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Today's college students grew up with digital news media and social media readily available on their smartphones. As a result, students are likely to use their smartphones to access the news through social media where partisan misinformation is easily spread. Efforts to combat the spread of misinformation on social media are being explored on several fronts, including media literacy programs. While media literacy is not a cure-all for the problems posed by misinformation, it is helpful for instructors to understand how adept U.S. college students are at assessing the credibility of the news on their phones and the influence political polarization has on the students' news consumption. This study addresses how 206 undergraduate students at a regional university in the Southwestern United States interact with social media, consume the news, and determine which news articles to believe. It offers insights into the role media literacy may have in addressing the issue.

Improved educational technology provides new opportunities and tools for enhanced teaching and learning. However, low efficacy with technology adversely affects nontraditional students' course and college outcomes. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine nontraditional student perceptions of educational technology tools. We thematically coded 10 discussion forums and 239 analyses of 125 student-selected tools. This article highlights traditional student voices and presents a list of tools organized by purpose, the template used by students to analyze tools, and student perceptions of tools. Discussed major themes comprise a wide breadth of tools and purposes, differing experiences in applying theory to practice, and tools supporting learning and interaction in multiple domains.

Many Americans dream of completing a college degree, positively influencing wages and economic mobility. The number of students entering college or returning to college later in life is growing. Up to 75% of university enrollments are comprised of students in one or more of the following circumstances: 25 years old or older, attend school part-time, work full-time, parents. These students, described in the literature as non-traditional or post-traditional students, have different needs from traditionally-aged students. The award-winning Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences (BAAS) program, in Texas State University's Department of Occupational, Workforce, and Leadership Studies (OWLS), provides a pathway for post-traditional students to earn a college degree. This article features the voices of post-traditional students and discusses background information as context. The work of Malcolm Knowles and his ideas about andragogy serve as a framework for analyzing the BAAS program as well as implications and future.