Digital Commons Network^™

Leveraging Neurodivergent Design Students To Co-Design Education And Develop A Resource For Inclusive Teaching, Karina Bhattacharya, Sabir Khan

Learn X Design Conference Series

This research advocates for a shift towards inclusive teaching practices in industrial design education. Neurodivergent industrial design students and recent graduates were leveraged as experts in their lived experiences to promote inclusivity. This study investigates what recommendations the neurodivergent participants could co-design toward inclusive teaching practices. Seven participants (graduate design students) from a North American institution were asked to share their background, comment on the state of industrial design education, and articulate what an inclusive version could be in the future through interviews and co-design workshops. Thematic analysis revealed 6 themes: (1) Interest: engaging in projects that interested them, (2) …

“Dear My Friend:” Reflective Letter-Writing To Gain Deeper Insights From Design Students, Koray Gelmez

Learn X Design Conference Series

Reflective practices have become an integral tool in design education, bridging technical skill-building with emotional and cognitive improvement. This study investigates the use of reflective letter-writing as a pedagogical approach for a first-year design studio course, where sophomore students wrote letters to incoming freshmen. These letters provided an opportunity for students to share their experiences, insights, and advice, creating a reflective space that deepened their connection with their learning processes. The study draws on qualitative data from 25 design students collected over two years, employing thematic analysis to uncover themes in the letters. The findings revealed two main categories: themes …

Now We Know: Findings From A Critical Pedagogy Experiment On The Nature Of Codesign Knowledge, Azadeh Jalali, Lucia Londoño Davalos, Frederick Van Amstel

Learn X Design Conference Series

When learning codesign, design students often find themselves in the anxious position of not knowing whether they know codesign. Codesign' emphasis on shared knowledge and facilitation stands in contrast to the individual knowledge and mastery cultivated by expert design, with which students are more familiar. Critical pedagogy, an emergent approach in design education that emphasizes developing critical consciousness of the contradictions behind design, is a promising candidate for learning the shared nature of codesign knowledge. To verify this possibility, this research conducted a critical pedagogy experiment with graduate design students in the United States supported by the Blind Side gamestorming …

Applying Intersectional Theory In Design As A Practice Of Raising Awareness In Design Education, Federica Caruso, Venanzio Arquilla

Learn X Design Conference Series

This paper examines the integration of intersectionality theory into design education to foster critical awareness. Intersectionality, which acknowledges the interconnectedness of multiple identities and systemic oppressions, challenges traditional design paradigms that often perpetuate biases and exclusion. This research aims to prioritise inclusive design, focusing on its integration into meta-design. In this context, "meta-design" indicates a methodological approach to reframing design briefs (problem-framing). Research on problem-framing, which directly influences decision-making, often incorporates biases that lead to superficial efforts to address inclusivity. It is imperative to address awareness, power dynamics and prejudices at the beginning of the design process to mitigate them. …

Designing Playful Education: A Game Changing Matrix To Rule ‘Em All, Letizia Vaccarella, Giulia Teverini, Annamaria Recupero

Learn X Design Conference Series

Games have transcended their role as mere entertainment tools evolving into powerful mediums for driving meaningful change. Whether addressing environmental sustainability, health promotion, or educational engagement, these games for change hold immense transformative potential. But the successful design of this type of games requires consideration of several aspects (context, objectives, participants, game elements), and there are no structured methods available yet to support this process. To fill this gap, this paper introduces the Game Changing Matrix, a novel methodology developed to support the design of games aimed at meaningful transformation. Building on the frameworks of the MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics, and …

Everyday Interactions With The Tecnosphere: A Critical Educational Path, Annapaola Vacanti, Alessandro Lodovini

Learn X Design Conference Series

Contemporary design risks becoming irrelevant or complicit in a technocratic agenda that prioritizes evidence over values unless future designers are trained to critically understand technology and its impacts on social, economic, political, environmental, and psychological structures. What role does design play in this process? What stance will tomorrow’s designer embrace? These questions form the backbone of the Theories and History of Design course at Università Iuav di Venezia, which focused on the transformation of everyday actions mediated by technology. At the sociological level, two perspectives collide: a critical approach that acknowledges risks to individual freedoms and a techno-optimist view that …

Open Systems, Shared Practices: A Case Study For Postdisciplinary Design Education, Johannes Pointner, Albert Lang, Marc Pfaff

Learn X Design Conference Series

The M.A. Design & Computation program exemplifies the establishment of interactive learning frameworks that prioritize self-directed and collaborative approaches to knowledge production. Developed as a joint initiative by the Berlin University of the Arts and the Technical University of Berlin, the program integrates participatory design methodologies, iterative processes, and decentralized structures to address the complexities of contemporary challenges. Through key components, such as teaching, its spatial design, and its extended institutional framing, the program creates a dynamic environment where students engage in postdisciplinary collaboration and critically reflect on emerging technologies and societal issues. This paper explores how these interactive frameworks …

Exploring The Role Of Design To Support Interdisciplinary Research In Higher Education Institutions, Rute Harada, Nina Costa, Johannes Goessling

Learn X Design Conference Series

This paper explores how design approaches can enhance interdisciplinary research in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Through a review of fourteen recent articles (2019-2024), we analyze challenges, institutional barriers, and existing methods for measuring interdisciplinary research. Our findings reveal that while interdisciplinary research has advanced significantly, it continues to face substantial challenges across cognitive, emotional, and institutional dimensions. The analysis suggests three key areas where design can contribute: fostering collaborative research cultures, developing integrated research methods, and enhancing cross-disciplinary communication. This research identifies critical gaps in current understanding and proposes directions for future investigation, including developing systematic measurement methods and conducting …

Framework For Ethical Worldbuilding With Solidarity-Driven Co-Design, Laura Cechanowicz, Steven Zuiker, Michelle Jordan, Ed Finn, Ruth Wylie

Learn X Design Conference Series

Diversity is a fundamental resource in co-design processes; however, centering wide-ranging participants around a design rather than individual, disciplinary, or other forms of expertise can be challenging. Expanding the scope of design to include the entanglements of temporality and community amplifies these challenges. Addressing these challenges requires a reconfiguration of the fundamental relationships between designers, researchers, research participants, collaborators, and the land and place where research and design outcomes occur, including a deeper form of engagement with communities. Despite the substantial groundwork existing approaches have developed, emerging efforts challenge us to conceptualize an ethical approach for recognizing, working with, and …

The Idea Design Scaffold: Empowering Novice Designers With Systemic And Sustainable Design Education, Ioannis Xenakis, Despoina Grigoreli

Learn X Design Conference Series

Designing for complex sociotechnical systems challenges novice designers, requiring them to align abstract systemic priorities with actionable functional goals. The IDEA Design Scaffold (IDEAS) addresses this by integrating hierarchical goal-setting, systemic affordances (SysAf), and iterative feedback loops into a structured framework. At its core, the Iterative Innovation Cycle (IIC) guides designers through iterative exploration and refinement, enabling the evolution of foundational affordances into innovative solutions that balance operational clarity with systemic priorities. IDEAS organizes design goals across Systemic Levels (SL), helping students deconstruct high-level objectives into actionable subgoals while maintaining systemic alignment. SysAf emerges dynamically, linking functional feasibility with broader …

Social Action, Service Learning, And Youth Development, Joan Arches

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

University service-learning students worked with middle school youth in a social change project addressing positive youth development and civic engagement. Based on their knowledge of positive youth development theory and British Social Action, they facilitated a weekly group in which the youth identified combatting oppression by teachers (adultism) for their project. They discussed the problem, designed surveys, analyzed the data, and presented their findings. The youth demonstrated individual competencies and connected with adults while they learned to work collectively in a community change project.

Book Review: Building Playgrounds, Engaging Communities: Creating Safe And Happy Places For Children. Lima, M. (2013) Baton Rouge, La: Louisiana State University Press., Don Rogers

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Community-Based Learning Experiences Of Graduate Education Students Within Applied Statistics And Science: Emerging Insights, Carla J. Thompson, Sandra B. Davis

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Integrating community-based learning in graduate education programs is an emerging trend in the United States. This study examined community engagement in graduate educational statistics and science education using four procedures: (1) defining a conceptual framework aligned with National Standards for Community Engagement; (2) examining 10 community-based learning applications from graduate education programs in statistics and science relative to standards; (3) determining specific emerging characteristics of community-based learning; and (4) providing insights for graduate education programs.

Cultivating Community-Engaged Faculty: The Institution’S Role In Individual Journeys, Eric Malm, Nicholas Rademacher, David Dunbar, Mary Harris, Erin Mclaughlin, Caroline Nielsen

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Campus-community partnerships are increasingly recognized as important parts of curricula and have become central to the missions of many colleges. Yet while the notion of service is becoming more prominent at the institutional level, the number of faculty who are actually teaching community-engaged courses is alarmingly low. This paper addresses the problem of inadequate faculty participation in campus-community partnerships through the case study analysis of the pathways that brought six faculty members from different backgrounds and disciplines into the world of the engaged classroom. From the stories of individual faculty members, a model of involvement emerged that illustrates a common …

A User-Friendly Guide To Intergenerational Service Learning, Denise C. Lewis, Desiree M. Seponski

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This article describes and provides a timeline for establishing an intergenerational service learning (ISL) program, the Friendly Visitors Program (FVP). The nationally recognized FVP has grown to about 100 students visiting approximately 200 elders each semester in more than 10 different facilities ranging from an adult day center to a small, rural assisted living facility. This article provides a timeline, textbooks, forms, and journal questions so that other scholars can replicate the FVP with ease.

Interdisciplinary Community-Based Research: A Sum Of Disparate Parts, Nancy Watterson, David Dunbar, Melissa Terlecki, Caroline Nielsen, Lisa Ratmansky, Amy Persichetti, Kristen Travers, Susan Gill

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

For faculty committed to socially responsible community engagement, the process of interdisciplinary course design and assessment can be charged and challenging. At Cabrini College, faculty are involved in precisely this kind of work as part of the College's new core curriculum, Justice Matters. Our study of two connected interdisciplinary courses marks a shift in conceptual models: how we developed from a “community service learning (CSL) approach into a participatory, collective process that embeds community based research (CBR) protocols more intentionally and explicitly. Additionally, the two linked courses illustrate how interdisciplinarity, when combined with CBR best practices, can offer powerful solutions …

Working Across Cultures: Outcomes Of An Initiative To Improve Student Capacity And Institutional Coordination Related To Global Engagement, Karen E. Kun, Suzanne Mason, Jennifer Foster, John E. Mcgowan, Courtney N. Coleman, Cornelia Lindenau, Edward L. Queen Ii

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

The Working Across Cultures Initiative was developed at Emory University to improve undergraduate and graduate student capacity and institution-wide coordination related to global engagement. The Initiative contributed to enhanced student knowledge and skills as well as changes in institutional policies and procedures. It may thus have implications for other institutions of higher education grappling with how best to prepare students for global engagement and how to bring about the changes in the institutional policies and procedures that would best support, enable, and engage students in these activities.

Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention Project As Community-Engaged Scholarship, Young-Me Lee, Susan Poslusny, Sara Anderson, Howard Rosing

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This article describes the results of a 6 month integrated community service and service learning project aimed at the high prevalence of sexually transmitted infection (STI) in a largely immigrant Latino and African-American community area. A total of 64 participants were screened and six positive cases were identified. Results indicated that the adolescents studied lacked proper knowledge regarding safe sex and healthy behaviors, and most refused treatment despite providing anonymous education, screening and treatment services.

Evaluating The Thermal Properties And Compatibility Of High-Density Polyethylene Micro/Nano-Hydroxyapatite Composites For Advanced Material Applications, Mohammed S. Al Owiemri, Moosa S.M. Al Kharusi, Farooq Al Jahwari

The Journal of Engineering Research

This study investigates the thermal behaviour and compatibility of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) composites reinforced with micro- and nano-scale hydroxyapatite (HA) particles, aiming to optimise their application in biomedical environments. Comprehensive thermal analyses were conducted using Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) to evaluate the influence of HA fillers on thermal stability and crystallisation behaviour. TGA results revealed that HDPE/micro-HA composites exhibit enhanced thermal stability, with decomposition initiating at approximately 300 °C and concluding near 450 °C. Micro-HA demonstrated superior performance in delaying degradation compared to nano-HA, attributed to its larger particle size and chain mobility restriction. DSC analyses …

Clinical Outcomes Of Neoadjuvant Chemoimmunotherapy Vs. Chemoradiotherapy In Operable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Tal Sherman, Nikta Nair, Marli Meller, Raleigh Anderson, Guillermo Jimenez, Elizaveta Flevora, Charalambos Solomides, Rita Axelrod, Sarah Gordon, Ida Micaily, Maria Werner-Wasik, Sung Whang, Tyler Grenda, Olugbenga Okusanya, Nathaniel R. Evans, Iii, Nilanjan Haldar, Erik Blomain

Department of Radiation Oncology Posters

Introduction

• Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for ~85% of lung cancers and remains the leading cause of cancer death.
• Surgery is curative for early-stage disease, but recurrence rates remain high.
• CheckMate-816 trial established neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy (chemo-IO) as a new standard for resectable NSCLC, demonstrating improved pathologic response and event-free survival.
• PACIFIC trial showed the survival benefit of consolidative immunotherapy after chemoradiotherapy (chemo-RT) in unresectable stage III NSCLC, highlighting the synergy between radiation and immune checkpoint blockade.
• Despite these advances, there is little comparative data on the role of chemo-IO versus chemo-RT in the neoadjuvant, operable setting.
• Objective: To compare …

Young Adults’ Self-Perceptions Of Parenting Styles And Attachments Influencing Juvenile Criminality, Keristin Zanda Scott

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Parenting styles, parent-to-child attachments, and parental involvements are contributing factors leading to juvenile delinquency. Adolescents are committing offending acts at a younger age, recidivating, and perpetrating with peers or parents. However, there is a lack of empirical research on juvenile perceptions of parenting, juvenile criminality, and desistance implications. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study was to explore past juvenile criminal offenders’ lived experiences and the corresponding influence parenting styles had on their deviant behaviors. Ainsworth and Bowlby’s attachment theory, Baumrind’s parenting style theory, and Bandura’s social learning theory provided a lens for examining young adults’ perceptions of parenting related …

The Effects Of Grazing On Soil Bacterial Communities In Grassland Of Willitis, California, Puja Shrestha

Master's Theses

Cattle ranching has been a vital part of California's economy and culture since the 1700s. When appropriately applied, cattle grazing can be a powerful tool in ecological restoration as it can mimic natural processes, promote plant diversity, control invasive species, enhance soil health, and create suitable habitats for wildlife. However, poor ranch management can lead to negative impacts such as overgrazing, loss of native species, aquatic contamination and more. This study sought to examine the impacts of grazing management on soil health and nutrient cycling in a restored pasture in northern California. Specifically, this research focused on the effects of …

Introduction To Roots Of Justice: A History Of Race And Racism In Nebraska, M. Dewayne Mays, Paul Olson

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

Nebraska has made racism a way of life through most of its history. It is still the way of life for many. In 2020, a Nebraska columnist wrote the following about Nebraska: “[T]he issues stemming from racism can seem like foreign concepts, confined to the larger cities (or the American South) and relics of a distant past.”2 The column goes on to show that these issues were not confined to large cities or to the South; they rested on our back door in Nebraska. Yet, one often heard back as far as one could remember that Nebraska is not and …

Functional Role Of Cysteine Residues In Vtlr Of Agrobacterium Tumefaciens, Suravi Islam

Theses and Dissertations

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a soil-dwelling plant pathogen known for transferring DNA to host plants through a type IV secretion system. Central to its virulence and cellular regulation is the LysR-type transcriptional regulator, VtlR, which controls processes including biofilm formation, motility, tumorigensis, and small RNA expression. Although VtlR’s regulatory role is established, the specific functions of its conserved cysteine residues have only recently begun to be explored. This study investigates VtlR’s four cysteines (C144, C236, C244, and C273) through site-directed mutagenesis and a combination of phenotypic assays and transcriptional profiling. Phenotypic assays confirmed that C144 and C273 are important for proper …

Exclusion From The Good Life: The Impact Of Anti-Asian Racism On Asian Nebraskans, Heather Fryer, Sharon Ishii-Jordan

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

To understand how Americans of Asian descent experienced, adjusted, and overcame negative experiences in Nebraska, recognizing the external forces on their lives is paramount. The experiences of Asians in their diaspora across the U.S. and Nebraska during a 150-year span have been shaped by both external (global and domestic) and internal (personality and resilience) factors. The presence of stereotypes specifically targeted toward Asian Americans due to exotic imaginings, pseudoscience, and economic fears, in addition to the images created by national media, gave rise to society’s acceptance of stereotypes. These external factors contributed to a belief that continues to this day …

"I Just Really Felt Like I Was Heard For The First Time": Survivor Experiences With An Adult Forensic Interviewing Model, Morgan E Pettyjohn, Aly Kramer Jacobs, Khara Breeden, Bethany L Backes, Leila Wood

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Adult forensic interviewing (AFI) collects evidence for the investigation and prosecution of interpersonal violence in a trauma-informed setting. The present study uses mixed methods evaluation data from an AFI program in the U.S. to assess survivors' perceptions of safety and the utility of participating in these interviews. Most participants felt the process was beneficial to their personal lives and criminal justice system engagement by: (a) allowing them to share their stories in more detail, (b) supporting their healing journeys, and (c) helping them feel safer through resource referral. AFI is a promising practice that warrants continued research.

Court Reinstates Vermont Christian School Following Suspension Over Trans Athlete, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Roots Of Justice: A History Of Race And Racism In Nebraska, Kevin Abourezk, M. Dewayne Mays, Paul Olson, Gabriel Bruguier, Preston Love Jr., Adam Fletcher Sasse, Heather Fryer, J.S. Onésimo (Ness) Sándoval, Sharon Ishii-Jordan, Emira Ibrahimpašić, Julia Reilly

Black Studies Faculty Books and Monographs

There is much to understand about the history of Nebraska and how the past shapes the present. This book attempts to bring into clearer focus the triumphs and trials of five broad groups whose lives have often been overlooked when the state’s history is told. The authors know some of this history of racism firsthand: Most of them have lived as people of color in Nebraska. They’ve experienced “the good, the bad and the ugly” that makes up our state story. We encourage educators, scholars and family historians to continue to dig, to document and to tell these stories. And …

Applied Linear Regression Techniques To Biomedical Research And Detecting Change-Points To Enhance Model Flexibility By Improving Interpretability And Applicability, Hoang Vu

Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines change-point detection in statistical models through the framework of two-way truncated linear regression with threshold effects. Our work is based on Two-Way Truncated Linear Regression Models with Extremely Thresholding Penalization (TWT-LR with ETP) by Teng and Zhang (2022) which is an innovative approach extends traditional linear regression by incorporating potential change-points in both intercept and slope parameters, effectively handling multiple change-points through a specialized penalization technique that shrinks small coefficients to zero. This methodology demonstrates remarkable effectiveness in identifying significant change-points while maintaining computational efficiency. We propose a framework that models both upper and lower thresholds in …

How Does R.I.S.E. Arkansas Address The Reading Needs Of Students In The Delta Region Of Arkansas Public Schools?, Kristy Brasfield

Student Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study examined the impact of the Reading Initiative for Student Excellence (R.I.S.E.) Arkansas on reading achievement in grades 3–10 across Arkansas public schools from 2015 to 2023, with particular attention to high-poverty districts in the Delta Region. Using ACT Aspire Summative Assessment data, the study employed independent samples t-tests, paired-samples t-tests, repeated measures ANOVA, and multiple linear regression to analyze trends in student performance, subgroup disparities, and district-level variation. Results indicated incremental statewide gains in reading, with the most significant improvements occurring in early grades. However, schools with 70% or higher National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participation showed …