Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Randomized Controlled Trial Of Koru: A Mindfulness Program For College Students And Other Emerging Adults., Jeffrey M Greeson, Michael K Juberg, Margaret Maytan, Kiera James, Holly Rogers

Jeffrey M. Greeson

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of Koru, a mindfulness training program for college students and other emerging adults. PARTICIPANTS: Ninety students (66% female, 62% white, 71% graduate students) participated between Fall 2012 and Spring 2013. METHODS: Randomized controlled trial. It was hypothesized that Koru, compared with a wait-list control group, would reduce perceived stress and sleep problems, and increase mindfulness, self-compassion, and gratitude. RESULTS: As hypothesized, results showed significant Group (Koru, Wait-List)×Time (Pre, Post) interactions for improvements in perceived stress (F[1, 76.40]=4.50, p=.037, d=.45), sleep problems (F [1, 79.49]=4.71, p=.033, d=.52), mindfulness (F [1, 79.09]=26.80, p CONCLUSIONS: Results support the …

Patron Driven Programs: Successes And Lessons Learned From Turning The Library Over To Students For A Week, Mark Robison, Rachael Muszkiewicz

Rachael Muszkiewicz

While stress relief activities in academic libraries during finals weeks are nothing new, few libraries have experimented with turning the reins over to the students. Librarians at Valparaiso University initiated a two-round ideation and voting process for students to choose their own finals week programming. First, students were asked to generate ideas for the programs they wanted to see during finals week and to share them on whiteboards in the library lobby. Second, after the most prominent suggestions had been identified, students again used the whiteboards to vote for the top eight programs: four active and four passive.

Allowing students …

Social Media For International Students – It's Not All About Facebook, Grace Saw, Wendy Abbott, Jessie Donaghey

Wendy Abbott

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discover which social networking sites international students prefer for information dissemination activities. As more libraries experiment with social networking to inform and connect with students, there is a need to determine the effectiveness of this strategy for reaching international students. The paper seeks to address three questions: what social networking sites do international students prefer and why? Which sites do they use to socialise and which do they use to gather and distribute information? How can libraries leverage this information to enhance the international student experience? Design/methodology/approach – Information on social …

Developing A Senior Capstone And Portfolio Course, Nanette Johnson-Curiskis, Daniel Cronn-Mills, Warren Sandmann

Daniel Cronn-Mills, Ph.D.

Our purpose in this essay is to explain how the Speech Communication Department at Minnesota State University, Mankato developed a senior capstone and portfolio course. We describe how this course helped the department improve its curriculum and teaching, and helped its students enhance their learning of the discipline.