Digital Commons Network^™

Overcoming The Bottlenecks In Teaching Psychological Statistics, Lisa J. Elliott, Joan Middendorf

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Teaching and learning undergraduate statistics has been a most challenging task for undergraduate psychology majors (Salkind, 2017). A seasoned statistics instructor consulted with a seasoned instructional designer on a method to improve a particularly demanding course using a performance improvement approach to address learning difficulties she had noted in previous semesters. The Decoding the Disciplines methodology identified the most challenging concepts and provided a methodology to improve student learning performance. The methodology focused on five core concepts in psychological statistics: probability, variability, central limit theorem, independent/ dependent variables, and degrees of freedom. The Decoding the Disciplines curriculum was used for …

Gaining Ground: Toward The Development Of Critical Thinking Skills In A Social Problems Course, Ada Haynes, Jacob Kelley, Andrea Arce-Trigatti

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning in sociology by examining a set of course redesign improvements made in a Social Problems course at the undergraduate level. These improvements center on increasing students’ critical thinking skills by integrating research-based, innovation-driven learning and student-centered strategies into a four-part course assessment redesign. Using a primarily case study approach, we examine quantitative data in the form of an interdisciplinary pre- and post- Critical thinking Assessment Test (CAT) from students enrolled in one iteration of the redesign for this particular course. Results from this analysis highlight …

Designing An Effective Motivational Climate: Effects On Students’ Effort And Achievement, Margaret Ellis, Brett D. Jones, Fei Gu, Hande Fenerci

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

We present a case study that demonstrates how instructors can intentionally design a positive motivational climate in online and hybrid courses. We also examine the extent to which students’ perceptions of the motivational climate predict their effort and achievement across three different modalities (face-to-face [FTF], online, and hybrid) of the same course. We surveyed students in an undergraduate computer science course once a semester for three consecutive years (FTF in Year 1, online in Year 2, and hybrid in Year 3). Measures included motivation-related scales and final course grades. Our findings, based on survey responses from 981 students, demonstrate that …

Teaching, Learning, And Praxis: A Critical Inquiry On Graduate Student Research Apprenticeship Opportunities In Qualitative Research, Alexander G-J Pittman, Maretha Dellarosa, Penny A. Pasque, Myung-Jin Kim, Spencer J. Smith

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

This study employed a critical inquiry paradigm to explore the significance of equity and social justice in teaching qualitative methodologies and methods to graduate students. Graduate students of multiple minoritized identities and a faculty member conducted a two-year inquiry into the research apprenticeship experience, including the stages of student-led conceptualization, data collection, analysis, international conference presentation, and publication. The study investigated the experiences of the faculty and students as well as the responsibilities of the institution against the backdrop of historical and contemporary pandemics. Consequently, we problematized hidden curriculum and unconscious assumptions to suggest research course design sequencing improvements. The …

“It’S Pedagogical And It’S Selfish”: How Classroom Policies Promote Inclusive Pedagogy, Student Success, And Faculty Legitimacy, Ellen M. Whitehead, Mellisa Holtzman

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Course policies around attendance and submission deadlines have documented impacts on student outcomes within college courses, yet our understanding remains limited of instructors’ own motivations behind the policies they adopt. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 43 college instructors, we find that faculty emphasize both student-centered and instructor-focused considerations. Pedagogically, they create policies they believe will enhance student success, promote equity and inclusion, and enable students to account for the realities of life. But they also design policies they believe will make their job easier, positively impact students’ perceptions of them, and align with gender role and tenure expectations. These findings …

Practice What We Preach?: A Review Of Journal Publishing Practices Related To Reflective Writing In Sotl, Laura Cruz, Eileen Grodziak, Hillary H. Steiner, Laura Cruz

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) scholars have long advocated for the inclusion of reflective writing as a legitimate form of scholarship. That said, for those instructors seeking to publish their reflective work, especially scholarly personal narratives (SPNs), there are persistent gaps between the aspirations of the field and the realities of scholarly publishing. The present study seeks to illuminate that gap through a systematic analysis of the policies and practices of academic journals as they pertain to the publication of reflective writing in SoTL. The ultimate aim of the study is to enable editors to close the gap between …

What Brought Us Together To Form A Community For Scholarship, Carolyn J. Loveridge, Frances Docherty, Sarah Honeychurch, Nathalie Tasler, Linnea Soler, Lindsey Pope, Victoria E. Price, Beth Dickson

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

We are a group of teaching-focused academics who share a passion for learning, teaching and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in Higher Education (HE). In order to understand how practitioners from a diversity of backgrounds and disciplines came to be in their present LTS (Learning, Teaching & Scholarship) academic roles, we embarked on a Collaborative Autoethnography (CAE). This approach allowed us to use our personal narratives to explore what it means to be a SoTL practitioner in HE, and to analyse these narratives by using textual analysis.

This paper unpacks these narratives, focusing on three themes: our rich …

Starting And Sustaining An International Teacher Collaboration: Insights And Recommendations From A Sotl Project., Lindsay J. Neill, Heather Swenson Brilla, Neil Haigh

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

During the COVID-19 pandemic, two higher education teachers, located respectively in the United States and Aotearoa New Zealand, collaborated in the design of curricula on the relationship between identity and food for their students. Intended to help their students develop cross-cultural knowledge and relationships, they hoped that their collaboration would also benefit their professional relationship and learning at a time when these aspects of their teaching lives were negatively impacted by COVID-19. As a contribution to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), they undertook, with the help of a researcher colleague, an investigation of (a) factors that influenced their …

Perceptions Of Disabled Instructors, Daniel Joseph Carpenter, Morgan J. Robinson, Amanda Cruz Lesswing, Sarah Alarcon, Jill Talley Shelton

UTC Spring Research and Arts Conference

Negative perceptions can lead to social and professional exclusion of disabled individuals. Negative perceptions of disability are especially detrimental to disabled academics (Brown & Ramlackhan, 2022). Research specifically examining the perceptions of disabled instructors is lacking. This study reviews factors influencing student perceptions of people with disabilities and provides insight for promoting the individual and professional development of people with disabilities in instructional roles in higher education. We recruited 109 undergraduate college students to participate in this study. Participants completed the study on-line using the Qualtrics platform, and they were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. For the experimental …

Booktok: The Cultural Phenomenon Introducing A Stagnated Industry To A New Generation, Daley Culberson

UTC Spring Research and Arts Conference

BookTok, a creator-driven subset of TikTok that promotes and discusses books, gained popularity in 2020. Its emergence has significantly altered the book industry, allowing once-unknown authors to transform into bestselling novelists with the click of a button. Modern romance, fantasy, and young adult novels are typically favored on BookTok. These novels are vastly different from the books in the traditional literary canon, challenging conventional ideals regarding what types of literature could be considered canonical. Additionally, BookTok is primarily driven by younger users, allowing many teenagers and young adults to rediscover the joy found through reading and writing. This research project …

Inhibited Intentionality And The Docile Imaginations Of Women, Sydney Taylor

UTC Spring Research and Arts Conference

This paper explores the nature of women's extension in rigorous conversational settings, such as an academic or professional settings. Even in a society where women have more educational and economic opportunities than ever before, there remains the concerning phenomena of women not extending themselves in conversation in the way that men do. The author contends that women's minds exist within the embodied experience of being female, and therefore of being objectified, because the imagination is subject to similar disciplinary measures as Bartky identifies as disciplining the female body.

Cyberbullying Detection On Twitter Data Using Machine Learning Classifiers, Pradip Dhakal

Data Science and Data Mining

This study compares some of the popular machine learning techniques like Logistic Regression, Multinomial Naive Bayes, K-Nearest Neighbor, and Extreme Gradient Boosting to classify the tweets into three different categories: cyberbullying based on religion, cyberbullying based on ethnicity, or no cyberbullying. First, various data-cleaning approaches are used to clean the tweet data. After the data is clean and ready, the word embedding techniques, such as a bag of words and term frequency-Inverse document frequency, are used to convert the words into mathematical vectors. Finally, the model will be fitted using the combination of the above-mentioned word embedding techniques and machine …

Cyber Loafing And Innovative Work Behavior As Predictors Of Perceived Job Performance: A Nigerian Study, Oluyomi Folorunso, Ruth Okeile

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Previous studies on Perceived Job Performance (PJP) have focussed almost entirely on organizational settings different from the library. Furthermore, the studies did not investigate how the pertinent variables of Cyber Loafing (CL) and Innovative Work Behavior (IWB) predict PJP of the organizational workers. This study, therefore, was designed to examine CL and IWB as predictors of PJP of the personnel of some university libraries in Nigeria.

Theories of Reasoned Action and Job Performance anchored the study, while the survey design of correlational type was adopted. The study population comprised the 96 professional librarians and 95 library officers in the 12 …

A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Of Telehealth Vs. Office-Based Delivery Of Buprenorphine At The Addiction And Substance Abuse Program (Asap) Clinic - University Of New Mexico Hospital: A Societal Perspective, Rana Alkhafaji

Pharmaceutical Sciences ETDs

This study evaluates the cost-effectiveness of office-based versus telehealth delivery of buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). A retrospective chart review of 135 patients at the University of New Mexico Hospital's Addiction and Substance Abuse Program compared retention rates and costs between the two settings. Retention was defined as continuous treatment for at least six months. No statistically significant difference in retention rates was found, with 51% for office-based and 42% for telehealth. However, office-based treatment had higher total costs, with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $3,750 per 1% increase in retention. The findings suggest telehealth is a cost-effective …

Economic Peaks, An Analysis Of Financial & Real Estate Speculations In The Top 5 U.S Cities, Nicholas M. Basley

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

Economic Peaks conducts a comprehensive analysis of financial and real estate speculations in the United States, more specifically the top five cities per population in the United States. This study spans the period from 2000 to 2023, utilizing time series data to reveal economic trends and identify potential structural breaks during recession periods. By employing advanced statistical methods, the research aims to discern distinctive patterns in the housing and financial markets of each of the major cities, unveiling the presence of unsustainable price appreciation and the factors contributing to its emergence. This study seeks to offer valuable insights into the …

Sensing With Integrity: Responsible Sensor Systems In An Era Of Ai, David Eisenberg

Dissertations

Deep and machine learning now offer immense benefits for consumer choice, decision-making, medicine, mental health and education, smart cities, and intelligent transportation and driver safety. However, as communication and Internet technology further advances, these benefits have the potential to be outweighed by compromises to privacy, personal freedom, consumer trust, and discrimination. While ethical consequences for personal freedom and equity rise from these technological advances, the issue may not be the technology itself but a lack of regulation and policy that allow abuses to occur. A first study examines how emerging sensor-based technologies, limited to only accelerometer and gyroscope data from …

Duty, Breach, Deterrence: The Ncaa’S Legacy Of Immortalizing Competitive Glory Over The Well-Being Of The Student-Athletes It Aims To Protect, Gabi A. Grillon

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tightrope Walking: Balancing Theatre Teachers’ Academic Freedom Of Expression With The Implementation Of Florida’S Stop Woke Act And Don’T Say Gay Bill, Kimberly Adams

Barry Law Review

Florida’s Individual Freedom Act (IFA) and Education Equality Act (EEA), better known as the Stop Woke Act and the Don’t Say Gay bill, respectively, are contentious topics in the United States today. One side argues that parents have the ultimate right to choose what their child learns and how a teacher should deliver that instruction while believing that lessons that address systemic racism divide children and make them feel uncomfortable. The other side argues that our students will be unprepared when they graduate high school to contribute to our multi-racial society and will suffer from a limited worldview. From the …

Chasing Freedom: The History Of Government Oppression Of The Most Vulnerable And How Expanded Leave Laws Can Promote Liberty For Workers In The Wake Of Dobbs, Phillis H. Rambsy, Rebecca L. Salawdeh

Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court held that the Constitution does not protect a women’s right to an abortion, rejecting both equal protection and substantive due process arguments under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court held that the Constitution must be interpreted as it would have been by the ratifiers, thereby limiting rights to those that are deeply rooted in the nation’s history. However, as this article demonstrates, the country’s history of legislation and Court decisions have repeatedly failed to protect the liberty interests of the most marginalized members of society and have consistently failed to ensure …

Safe Leave From Work Post-Dobbs, Robin R. Runge

Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal

Given the increasing restrictions on how and where a person who becomes pregnant may seek abortion care, and the large number of workers who experience reproductive coercion including birth control interference, and/or pregnancy-related abuse, who may need to seek abortion related services, it is important to examine their rights as workers to take leave from work to seek these services without fear of job loss.

Domestic violence impacts a high percentage of working women and people who become pregnant every year. Pregnancy-related abuse, reproductive coercion, birth control sabotage, and interference with abortion-related decision-making are common forms of gender-based violence and …

Hitting The Books: An Empirical Analysis Of The Effect Of Education Expenditure On Gdp Per Capita And Economic Growth, Matt Simmons

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the link between education spending in Mexico and Central American countries and illegal immigration to the United States. Despite challenges like poverty and governance issues, these nations experience significant migration to the U.S., underscoring the need for deeper insights. Analyzing economic motivations and migration costs, the study emphasizes education expenditure's role in economic growth. Through empirical analysis, it highlights the importance of addressing root causes and offers policy recommendations. Overall, this research contributes to understanding the intricate relationship between education, immigration, and economic development.

The Causes All Time High Chronic Homelessness: A Panel Analysis, Robert Knight

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates what economic indicators affect the rate of homelessness in the United States. By combining both the personal issues of the homeless people themselves along with economic structural issues in U.S. this study finds what the largest determinants of chronic homelessness. The study includes variables such as median house prices from the Case Shiller Index, the poverty rate, unemployment rate, health care expenditures per capita and demographics to find what causes a higher homeless rate. The data used to determine the conclusions will be pulled from twenty different major U.S. metropolitan cities to showcase how different economic variables …

Media Editorial Policies On Human Rights Issues In Online Media In Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Senja Yustitia, Firly Annisa

Social Transformations Journal of the Global South

The trend of human rights violations in the digital era affects social life and the media as a space for discourses on human rights. Grounded upon the changing condition of the media in the digital era, two issues are addressed in the current study. First, how do human rights issues affect the stance of online media editorial departments, including their editorial policies in producing news? Second, what approaches do online media take to news production, particularly on privacy violations and freedom of expression? This study aims to acquire a comprehensive description of media content and editorial policies in producing news …

Biased Representation Of Digital Feminist Activism: A Critical Look At Cyberfeminism, Muria Endah Sokowati, Sitti Amar Azizyah Puthe Taliu

Social Transformations Journal of the Global South

The development of technology facilitated by computer networks creates ambiguity over women’s empowerment. On the one hand, the intersection of technology and women’s freedom of expression has led to the emergence of cyberfeminism. The participatory culture encourages the growth of feminist movements to facilitate public engagement and empowerment. However, several overlooked challenges persist in the representation of women’s concerns. Consequently, we undertook this study to offer critique and contemplation on digital feminist activity. This study presents a contradictory perspective, providing a counterbalance and an alternative narrative to the prevailing emphasis of previous research on the glorification of cyberfeminism and activism …

Narratives Of Utang Na Loob Among Working Panganays In The Southern Philippines, Mary Therese C. Lasanas, Kayle Erika Shayne P. Nayal, Grace Lou Marie C. Meneses, John Gabriel A. Lasquites, Nicole Rey S. Balverde, Luel Mae Z. Pilayre-Contreras, Jason O. Manaois

Social Transformations Journal of the Global South

Filipino family dynamics and culture may influence how traditional values like “utang na loob” (debt of gratitude) are understood across time. The purpose of the study is to understand the concept of utang na loob in the Southern Philippines from the perspective of working panganays (eldest children). The research investigated the narratives of the eldest child in the Filipino family regarding their experiences with utang na loob. It employed Murray’s three levels of narrative analysis as a framework and elicited themes on personal, positional, and ideological levels. Results revealed personal experiences of early maturity and filial pressure, gratitude, and fulfillment, …

The Relationship Of Classroom Ecology To Student Performance, Drake Furey

Honors Projects

This project delves into the relationship between classroom ecology and student performance. This comprehensive literature review Investigates lighting, seating arrangements, and furniture and the impact they have on student performance measures like GPA, standardized testing, and student focus. This honors project aims to provide actionable insights for educators to enhance student outcomes in the classroom.

Flexible And Rigid Endoscopic Evaluation Of In Vivo Rabbit Larynges: A Pilot Study, Shauntel Mei Li Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the comparability of flexible endoscopy to rigid endoscopy in the examination of rabbit vocal folds in vivo. This work was conducted within a larger parent project that has investigated the adverse effects of combination inhaled corticosteroids (ICs) on voice function in animal models and humans. In this study, both flexible and rigid vocal fold imaging was performed on eight rabbits; four having received ICs and four that were from control conditions. Original recordings were examined frame-by-frame to identify similar views, zoomed in and zoomed out, for flexible and rigid samples. Images were …

Identifying Barriers To Sustainability Of Dual Language Immersion Programs In Utah Schools, Jennifer Leigh Rowley

Theses and Dissertations

Dual Language Immersion (DLI) educational programming began in Utah in 2008. Within three short years, DLI programs in Utah schools had grown from 5 to 58 programs statewide. Presently, Utah now has over 301 DLI programs, including instruction in Spanish, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian, and German. DLI programs have many benefits and have attracted many student families. However, not much research has been done on program planning, implementation, and the sustainability of DLI programs within individual school cultures and climates. This study will examine the satisfaction level of faculty, staff, administrators, and parents at DLI schools (including how supported/understood each …

The Nuanced Relationship Between Mindfulness, Racial Prejudice, And Policy Support, Jared Michael Cutler

Dissertations and Theses

Researchers have investigated the relationship between mindfulness and prejudice, although the findings have been somewhat inconsistent. Two broad factors may be responsible for these mixed findings: different conceptualizations of mindfulness across studies, and ideological differences among participants. Attention monitoring and acceptance, together, are proposed to be responsible for the psychological benefits of mindfulness, including reduced emotion rumination. Attention alone, however, strengthens rumination, which predicts prejudice. Additionally, prejudice hinders the endorsement of equitable policy. As such, mindfulness measures and interventions that capture attention alone, then, may be positively related to prejudice and negatively associated with support for equitable policy, whereas mindfulness …

“The Hero Of My Own Life”: The Purpose Of The Fictional Self In The Life Writings Of Mary Wollstonecraft And Charles Dickens, Jessica M. Day

Honors Projects

This paper looks at Letters written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens as significant texts that combine fiction and life writing. Looking at fictional and autobiographical elements within each text, this paper argues that these authors manipulate genre to make significant claims about feminism and child activism. They participate in self-crafting—taking the self, something that is personal, and making it public and political. This paper argues that fiction allows the life writer to expand past the limitations of a single lifetime and speak to truths larger than the self. Letters written …