Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Considerations For Measuring The Impact Of Policy-Relevant Research, Megan Collado, Lauren Gerlach, Caroline Ticse, Katherine Hempstead

The Foundation Review

Philanthropy, and the research and analysis it supports, has an important role to play in informing policy and making government more effective. Yet all too often, foundations and other research funders struggle to understand whether and how their investments have affected policy.

This article highlights the findings of an 18-month pilot project conducted by AcademyHealth to help the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation better understand the impact of a subset of the foundation’s research grants, across investment types, on health insurance coverage and health reform, and to help inform how the foundation may more systematically track and measure the impact of …

Closing The Assessment Loop In The Basic Communication Course, Claire H. Procopio

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Participation in the learning-outcome assessment is an important expectation of most communication teachers. Considerable communication research has been devoted to defining assessment, identifying what is assessed, and determining how best to do assessment (Morreale, Backlund, Hay, & Moore, 2011). The National Communication Association (NCA) recently announced the publication of Learning Outcomes in Communication (NCA, 2015). This case study explores how a program, one new to learning-outcome assessment in the basic course, overcame common challenges with implementing assessments. The case illustrates how to use assessment data meaningfully and offers specific strategies that individual communication instructors, course directors, and assessment leaders can …

The Forgotten Library Standard: Sacscoc Comprehensive Standard 3.3.1.3, Charles L. Brown, Cara S. Marco

Georgia Library Quarterly

Academic libraries have a mission that is intimately connected to the mission of the college or university, and institutional effectiveness is the means by which they measure their success at achieving that mission. Institutional effectiveness is also an essential part of maintaining a university’s regional accreditation and access to Title IV funds. In the Southern region of the United States, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on College (SACSCOC) maintains regional accreditation for higher education institutions, and SACSCOC Comprehensive Standard (CS) 3.3.1 specifically addresses institutional effectiveness. To comply with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on …

Using O*Net To Develop A Framework Of Job Characteristics To Potentially Improve The Predictive Validity Of Personality Measures, Jeremy Burrus, Jason D. Way

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

It has long been theorized that we can improve prediction of job-related behavior from measures of personality by identifying job characteristics that allow for the expression of individual differences (e.g., Mischel, 1968). Using O*NET data, the current paper develops a framework for job characteristics that could improve the extent to which we can predict behavior from personality. More specifically, it investigates relationships between Work Styles, Generalized Work Activities, and Work Context variables. Job characteristics varied in importance as a function of four Work Styles composites: achievement, people orientation, stability, and attention to detail, and the relationships were largely …

Approaches To Diversity Education: A Critical Assessment, Thomas W. Brignall Iii, Thomas L. Van Valey

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The idea that differences in race, gender, religion, sexuality, age - or other categories deemed unworthy of group inclusion shouldn’t matter when it comes to people’s access to all that a society has to offer is central to the teaching of diversity. Diversity courses can be powerful vehicles, not only for teaching students about social change and reclaiming the principles of past and present civil rights leaders, but also for refuting the notion that we already live in a largely egalitarian society.

This paper examines what a small sample of diversity texts employ with respect to key concepts and definitions. …

Teaching, Learning, And Assessment: Insights Into Students’ Motivation To Learn, Simon R. Walters, Pedro Silva, Jennifer Nikolai

The Qualitative Report

This study draws upon the perspectives of sport and recreation undergraduate students in New Zealand who were involved in the design of their own assessments, and discusses the implication of the teaching and learning environment on this process. In a previous study, student criticism had emerged of current teaching strategies and assessment methods at their institution. The purpose of this current study was to directly address some of these concerns and for lecturers and students to work collaboratively to develop a more learner-centred teaching and learning environment. Students from a second-year sociology of sport paper were invited to design their …

Hbcus: Accreditation, Governance And Survival Challenges In An Ever-Increasing Competition For Funding And Students, Jerry Crawford Ii

Journal of Research Initiatives

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are facing challenges to their continued existence on several fronts. One is fiscally, as federal funding for education has been cut and the responsibility for paying for higher education has been levied on students and parents. Another challenge is the amount of endowment dollars available to them and lastly, there are questions today as to if HBCUs are still needed in a society that has allowed African-Americans to enroll in Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). Both of these challenges are contingent on the most critical issue – accreditation. The loss of accreditation of units and …

Altmetrics And Archives, Elizabeth Joan Kelly

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Altmetrics are an alternative to traditional measurement of the impact of published resources. While altmetrics are primarily used by researchers and institutions to measure the impact of scholarly publications online, they can also be used by archives to measure the impact of their diverse online holdings, including digitized and born-digital collections, digital exhibits, repository websites, and online finding aids. Furthermore, altmetrics may fill a need for user engagement assessments for cultural heritage organizations. This article introduces the concept of altmetrics for archives and discusses barriers to adoption, best practices for collection, and potential further areas of study.