Date of Award
2001
Document Type
Practicum
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Programs for Higher Education
Advisor
Dr. John Morgan, Jr.
Keywords
college students, default prevention, financial aid, financial aid administration, instructional design, loan repayment, student financial aid, student loan default, student loans, student rights and responsibilities, undergraduate students, workshop development, workshop evaluation
Abstract
The problem investigated was the significant increase in the college's default rate report over the past three years from 16.0 percent to 22.1 percent in 1999. If this problem persist, Herzing College could risk losing its federal aid programs. The purpose of the study was to develop a default prevention workshop for the students at Herzing College to ensure that students were well aware of their rights and responsibilities in repaying their student loans.
A literature review was conducted to examine issues concerning financial aid with special emphasis being placed on the prevention of students defaulting on student loans. The review of literature was also conducted to examine the differences in the many different instructional design models. The research questions addressed specific information that should have been included in the workshop and which instructional design model should be used to guide the development of the workshop. The criteria for the workshop was based on information taken from the review of literature and input from a formative committee. A formative committee was established to provide relevant input on the problem and to provide feedback during the development of the workshop. The formative committee consisted of two senior high school students, three undergraduate students, and two financial aid administrators. A summative committee was established to ensure that the both the criteria and the content used in the development of the workshop were valid. The summative committee consisted of two experts in default prevention, one expert in financial aid, and one school administrator. The initial draft of the workshop was developed by the researcher and with input from the formative and summative committee. After necessary revisions had been made to the initial draft, the draft of the workshop was then provided to the summative committee for validation purposes. Their feedback was collected and used to finalize the default prevention workshop. Their input was incorporated into the final draft and given to the College President and the Director of Financial Aid for review and approval. Two conclusions were made from this study. First, this study revealed that the workshop provided students with more in depth clarity in understanding their rights and responsibility to their loan and second, as a result, this would allow students to plan more effectively in the prevention of defaulting on their student loans. Five recommendations were made from this study. First, a recommendation was made to test a small sample group to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the default prevention workshoр. Second, it was recommended that the workshop be conducted at the beginning of each semester for the purpose of increasing awareness and educating students about their financial aid obligations. Third, it was recommended that further research be investigated on the correlation between college freshmen and defaulters. Fourth, it was recommended that as changes in policies and procedures concerning financial aid occur, the workshop's content and terminology needs to be updated. Fifth, it was recommended that the final product be shared with the default prevention manager and the financial aid administrators because of their involvement with the financial aid process.