Increasing student engagement and reducing exhaustion through the provision of demanding but well-resourced training

Despite the fact that both workplace and training environments can be inherently demanding, these environments sometimes manage to elicit a level of engagement and enthusiasm that is surprising. The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model has been used extensively within the workplace to predict both engagement and burnout. It suggests that high demands lead to burnout, but that appropriately targeted resources mitigate the impact of these demands, and increase engagement. In order to test this model within the university context a survey was developed to assess participants of a short academic skills training programme. The survey measured students’ perception of demands, resources, engagement and burnout immediately following the programme. Evidence suggests that resources were positively related to engagement, and that demands had a positive relationship with exhaustion, but not the other components of burnout. The relationship between the actual demands of the training and exhaustion was mediated by the individual’s emotional or stress related experience of that demand. This research suggests that the JD-R model has value in predicting both engagement and exhaustion for participants in short training programmes.     

The Ordering Challenge: An Online Game to Introduce Independent Demand Inventory Concepts

Students are put in the role of a manager who watches inventory levels decrease and must order at the right time and in the right quantity to minimize costs. This interactive game requires the students to race against time and has levels of increasing difficulty. It introduces the students to the concepts of holding cost, ordering cost, backlog cost, the sawtooth curve, reorder point, order quantity, ABC categorization, and continuous review systems. The game is simple and is available free online. An accompanying assignment is designed to guide the student's reflection process while playing the game.     

Pursuing Further Study or Hunting for a Job？

快要大学毕业的Nancy面临两难抉择：是继续学习深造还是尽快找份工作？这个问题令Nancy很是困扰,于是她找Brad帮忙出谋划策。     

Perspective on the Past

编者按：照片,从黑白到彩色,色彩丰富起来,人亦在慢慢老去。重温这些家庭的老照片,轻轻拂去岁月的尘埃,那温馨的一幕幕仍恍如昨日,历历在目……     

Afraid of Tallying to My Foreign Teacher

Cindy是个高中生,她学校新来了一位外教。她渴望跟外教交流．却又由于担心自己口语不好。害怕被同学笑话等原因。最终没鼓起勇气跟外教老师说话。Brad会给她什么建议呢？     

How many times per week should a muscle be trained to maximize muscle hypertrophy? A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies examining the effects of resistance training frequency

Training frequency is considered an important variable in the hypertrophic response to regimented resistance exercise. The purpose of this paper was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of experimental studies designed to investigate the effects of weekly training frequency on hypertrophic adaptations. Following a systematic search of PubMed/MEDLINE, Scoups, and SPORTDiscus databases, a total of 25 studies were deemed to meet inclusion criteria. Results showed no significant difference between higher and lower frequency on a volume-equated basis. Moreover, no significant differences were seen between frequencies of training across all categories when taking into account direct measures of growth, in those considered resistance-trained, and when segmenting into training for the upper body and lower body. Meta-regression analysis of non-volume-equated studies showed a significant effect favoring higher frequencies, although the overall difference in magnitude of effect between frequencies of 1 and 3+ days per week was modest. In conclusion, there is strong evidence that resistance training frequency does not significantly or meaningfully impact muscle hypertrophy when volume is equated. Thus, for a given training volume, individuals can choose a weekly frequency per muscle groups based on personal preference.