Navigating Course-Sequencing Decisions and Community College Pathways for Historically Underserved Student Populations.

Course sequencing in higher education refers to the structured order of courses required for progressing toward a certificate or degree. Community college students, particularly those from historically underserved backgrounds, face a variety of challenges associated with meeting academic requirements and completing their degree. In this study, we draw from semi-structured interviews with 80 historically underserved students and 9 advisors from a high-enrollment community college to explore how historically underserved students and their advisors consider and implement course-sequencing strategies when building students’ academic schedules. Taken together, our emergent themes revealed that (1) historically underserved community college students were concerned primarily with fulfilling degree audit requirements, (2) the importance and difficulty of navigating the first semester of college, (3) the role and influence of non-curricular barriers to students’ academic success, and (4) the challenges and opportunities associated with taking online courses. Our findings suggest a potential need for institutional policies or requirements designed to ensure historically underserved students meet with their advisors at set intervals and receive evidence-based advising recommendations related to appropriate ordering and combinations of courses given their academic progress, degree program, and individual goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]