Digital Commons Network^™

Power In The Cyberspace Using Online Discussions Boards, Babak Khoshnevisan, Vahideh Alipour

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

Recent technology has afforded both teachers and learners to interact in a rather safe online environment. Given the cutting-edge technology used in education, online discussion boards are being used in distance education. Wide permeation of online discussion boards in online education has been inevitable. It is then important to uncover aspects that contribute to a quality discussion in order to fashion a sound learning experience for students. While our understanding of the benefits of face-to-face and online discussions to engage students is well developed, the data do not apply to pre-service teachers’ perceptions of engagement who participate in the online …

The Effect Of Authentic Task-Oriented Applications On Problem-Solving Skills In Robotic Programming Teaching, Yunus E. Ozenoglu, Sehnaz Baltaci

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

This study aims to examine the effect of authentic tasks in group programming education on the problem-solving skills of secondary school 5^th-grade students. A weak experimental single-group pretest-posttest model was applied to gather data. The study participants consisted of 56 5th grade students, 25 girls, and 31 boys, studying in a private secondary school in the 2018-2019 academic year. The "problem-solving skill scale" was applied as a pre-test and post-test to define the participants' problem-solving skills. There is no statistically significant difference in students' problem-solving skills (p = 0.657) according to related (dependent) samples t-test results. The effect …

Socio-Intercultural Entrepreneurship: A Case On A Postgraduate Program In Economics And International Business Of An Indigenous University, Ernesto Guerra-Garcia, Jose G. Vargas-Hernandez

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

This article presents a critical approach to the proposal of socio-intercultural entrepreneurship. The concept of cultural and social entrepreneurship and that which has been as a product of neoliberalism is limited, so a framework analysis is necessary to improve the understanding of socioeconomic realities. Through an exploratory and analytical research methodology, a review of pertinent literature and the exemplification of the specific case of a postgraduate program in economics and international business at the Universidad Autónoma Indígena de México, it is concluded that socio-intercultural entrepreneurship presents a theoretical and methodological frame that allows entrepreneurs to have a major perception of …

“Practice Basic Hygiene, And You’Ll Stay Healthy”: How Primary School Reading Textbooks Transmitted Cultural Education In The Soviet Union, Victoria Storozenko

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

Russia’s Cultural Revolution, beginning after the October Revolution in 1917, produced a broadly defined understanding of culture and cultural education at Russian schools that encompassed even basic hygiene and health. Drawing from postdoctoral research, this paper discusses the Cultural Revolution’s impact and its ideas on cultural education as presented in textbooks for 10-year general education schools in the Soviet Union. Discourse analysis revealed that the schoolbooks acted as an interface between a functional education system and changes in its surrounding environment, especially changes due to the Cultural Revolution. Amid today’s COVID-19 pandemic, the study’s findings raise several questions about what …

Influence Of Psychological Empowerment On Employee Competence In Nigerian Universal Basic Education System: The Mediating Role Of Work Engagement, Isah Sani, Rashidah B. M. Ibrahim, Fazida Karim

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of work engagement (WE) on the link between psychological empowerment and employee competence (EC). The Ability Motivation Theory (AMO) stress the importance of practices that are capable of enhancing individual’s competence towards the achievement of organizational objectives. While considering psychological empowerment as one of the best practices influencing employee competence in an organization, some previous studies only considered other internal resources such like human resource practices. Studies that attempt to investigate the effect of psychological empowerment on EC and the mechanism through which it influences employee’s competence seem …

Economic And Sociological Factors Associate With First-Year African American Students' Enrollment In Historically Black Colleges And Universities., Vickie Gale Bridgeman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the long struggle to gain access, African Americans always have valued education. Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were established to educate Blacks. The racial integration of predominately White institutions (non-HBCUs) in the 1960s led to decreased enrollments in HBCUs and challenged their relevance. The purpose of this study is to discover what factors influence African American students to choose an HBCU today. Quantitative, secondary survey data methods were used to conduct the study. African American students at HBCUs and non-HBCUs participated in the survey. Consistent with generally accepted approaches in analyzing student college choice, this study utilized logistic …

A Qualitative Study Of 129 Police Lethal Force Incidents In 2016 Examining Participant Behavior Relating To Mental Illness That Contributes To The Use Of Lethal Force., Edward H. Byers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This multi-case, exploratory research study examined videos and related news media articles of lethal police shootings and found commonalities and possible contributing factors. Videos and informational articles posted on news media websites in the public domain were used in a qualitative content analysis to identify common elements in police lethal force incidents. The results of this study revealed contributing behaviors by the participants related to mental illness that contribute to lethal force. The decision to use lethal force by a police officer is framed using four analytical themes.

A Study Of Arab And South Asian American Men With Immigrant-Family Origins In New-Immigrant Destinations., Jack Trey Allen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an examination of Arab and South Asian American men’s (1) experiences and perceptions of discrimination and belonging in two non-traditional immigrant destinations in the United States (U.S.) south, and (2) their performance of masculinities in response to Muslim women’s experiences with Islamophobia. I use intersectional theory, theories of race and racism, theories of gender, theories on belonging, and grounded theory to analyze 23 qualitative semi-structured interviews with Arab and South Asian men who live in one large city and one rural town in the U.S. south. I find that upper-, middle-, and working-class Arab and South Asian …

“And The Next Day, You Are In Charge”: Policy Recommendations Stemming From A Qualitative Investigation Into The Professional Development Of Early Career Peer Support Specialists In Kentucky., Diane Zero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last twenty years, the peer support segment of the behavioral health workforce has grown rapidly. However, few researchers have studied the effects on individuals from transitioning into the role. Likewise, there is limited research examining the professional development process of early career peer support specialists. To begin to fill these gaps in the literature, I conducted a qualitative research study examining workforce development experiences of peer support specialists in Kentucky. This dissertation reports on its findings and includes a policy paper with recommendations for improving policy and practice. Chapter one offers an introduction to the peer support workforce …

Framing The Guard: A Content Analysis Of How The News Media Frames The National Guard During Times Of Crisis., Taylor L. Tolles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A quantitative content analysis of 585 newspaper articles gathered from seven news sources that covered the National Guard’s response to COVID-19, BLM Protests, and the Capitol Riot were used to determine the prevalence of frames used to depict the Guard during times of crisis. By using the five frames found in media framing (Entman, 1991), the prevalence of frames found in newspaper media was compared to the prevalence of frames found to be used in times of crisis (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). The results showed that even though the Guard’s response in times of crisis is similarly framed as previous …

Framing The Guides Transforming Libguides Creation Through Conceptual Integration With The Acrl Framework, Brooke Duffy, Kelleen Maluski, Gina Levitan

Publications

This chapter will discuss how one small liberal arts school utilized the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, a year after it was filed, to build LibGuides as they adopted the software for the first time. The goal being to create guides that would not simply be topical lists of resources but conceptual starting points for discipline-specific research that also integrated the ACRL Framework. As work on the guides continued and staffing transitions occurred the intention to utilize guides as instructional tools was solidified so that they could be used as a way to introduce threshold concepts in …

Making Sense Of Inclusive Leadership In Public Higher Education: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Herbert L. Thompson Iii

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study’s purpose was to generate a context-specific analysis and description of the inclusion process at a Midwestern university, and how leaders make sense of said process. The participants in this study are members of an inclusion training program; these participants represent the perspective of stakeholders as well as designated leadership for organizational inclusion. This study utilized Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Data generation occurred through a series of semi-structured interviews. Analysis of data provided a detailed description of the sense making of inclusive leadership is provided to explain how educators experience the phenomenon contextually. Five superordinate themes emerged from this …

Planning, Aging, And Loneliness: Reviewing Evidence About Built Environment Effects, Yingying Lyu, Ann Forsyth

Geography & Planning Faculty Publications

Large numbers of people in many countries report being lonely with rates highest among the very old. Does the built environment affect loneliness among older people and if so, how? Using a scoping review, we examined associations between loneliness and built environments at the block, neighborhood, and city scales The (a) neighborhood environment has received most attention. Research has also examined (b) urban contexts, (c) housing, and (d) transportation access. Findings are mixed with the stronger evidence that local resources, walkability, overall environment quality, housing options, and nearby transportation alternatives can help combat loneliness.

The Volunteering Experiences Of African American Millennials: An Exploratory Study, Kapreta J. Johnson

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

Volunteering is an invaluable resource and practice that connects people to much-needed services. Current research is limited on the practices and perspectives of African American volunteers in the United States. Through the application of surveys, interviews, and focus groups, this qualitative study explores the volunteer experiences of African American millennials. Based on an in-depth review of the literature on volunteerism and social capital theory, this study addresses the following research questions: What are the experiences and expectations of African American millennials participating in employer-sponsored volunteer activities? What are the challenges and limitations of participating in employer-sponsored volunteer activities? What are …

Examining The Types Of Capital Benefits Afforded To Low-Income Individuals By Adult Financial Literacy Programs, Dustin Tyler Love

All Theses

This paper explores the capital benefits derived from financial literacy programs and used as a means of poverty alleviation. Specifically, this paper focuses on cultural, social, and human capital. Examining financial literacy through the lens of capital allows one to explore how financial literacy is achieved through capital development. Unfortunately, access to this capital is limited and controlled by our social institutions. In conducting nine semi-structured interviews with coaches and participants of two separate financial literacy programs, findings show that participants do derive all three forms of capital. However, social capital and the fictive kinship relationships that were developed as …

On Different Computational Aspects For Box-Cox Transformation Cure Rate Model, Pei Wang

Mathematics Dissertations - Archive

Cure rate modeling is an emerging area of research not only in biomedical science but also in other disciplines such as sociology, criminal justice, economics and engineering reliability. In the first part of this thesis, use of the wider class of generalized gamma distributions is proposed as the distribution of the lifetime for a particular transformation cure rate model, known as the Box-Cox transformation cure rate model. The maximum likelihood estimation of the Box-Cox transformation cure model parameters is studied through the calculated bias, mean square error and coverage probabilities of the asymptotic confidence intervals. The flexibilities of both generalized …

The Co-Requisite Collaboration: Building Self-Confidence, Self-Efficacy, And Rapport Through Dialogue Journals In A Basic Writing Course, Timothy Jacob Pyatt

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Research on dialogue journals has grown in the last fifty years, but a gap exists in understanding how and why these dialogue journals work. During the fall of 2020, I conducted a study utilizing quantitative data to examine how dialogue journals impact student’s self-confidence, self-efficacy, and rapport. The data has confirmed that dialogue journals are effective classroom tools and that various aspects such as word count and purpose can be impacted in connection to student’s perceptions of themselves. This project responds to the gap in the literature and provides data to support how and why dialogue journals promote growth in …

Compassion For Self-Identity: An Evaluation Of A Compassion-Based Intervention For Stigmatized Sexual Identities, Du T. Nguyen

Dissertations

Sexual minority persons often experience notable negative mental and physical health disparities when compared to their heterosexual counterparts. According to the minority stress framework, it is posited that these discrepancies are due to additional, group-specific stressors that they experience beyond stress felt by the general population. One such minority stress variable that has received considerable attention is sexual stigma. Not only has sexual stigmatization been found to be related to negative mental and physical health outcomes, it has also previously been found to hinder adaptive emotion regulation.

Due to the minority stress felt by sexual minority persons, there is a …

Investigating The Relationship Between Departmental Support Structures, Self-Efficacy And Intention To Persist: An Examination Of Students' Experience In 19 Physics Graduate Programs Across The United States, Diana Sachmpazidi

Dissertations

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduate programs experience consistently high attrition rates. Moreover, persistent disparities exist in racial and gender representation. Women and People of Color are significantly underrepresented and have higher attrition rates than men and white and Asian American students. To date, little work is done to understand graduate student attrition or persistence. There is also a lack of information regarding the causes of demographic disparities in attrition. Most past studies in this context have focused on students' attributes, undergraduate preparation, and mentoring relationships. Moreover, student self-efficacy is a contributing factor for undergraduate student retention. Yet, there …

The Prophetic Element: Writing Through The Past, The Present, And The Future By Using Radical Imagination, Stevens Orozco

Theses (2016-Present)

In exploring the connections between the literary arts and the history of society, Stevens Orozco points to the existence of a prophetic element within the works of writers such as James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and Octavia E. Butler. By tracing the history of society through a linear path of published and canonized works, Orozco argues that the molding of society throughout history is a result of the manipulation of identities and narratives that has established the foundation for the historically dominant culture in literature, philosophy, and government. In response to this manipulation, Orozco demonstrates how the recent works of American …

The Fight For Freedom Of Two Oppressed Groups: Indian Nationalism And African American Liberation, Denzel D. Goodman

Theses (2016-Present)

This study examines the activities of two revolutionaries, one Lala Har Dayal (1884-1939) who established in the U.S. the Ghadar Party as an Indian revolutionary party against the British rule in India and the other was Huey P. Newton (1942-1989) who was a founder of the Black Panther Party which violently agitated against the longstanding chokehold of the “White” rule over the African American people. Juxtaposing the two different time periods and two different continents, which are incompatible phenomena give further understanding of what caused both such movements, regarded as aggressive resistance by their peoples to their oppressive rulers, to …

Pre-Training On Large-Scale Heterogeneous Graph, Xunqiang Jiang, Tianrui Jia, Yuan Fang, Chuan Shi, Zhe Lin, Hui Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Graph neural networks (GNNs) emerge as the state-of-the-art representation learning methods on graphs and often rely on a large amount of labeled data to achieve satisfactory performance. Recently, in order to relieve the label scarcity issues, some works propose to pre-train GNNs in a self-supervised manner by distilling transferable knowledge from the unlabeled graph structures. Unfortunately, these pre-training frameworks mainly target at homogeneous graphs, while real interaction systems usually constitute large-scale heterogeneous graphs, containing different types of nodes and edges, which leads to new challenges on structure heterogeneity and scalability for graph pre-training. In this paper, we first study the …

A Critical Review On The Moderating Role Of Contextual Factors In The Associations Between Video Gaming And Well-Being, Andree Hartanto, Verity Yu Qing Lua, Frosch Yi Xuan Quek, Jose C. Yong, Matthew H. S. Ng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The appeal of video gaming has undoubtedly withstood the test of time. In view of its increasing popularity, lay people and researchers alike have taken an interest in the psychological consequences of video gaming. However, there seems to be a paradox associated with the effect of video gaming on gamers' well-being—namely, while most video game players cite “fun” as their motivation to play video games, video games continue to hold a notorious reputation among some researchers for being detrimental to mental health and emotional well-being as measured by indicators such as happiness, perceived stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. We suggest …

Distracted: Why Students Cannot Focus By James M. Lang, Joax Wong, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Humans are easily distracted creatures. Our attention seems to constantly waver, shifting every second to different objects, sounds or stimuli. As we transition into adolescence, we start to hear the all-too familiar phrase that technology – smartphones, laptops, televisions and gaming devices – is an obstacle preventing us from reaching full productivity and sapping our attention. In Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It, James Lang describes the oftentimes complicated and false conceptions about distraction and the part that technology plays in it. Currently, society places extremely high demands on students and expects them to …

When A Pandemic Disrupts The Export Of People, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Karen Anne S. Liao

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Yasmin Ortiga and Karen Anne S. Liao conducted research supported by the SSRC on the dramatic disruptions that Filipino labor migrants experienced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the support (or lack thereof) of their plight by the Filipino state. Arguing that labor as well as commodity supply chains have been thrown in upheaval, the authors describe the limits of the Philippines’ labor export strategy. In particular, they focus on two sets of labor migrants—nurses unable to take jobs abroad, and repatriated cruise ship workers—for whom dignified work at home was unavailable. Ortiga and Liao conclude that treating …

The Economic And Fiscal Impacts Of Immigrant Populations On Nebraska And Omaha: Evidence From The 2015-2019 American Community Survey, Christopher S. Decker Ph.D.

Latino/Latin American Studies Reports

Few public policy topics generate as much impassioned debate as immigration. While arguments abound regarding the motivations for and efficacy of these policies, there are nonetheless many possible consequences of their implementation. This study focuses on only one specific question: What is the economic impact of immigrants on job creation and economic growth and development in Nebraska and the Omaha Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). To that end, using the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) data for the sample periods 2015 to 2019, this report quantitatively assesses this economic impact. While much of the focus in this study is …

(Re)Discovering I Am Worthy: A Black Feminist Autoethnographic Confrontation Of Abuse, Sarah Elizabeth Keeton

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The following thesis is a Black Feminist Autoethnographic confrontation of white supremacist, racist ideology. I assert that Black people are in an abusive relationship with America. Utilizing the Cycle of Violence, the relationship abuse framework, Critical Race theory and Black Feminist Thought, this thesis explores the violent ways America abuses Black bodies and how that abuse affects our very beings. Utilizing autoethnography to record what others have erased, I confront my abusers in all of their different forms, including the internalized abuse of self. This writing is a process of uncovering and (re)covery. This recovery process will examine the convergence …

Journey To The Professoriate: Exploring The Career Development Of African American Male Faculty In Counselor Education, Lacretisha Danielle Mcdole

Dissertations

Much of the existing literature on African American faculty in counselor education and supervision programs focuses on the challenges that confront them as racial minorities (Bradley & Holcomb-McCoy, 2004; Holcomb-McCoy & Addison-Bradley, 2005; Thompson, 2008; Turner & Myers, 2000). Findings from recent research studies have offered ways to support and guide African American faculty in combating racial discrimination and oppression within the academy (Jones-Boyd, 2016; Robinson, 2018). However, there are gaps in the literature about the personal and environmental factors that shape African Americans’ decisions to pursue the professoriate in counselor education and supervision, and factors that contribute to their …

The Use Of Post-Course Feedback On Mastery Learning In A Professional Development Context, Thomas M. Kramer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study investigated the effect of feedback to measure post-mastery learning in a professional development course designed for child welfare worker. In addition, the study explored the subjects’ perceptions of benefits gained by taking an online professional development course for child welfare worker. Specifically, the effect of email summaries sent out after the completion of the course on the participant’s retention of material covered in the course was assessed. The summary emails were designed to enhance the benefits of reviewing the study material after the completion of the course with a particular focus on the quantity and frequency of reminders …

One Child Town: The Health Care Exceptionalism Case Against Agglomeration Economies, Elizabeth Weeks

Utah Law Review

This Article offers an extended rebuttal to the suggestion to move residents away from dying communities to places with greater economic promise. Rural America, arguably, is one of those dying places. A host of strategies aim to shore up those communities and make them more economically viable. But one might ask, “Why bother?” In a similar vein, David Schleicher’s provocative 2017 Yale Law Journal article, Stuck! The Law and Economics of Residential Stagnation, recommended dismantling a host of state and local government laws that operate as barriers to migration by Americans from failing economies to robust agglomeration economies. But Schleicher …