Digital Equity in Education — The Resources

Bolstering First-Year Success Through Digital Tools

Integrating Digital Tools into Financial Aid Outreach and Support

Texting to Increase College Access and Success: Lessons from the Field

Improving College Access Through Digital Tools

Pullias Center for Higher Education (2019)

Our Digital Equity in Education project at USC's Pullias Center for Higher Education started with a simple question: Could we make the process of applying to college and for financial aid more engaging?

Our research shows that digital tools have the potential to improve college access and success. We've identified effective strategies for digital access and impact - as well as significant barriers that can prevent the successful implementation of these tools.

Categories: College Access, Digital Equity

College-Going Culture in a Digital Era: Strategies for Schools

Pullias Center for Higher Education (2018)

High schools today have a unique challenge: to equip students with the knowledge and tools they need to prepare for, apply to and enroll in college—all while proving them with digital resources and skills essential for the 21st century. This guide by the Pullias Center’s Digital Equity in Education team provides a general overview of what a college-going culture is and how it can be created, with an optimal timeline of college-going activities, starting from eighth grade through the summer after graduation.

In addition, the guide offers tips for the digital era, from using online tools to engage students to empowering students to create content that inspires their peers to pursue a college degree.

Categories: Digital Equity, Student Success, College Access, Guides

Data Transparency For Improving College Outcomes: Findings From A First In The World Study

Samantha Bernstein-Sierra,  Zoë Corwin (2018)

This document gives a brief background on the Pullias Center’s FITW study, introduces the data challenges they encountered during the study, and presents four possible causes of these challenges based on interview and survey data.

Categories: Digital Equity, College Access

How is Technology Addressing the College Access Challenge?: A Review of the Landscape, Opportunities, and Gaps

Pullias Center for Higher Education and Get Schooled (2018)

Many digital tools aimed at helping high school students move on to college have been developed in recent years. But which tools are readily available and appropriate, especially for low-income students? This report offers a handy list, with descriptions of available tools.

Created by USC’s Pullias Center for Higher Education and nonprofit Get Schooled, the report also provides an assessment of the extent to which the technology field has substantially contributed to closing the college opportunity gap.

Categories: Digital Equity, College Access, Guides

Zooming Along: Next Steps for Data Collection

Pullias Center for Higher Education (2017)

This is a follow-up report to “From Pre to Post: Putting the Data Pieces Together” (October 2016) where we presented interim findings from data collection with students and teachers at a select group of treatment schools in the randomized controlled trial study (a rigorous research design preferred by the U.S. Department of Education).

Categories: Digital Equity, College Access

From Pre to Post: Putting the Data Pieces Together

Pullias Center for Higher Education (2016)

The Pullias Center presents a summary of the findings from a 2015 pre-Challenge survey.

Categories: Digital Equity, College Access, Student Success

Launching the Mission Admission Challenge

Joint project of the Pullias Center for Higher Education (2016)

An overview of activities conducted and lessons learned from the first two years of a project using online tools to help students prepare for college, with insights into the process of conceptualizing and implementing a large-scale practitioner-oriented research project.

Categories: Digital Equity

Technological Innovations for College Access

Zoë Corwin, Marie Groark, Keith Frome (2015)

A discussion of useful online tools, challenges, and potential ways to use technological innovations to increase college-going and completion rates.

Categories: Digital Equity, College Access

First in the World: Improving Access to College through Games, Technology, and Social Media

William G. Tierney, Zoë B. Corwin (2015)

A monograph about the Pullias Center’s project to develop and disseminate a college application game in schools across California through a Web-based platform. The project offers schools online tools to actively engage students in preparing for college.

Categories: Digital Equity, College Access

Ready Or Not, Here We Play: The Impact of Collegeology Games on College Readiness, Access and Student Success

William G. Tierney, Gisele Ragusa, Zoë Blumberg Corwin, Tracy Fullerton (2013)

The latest report on Collegeology Games.

Categories: Digital Equity, College Access, Student Success

Gaming The System: Fostering College Knowledge Through Play

Zoë Blumberg Corwin, William G. Tierney, Elizabeth Swensen, Sean Bouchard, Tracy Fullerton, Gisele Ragusa (2012)

A report to outline the development of the Collegeology Games project and share emerging research findings conducted to ascertain the effects of the games on students’ college going efficacy.

Categories: College Access, Digital Equity