Using social network analysis to measure the impact and value of work that takes us beyond institutional boundaries

In educational development, accountability is paramount, in particular for activities that take educational developers away from their institutional boundaries to local, national, and international venues. Educational developers must demonstrate the benefits of such work to the home institution and its constituents. We asked educational developers from around the world to comment on the nature and value of their external work. Their responses made clear that such work expands valuable social networks and, concomitantly, builds social capital. Using these observations, we explain how social network analysis can be used to assess and demonstrate the impact of external work.     

Group assessments: dilemmas facing lecturers in multicultural tertiary classrooms

‘Group is good, and group is good for curing all social ills’ was the cynical observation of one of the lecturers in this study. Her comment reflects the uneasiness of lecturers at tertiary institutions with the notion that the educational advantages of group assessments far outweigh the disadvantages, and that such an approach promotes the integration of minority groups in multicultural universities. The dilemmas facing lecturers in multicultural tertiary classrooms are reflected on in this paper, when they adopt group assessment as a means of evaluation and highlight those challenges that often jeopardize the successful implementation of this type of practice.     

The World of Chance

This article describes ‘The World of Chance’, an unconventional statistics course taught at the University of Canberra since 1998, modelled on the Chance courses devised at Dartmouth College. Statistical concepts are introduced via a mixture of lectures, class discussions of news stories, and activities.     

在多伦多第一次找工作

和所有新移民一样,我到多伦多安顿下来之后,就怀着忐忑不安的心情开始找工作了。上网浏览一番之后,感觉工作机会挺多的,起码比在国内想像得好些。我把自己感觉合适的工作的联系地址记下来,陆续发出一些简历。过了一两周不见音讯,我开始着急起来。难道一个都不合适吗? 我反问自己,也许我的简历有问题吧。我请在这里有工作的朋友帮忙提意见,不断完善简历的格式和内容。一阵渺茫的感觉过后,我终于接到一些代理的电话。他们在电话中问了一些简单问题,比     

Mentoring Undergraduate Researchers: An Exploratory Study of Students’ and Professors’ Perceptions

Mentoring is believed to be one of the most influential factors in US efforts to encourage college‐aged students to seek careers in science, yet the role that mentoring plays in this process has not been elucidated. The researchers were interested in understanding whether the long‐held beliefs about the importance of mentoring would be revealed as what actually occurs in an undergraduate research program. They describe students’ perceptions of the mentoring process and students’ beliefs about how it impacted their experiences as undergraduate researchers and their development as scientists. Also described are professors’ perceptions of their roles and effectiveness as mentors in students’ development as scientists. A multi‐case narrative analysis was conducted of two groups, undergraduate science scholars (n=5) and mentoring professors (n=5), who were each interviewed on two occasions at the beginning and end of the first year of a funded research program. As this grounded research study shows, students and professors described student gains as increased technical expertise and communication skills. Professors suggested that they were available to students on a regular and frequent basis. However, students’ experiences suggested a contradiction. They were often mentored by postgraduates, technical assistants, and other students; their meetings with mentoring professors were infrequent and at times distant. With respect to mentoring, this finding highlights the differences between beliefs and the reality of what was delivered. Professors discussed the challenges associated with mentoring including the recruitment of and difficulty of working with students whose first language was not English and concerns about the quality of instruction from graduate students.     

Advertising Practitioner Perceptions of HDTV Advertising: A Diffusion of Innovations Perspective

Abstract

A nationwide online survey of advertising agency executives was conducted to investigate attitudes toward high-definition television (HDTV) diffusion. The survey was completed by 70 practitioners. The majority of respondents (85.9%) had viewed HDTV, but only 18.6% owned an HDTV set. Among non-owners of HDTV sets, 50% said they would not be acquiring 1 for at least 24 months. More than one half of the respondents believed that HDTV would not become the norm for 5 or more years. Respondents recognized the benefits of HDTV, but were not yet comfortable recommending HD advertising to clients. Factors inhibiting greater support of HDTV advertising include perceptions of insufficient HDTV programming, low HDTV diffusion among viewers, and greater cost of producing HD ads. Agency executives feel under-informed about HDTV, and would like to learn more about it. Industry groups interested in promoting greater acceptance of HDTV among advertising practitioners need to educate executives about the actual rate of HDTV diffusion to convince them that the medium is capable of attaining critical mass.     

Assessment in a Tight Time Frame: Using Readily Available Data to Evaluate Your Collection

The William S. Carlson Library of The University of Toledo is experiencing a major renovation project. Its first floor is being transformed into a state-of-the-art information commons. In order to provide the space necessary for this transformation, several collections, specifically the reference and circulating, needed to be moved and shifted in a timely manner. This paper highlights how readily available data were used to evaluate the volumes in the reference collection and the circulating collection in order to maximize the space for the renovation projects.     

Scenario-Based e-Learning: Evidence-Based Guidelines for Online Workforce Learning by Ruth Colvin Clark

This qualitative interpretive case study used Wenger’s (1998) communities of practice (CoP) framework to analyze how the electronic learning community (eLC) process at an established state virtual high school operated like a community of practice. Components of the eLC process were analyzed according to elements of the CoP framework, which provided a theoretical lens through which to analyze data gathered through interviews, observations, and document collection. Findings revealed several areas of alignment between the eLC process and the CoP framework, particularly with Wenger’s notion of practice within a CoP as a duality between participation and reification.