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Full-Text Articles in Education

Leadership And Innovation Program, Connie Reimers-Hild Nov 2012

Leadership And Innovation Program, Connie Reimers-Hild

Connie I Reimers-Hild, PhD, CPC

No abstract provided.


In The Loop: One Librarian's Experiences Teaching Within First-Year Learning Communities, Nancy Frazier Oct 2012

In The Loop: One Librarian's Experiences Teaching Within First-Year Learning Communities, Nancy Frazier

Nancy Frazier

Unique as snowflakes, learning communities are formed in countless ways. Some are designed specifically for first-year students, while others offer combined or clustered upper-level courses. Most involve at least two linked courses, and some add residential and social components. Many address core general education and basic skills requirements. Learning communities differ in design, yet they are similar in striving to enhance students' academic and social growth. First-year learning communities foster experiences that have been linked to academic success and retention. They also offer unique opportunities for librarians interested in collaborating with departmental faculty and enhancing teaching skills. This article will …


Business Issues In Online Education, Stephen Schiffman Jul 2012

Business Issues In Online Education, Stephen Schiffman

Stephen Schiffman

What are the key business issues institutions are trying to solve in sustaining and growing their online programs? What “value-adding” attributes of online education are as perceived not just by individual learners but more generally by customers and markets? These are some of the topics explored in the report “Business Issues in Online Education” (forthcoming in Elements of Quality Online Education: Engaging Communities, Volume 6 in the Sloan-C series) funded by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and based on my conversations this past year with over 50 interviewees at 25 online programs at eleven prominent not-for-profit higher …


Aln Business Models And The Transformation Of Higher Education, Gary Miller, Stephen Schiffman Jul 2012

Aln Business Models And The Transformation Of Higher Education, Gary Miller, Stephen Schiffman

Stephen Schiffman

The ways institutions have structured their initial innovation with online learning vary greatly. Initial business model decisions present different challenges in terms of how institutions will integrate online learning. This paper looks at several common business models and the opportunities and challenges that each presents to institutions that want to fully integrate online learning.


Business Models For Online Learning: An Exploratory Survey, Karen Vignare, Christine Geith, Stephen Schiffman Jul 2012

Business Models For Online Learning: An Exploratory Survey, Karen Vignare, Christine Geith, Stephen Schiffman

Stephen Schiffman

Despite the rapid growth in the adoption of online learning, there is a dearth of detailed information on effective business models, business strategies and effective practices on which to build sustainable online education programs. A survey instrument was developed as an initial attempt to define business models and business strategies for online learning. The survey results yielded some interesting data about which online learning financial models seem to have more or less "control" of which business functions. The sample was a convenience one and as such will require further filtering of data. It is also clear that more needs to …


Identifying Successful Business Strategies For Distance Learning, Christine Geith, Stephen Schiffman, Karen Vignare Jul 2012

Identifying Successful Business Strategies For Distance Learning, Christine Geith, Stephen Schiffman, Karen Vignare

Stephen Schiffman

Despite the rapid growth in the adoption of distance education, and asynchronous learning networks in particular, there is a dearth of detailed information on effective business models, business strategies and effective practices on which to build sustainable online education programs. What has been published on the business side of online education tends to focus on the costs and economic models, the growing for-profit sector, and new organizational approaches such as spin-offs and virtual university consortia. There are very few detailed, descriptive studies focused on the business models, strategies and effective practices of online education in U.S. degree-granting institutions.


Savor The Word To Reinforce Vocabulary In The Content Areas, Ezra Stieglitz, Varda Stieglitz Apr 2012

Savor The Word To Reinforce Vocabulary In The Content Areas, Ezra Stieglitz, Varda Stieglitz

Ezra L Stieglitz

Success in the content area is determined mainly by the degree to which students master important concepts. This grasp of concepts is the major goal of instruction in all the content areas regardless of the modes of presentation such as reading from a textbook, viewing a filmstrip, or listening to a lecture. Along with concept development, the subject matter teacher must recognize the importance of words, whether printed or spoken, to content area learning. Words and content are inseperable. As Allington and Strange (1980, p. 143) state, "identifying a set of key concepts is primarily a task of identifying the …


Effects Of A Content Area Reading Course On Teacher Attitudes And Practices, Ezra Stieglitz Apr 2012

Effects Of A Content Area Reading Course On Teacher Attitudes And Practices, Ezra Stieglitz

Ezra L Stieglitz

Efforts have been made during the past 10 years to develop the teaching skills of secondary teachers In the area of reading. Not just those designated as reading specialists but other secondary teachers have been called upon to devote more attention to reading skill development in their classes.


The Learning Commons As A Locus For Information Literacy, Sharon Weiner, Tomalee Doan, Hal Kirkwood Mar 2012

The Learning Commons As A Locus For Information Literacy, Sharon Weiner, Tomalee Doan, Hal Kirkwood

Hal P Kirkwood Jr

Many institutions of higher education are designing spaces to facilitate learning. Libraries have created information or learning commons to support this activity. This article draws from the literature and best practices to explore this new direction. Academic libraries have focused on student learning and the teaching of skills and strategies that develop information literacy competency. Although there is an assumption that learning commons facilitate student learning, there is a need to more closely connect this new environment with information literacy and pedagogy and to demonstrate its merits in enhancing learning. A basic premise is that each learning commons that is …


Balancing Yin And Yang, Roger Clark, Angela Lang Mar 2012

Balancing Yin And Yang, Roger Clark, Angela Lang

Roger D. Clark

The first three-quarters of the semester flew by. We learned about quantitative data analysis and I loved it. I really enjoyed the numerical manipulations and seeing how it all related to people. Everything was there in front of me. Not too much imagination on my part was really needed. Then it all ended. Professor Clark introduced qualitative methods and the anxiety began. I soon realized I had to reinvent my creative side, which is something that as an undergraduate I am not required to do very often. I was nervous that I would discover that I was not creative at …


Open Adoption Of Infants, Deborah Siegel Mar 2012

Open Adoption Of Infants, Deborah Siegel

Deborah H Siegel

Adoptions today increasingly include contact between adoptive and birth families. What do these "open adoptions" look like? How do the participants feel about them? This article, based on part of a longitudinal study that first examined adoptive parents' perceptions of their infants' open adoptions seven years ago, explores the parents' reactions now that their children are school age. This qualitative descriptive research revealed changes in the openness in the adoptions over time and identified four dimensions along which open adoptions vary. Findings showed parents' enthusiasm for the openness in their adoptions, regardless of the type and extent of openness. Implications …


Existing Specialty Schools As Leverage For Behavioral Sciences Research On Teaching And Learning In Stem Fields, Christopher Kolar, Heather Sondel Jan 2012

Existing Specialty Schools As Leverage For Behavioral Sciences Research On Teaching And Learning In Stem Fields, Christopher Kolar, Heather Sondel

Christopher G. Kolar

The National Science Foundation has requested comments and proposals that outline challenge questions for the next decade in behavioral sciences research. At the same time, the NSF has joined the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology as well as the National Academy of Sciences in issuing reports first identifying the need for specialized STEM education as a strategic necessity and then proposing the establishment of an additional 1000 specialized STEM schools. A common theme in these reports is that foundational work must be conducted to establish effective organizational and instructional practices for these schools. The authors of this …


Tourism And Self-Orientalism In Oman: A Critical Discourse Analysis, William Feighery Dec 2011

Tourism And Self-Orientalism In Oman: A Critical Discourse Analysis, William Feighery

William Feighery

It is established in the literature that touristic images of the Orient are grounded in Occidental authority and dominant global power relations. Scholars have suggested that indigenous image creators in the Middle East continue to read from an Occidental script, perpetuating oppositional perspectives of us and them, the familiar and the strange, the dynamic and the atrophied – fuelling the development of neo-Orientalist tourist sites/sights. This paper explores the extent to which such scripting continues to persist in official representations of rentier states in the Arabian Peninsula. Through a critical discourse analysis of the Omani tourism promotional film Welcome to …


Designing, Developing And Implementing A Software Tool For Scenario Based Learning, Geoff Norton, Taylor Matt, Terry Stewart, Greg Blackburn, Audrey Jinks, Bahara Razdar, Paul Holmes, E Marastoni Dec 2011

Designing, Developing And Implementing A Software Tool For Scenario Based Learning, Geoff Norton, Taylor Matt, Terry Stewart, Greg Blackburn, Audrey Jinks, Bahara Razdar, Paul Holmes, E Marastoni

Greg Blackburn

The pedagogical value of problem-based and inquiry-based learning activities has led to increased use of this approach in many courses. While scenarios or case studies were initially presented to learners as text-based material, the development of modern software technology provides the opportunity to deliver scenarios as e-learning modules, providing learners with a more accessible and engaging learning experience. Scenario Based Learning - interactive (SBLi) has been specifically developed to provide teachers and trainers with a generic tool that enables them to easily build interactive, multimedia scenarios without requiring programming skills. The software consists of a builder and player application, for …