Digital Commons Network^™

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes Nov 21, 2014, A-State Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Minutes

Meeting minutes for the Faculty Senate held on November 21, 2014.

Evaluation And Application Of Instruments Measuring Spatial Ability And Attitude For College Chemistry Students, Xiaoying Xu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Student performance in college chemistry courses remains a concern for educators seeking to help improve the future STEM workforce. Besides math ability and prior chemistry knowledge, spatial ability and attitude toward chemistry have been considered as important factors influencing college chemistry performance. This work includes five studies and uses data collected from instruments to examine the relationships of these two factors - spatial ability and attitude - with student chemistry performance, and provides psychometric evidence for using the Purdue Visualization of Rotations test (ROT) and Attitude toward the Subject of Chemistry Inventory (ASCIv2) to measure these two factors, respectively, in …

University Professors’ Perceptions About The Impact Of Integrating Google Applications On Students’ Communication And Collaboration Skills, Jacqueline L. Cahill

Journal of Research Initiatives

A qualitative research study was conducted and data were collected by interviewing university professors on their perceptions about the impact of integrating Google Apps, as a means of classroom instructional delivery, on students’ communication and collaboration skills. The participants consisted of eight university professors from a major university, who integrate, or had previously integrated at least two Google Apps Education Edition collaborative tools into their instructional strategies. The result of this study has the potential to benefit universities that are debating on whether utilizing teaching collaborative technology skills, as an instruction tool, would engage students and enhance their communication skills. …

The Pacifican November 13, 2014, University Of The Pacific

All Issues - Student Newspaper, The Pacifican, Pacific Weekly

No abstract provided.

Social Media & College Admissions: An Analysis Of Facebook's Role In College Admissions & Higher Education Marketing, Michael Dooney

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

College admissions offices have developed and evolved to include increasingly sophisticated mechanisms for recruiting classes sufficient for meeting the financial needs of their respective institutions, and social media has rapidly become a popular tool for admissions offices in their efforts to meet enrollment goals. However, while social media is now used by practically every admissions office in the United States, little research exists that examines how universities use social media in this context. This qualitative study examines the use of a private Facebook group at a private university and incorporates observational study of the Facebook group and interviews with administrators. …

Clark Magazine, Fall 2014, Clark University

Clark Magazine

The Fall 2014 edition of Clark Magazine. Clark Magazine is a twice-yearly publication primarily geared towards Clark University Alumni.

The cover story is 'An ounce of prevention: A bold new partnership with Worcester puts Clark University on the cutting edge of public health.'

Singapore Management University Establishes A New Research Centre On Secure Mobile Computing Technologies And Solutions, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

The Singapore Management University (SMU) has announced today the establishment of a new centre of research excellence that focuses on mobile computing security. Funded by Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF), the Secure Mobile Centre is developing efficient and scalable technologies and solutions that strengthen the security of mobile computing systems, applications and services. The Secure Mobile Centre is led by a team of five faculty members from SMU’s School of Information Systems who specialise in information security and trust: Professor Robert DENG (Centre Director), Professor PANG Hwee Hwa, Associate Professor LI Yingjiu, Associate Professor DING Xuhua and Assistant Professor Debin …

2014 September 29 - Graduate Council Minutes, College Of Graduate And Continuing Studies, East Tennessee State University

Graduate Council Agendas and Minutes

No abstract provided.

Refworks Usage Statistics Through June 2014, Andrée J. Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

RefWorks is a subscription-based, online software product that helps researchers save, organize, and format bibliographic citations. This report provides monthly statistics on the usage of RefWorks by the University of Rhode Island community from 2002 through June 2014. Data provided includes: user type summary, focus area summary, references created per month, accounts created per month, all user accounts by user type, all user accounts by focus area, last quarter number of accounts by user type, reference type detail, all references by focus area, last quarter references by focus area, last quarter references by user type, all references by user type, …

Acquisitions Unit Annual Report 2013-2014, Andrée J. Rathemacher

Technical Services Reports and Statistics

Annual Report of the Acquisitions Unit, University Libraries, University of Rhode Island for FY14. Covers personnel, work flow, special projects, and serial, monograph, and e-resource acquisitions. Supplemental files include data on library materials expenditures by a number of variables as well as important working documents from the year.

Introduction To Intersectionality & Higher Education: Theory, Research, & Praxis, Donald Mitchell Jr., Ph.D.

Executives, Administrators, & Staff Publications

Living with and navigating multiple, intersecting identities is not a new phenomenon (Yuval-Davis, 2013). Perhaps W. E. B. Du Bois’s (1903/2010) articulation of double consciousness was an expression of the intersection of being both American and an American of African descent and the complexities of navigating those identities. And perhaps Martin Luther King, Jr.’s difficult decision to distance himself from civil rights activist Bayard Rustin—who openly identified as gay (Branch, 1989)—captured the complexities and intersections of religion, politics, and social justice. However, using the term intersectionality to discuss these experiences was introduced by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a scholar of law, critical …

Campus Paper Waste, Joshua E. Randall

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

The fall of 2004 at Minnesota State University, a new program called MavPrint was introduced. The user submits a document to be printed at a computer, the expense is deducted from their account, and then their document can be retrieved from any MavPrint station. In years past printing had been free, but seeing how according to Bryan Schneider, the director of Technical Services at Minnesota State University – Mankato, from the year 2003 to the year 2004 the printing costs for the University rose 200 percent, they felt it was time to make a change. MSU students printed out over …

Designing An Articulation-Agreement Database For The College Of Science And Engineering And Technology Advising Center, Stephanie Fasen, Susan Hendley, Tim Pham, Danish Zaman

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

During their academic careers, some college students transfer to different universities. To allow students to transfer seamlessly to other colleges, advisors at Minnesota universities create articulation agreements that list the classes that transfer between two universities. To use these documents, students and advisors must search through binders to find the correct articulation agreement and then manually review it. This is a time-consuming process for both students and advisors. To make this information more accessible, we created a web-based database that instantly produces a list of equivalent classes for majors offered at Minnesota St ate University, Mankato (MSU) and other Minnesota …

Modeling Student Engagement In The Classroom, Sarah Painter

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Connections to Community is a multi-institutional study that looks at the influence of community on post-secondary, science and engineering students and their engagement in academic activity. This paper focuses specifically on student engagement within the classroom as a follow-up to a previous paper by Wendy Hoffman, Identifying Influential Variables of Student Academic Engagement (Hoffman, 2013). The goal of this work is to model student engagement in the classroom using classroom observation data that has been cleaned and then compare the results with those found in Hoffman’s paper which used pre-cleaning data. The cleaned data is used to create two data …

An Automatic Dialog System For Student Advising, Brian Mcmahan

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Automatic dialog systems are an implementation of natural language processing theory with the goal of allowing the use of natural sentences to communicate with a computer system. The general purpose of this project was to design and implement an automatic dialog system for augmenting university student advising. Student advising is a relatively narrow domain of possible questions and responses. The automatic dialog system focused on prescriptive advising rather than developmental advising to further narrow the domain to scheduling and registration matters. A student advisor was interviewed and recorded during a mock advising session in order to model the interaction between …

Work In Progress - Peer Directed Learning In A Project Based Model, Andrew Mcnally

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Iron Range Engineering is a new, unique, undergraduate program using problem-based learning. One guiding principle is student responsibility for learning. In order to facilitate learning, faculty and students alike have come up with several learning methods. Learning modes may include self-directed learning, peer-directed learning, one-on-one faculty directed learning, or industry mentored learning. Peer directed learning often manifests in the form of learning groups (a group of students learning similar competencies), led by either a faculty member or a student who has previously excelled in that competency and has taken an interest in pursuing advanced credit. Recently, Iron Range Engineering has …

Statistical Models Of Self-Efficacy In Stem Students, Sarah Painter

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Persistence through undergraduate education may be explained by self-efficacy. It is the belief in one’s self to persevere through challenges. Bandura stated four areas that are thought to influence self-efficacy: mastery experience, social persuasion, vicarious experience, and physiological state. In this study, we focused on general and academic self-efficacy in STEM students, in the hopes of learning more about the relationships between Bandura’s categories, demographics, and self-efficacy. Data was taken from two institutions: one, a large research focused university, and the other, a smaller teaching focused university. In the first phase, surveys on general self-efficacy were taken at both institutions …

Pacific Review Fall 2014, Alumni Association Of The University Of The Pacific

Pacific Magazine and Pacific Review

No abstract provided.

Instructional Change In Academic Departments: An Analysis From The Perspective Of Two Environment-Focused Change Strategies, Kathleen M. Quardokus

Dissertations

Numerous reports demand changes in college and university teaching practices. This is especially true for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. STEM stakeholders are concerned about student retention within STEM majors, as well as the lack of sufficient graduates with the knowledge to advance these fields. A common conclusion of these reports is that teaching practices must change. Although these calls for change have occurred for decades, STEM fields have yet to experience widespread change. Thus, there is a need for more effective change strategies. Recently, researchers have suggested that effective change strategies should focus on changing the environments …

2013-2014 - Graduate Council Annual Report, College Of Graduate And Continuing Studies, East Tennessee State University

Graduate Council Agendas and Minutes

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Student Engagement On Retention: Comparing Male Undergraduate Stem Majors To Non-Stem Majors, Tourgee D. Simpson Jr.

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Researchers suggest certain benchmarks of student engagement (i.e., student-faculty interaction, level of academic challenge, enriching educational experiences, active and collaborative learning, and supportive campus environment) positively influence student success. This study investigated the relationship between student engagement and the retention of male, full-time undergraduate students in STEM majors by comparing male, full-time undergraduate students in select science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors to male, full-time undergraduate students in non-STEM majors to identify best practices to improve retention and increase degree completion among men in STEM fields.

Students were invited to participate in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). …

New A*Star-Smu Centre Combines High-Powered Computing And Behavioural Sciences To Study People-Centric Issues, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the Singapore Management University (SMU) will establish a Centre for Technology and Social-Behavioural Insights (CTSBI) to tap on high performance computing technology, big data analytics and behavioural sciences to study people-centric issues and human behaviour including how people think, feel and act in different settings. Such information can be used to enhance planning and address issues in different areas such as retail, logistics, urban planning, education and community development.

Conceptual Framework Alignment Between Primary Literature And Education In Animal Behaviour, Andrea Marie-Kryger Bierema

Dissertations

In 1963, Tinbergen revolutionized the study of animal behaviour in his paper On aims and methods of ethology (Zeitschrift Tierpsycholgie, 20, 410-433) by revamping the conceptual framework of the discipline. His framework suggests an integration of four questions: causation, ontogeny, survival value, and evolution. The National Research Council Committee (U.S.) on Undergraduate Biology Education to Prepare Research Scientists for the 21^st Century published BIO2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2003), which suggests alignment between current research and undergraduate education. Unfortunately, alignment has been rarely studied in college biology, especially for fundamental …

Undergraduate Commencement Exercises Program, May 17, 2014

Bryant University Commencements

Bryant University Undergraduate Commencement Exercises Program, May 17, 2014.

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes May 12, 2014, A-State Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Minutes

Meeting minutes for the Faculty Senate held on May 12, 2014.

Serving Those Who Served: Understanding The Needs Of Student Veterans, Jessica Catherine Hayden

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

Following the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill), higher education witnessed a nationwide influx of student veterans. In the last decade, this population has continued to gain significant momentum as a result of the educational benefits offered to service members and their families within the Post-9/11 GI Bill of 2008. James Madison University recognized this growing trend and researched how to best serve the academic and personal needs of the student veteran community by conducting a needs assessment. The data from the needs assessment and literature from several university veteran taskforces were reviewed and used to develop program recommendations …

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes May 2, 2014, A-State Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Minutes

Meeting minutes for the Faculty Senate held on May 2, 2014.

Higher Education Institution Choice Behaviors Of International Students On U.S. College Campuses, Anil Tan

Theses & Dissertations

The economic, social, and personal value of education has been realized as motivating factors for seeking a better education overseas by individuals. In addition, political, economic, and educational conditions of home countries impact individuals’ decisions to study abroad. There were over 4 million tertiary students studying outside their home countries in 2011. Nearly 820,000 of those students were studying in higher education institutions in the United States. Students from China, India, and South Korea comprise nearly 49% of the international students in the United States. The increase in the number of students studying overseas and their valuable contributions develop a …

2014 April 28 - Graduate Council Minutes, College Of Graduate And Continuing Studies, East Tennessee State University

Graduate Council Agendas and Minutes

No abstract provided.

The Pacifican April 10, 2014, University Of The Pacific

All Issues - Student Newspaper, The Pacifican, Pacific Weekly

No abstract provided.