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A central ideal of liberal arts education is to support students in their intellectual exploration and self-discovery beyond the goal of securing employment. In U.S. higher education, this ideal is embodied in the elective curricular model, which encourages students to explore a wide range of disciplines before committing to one. However, in practice, academic decision making under this model is often characterized by overwhelming choices, limited guidance, and decision outcomes that are consequential to timely graduation and career success. Despite these challenges, research on how students navigate academic decisions has been limited, largely due to the lack of tools to observe decision processes at an adequate scale.
This dissertation leverages advances in digital technologies and artificial intelligence to develop course information platforms that can both support and investigate academic decision making. On the one hand, course information platforms can give students access to relevant, accurate, and diverse academic information to inform their decision making. On the other hand, these platforms can collect granular behavioral data on students' decision processes for formal research investigation. The research begins by mapping the landscape of academic decisions in higher education and proposing a new lens for understanding academic decisions as the combination of a learning process and a logistical one. Through a series of empirical studies, it examines how course information tools can be designed to support students' exploration of courses, academic pathways, and career destinations. The findings show that supporting academic exploration is not as simple as making diverse information available; it requires nuanced, research-informed design that helps students make sense of information and make it relevant to their evolving interests and goals. Ultimately, this dissertation highlights the complexity of academic exploration under the elective model and offers actionable insights for the development of academic decision support tools, advising programs, and institutional policies that aim to support diverse and purposeful academic decisions.
