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• Pre-college outreach programs can improve college access for underrepresented students. • The literature on pre-college programs specifically for foster youth is scant. • This paper provides an overview of NSEP, National Social Work Enrichment Program. • College students with high self-efficacy are more likely to achieve their academic performance goals. • Participants voiced an increased sense of efficacy in navigating the college campus, sharing their feelings, and increased belief in the possibilities of college. Although foster youth desire to attend college, many experience barriers to enrollment. Pre-college programs have been shown to improve college access for underrepresented students. Little is known about the impact of pre-college programs designed for foster youth. Researchers have found that youth who participate in experiential programs have an increased sense of self-efficacy. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory study was to lift the voices of youth who participated in a six-week pre-college program called the National Social Work Enrichment Program (NSEP). Thematic analysis was employed to explore the experiences of youth. This manuscript focuses on a subset of data from the larger qualitative study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, most universities had to switch to "emergency online learning". At the same time, academics were in search of means to combat "the infodemic", a wave of misinformation rolling over the world, affecting social and political life, and undermining efforts to deal with the pandemic. In the framework of emergency online learning, we propose an educational sciences undergraduate online course addressing fake news illiteracy by giving students an insight into the form and effects of fake news with a focus on framing. The course was built upon current fake news research and the problem-based learning approach. The research questions addressed students' perceptions of critical design elements, their fake news credibility test performance, and their academic achievement. A total of N = 102 undergraduate students participated in the course. Among various design elements, students indicated that online communication and feedback was most appealing. On the other hand, for future course iterations, they suggested improvements to the task descriptions. Fake news credibility decreased significantly (F (1, 36) = 62.64, p < 0.000, partial η 2 = 0.64) and final course papers were on average good to very good, indicating strong academic achievement. The study suggests that problem-based online courses can be appropriate learning environments, even in the context of "emergency online learning" and, furthermore, that they can serve as an instrument for combating fake news illiteracy. • We address emergency online learning and infodemic during Covid-19 pandemic. • We review current literature on online news cognitive processing and problem-based instructional design. • We design, develop and test an educational sciences undergraduate online problem-based course on fake news. • Student feedback on the appeal of certain design elements was mostly positive; improvements of others were suggested. • Student fake news credibility assessment strongly improved; course papers reflected good to very good academic achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flipped classroom is a relatively new model in education that primarily focuses on learner-centered instructions. In other words, the model allows both management and teachers to build a more active and dynamic learning environment on the campus. The current paper tries to document the implementation of the flipped classroom model in two big data courses. Here, the course contents have been curated from a couple of websites with different contents including videos and short books as well as reports. The mixed-method approach was applied while analyzing the student perceptions in demographically two different groups. It was found that students of both groups responded positively to the flipped classroom, with each focusing on their specific goals. Consequently, the first group focused on the academic achievement whereas the second group with managerial jobs focused on solving problems in their workplaces. Students of both groups, although preferred TED talks and documentaries, they were opposed to university-like videos and O'Reilly short books and reports. Meanwhile, the use of English language contents turned out to be both a challenge and an opportunity for students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]