Education Commons^™

Healthy Families: A Family-Based Community Intervention To Address Childhood Obesity, Danae Dinkel, Melissa Tibbits, Emily Hanigan, Kelly Nielsen, Leah Jorgensen, Kay Grant

Health and Kinesiology Faculty Publications

The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Healthy Families, a family-based community intervention, in improving the knowledge, self-efficacy, and health behaviors of overweight/obese children and their families as well as to explore the lessons learned. Results showed families who completed the program had significant improvements for children and parents in areas such as nutrition knowledge and self-efficacy in making healthy eating choices as well as participating in physical activity. Additionally, families reported decreasing their intake of sugar-sweetened beverages. Participating families and community partners provided valuable lessons for other communities seeking to implement a similar program.

In Search Of A Better Understanding Of Social Presence: An Investigation Into How Researchers Define Social Presence, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Chareen Snelson

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research on social presence and online learning continues to grow. But to date, researchers continue to define and conceptualize social presence very differently. For instance, at a basic level, some conceptualize social presence as one of three presences within a Community of Inquiry, while others do not. Given this problem, we analyzed how researchers in highly cited social presence research defined social presence in an effort to better understand how they are defining social presence and how this might be changing over time. In this article, we report the results of our inquiry and conclude with implications for future research …

Exploring The Impact Of Undergraduate Intramural Sports On Undergraduate Students’ Perceived Sense Of Community: A Multiple Regression Analysis, Nathan Penland

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Research has shown benefits to the student experience for college students when they participate in intramural sports on university campuses. These benefits include improved physical and social health as well as academic performance. This non-experimental, predictive correlational study sought to understand if a relationship exists between the predictive variables of length and frequency in intramural sports and sense of community as the criterion outcome with undergraduate students on private liberal arts campuses. Participants were undergraduate students from two institutions of similar size, and sense of community was measured by Chavis, Lee, and Acosta’s (2008) Sense of Community Index 2 (SCI-2) …

Research Express News, Georgia Southern University

Research Express News (2013-2021)

• Georgia Southern to Co-host a Research Community Forum in Augusta, GA

We Are One: Singing, Sisterhood, And Solidarity In Appleton-Area Women's Choirs, Lauren Vanderlinden

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Despite its relatively small population, the city of Appleton has a large and thriving women’s choir community. Between the Lawrence Academy of Music Girl Choir, which serves hundreds of girls every year, and Cantala, the women’s choir at Lawrence University, opportunities for involvement in nationally-recognized female-voice ensembles range from second grade all the way through to college graduation. Using the theories of Foucault, Bourdieu, Butler, Green, and Bentham, this project explores the women’s choir culture of Appleton in an attempt to discover the core values of these two influential programs. I accomplished this by conducting ethnographic research in the form …

Research Express News, Georgia Southern University

Research Express News (2013-2021)

• NIH to impose grant cap to free up funds for more investigators
• Georgia Southern to Co-host a Research Community Forum in Augusta, GA

Research Express News, Georgia Southern University

Research Express News (2013-2021)

• Georgia Southern to Co-host July in Georgia: a Research Community Forum in Augusta, GA

Ouachita Celebrates 20th Anniversary Of Tiger Serve Day On April 1, Katie Smith, Ouachita News Bureau

Press Releases

Ouachita Baptist University celebrates the 20^th anniversary of Tiger Serve Day this Saturday, April 1. Ouachita’s Ben M. Elrod Center for Family and Community coordinates the semiannual event in which hundreds of students, faculty and staff join together to serve members of the community.

This semester’s Tiger Serve Day will embrace its roots with the theme “Into the Streets,” which was the theme for the first Tiger Serve Day in 1997. Ian Cosh, vice president for community and international engagement, began planning the first Tiger Serve Day in 1996. However, plans for the event took an unexpected turn when …

Mathematics For Human Flourishing, Francis Su

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Why does the practice of mathematics often fall short of our ideals and hopes? How can the deeply human themes that drive us to do mathematics be channeled to build a more beautiful and just world in which all can truly flourish?

Student Support Networks In Online Doctoral Programs: Exploring Nested Communities, Sharla Berry

Benerd College Faculty Articles

Aim/Purpose: Enrollment in online doctoral programs has grown over the past decade. A sense of community, defined as feelings of closeness within a social group, is vital to retention, but few studies have explored how online doctoral students create community.

Background: In this qualitative case study, I explore how students in one online doctoral program created a learning community.

Methodology: Data for the study was drawn from 60 hours of video footage from six online courses, the message boards from the six courses, and twenty interviews with first and second-year students.

Contribution: Findings from this study indicate that the structure …

Why Service-Learning?, Audrey Trussell, Katie Elliott

Division of Community Engagement Resources

Data from VCU's "High Impact Practices (HIPS) Assessment Model: 2015-16 Pilot Mid-Year Report" offers three compelling reasons for why service-learning matters for student success.

2015-2016 Service-Learning Impact Measure Report, Samantha Poelstra

Division of Community Engagement Resources

The VCU Service-Learning Office distributes the Service-Learning Impact Measure (SLIM) at the end of every semester to evaluate the impact of service-learning classes on student learning. Results are used to guide professional development opportunities, as well as to further improve the quality of and recruit additional tenure-line faculty members to teach designated service-learning classes.

Different Tools For Different Tasks: Strategies For Assessing Student Learning From Civic Engagement At The Student, Program, And Institutional Levels, Lynn E. Pelco

Division of Community Engagement Resources

This presentation was given at the SCHEV Civic Engagement Education and Assessment meeting on June 9, 2017.

2015-16 Service-Learning Impact Measure Report (Infographic), Audrey Trussell, Katie Elliott

Division of Community Engagement Resources

No abstract provided.

The Harvest Is The Best Teacher, Gayle Mallinger, Molly Kerby

Faculty Publications

As the national climate and attitudes toward local organic food progressed in the United States, farmers markets, school and community gardens, and campaigns to increase vegetable consumption among children and adolescents skyrocketed. Unfortunately, many communities are beginning to realize disparities exist in poverty-stricken neighborhoods in term of access to fresh produce, education, and food programs This narrative follows a community garden project over three years at the Boys & Girls Club in a semi-rural city in Kentucky. Participants prepared the garden site, planted seeds, and harvested vegetables as part of a Junior Master Gardener program in the afterschool and summer …

The Role Of Community Sports Clubs In Adolescent Mental Health: The Perspectives Of Adolescent Males' Parents, Diarmuid Hurley, Christian F. Swann, Mark S. Allen, Anthony D. Okely, Stewart A. Vella

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Adolescent males are at relatively high risk of developing mental health disorders and show low rates of help seeking when mental health disorders arise. Parents are the primary source of support for adolescents and therefore have an important role in mental health promotion and prevention of mental health disorders. The aim of this study was to examine the perceptions of adolescent males' parents on the potential role of community sport clubs in adolescent mental health promotion. Forty-six parents of adolescent males took part in 10 focus groups to investigate parents' mental health knowledge, beliefs and attitudes, perceptions of the role …

Taking A Community Approach To Curriculum Change, Sarah E. Dalrymple, Anna Jo Auerbach, Elisabeth E. Schussler

CTL Teaching Gallery

Many undergraduate institutions are reforming their courses to increase student engagement. A critical challenge in these efforts is to engage the academic community beyond the instructors in the process of change. At our university, we embraced this challenge by creating a volunteer community of faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates to design the discussion curricula for a new introductory biology sequence. We report on this process of curriculum development using a case study approach and describe how the community created the new curriculum and how they perceived the outcomes of the process. Our findings indicate that this curriculum design approach …

Community Mobilization For Hiv Testing Uptake: Results From A Community Randomized Trial Of A Theory-Based Intervention In Rural South Africa, Sheri Lippman, Torsten Neilands, Catherine L. Mac Phail, Dean Peacock, Suzanne Maman, Dumisani Rebombo, Rhian Twine, Amanda Selin, Hannah Leslie, Kathleen Kahn, Audrey Pettifor

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background: HIV testing uptake in South Africa is below optimal levels. Community mobilization (CM) may increase and sustain demand for HIV testing, however, little rigorous evidence exists regarding the effect of CM interventions on HIV testing and the mechanisms of action.

Methods: We implemented a theory-driven CM intervention in 11 of 22 randomly-selected villages in rural Mpumalanga Province. Cross-sectional surveys including a community mobilization measure were conducted before (n = 1181) and after (n = 1175) a 2-year intervention (2012–2014). We assessed community-level intervention effects on reported HIV testing using multilevel logistic models. We used structural equation models to explore …