Online training materials were introduced to the course production department at Rio Salado College with the intention that the use of standardized training materials would increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the online course production department. After the online training materials had been in use for approximately ten weeks, a survey consisting of ten open-ended questions was used to document the experiences of ten production team members with the training materials. The results revealed that the standardized training materials were described as valuable by the team members. The participants also made several recommendations for improving the usefulness of the training materials as to their content, organization, and availability. Recommendations for revising and updating the training materials and the ways in which they are made available are offered.

The purpose of this study was to increase first year residential student engagement and participation in residence hall programs during the 2011 fall semester at the Downtown Phoenix Campus of Arizona State University. Six upperclassmen (Taylor Place Leaders) residing in a residence hall (Taylor Place) were matched by academic major with 17 first year students residing in Taylor Place. During the first eleven weeks of the fall semester 2011, first year students met regularly with their Taylor Place Leader to discuss residence hall program participation, living in Taylor Place, attending Arizona State University, and adjusting to their academic responsibilities. All 23 program participants completed a pre-survey inquiring about their satisfaction with their decision to attend Arizona State University, residence hall involvement, and knowledge of university services. The researcher met with Taylor Place Leaders throughout the study to learn about their experiences with mentoring the first year students. At the conclusion of the study, participants met with the researcher to complete a post-survey inquiring about the same information as the pre-survey and participated in individual interviews discussing their experience in the study. Two major findings were identified. First, participants reported that the Taylor Place Experience peer mentoring program assisted first year students in adjusting to college through identifying student support resources. Second, participants reported that living on campus during the freshman year, with mentoring support, could promote academic success, compared with living at home due to the close living proximity of their peers. Taylor Place also saw an increase in residence hall program participation during the 2011 fall semester in comparison to the 2010 fall semester. However, six of the seventeen freshman study participants decided to move out of Taylor Place and live at home by the end of the 2011 fall semester, for various reasons, such as family and employment obligations as well as being homesick.

This action research dissertation study was undertaken to establish the foundation of a comprehensive evaluation component for the Turn-It-Around (TIA) workshop intervention program at Arizona State University (ASU), and was delivered in the form of a program development consultation. The study's intent was to enhance the ASU Counseling Service's departmental capacity to evaluate one of its important clinical services. The outcomes of this study included multiple assessments of TIA's evaluability and the fidelity of its implementation to its program design. The study products include a well-articulated program theory comprised of program goals, learning objectives, a detailed description of program activities, a logic model, and theoretical construct checklist documents articulating the behavioral science theory underlying the TIA intervention. In addition, instruments tailored to the Turn-It-Around intervention that are suitable for assessing program outcomes were developed and are implementation ready. TIA's clinical stakeholders were interviewed following the generation and delivery of the products and instruments mentioned above to determine whether they found the study's processes and products to be worthwhile and useful. In general, the clinicians reported that they were very satisfied with the benefits and outcomes of the program development consultation. As an action research dissertation, this study generated useful and usable collateral materials in the form of reports, documents, and models. These products are now at the disposal of TIA's institutional stakeholders for use in day-to-day business activities such as training new facilitators and liaisons, and giving presentations that describe the usefulness of TIA as an intervention. Beyond the documents generated to form a program evaluation infrastructure for Turn-It-Around, the processes involved in crafting the documents served to engage relevant stakeholders in a cycle of action research that enriched and solidified their understandings of TIA and furnished them with insight into their counterparts' thinking about the intervention and its potential to benefit the college students they are responsible for helping. Consistent with the intent of action research, the processes involved in accomplishing the objectives of this study surfaced new topics and questions that will be useful in subsequent cycles of program improvement.  

This dissertation is an action research study that had as its primary goal to increase retention of honors college students at Arizona State University by implementing an additional advising session during the fifth semester of their academic career. Introducing additional, strategically-timed support for the honors thesis and demystifying the thesis project was intended to help honors college students make more successful transitions to the final stage of their undergraduate honors careers. This advising session is not only used to demystify the thesis/creative project, but to introduce the student to the logistical elements of the thesis process. Most importantly, this session was designed to encourage students to find a focal interest for the project and to engage them in the process of identifying an appropriate director for this project. To assess the success of the early upper division thesis group advising session, students were asked to identify steps taken to begin the process early. Pre and post-intervention surveys and follow-up interviews were used to determine if the participants had taken steps necessary to complete the thesis. Questions regarding the identification of potential thesis foci, committee member selection, and research question formation were used to measure forward momentum. The early group advising session was successful in assisting 7 of the 9 participants to move one step closer to the completion of their honors thesis completion. However, the degree of movement was less than I expected or predicted. The early group advising session gave voice to our students by soliciting suggestions that might improve the session. Suggested changes included: - Maintain an optimal size group of six to eight students selected by discipline and projected date of graduation - Breakouts for students to discuss thesis topic and committee member selection strategies facilitated by faculty and honors advisors - Upper division students currently completing or who have successfully completed their thesis/creative projects made available to answer questions and provide success strategies - Specialty research librarians invited to demonstrate web based resources - Faculty approved discipline specific thesis/creative projects (models of best practice) available for review during the group intervention

Employee turnover is a pervasive issue across industries and at all levels of an organization. Lost productivity, hiring, interviewing, training and increased workloads are costs associated with turnover. As an undergraduate admissions professional charged with the enrollment of new freshmen students, I am constantly assessing the health of my team and working to minimize turnover in admission counselor positions. I implemented a six-week mentoring program in my office to increase second-year employee satisfaction, motivation, development and retention at the Arizona State University Undergraduate Admissions Office. Post intervention data were collected through the use of focus groups and self reflection questionnaires. Results show that mentoring is a mutually beneficial experience for mentees and mentors. Mentees reported benefits from the personalized dissemination of information and institutional knowledge by their mentors. Mentors reported that being in a mentoring relationship made them feel their opinions and experiences were valued. Mentoring can be an inexpensive professional development program designed to assist entry-level employees. While attrition cannot be totally eliminated from a workplace setting the study participants reported that the mentoring program made them feel valued even while acknowledging that there are limited opportunities for advancement within the office.