Measuring the economic impact of universities operating in unstable environments: The case of a private institution in Lebanon

This paper evaluates the economic impact of a university in a country characterised by the scarcity of significant data and quantitative information. It uses an input–output model that permits the use of gross domestic product (GDP) deflators to portray the economy of years following a year for which a complete data set input is possible. Using commonly available administrative data, the model not only allows for the calculation of monetary multipliers but also employment multipliers that play a major role in the educational sector. The study highlights the role of Higher Education in promoting economic development, even under difficult political, economic and security conditions, where lack of stability is the norm and aims to demonstrate that not only well‐known historically grounded universities have significant economic impact but also smaller emerging universities play an important role in the development of their national economies.     

Teaching Students with Moderate Intellectual Disability Who Are Emergent Readers to Comprehend Passages of Text

A modified system of least intrusive prompting was used to teach middle school students with moderate intellectual disability who were emergent readers to comprehend short passages of text. Text passages were summaries of the chapters of age-appropriate novels rewritten for a beginning reading level. Time delay was used to teach the participants to pair WH words to their definition. A modified system of least intrusive prompting was used to teach strategies for answering comprehension questions. All participants improved the number of correct responses for both rules definitions and comprehension responses from baseline to intervention. Additionally, probes collected during the session prior to the introduction of a new book indicated comprehension skills generalized to new untaught books.     

Ethical considerations in distance education

Abstract

Most treatments of the concept of interaction in distance education have been based on Moore's (1989) discussion of three types of interaction: learner‐content, learner‐instructor, and learner‐learner. However, these previous discussions have failed to consider the interaction that occurs between the learner and the technologies used to deliver instruction. This article presents the concept of learner‐interface interaction and recommends instructional design strategies that will facilitate students' acquisition of the skills needed to participate effectively in the electronic classroom.     

Facilitating Discussions: Skills for Teachers and Students

In this article, the author addresses the problem of content knowledge dominating the school curriculum and the resultant marginalization of sociocivic and moral dispositions. Given the problems associated with teaching dispositions directly, the author offers four curricular aims that collectively develop the attitudes required of democratic citizens through deliberate employment in daily curriculum planning.