Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Slides: Pvid/Mwd Land Management, Crop Rotation And Water Supply Program, Ed Smith

Evolving Regional Frameworks for Ag-to-Urban Water Transfers (December 11)

Presenter: Ed Smith, General Manager, Palo Verde Irrigation District, Southern California

25 slides

An Assurance Of Learning Success Model: Toward Closing The Feedback Loop, Bonita L. Betters-Reed, Mindell Reiss Nitkins, Susan D. Sampson

Organization Management Journal

This paper provides a systemic approach to building and sustaining a solid assurance of learning program using the framework of Kotter’s (1995) Strategic Model for Transforming Organizations. A comprehensive model for launching and sustaining a systemic approach to program review that ‘‘closes the loop’’ is shared step by step. Particular attention is paid to the organizational behaviors and processes that accompany each step, and to sharing important lessons that were learned. A review of the assessment literature in higher education and recent Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) contributions to this body of knowledge identifies a critical gap …

More Than Evaluation: Student Nurses And Their Ability To Assess Online Health Resources And Verbalize Findings, Stephanie Wiegand

University Libraries Faculty Publications

Purpose The Internet poses both a frontier that represents the possibility for vast exploration and an open space that leaves patients wandering through unreliable information. The purpose of this study was to determine the abilities of first-year (Junior-standing) nursing students to choose, evaluate and then explain their findings in relation to health information on the Web.

Setting/Subjects 108 first-year nursing students in Foundations I at the University of Northern Colorado.

Methodology Content analysis of written papers.

Results Evaluation comprised of three cohorts (consisting of 36 students each) of first-year nursing students in Foundations I in their assessment of 216 websites. …

Suffering In Silence: Girls With Asperger Syndrome, Lee Wilkinson

Lee A Wilkinson, PhD

No abstract provided.

Clinical Applications Of Fmri: An Adaptation Of A Standard Neuropsychological Battery, Alina K. F. Ichimura

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to advance the utility of functional brain imaging as a tool for the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders by creating a statistical database of functional MRI (fMRI) brain activation patterns collected from neurologically and psychiatrically unimpaired subjects. Continuous fMRI scans have been obtained from each subject while s/he performed a variety of cognitive tasks that are commonly found in standard neurological and cognitive assessment batteries. The collected fMRI data has been processed, analyzed, and converted into database which can be used as a reference of reliable indices of normal brain activity patterns for …

Assessing The Value And Impact Of Digital Content, Brinley Franklin, Terry Plum

Published Works

No abstract provided.

Including An Analysis Of Difficult Behaviour In The Assessment Of Children With An Autism Spectrum Disorder: Implications For School Psychologists, Vicki Bitsika

Vicki Bitsika

School psychologists who contribute to the assessment of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are required by various Australian state government authorities to use standardised testing of cognitive skills, adaptive behaviour and some autism-based symptomatology to demonstrate the eligibility of those children for support funding in the school environment. However, this process does not always address the needs of parents and teachers for detailed and particular analysis of the reasons for the pervasive behavioural difficulties often shown by children with an ASD. Such difficult behaviour has been shown to contribute to high levels of stress among caregivers and often …

Connecting 24/5 To Millennials: Providing Academic Support Services From A Learning Commons, Anne C. Moore, Kimberly Wells

Anne C. Moore

In response to the seamless academic and personal behavior of Millennial college students, libraries are creating a learning commons in which campus academic support services are integrated with library services to provide everything students need to succeed in a single facility 24 hours a day with food. Roving may be an effective way to satisfy the immediate support needs of students collaborating in these bustling environments. A survey conducted on March 16, 2006 of users of the UMass Amherst Learning Commons (opened in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library in September 2005) provided detailed insight into who they are, how often …

Connecting 24/5 To Millennials: Providing Academic Support Services From A Learning Commons, Anne C. Moore, Kimberly Wells

University Libraries Publication Series

In response to the seamless academic and personal behavior of Millennial college students, libraries are creating a learning commons in which campus academic support services are integrated with library services to provide everything students need to succeed in a single facility 24 hours a day with food. Roving may be an effective way to satisfy the immediate support needs of students collaborating in these bustling environments. A survey conducted on March 16, 2006 of users of the UMass Amherst Learning Commons (opened in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library in September 2005) provided detailed insight into who they are, how often …

The Unexpected Rewards Of Qualitative Research In Assessment: A Case Example, Penny Singh

The Qualitative Report

This paper reports on the inclusion of an oral component of assessment in science at two tertiary institutions in South Africa. The purpose of this paper is not to report on the results of the assessments conducted, but to focus on some of the unexpected rewards of conducting qualitative research in assessment. Using focus group discussions within a qualitative framework allowed me insights into the thoughts and experiences of the students and assessors, making the benefits of oral assessment apparent. These benefits included how assessment can be used as a learning opportunity, the advantages of homogeneous versus heterogeneous groups, and …

Investigation Of The Association Between Attendance In Preschool Programs And Achievement Of Elementary School Students In Greeneville, Tennessee., Anita Marie Conner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if a difference in achievement test scores exists between students who attended preschool and those who did not as measured by standardized achievement test scores of students in the 3rd and 4th grades. The variables of grade level and gender were also considered. The population consisted of students who attended 4th and 5th grades during the 2007-2008 school year in the Greeneville City Schools. Data gathered were from Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program achievement test scores obtained from the 2006-2007 school year. Analysis of variance was used to identify any relationship between variables. …

Party With A Plan: A Guide To Hosting Events, Annie Epperson, Sarah Naper, Stephanie Wiegand

University Libraries Faculty Publications

Need to connect with your community through an outreach or assessment activity? Careful planning leads to successful outcomes. This session provides step-by-step instructions, examples, timelines, & advice for hosting events large & small. Attendee outcomes: 1) participate in activities geared towards simulating productive events, 2) receive handouts, timelines, instructions, and examples for planning events, and 3) share you own event-planning problems and successes. This session is aimed at any librarian – or anyone who works in a library – who is or will be involved in event planning. Specifically, presenters will share examples of both positive and negative experiences from …

Tools For Evaluating And Strengthening Collaborative Partnerships, Mary Ohmer, Maureen Wilce

Social Work Community Forum 2008

Topics for Today’s Workshop • Building capacity in Community Collaborations through Evaluation: Discussion • Tools for Evaluating and Strengthening Collaborative Partnerships: How the CDC uses evaluation to build capacity –Background –CDC Framework for Program Evaluation –Hands-on Exercise • Review of Evaluation Tools handout

Information Literacy Assessment: A Review Of Objective And Interpretive Measures, Penny Beile

Penny Beile

The Development Of The Santa Clara Brief Compassion Scale: An Abbreviation Of Sprecher And Fehr’S Compassionate Love Scale, Jeong Yeong Hwang, Thomas G. Plante, Kathleen Lackey

Psychology

This purpose of this study is to develop a brief version of Sprecher and Fehr’s Compassionate Love Scale (2005). This was accomplished by administering the 21-item scale to college student participants and subsequently selecting five items for a brief version. The five items were selected based on the evaluation of high correlation coefficients between individual item responses and the overall total 21 questions from the original scale, the results of factor analysis, and items that had moderate means and high standard deviations. The correlation between the original and brief version is 0.96, while the internal reliability of the brief version, …

Junior Faculty Career Development Grant [Awarded By San Jose State University], Shannon M. Staley

Shannon M. Staley

The need to assess students’ understanding of information literacy competencies has become critical to determining the effectiveness of library instruction. This is particularly true at San Jose State University, where measurement tools are not uniformly applied. Currently, many online achievement tests measure student competence at a general rather than course-specific level. This project proposes the development of an application that enables librarians to create assessment tools matching specific learning objectives of individual courses. Preliminary findings will be shared at information literacy conferences, where experts convene to exchange ideas. Harvesting feedback, the application will be further developed through additional grant funding.

Tools For The Assessment Of Undergraduate Research Outcomes, Linda Rueckert

Psychology & Gerontology Faculty Publications

The recent focus on the importance of assessment has resulted in the development of a number of tools to assess student learning outcomes (e.g. Angelo & Cross, 1993). However, most of these tools have focused on what students learn in the classroom. The outcomes of student involvement in research tend to be less well defined, and therefore more difficult to measure, than the outcomes of traditional classroom learning. Nevertheless, some of the existing assessment tools may be appropriate for the assessment of learning through research, and others have recently been developed explicitly for that purpose (e.g. Lopatto, 2004; Tariq, Stefani, …

A Self-Administered Dietary Assessment Website For Use In Primary Health Care: Usability Testing And Evaluation, Y. C. Probst, Linda C. Tapsell

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

A dietary assessment website for use in the primary healthcare setting has been developed. The website allows patients, referred from their GP, to self-report their dietary intake. Data from the website feeds to a dietitian who develops individualised dietary advice for the patient. The aim of this paper is to describe the usability testing of the dietary assessment website with its potential users. Testing was broken into two phases. Forty-two free-living adults with metabolic syndrome volunteered, 17 completed phase one and 10 completed phase two, with a 64% rate of completion. Phase one participants spoke aloud as they progressed through …

Virtual Community Consultation? Using The Literature And Weblogs To Link Community Perspectives And Health Technology Assessment, Jackie M. Street, Annette J. Braunack-Mayer, Karen Facey, Richard E. Ashcroft, Janet E. Hiller

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background  Community views, expressed in social impact assessments and collected through community consultation, should play an important role in health technology assessment (HTA). Yet HTA methodologists have been slow to include outcomes of these forms of inquiry in analyses, in part because collecting community views is time‐consuming and resource intensive. Objective  To explore how community views sourced from published studies, grey literature and informal internet web pages can inform HTA. Methods  A technology reviewed by Adelaide HTA in 2004 was selected: retinal photography for detection of diabetic retinopathy. Published literature, 'grey' literature and informal web pages were searched to examine …

In Vitro Cytotoxicity Assessment Of Selected Nanoparticles Using Human Skin Fibroblasts, Finance Dechsakulthorn, Amanda Hayes, Shahnaz Bakand, Lucky Joeng, Chris Winder

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Zinc oxide (ZnO) and Titanium oxide (TiO₂) are two chemical compound with very wide industrial and commercial applications, particularly as pigments. Due to their physical properties, both compounds are also used as sunscreen ingredients for protect from UV radiation. At the nano-scale, ZnO and TiO₂ have proven to have a similar level of protection compared to normal-scale sunscreen particles. An advantage of the topical use of nano-scale ingredients in sunscreens is their transparency compared to the white residue left on skin with normal scale particles. However, the potential toxicity of these nanoparticles is not well understood. The aim of this …

Measuring Knowledge Of Natural Selection: A Comparison Of The C.I.N.S., An Open-Response Instrument, And An Oral Interview, Ross Nehm, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

Growing recognition of the central importance of fostering an in-depth understanding of natural selection has, surprisingly, failed to stimulate work on the development and rigorous evaluation of instruments that measure knowledge of it. We used three different methodological tools, the Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS), a modified version of Bishop and Anderson's (Bishop and Anderson [1990] Journal of Research in Science Teaching 27: 415-427) open-response test that we call the Open Response Instrument (ORI), and an oral interview derived from both instruments, to measure biology majors' understanding of and alternative conceptions about natural selection. We explored how these instruments …

Comparison Of Strategic Environmental Assessment In New South Wales And Scotland, Tony Jackson, Andrew H. Kelly, Peter Williams

Faculty of Creative Arts - Papers (Archive)

The limited current application of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in New South Wales (NSW) is contrasted with its use in Scottish public sector policy formulation, following recent legislation which has extended the EU SEA Directive to all new government, agency and local authority policies, plans and programmes likely to have significant environmental effects. Drawing on Scottish practice, a case is made for statutory application of SEA to land use planning and natural resource management in NSW.

A Critical Item Analysis Of The Qabf: Development Of A Short Form Assessment Instrument, Ashvind Nand Singh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Due to the relative inability of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) to provide an accurate and reliable self-report, assessment in this population is more difficult than with individuals in the general population. As such, assessment procedures must be adjusted to compensate for the relative lack of information that the individual can provide and rely more on the behavioral expression of communication. One method commonly used is the indirect functional assessment that utilizes behavior rating scales that have been developed to gather behavioral data in a short time. One of the few empirically derived and psychometrically sound is the QABF, a …

The Initial Reliability And Construct Validity Of The Autism Spectrum Disorder-Diagnostic (Asd-Dc) In Children, Melissa Luke Gonzalez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of the present study was to examine the reliability and construct validity of a newly developed assessment scale designed to identify autism spectrum disorders in children: Autism Spectrum Disorder-Diagnostic for Children (ASD-DC). Participants were parents and caregivers of children between ages 2 and 16 years, who are typically developing or developmentally delayed. Participants were asked to complete several rating scales including the ASD-DC, a DSM-IV-TR/ICD-10 checklist, the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills in Youngsters (MESSY), and the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Version 2 (BASC-2). In Study 1, the test-retest, inter-rater, and inter-item reliabilities of the ASD-DC was …

Abbott: Istep+ Scores — It Depends On How You Look At Them, Jeff Abbott

Jeff Abbott

This paper uses control charts and trend lines to suggest that Indiana teachers may be doing a better job educating Indiana students than policy makers think.