Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Strengthening The Southern Nevada Workforce Pipeline, Katie M. Gilbertson

Student Research

Workforce development has been a keystone in the discussion of economic diversification of Las Vegas for decades. The leisure and hospitality industry is the lifeline for the Southern Nevada economy due to the reliance on tourism as the city’s main economic driver. The leisure and hospitality industry requires physical labor and more face-to-face customer interaction than other employment sectors. Thus, these jobs often do not require high educational attainment, but rather sharp soft skills like effective listening, nonverbal communication, and negotiation strategies. While these are valuable traits, the lack of educational attainment within the leisure and hospitality workforce suppresses employees’ …

Improving Community College Students' Interest, Utility-Value, And Performance: How Does Future Time Persective Influence A Utility-Value Intervention?, Elsa Maria Mason

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The economic benefits of academic success and completion are long-lasting. Students who attend community colleges can stand to benefit a great deal by completing a 4-year degree or even a 2-year degree. Unfortunately, these students often begin their higher education journey not fully prepared for college-level coursework. Students often fail to see how their college coursework relates to their lives and in turn, don’t hold interest or perceive value for the course and consequently do not perform well. Using Eccles et al. (1983) expectancy-value theory this study tested how community college students would respond to a utility-value intervention in which …

Categorization Of Exam Questions To Improve Metacognition, Tiffany Barrett

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

This practice addresses UNLV students’ need for greater metacognitive awareness. Students often employ memorization as a study strategy when preparing for an exam. This can create an inability to apply the knowledge in a complex or different scenario. We know that “practice retrieving” study activities produce greater gains in meaningful learning (Karpicke 2011) but often students don’t identify a need for a change in study habits and a deeper level of understanding, especially if their exam score is considered passing.

Student Expectations And Motivation In Spanish For Heritage Speakers Programs, Sergio A. Guzman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The changing demographics in the United States and the growing need for multilingual individuals originated by globalization, among other reasons, have contributed to the emergence of a new field within the area of Applied Linguistics: The Teaching and Learning of Heritage Languages. Due to historical and geographic causes, Spanish for Heritage Speakers (SHS) is currently the largest and most established of these programs. However, the curricula, like those of most college courses, has been developed from professors’ perspectives, largely ignoring what students want to learn and/or their motives for enrolling in these classes. The lack of student input is especially …

Collaborating With Teaching Faculty On Transparent Assignment Design, Melissa Bowles-Terry, John C. Watts, Pat Hawthorne, Patricia Iannuzzi

Library Faculty Publications

In light of a campus-wide curricular change at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), the University Libraries created Faculty Institutes to build capacity for effective teaching and assessment practices campus-wide. The UNLV Libraries Faculty Institutes are multi-day workshops designed and delivered by librarians to help teaching faculty create courses and assignments that are research-rich and closely aligned with the newly launched General Education learning outcomes. This chapter provides the situational factors leading to the overhaul of General Education at UNLV and how librarians leveraged this opportunity to maximize their role as experts in information literacy and instructional design. This …

Mathematical Models Of Games Of Chance: Epistemological Taxonomy And Potential In Problem-Gambling Research, Catalin Barboianu

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Games of chance are developed in their physical consumer-ready form on the basis of mathematical models, which stand as the premises of their existence and represent their physical processes. There is a prevalence of statistical and probabilistic models in the interest of all parties involved in the study of gambling – researchers, game producers and operators, and players – while functional models are of interest more to math-inclined players than problem-gambling researchers. In this paper I present a structural analysis of the knowledge attached to mathematical models of games of chance and the act of mathematical modeling, arguing that such …

From Paper To Podium: Exploring The Gap Between University Training And Professional Experience In Orchestral Conductors, Rachel L. Waddell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In African polyrhythmic drum circles there is a proverb that exemplifies the necessity of common vision and community in group musical performance: “I am because we are.” This simple ideal is ostensibly mirrored in the western institution of the symphonic orchestra, an ensemble of many that nevertheless must arrive at one, shared interpretation of a piece of music. The structure of the orchestra is a complicated hierarchy with section players at its base, followed by principals, the concertmaster, and finally the conductor. Although conductors are the public face of leadership in orchestras, if they alienate the musicians they will have …

Impact Of A Grade Contract Model In A College Composition Course: A Multiple Case Study, Nayelee Villanueva

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Due to the complex nature of assessment in critical pedagogy practices, continued research is necessary in order to investigate the constantly evolving nature of education and the way we come to know how people learn. To research assessment in the critical classroom requires both instructor and students. This qualitative multiple case study investigated impacts of a grading contract as a form of assessment on student writing in a Basic Writing composition course. This study examined the impacts of a grade contract on students' writing, motivation for writing, revision practices, authorship and expectations of a Basic Writing composition course. Through a …

Curriculum Mapping At Unlv Libraries: Strategic Integration Of Library Instruction, Nancy E. Fawley

Lied Library Open House for the 2014 American Library Association Conference

Curriculum mapping is a strategy to integrate information literacy into the undergraduate curriculum by identifying key courses within the disciplines for targeted, library instruction.

Librarians identify high impact, beginning, middle and end-level courses within their disciplines. These may or may not be courses they currently work with.

Information competencies are introduced at a beginning level, then reinforced (mid-level) and enhanced (end) throughout a student’s academic career in an intentionally scaffolded manner. Assessment strategies are included the map, as well.

Librarians use curriculum maps to inform decisions on courses and content taught so instruction efforts are not duplicated.

Welcome To The University Libraries Poster Session!, Erin E. Rinto, Melissa Bowles-Terry, Rachelle Weigel, Nancy E. Fawley, Rosan Mitola, Amanda Melilli, Amy Jo Hunsaker, Jennifer L. Fabbi

Lied Library Open House for the 2014 American Library Association Conference

Over the past eight years, the UNLV Libraries have led and contributed to campus initiatives to revise the undergraduate curriculum and student learning outcomes at UNLV. Through formal and informal leadership roles, librarians helped to create the University Undergraduate Learning Outcomes (UULOs) in the areas of Intellectual Breadth and Lifelong Learning, Communication, Inquiry and Critical Thinking, Global/Multicultural Knowledge and Awareness, and Citizenship and Ethics and a revised model for general education.

In Fall 2011, the Faculty Senate approved a vertical pathway of key courses, which serve to integrate and assess the UULOs from a student’s first year of college through …

Unlv Libraries: Partners In Student Learning, Melissa Bowles-Terry

Lied Library Open House for the 2014 American Library Association Conference

The University Libraries play a central educational role at UNLV. Librarians offer workshops for faculty on assignment design and research on student learning. The workshops emphasize learning outcomes, active learning, and assessment of student learning. Institutes leverage UNLV Librarians’ expertise with facilitation and information literacy learning outcomes.

Learning Outcomes for Faculty Institutes:

• To understand how research-based learning approaches support student success.
• To articulate goals and learning outcomes for research assignments in order to communicate expectations to students and form the basis for assessment of student work.
• To investigate research-based learning activities that integrate library and information resources.
• To discover technology …

“Seeing” The Elephant: Assessing The Impact Of Library-Composition Program Collaboration On First-Year Student Learning, Erin E. Rinto

Library Faculty Presentations

Though university libraries and composition programs have historically collaborative relationships, these partnerships can take a variety of formats, including single course period library sessions, teaching-the-teachers, and librarian-driven assignment models. A hybrid of these collaborative approaches was implemented Fall 2012 at UNLV in an effort to provide first-year composition students with a more systematic information literacy experience in the required ENG 102 course. A two-pronged assessment method was used to evaluate the impact of the collaboration for both first-year student learning as well as to implement programmatic change.

Vendor Of The Month: A Marketing Collaboration, Lateka Grays, J. Cory Tucker

Library Faculty Publications

Marketing library resources remains an important issue despite library reductions in staff and collections budgets. In order to maintain or expand marketing programs, libraries could do well tapping into the expertise available through the vendors supplying resources to libraries. A case study of a library marketing program called, “Vendor of the Month,” at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas explains the collaboration between the library and its vendors to increase awareness and use of selected electronic resources.

Information Literacy Opportunities Within The Discovery Tool Environment, Nancy E. Fawley, Nikki Krysak

Library Faculty Publications

Discovery tools such as Primo, EBSCO Discovery Service, Summon, and WorldCat Local aim to make scholarly research more intuitive for students in part because of their single interface for searching across multiple platforms, including the library, fee-based databases, and unique digital collections. Discovery tools are in sync with the way many undergraduates look for information because they offer a more “Google-like” experience in contrast with previous methods of research that required first knowing which database to use, then searching each one differently according to its specifications. However, broad searches across multiple formats with different systems of controlled vocabulary force instructors …

Guidelines For Media Resources In Academic Libraries (2012), Mary S. Laskowski, Cyrus Ford Zarganj, Nancy E. Friedland, Jacqueline Fritz, Jim Holmes, Lora Lennertz Jetton, M. Claire Stewart, Joe M. Williams

Library Faculty Publications

Technology used in teaching, learning, and research has created new challenges and opportunities for managers of college and university library media resource collections and services.

Moving images, sounds, and still images have become increasingly important in teaching, learning and research, and academic librarians are working closely with other agencies on campus to support faculty and student information needs. In some institutions, librarians have become true partners in the delivery of instruction, working with faculty, technologists, and instructional developers to create “new learning communities.”

Most academic libraries collect media, and these materials are as vital and diverse as any print collection …

Academic Libraries: Sustainability In Action, Marianne A. Buehler

Library Faculty Presentations

Faculty and Librarian Collaborations:
- Sustainability Across the Curriculum
- Sustainability Research
- Sustainable Activity
- Opportunities

Bridging The Gap: Transitioning Information Literacy Skills For Student Success, Jennifer L. Fabbi, David Forgues

Library Faculty Presentations

Context: UNLV, University Undergraduate Learning Outcomes, Inquiry & Critical Thinking, Information Literacy, iSkills Assessment

Bridging The Information Literacy Gap: First-Year Students Reflect For Success, Jennifer L. Fabbi, Dan Gianoutsos, David Forgues

Library Faculty Presentations

UNLV Context

• Fall 2011: 22,138 undergraduate students; 72% were fulltime; 5135 freshmen with a 76.4% first-yr retention rate (2010 to 2011); 40.6% six-year graduation rate

• Budget-induced movement to large-enrollment classes – Program eliminations and consolidations underway

• General Education Reform developments – Articulation of University Undergraduate Learning Outcomes, especially Inquiry and Critical Thinking – New general education requirements extending vertically throughout the curriculum

• Focus on enhancing the first-year experience for incoming students

Is The Loop Really Closed?: The Assessment And Reassessment Of Communications 101 Learning Outcomes, Carrie A. Gaxiola

Library Faculty Presentations

Conclusion: The students received good grades from Phase I library instruction, however did they really learn what we targeted? We could not really say for sure. This case study reveals that an appropriate method and instruments are imperative for retrieving valid data. This case also displays the importance of collaboration and teamwork. Communication was always open between all members of the team as well as with the library instruction department. We were able to forge a great relationship with the Communication Studies Director– the libraries’ liaison and the Communication Studies Director authored a textbook chapter together about the library for …

Hitch Your Wagon To Institutional Goals, Anne E. Zald, Michelle Millet

Library Faculty Publications

The landscape of accreditation and accountability in higher education is in a period of rapid change, coalescing around issues identified in the 2006 report of the Spellings Commission, “A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education.” Information literacy librarians need to connect their instructional efforts to the institutional strategies and initiatives that address continuous improvement whatever their source, e.g. accreditation agencies, funding bodies such as state legislatures, institutional participation in the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA), University & College Accountability Network (U-CAN), or internal initiatives of the institution’s administration. The challenge for instruction librarians is great, requiring …

Notes From The Field: 10 Short Lessons On One-Shot Instruction, Megan Oakleaf, Steven Hoover, Beth S. Woodard, Jennifer Corbin, Randy Hensley, Diana K. Wakimoto, Christopher V, Hollister, Debra Gilchrist, Michelle Millet, Patricia A. Iannuzzi

Library Faculty Publications

Librarians teach. It might not be what we planned to do when we entered the profession, or it may have been our secret hope all along. Either way, we teach. We teach users of all types, including students, faculty, and our co-workers. We teach in multiple venues including classrooms, reference desks, face-to-face, and online. While the variety of teaching audiences and environments are endless, one teaching scenario remains quintessential: the one-shot library instruction session. No one knows better than librarians the limitations of this format, yet it remains central to our teaching efforts.

Second Life Virtual Universities: A Visual Analysis, Zeenath Haniff

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

General academic objectives include producing an educational experience that is engaging, interactive, collaborative, experiential and productive. The goal is to promote learner engagement through the visual power of a newly adopted medium in education – universities in the multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) of Second Life. Attributes of the virtual reality aid visual learning in the online environment: (1) computer-generated content, (2) three-dimensional graphics, and (3) interactivity. Visual renditions of campus buildings and fellow students as avatars emotionally connect students to feel a sense of presence and community within the virtual learning platform. Additionally, the ability to see and hear their …

Intelligent Design And Its Place In The Classroom, Victor Trinh, Mekdelawit Mezgebu

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Creationism, is the dominant belief held by the public. Evolution, on the other hand, is the competing theory of the mechanisms of creation. The recent dispute among the scientific and political field that has furthermore complicated the question of intelligent design being integrated into the curriculum of public schools is addressed here. We attempt to give both sides of the argument, along with analyzing the components of each theory. Intelligent design advocates are for the idea of accommodating what they have coined “intelligent design” into the classrooms of American schools. The opponents of intelligent design (evolution supporters); however, claim that …

Should Intelligent Design Be Taught Alongside Evolution In Public Schools?, Chelsea Opdendyk, Christina James

Festival of Communities: UG Symposium (Posters)

Evolution being the creation of life through a scientific method and ID being the creation of life through a religious point of view. The overall proposing question to be discussed throughout this project is whether or not ID should be taught in schools alongside Evolution within science classes. The first phase of this project involves research of the positive teachings of ID within the school system and how it can be beneficial to students. The second part of this project involves the negative aspects of educating students the proposed theory of ID. The final phase revolves around the favored conclusion …

Under The Influence: First-Year Seminars And The Librarian Teaching Role, Steven Hoover, Randy Hensley

Library Faculty Presentations

The discussion will address the benefits and challenges of teaching as a librarian outside of the library.

How can a librarian's experiences prepare them to teach a semester-long course?

What factors influence the design and delivery of a first-year seminar?

What challenges might arise when teaching outside of the library?

Faculty Institute On Research Based-Learning In High Impact Courses, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

UNLV Libraries-Greater Western Library Alliance Conference

In Spring 2009, the Library Advisory Board agreed to fund a proposal for the Libraries to collaborate with campus partners to provide support to faculty who were faced with several initiatives that impact the way faculty deliver their course content, develop their assignments and assess their success. These initiatives include the movement to large enrollment classes, especially for large impact, core courses; the redesign of the general education requirements around universal learning outcomes; and, enhancing the first-year experience for incoming students. There is no single entity on campus in a position to provide the faculty support and development needed.

The …

Universal Undergraduate Learning Outcomes (Uulo) Recommendations, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

UNLV Libraries-Greater Western Library Alliance Conference

Outcomes (What we want students to achieve) and Objectives (How we will know students achieve the goals)

The undergraduate learning outcomes articulate clear expectations for what all UNLV students should know and be able to do upon graduation. The undergraduate learning outcomes form the foundation for general education but also extend into the majors. This comprehensive approach aims to meld undergraduate learning into a more intentional, coherent experience that consists of the purposeful sequencing of learning from the first year, to the middle years, to the senior year and includes learning both within and outside the major, including co-curricular expenences.

The Quality Imperative: Match Ambitious Goals For College Attainment With An Ambitious Vision For Learning, Board Of Directors Of The Association Of American Colleges And Universities

UNLV Libraries-Greater Western Library Alliance Conference

Facing an avalanche of evidence that the United States no longer leads the world in postsecondary attainment, educational leaders at all levels have begun a far-reaching effort to increase significantly the number of students entering and completing higher education. This is a top priority for the Obama administration, for policy leaders and philanthropy, and for colleges and universities.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities welcomes and strongly supports the emerging national commitment to expand appreciably both access to college and successful completion. We are especially concerned that higher education provide equitable access and expanded opportunity for groups and communities …

The Degree Qualifications Profile, Lumina Foundation

UNLV Libraries-Greater Western Library Alliance Conference

The need for a Degree Profile

Higher learning has taken on new importance in today’s knowledge society. To succeed in the contemporary workplace, today’s students must prepare for jobs that are rapidly changing, use technologies that are still emerging and work with colleagues from (and often in) all parts of the globe. The challenges that graduates face as citizens during their lives are similarly complex and also are affected by developments around the world.

Recognizing the economic and societal importance of higher levels of learning, national leaders, policymakers, analysts and major philanthropies have called for a dramatic increase in the …

Unlv Faculty Institute On Research-Based Learning For High Impact Classes, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

UNLV Libraries-Greater Western Library Alliance Conference

IF YOU ARE A FACULTY MEMBER . . .

- Teaching a large-enrollment, lower-division course in Fall 2010

- Coordinating a multi-section, high-impact, lower-division course in Fall 2010

- Seeking ways to enrich your course and engage your students

- Committed to including substantive research and critical thinking components that utilize the Libraries’ collections in your course

- Interested in exchanging teaching ideas with colleagues from across the UNLV campus

- Eager to explore creative and effective ways to work with University partners to bring research into the classroom

- Interested in utilizing technology to create active learning environments in …