A desktop publishing course: An alternative to internships for rural universities

Technical writing programs housed in geographically isolated universities face great challenges in regard to getting students career‐related work experience. A course in desktop publishing can provide students at rural schools with experience equivalent to internships. In the desktop publishing course I taught at Murray State University, in addition to learning principles of layout and design, students faced many challenges like those that will confront them in the workplace. They worked on projects that entailed real financial constraints and deadlines; they were required to modify their work after receiving reviews from several different individuals. In addition to providing students with experience, the course provided benefits to the university in terms of services and public relations.     

Software review

STATISTICA 5.0. StatSoft, 2325 East 13th Street, Tulsa, OK 74104, (918) 583–4149. $995 retail, academic site license—$2,000 for 10 copies. Requirements: 386 or better, 4 Meg RAM, Microsoft Windows 3.1 or 95.     

Software review

STREAMS 1.7 for Windows. Jan‐Eric Gustafsson and Per Arne Stahl. (16‐bit Windows version.) Distributed by iec ProGamma, P.O. Box 841, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands. Regular price, $660; Educational price, $440. Requirements: Windows 3.1 and a minimum of 16 Mb ram.     

Software review

BMDP/Diamond for Windows. Originally distributed by BMDP¹ Statistical Software, Inc. Regular price, $395, academic price, $295. Requirements: Math coprocessor, MS‐DOS 3.1, MS Windows 3.1, 4MB RAM (8MB recommended) and a VGA display with 16 or more colors. Also available for UNIX and OS/2.     

Software review

Amos 3.51. Written by James L. Arbuckle. Distributed by SmallWaters Corporation, 1507 East 53rd Street, Suite 452, Chicago, IL 60615. Regular price, $465, educational price, $325, possible upgrade discounts.     

Software review: Groupware gains momentum

Theoretical Principles of Distance Education. D. Keegan, ed. (London: Routledge, 1993, 272 pp., $54.95).

Open Learning Courses for Adults: A Model of Student Progress. David Kember (Educational Technology Publications, 1995, 271 pp.)     

Academic nightmares: Predatory publishing

Academic researchers who seek to publish their work are confronted daily with a barrage of e‐mails from aggressive marketing campaigns that solicit them to publish their research with a specialized, often newly launched, journal. Known as predatory journals, they often promise high editorial and publishing standards, yet their exploitive business models, poor quality control, and minimal overall transparency victimize those researchers with limited academic experience and pave the way for low‐quality articles that threaten the foundation of evidence‐based research. Understanding how to identify these predatory journals requires thorough due diligence on the part of the submitting authors, and a commitment by reputable publishers, institutions, and researchers to publicly identify these predators and eliminate them as a threat to the careers of young scientists seeking to disseminate their work in scholarly journals. Anat Sci Educ 10: 392–394. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.     

软件技术专业“订单式”人才培养的实践与探索

本文从“订单式”人才培养模式改革的背景讨论入手,综述了深圳信息职业技术学院软件技术专业“订单式”人才培养模式的实践,分析了“订单式”人才培养模式的关键问题和解决方案。     

Authors and information technology: New challenges in publishing

Last year 1279 professional authors completed a lengthy questionnaire on their use of, and attitudes towards, technological tools for writing and publishing. The data were analysed quantitatively, by examining the most frequent responses to items on the questionnaire, and qualitatively, by looking closely at details illuminating the relationship between authors and publishers. The results, for present purposes, are divided into three broad bands of interest: first, what types of writing software authors are currently using; second, what the implications of using authors' disks in the publication chain are; and third, how technology alters perceptions of the copy as a unit of sale. Findings suggest that though authors are operating at basic levels, they have embraced technology with more enthusiasm than their publishers. The challenge facing those involved in books is to make provision for presenting and displaying work in electronic form: to improve contracts and licensing agreements, and to disseminate information on technology to authors.Funded by the British National Bibliography Reseach Fund.© Jane Dorner, 1991     

A review of the mx computer program for structural equation modeling

Mx. Michael C. Neale, Virginia Institute for Psych and Behavioral Genetics, Box 980126, Richmond, VA 23298. Freeware, ftp: neale@gems.vcu.edu; http: \\www.griffin.vcu.edu\mx. Mx is available for IBM, Mac, UNIX, and VMS platforms.     

Identifying the potential organizational impact of an educational peer review program

The literature on educational peer review (EPR) has focused on evaluating EPR's impact on faculty and/or student learning outcomes; no literature exists on the potential organizational impact. A qualitative (case study) research design explored perceptions of 17 faculty and 10 administrators within a school of nursing in an Ontario university regarding the potential impact of an EPR program on organizational goals. Findings suggested that the implementation of an EPR program may increase consistency in the delivery of the curriculum, provide opportunities for faculty development, act as a method of teaching evaluation, and enhance faculty retention. Higher education institutions may be more likely to provide the resources required for EPR if the organizational benefits can be demonstrated.

La documentation au sujet de “l'évaluation éducative par les pairs” (educational peer review) (EPR) est centrée sur l'étude d'impact de l'EPR sur les objectifs d'apprentissage (learning outcomes) des enseignants et/ou des étudiants; il n'existe aucune documentation portant sur l'impact organisationnel potentiel. Cette recherche qualitative (études de cas) a permis d'explorer les perceptions à l'égard de l'impact potentiel d'un programme d'EPR sur les objectifs organisationnels de 17 enseignants et 10 administrateurs provenant d'une école de sciences infirmières rattachée à une université de l'Ontario (Canada). Les résultats suggèrent que l'implantation d'un programme d'EPR peut accroître la constance de mise en ?uvre du cursus, fournir des occasions de développement pédagogique, servir de méthode d'évaluation de l'enseignement, et améliorer la rétention du corps enseignant. Les institutions d'enseignement supérieur seront peut‐être davantage susceptibles de fournir les ressources nécessaires à l'EPR si l'on peut faire la preuve de ses bénéfices organisationnels.