No abstract

Unlike the studies of freshmen entrants, the learning experiences of community college transfer (CCT) students in the receiving university is a topic that has only started to gain attention in recent decades. Little is known about the differences between CCT and freshmen entrants with regard to their study workload stress and its relationship with their perceptions of the teaching and learning environment, approaches to learning, self-efficacy and generic skills. The purpose of our study was to address this gap. This was a cross-sectional survey study conducted from April 2018 to November 2018 in a university in Hong Kong. The HowULearn questionnaire was adapted to local usage and validated for data collection. In total, 841 CCT students and 978 freshmen entrants completed the survey. The respondents were aged between 19 and 52 years (mean = 21.6, SD = 1.92), and 66.0% were women. The HowULearn questionnaire was determined by factor analyses to have eight factors. The reliabilities of the eight factors were found to be acceptable (Cronbach alphas = 0.709-0.918). The CCT students scored significantly higher than the freshmen entrants for perceived study workload stress and surface approaches to learning, but lower on teaching for understanding & encouraging learning, peer support, and self-efficacy beliefs. The surface approach to learning, deep & organized studying, alignment & constructive feedback, and generic skills were found to be predictors of study workload stress in both groups of students, and in the overall student data. This study has shown that CCT students and freshmen entrants differed with regard to their study workload stress and learning experiences. Our findings provide a message, both for educators in higher education and policy makers in the government-there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to different student populations when it comes to enhancing their learning experiences.

Psychological wellbeing is vital to public health. University students are the future backbone of the society. Direct and transfer entrants might encounter different adjustment issues in their transition from secondary school or community college to university studies. However, worldwide, the factors affecting their active coping and satisfaction with the university are currently unknown. The purpose of this study was to address this gap. Nine-hundred-and-seventy-eight direct entrants and 841 transfer entrants, recruited by convenience sampling, completed a cross-sectional survey study in 2018. A valid and reliable Hong Kong modified Laanan-Transfer Student Questionnaire (HKML-TSQ) was used to collect data. Multiple methods of quantitative data analysis were employed, including factor analyses, test of model fit, t-tests, correlations, and linear regression. The results showed that the transfer entrants had relatively less desirable experiences in their adjusting processes than did the direct entrants. There was evidence of both common and different factors affecting the two groups’ active coping and satisfaction with the university. Different stakeholders from community colleges, universities, and student bodies should work collaboratively to improve students’ transitional experiences before, during and after admission to the university.

Post-secondary admission and community college (CC) transfer are two common routes of entry to baccalaureate study. Previous studies comparing the academic performances of native and transfer students have generated inconsistent findings, and furthermore they were largely conducted in Western educational contexts. This study compared the workloads, grade point averages (GPA) and attrition rates of native and transfer students in an Asian educational context. Various measures related to GPA, credit load and attrition rate were collected from the institutional dataset of a Hong Kong university in 2019; this dataset contained records of 14,141 native students and 7,308 transfer students enrolled between 2012 and 2018.Results show that the transfer students experienced transfer shock and had heavier study loads but lighter non-academic loads than the native students. Despite the transfer shock, they attained a higher award GPA and had a lower attrition rate than their native counterparts. Discussion and implications are presented, in relation to transfer shock and transfer student success. In particular, this paper argues that CC education does not necessarily produce academically inferior degree-seeking students and that CC transfer is a viable pathway to baccalaureate study.

Background. A patient- and assessor-blinded randomized controlled trial was conducted to examine the effectiveness of auricular transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) in relieving posthysterectomy pain. Method. Forty-eight women who had undergone a total abdominal hysterectomy were randomly assigned into three groups (n = 16 each) to receive either (i) auricular TENS to therapeutic points (the true TENS group), (ii) auricular TENS to inappropriate points (the sham TENS group), or (iii) 20 minutes of bed rest with no stimulation (the control group). The intervention was delivered about 24 hours after the operation. A visual analogue scale was used to assess pain while resting (VAS-rest) and upon huffing (VAS-huff) and coughing (VAS-cough), and the peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) was assessed before and at 0, 15, and 30 minutes after the intervention. Result. As compared to the baseline, only the true TENS group reported a significant reduction in VAS-rest (P = .001), VAS-huff (P = .004), and VAS-cough (P = .001), while no significant reduction in any of the VAS scores was seen in the sham TENS group (all P > .05). In contrast, a small rising trend was observed in the VAS-rest and VAS-huff scores of the control group, while the VAS-cough score remained largely unchanged during the period of the study. A between-group comparison revealed that all three VAS scores of the true TENS group were significantly lower than those of the control group at 15 and 30 minutes after the intervention (all P < .02). No significant between-group difference was observed in PEFR at any point in time. Conclusion. A single session of auricular TENS applied at specific therapeutic points significantly reduced resting (VAS-rest) and movement-evoked pain (VAS-huff, VAS-cough), and the effects lasted for at least 30 minutes after the stimulation. The analgesic effects of auricular TENS appeared to be point specific and could not be attributed to the placebo effect alone. However, auricular TENS did not produce any significant improvement in the performance of PEFR.