, administrators seek strategies to increase course completion rates in low-level, high-enrollment courses. This report examines pedagogical strategies implemented within the classroom to increase course completion rates in gateway courses. It also examines how administrators identify qualities that indicate experience and motivation to improve students’ success when hiring new faculty.

Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences 2004 Book of Abstracts

In his work entitled The Advancement of Learning (1605), Francis Bacon expresses the need for students and their teachers to push beyond current knowledge by testing accepted theories, developing new paradigms, and discovering new information. The abstracts in this booklet are clear examples of how students and faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences are advancing knowledge in a variety of disciplines. From the analysis of particular proteins to the examination of various literary themes, the students whose scholarly endeavors are represented in this booklet pursued research projects that have explored new ideas; and their teachers have helped them to achieve their goals by providing expert guidance in the field of study, by challenging students to excel, and by encouraging them as they developed their ideas. Students and faculty should be very proud of the work reflected in these abstracts. These individual efforts and collaborations reveal what is best about Winthrop University as a learning community.

Interview with Jane West

Abstract: In her July 15, 2013 interview with Martha Manning, Jane West details her time at Winthrop as a Biology major in the 1960s. Briefly, West discusses student life and Winthrop traditions, but she provides insight into her life student teaching at Florence High School. Additionally, West includes her experience in required courses like English and Math, as well as experiments conducted in her Biology courses. West concludes the interview with her overall perceptions of Winthrop. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections Oral History Program.