Using New Technology to Comply with ADA Assistive Listening Requirements

Hearing loss impacts 17 percent of the U.S. population. Recent changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act may require updates to how libraries accommodate people with hearing loss. Assistive listening technologies, such as Hearing Loop, open up more opportunities for libraries to engage with and better serve individuals with hearing loss.     

On the viability of supporting institutional sharing of remote laboratory facilities

Laboratories are generally regarded as critical to engineering education, and yet educational institutions face significant challenges in developing and maintaining high-quality laboratory facilities. Remote laboratories are increasingly being explored as a partial solution to this challenge, with research showing that – for the right learning outcomes – they can be viable adjuncts or alternatives to conventional hands-on laboratories. One consequential opportunity arising from the inherent support for distributed access is the possibility of cross-institutional shared facilities. While both technical feasibility and pedagogic implications of remote laboratories have been well studied within the literature, the organisational and logistical issues associated with shared facilities have received limited consideration. This paper uses an existing national-scale laboratory sharing initiative, along with a related survey and laboratory sharing data, to analyse a range of factors that can affect engagement in laboratory sharing. The paper also discusses the implications for supporting ongoing laboratory sharing.     

Anatomical Sciences Education Vol. 4, Issue 5, 2011 Cover Image

Drawing session from an art and anatomy workshop for medical students at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and art students at the University of Texas at San Antonio. A current trend in medical education is to integrate aspects of the humanities into the medical school curriculum. In this issue of ASE, Dr. Charleen Moore and her colleagues describe an art and anatomy workshop that uses drawing exercises to increase observational skills, to foster the development of humanistic sensitivities, and to emphasize the emotional aspects of dealing with mortality. (Photograph by Penelope Borchers).     

SMEC (her/his)tories

This collection of historical accounts provides diverse perspectives on the structure and culture of the community of researchers who completed their studies under the mentorship of researchers at SMEC. These her/histories provide multiple perspectives on the goals and values that motivated educators to become SMEC scholars.     

Child care and family processes: Bi-directional relations between child care quality,home environments,and maternal depression

The current study examined whether within-family changes in child care quality and quantity predicted subsequent changes in home environment quality and maternal depression across early childhood (6 to 54 months of age). Data were drawn from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 1239; 77% White; 48% female; data collection from 1991 to 1996), and were analyzed using Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models. Within-family increases in child care quality predicted modest increases in home environment quality (β = .13–.17). These effects were most robust from child age 6 to 15 months. Increases in child care quality produced small, statistically non-significant, reductions in depression. Time-specific increases in child care quantity were not consistently predictive of either outcome.