The college textbook is the most commonly required component of almost any college course, regardless of a student's academic discipline. Professors often expect students to have access to the textbook and to use it to complete assigned readings. Textbooks often contain features that are designed to facilitate active reading, or critical engagement with the information being read, to enhance learning of the material. However, students often do not read or prioritize reading the textbook. Students who do read, tend not to read the textbook as intended or use many of the features designed to promote active reading and enhanced learning of the material. Educational studies of textbooks tend to focus on aspects related to topics more relevant to publishers or professors with less research on aspects of the textbook applicable to students at the college level. The purpose of this study is to evaluate students' textbook use and their attitudes toward the textbook in an introductory biology course. Results of this study indicate students hold positive attitudes toward their textbook in an introductory biology course and majority of students do not use components meant to facilitate active learning. Although students report completing assigned readings, students may actually be reading select portions of what is assigned in using the textbook to prepare for exams. These results suggest that students may only be using their textbook to enhance their understanding of materials they expect to be tested on. The findings of this study help to understand the role of the textbook from the perspective of the student and provide insight for improving textbook design and use in science courses at the college level.

Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a well-known non-remedial academic support program for high-risk courses, not students. The program offers regular SI study sessions open to all students, and attendance is voluntary. SI has been shown to decrease the number of failure and withdrawals and to increase students' grades by one half to a full letter grade. A recent study has shown that SI bridges the gap in achievement between students who enrolled in college with low prior achievement and students with high prior achievement. Another study has shown that students of different academic abilities can all benefit from SI. It is well established in the education literature that perceived self-efficacy is an accurate predictor of academic performance and retention in college. Many of these studies have defined perceived self-efficacy as the belief in one's ability to excel in a task or achieve a goal. While many studies tackle the effectiveness of SI and its benefits to SI attendees and SI leaders, no prior study has examined the role of SI in fostering self-efficacy. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between perceived self-efficacy, attendance to SI sessions and academic performance. The hypothesis of this study is that attendance to SI sessions will increase students' self-efficacy. The SI participants in the high attendance group had marginally significant changes in self-efficacy while the SI participants in the low attendance group and the non-SI participants did not have significant changes in self-efficacy. The results from this study showed promising outlook that SI might be fostering self-efficacy and enhancing students' academic achievement. Additional studies are required to provide deeper insights into the role of supplemental instruction in fostering self-efficacy.