Digital Commons Network^™

Caring 4 The Kids Of Chs, Courtney Williams

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

The purpose of my project is to spread awareness, knowledge, and spread the excitement I had from doing this. The biggest takeaway from this experience is that it is very easy to help someone. It doesn't take much all of my supplies was from the dollar store. I was more excited about the kids seeing my creative skills than anything. I also want to normalize the fact that people struggle and its a human thing. Sometimes we need help and it is very much okay to give without expecting something back in return.

Giving Puppies A Second Chance: Our Experience With Save A Life Pet Rescue, Camryn Marie Baker, Leandra Bodden, Breanna Lenz, James Sproull, Rafael Toranzo

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

Our group of five chose to volunteer with Save A Life Pet Rescue for our LDR 3215 class. We helped over 50 dogs get adopted in the span of 4 months. Our time was spent working adoption events, advocating for no-kill shelters, and encouraging the community to engage in adopting and/or fostering dogs. Digitally, we created a brand new logo for the organization that will be used for all of their future advertisements. As a group, we discovered ways to improve the quality of life for dogs that are in the process of finding homes. We were also able to …

A Comprehensive Approach To Supporting Homeless Communities Through Free Clinical Screenings, Nivedha Srinivasan, Ria Gupta, Manasi Prakash

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

Hearts for the Homeless Orlando is a part of an international organization that is “focused on eliminating health disparities through practicing preventative healthcare and providing free healthcare services.” At each event, free heart health and eye health screenings and education are given to the homeless population in Downtown Orlando. Once arriving at the screening location (Christian Service Center), a table is set up with 2 blood pressure monitors, the KardiaMobile EKG Monitor, hand sanitizing wipes, germicidal wipes, gloves, and pamphlet handouts. These supplies help volunteers understand the health conditions of the individuals who visit to the site, and allow volunteers …

Clean The World: A Mission For Global Sanitation, Anisha B. Bissessar, Ahmad Shaqqou

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

This presentation dives into our experience volunteering at Clean the World, an organization that recycles hygiene products to deliver to families across the world who don't have access to them. We learned more about what it means to be a servant leader through the welcoming and uplifting atmosphere the people working there created for us.

Serving Knights Pantry, Baylee Behrens, Brendan Myers

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

Throughout this semester, we were both weekly volunteers at the Knights Helping Knights Pantry, a food pantry on the UCF campus that provides free food for current students. Our duties included processing donations, stocking the shelves, greeting students at the front desk, answering phone calls, and operating the checkout station. Our LEAD Scholars course taught us a lot about connecting our leadership styles with our spiritual beliefs. Being able to support this organization in its mission to provide students with free accessible food was something that we greatly enjoyed, and that allowed us to be involved with something that aligned …

Brain Fitness Academy: Making Impacts, Ella Shams, Susan Kampiyill, Estefania Zamarripa

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

Throughout the Fall, 2023 semester, we volunteered at Brain Fitness Academy (BFA). In doing so, we set out on a project to bring more creative arts into the classroom, as countless studies have shown that creative arts greatly help individuals with memory loss. During our time at Brain Fitness, we incorporated arts using a painting lesson in which members’ moods greatly improved, members were engaged, and happy to be doing the activity. We explored how creative arts can truly help those with memory loss, in particular painting. In the end, we found that creative arts and dementia have a strong …

Combatting Social Isolation In Greater Orlando, Rishi Nair, Nicholas Mistry

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

The state of Florida is home to one of the largest retiree and Veteran populations in the country. As people age, they are more prone to suffer from physical and mental conditions that preclude their ability to live a fulfilling life. This could result in social isolation and loneliness, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We partnered with Seniors First’s Project Connect program to improve social interactions among the elder community with virtual trivia events. These weekly games helped us identify areas of emotional need, such as improving self-esteem, introducing memories of seniors' lives when they were younger, …

Empowering Futures: Matthew's Knights Of Distinction Leadership E-Portfolio In Academic Excellence, Matthew A. Hernandez

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

My presentation centers on my E-Portfolio, seamlessly incorporating three key milestones from the Knights of Distinction program into significant events. Beginning with a brief personal introduction, I shared why I became a physics major, and explored the roots of my passion for space. Utilizing a visual aid, my poster board, I elucidated each focus area and its relevance to my aspirations and societal contributions. The first focus area was Citizenship and how I attended an “Industry BBQ” with the hopes of gaining valuable information to share it with other engineers. The second focus area was about leadership and my role …

Low-Dose Prednisone Or Methylprednisolone In Treating Patients With​ Newly Diagnosed Acute Gvhd​, Dillon C. Hill, Melanie Obsina, Juan Sanchez, Jordan Genco, Vihan Yalamanchili

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

Graft Versus Host Disease affects less than 20,000 cases per year and our project aims to give those who experience this terrible disease a better outcome and more manageable pain. The clinical trial that this data is collected from analyzes low-dose prednisone versus the standard dose and how that affects both morbidity and progression of the disease to Stage III-IV. This clinical trial has many clinical implications as it shows that reducing the dosage of commonly used treatment methods can sometimes have positive effects even though it is the standard to use a certain dose. This clinical trial found that …

7 Cups Therapy, Allie Mccutcheon, Jasmine Awad

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

The purpose of this project is to showcase our service learning experiences from volunteering with 7 cups. 7 Cups is a therapy website that provides free emotional support and talk therapy to those who really need that help. Jasmine and I created a 7 cups listener account where we would log onto the 7 cups portal and find a member who needs help. This whole website is all anonymous in order to protect the listeners and the members identities. Jasmine and I would chat with members and figure out what seems to be troubling them and how to combat that …

Animal Welfare And Conservation: The Ecological Impact Of Outdoor Cats, Angela F. Dauber

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

In September 2023, I began volunteering at Pet Alliance Orlando. Pet Alliance is one of the largest animal welfare organizations in central Florida, and it consists of two shelters in Sanford and downtown Orlando. I performed 16 hours of service as a “Kitty Cuddler” volunteer this semester. Though I have lots of experience with cat rescue service, I learned a lot about how Pet Alliance works and how their adoption services intersect with their other services such as their pet food pantry, veterinary care, and trap-neuter-vaccinate return programs. In addition to my service, I researched the ecological effects of outdoor …

Examining The Role Of Cteg Using Drosophila, Jadaya V. Davis, Om Patel, Sebastian Velez

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

This project focused on creating viable drosophila models that could be used to evaluate and understand the significance of the N-tarp portion in the effector genes of Chlamydia Trachomatis. During our project we performed multiple DNA clean ups, PCR's, gel electrophoresis, double digestions, and DNA ligations. In this we learned not only the methodological importance within these laboratory techniques but that a great deal of learning occurs in being able to evaluate and analyze ways to troubleshoot when intended results from an experiment are not observed.

How Initiative Inspires Togetherness, Mekhai Ryan

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

The purpose of this project was to make a lasting change on our respective communities. During my process of completing this project, I engaged in activities, such as, food drives, community cleanups, be involved in the planning of our 3rd annual community parade, etc. While participating in this project, I learned that seeing other people happy makes me happy and want to contribute more to their happiness. I learned that being a good example in the community, urges others to want to do the same thing for others as well. I volunteered for the Pine Hills Safe Neighborhood Partnership, and …

Meeting Minutes 11-15-2023, Staff Advisory Council

Staff Advisory Council Meeting Documents

No abstract provided.

Ai, Cataloging & Metadata, Sai Deng

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This presentation explores the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on cataloging and metadata, presenting examples of AI-based cataloging. It provides a few examples of utilizing ChatGPT, Bard and Bing Chat Enterprise for tasks such as creating a MARC record, classifying a book and assigning thesaurus terms. The discussion covers AI’s potential in cataloging and metadata within the library field, along with its advantages and disadvantages. It also addresses how cataloging and metadata professionals should navigate the integration of AI in this new environment. The initial presentation took place at the University of Central Florida Libraries’ AI Interest Group meeting, and …

The Protopopovs, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Just about a week ago, the Russian Skating Federation announced the death of Oleg Protopopov. He and his wife, Ludmila Belusova, who died in 2017, were the first of the many great Russian pairs figure skaters who came out of the Soviet Union to initiate the international Soviet dominance in pairs figure skating. The Protopopovs elevated pairs skating to new levels of artistry, consistently performing as near to perfection as humanly possible.

Supplemental Material: Undergraduate Research Programs For Stem Transfer Success: A Multi-Institutional Approach, Kimberly R. Schneider

High Impact Practices

No abstract provided.

The 5-Ps Of Jumpstarting Open Assessment Creation With Generative Ai, Rebecca Mcnulty, Lily Dubach, James R. Paradiso

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI trained on Large Language Models to generate text) has exploded into the digital learning space. As the need for Open Educational Resources (OER) also continues to grow, generative AI can jumpstart aspects of OER creation. This presentation will consider barriers to OER adoption, including the availability of supplemental teaching resources, and will propose a use case for leveraging AI text-generation to support best practices for creating unique assessment questions. Through the “5-Ps,” – Problem, Past, Present, Possibilities, and Product – we will consider the ways that adopters, adapters, and authors of OER can use generative AI …

Bobby Knight, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Late last week, the news of the death of Robert Montgomery Knight was announced. I have let this news settle while traveling and also because I didn’t want to make too hasty a response. Those who have read this column over several years may be familiar with my views on the late great basketball coach. Over the last few days, I have been reading obituaries and tributes, as well as going back to read my own writing on Bobby Knight that dates back into the late 1990s. My last piece on his legacy was written when Knight retired from coaching …

The Power Flower: Inclusion And Diversity Activity, Marwa Younes

Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository

The strategy, titled ‘The power Flower: Inclusion and Diversity Activity’, is designed to enhance students' awareness of multiple intersecting identities that they have. It can be used for fostering inclusion and promote diversity in a classroom. It encourages students to accept others and work with others with respect.

The Scoop, Vol. 10 Issue 8, November 2023, Health Sciences Library

Volume 10

Latest news and updates from the Health Sciences Library in our monthly newsletter for November 2023.

Our Digital Accessibility Journey: Charting An Inclusive Path In An Academic Library, Bobby Ciullo, Lee Dotson, Sara Duff, Missy Murphey, Rachel E. Trnka

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Florida Association Of College & Research Libraries Conference Presentation: Throwback Thinking Integrating Archives Into Student Engagement Activities, Chereeka Garner, David Benjamin, Renee Cole Montgomery

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This is a presentation that was presented (virtually) at the Florida Association of College and Research Libraries (FACRL) annual conference in October 2023.

The session outlined the process, from planning to execution, for creating collaborative student engagement activities between two unlikely partners in an academic library. In recent years, the University of Central Florida Libraries has hosted several joint activities between the Student Learning & Engagement and the Special Collections & University Archives departments. These events combined active learning and engagement strategies with self-guided learning. While Student Learning & Engagement staff routinely create and host these types of engagement activities, …

Meeting Minutes 10-18-2023, Staff Advisory Council

Staff Advisory Council Meeting Documents

No abstract provided.

Keeping The Light On: Academic Librarians & Burnout (Conference Presentation), Jason D. Phillips, Laura Pitts, Jessica Riedmueller, Joanna Warren

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

There is substantial research about sources of burnout among academic librarians; however, very little addresses the impact of the local environment. Responding to regional and institutional shifts while still trying to uphold the values of librarianship such as providing confidential and free access to information can quickly lead to mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion, classic symptoms of burnout. A panel discussion was hosted at the Arkansas Library Association (ArLA) / Southeast Library Association (SELA) Joint Conference, on Saturday, October 14, 2023. Academic librarians from different Southern states discussed their local environments, their libraries’ responses to recent events, and their strategies …

Turning Usability Study Observation Into Actionable Improvements, Katy A. Miller, Athena R. Hoeppner

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Usability studies can produce copious datasets that can be challenging to turn into actionable findings. Recorded usability tests, with participants completing multiple tasks, often result in lengthy videos packed with details. The raw observations and data need to be interpreted and contextualized to translate them into real-world improvements for your users. This article describes a study with recorded sessions and how the authors interpreted the findings to inform a variety of changes in their library and discovery service.

University Of Central Florida Libraries - Organizational Chart, Ucf Libraries

Libraries' Documents

No abstract provided.

The Scoop, Vol. 10 Issue 7, October 2023, Health Sciences Library

Volume 10

Latest news and updates from the Health Sciences Library in our monthly newsletter for October 2023.

Using Generative Ai To Remove Barriers In Support Of Open Content Creation, Lily Dubach, Rebecca Mcnulty, James R. Paradiso

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Open content, such as textbook-length open educational resources (OER) or smaller pieces like an assignment, can offer numerous benefits to students by being free, diverse, and effective replacements for traditional textbooks, but there are limited open resources and difficulties creating new open content. This poster explores how generative AI can remove these barriers, enabling instructors to have time and support to create and use open content in their courses. By highlighting use cases, attendees will see how to do this approach in their own classroom, regardless of modality or discipline. Important considerations will be addressed, including usage, sharing, and ethics. …

Meeting Minutes 09-20-2023, Staff Advisory Council

Staff Advisory Council Meeting Documents

No abstract provided.