Just a harmless website?: an experimental examination of RateMyProfessors.com’s effect on student evaluations

This set of experiments assessed the influence of RateMyProfessors.com profiles, and the perceived credibility of those profiles, on students’ evaluations of professors and retention of material. In Study 1, 302 undergraduates were randomly assigned to read positive or negative RateMyProfessors.com profiles with comments that focused on superficial or legitimate professor features. Participants then watched a lecture clip, provided professor ratings and completed a quiz on the lecture. In Study 2, 81 students who were randomly assigned to read the same RateMyProfessors.com profiles before an actual class provided credibility ratings of the information, listened to a lecture and provided professor ratings at the end. Across both experiments, one in a laboratory setting, and one in an authentic undergraduate lecture, participants gave more favourable professor ratings after reading positive evaluations from RateMyProfessors.com information. These findings establish the causal link between professor information and subsequent evaluations.     

Flickr as a Digital Image Collection Host: A Case Study of the Alcuin Society

This report is a case study of the Alcuin Society's use of Flickr as a digital image collection host. It covers the selection, implementation, and promotion of Flickr as the place for its photographs and images.     

The challenges of academic development as a first graduate job: ‘am I doing it right?’

ABSTRACT

This article explores the experience of 10 graduate interns employed in an academic development team at a modern British university. The interns came from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds with no previous experience of academic development. We worked intensively with them to build their research and professional capabilities. They learnt to design questionnaires, lead focus groups, interview academics, and write ethnographic field-notes. The public-facing and visible achievements of the graduate interns told a brilliant story; behind the scenes they wrestled with the challenges of being and becoming. Here, we analyse a series of reflections charting their journeys as new professionals.     

Module Development Through Peer-assisted Student Support: An initial evaluation

The importance of effective module development in terms of content and delivery is becoming increasingly significant within higher education. The majority of evaluation exercises are relatively static and reactive, predominantly utilising standardised evaluation questionnaires. This paper examines the effectiveness of utilising peer-assisted student support, a form of student-centred learning to provide module feedback that cannot be easily identified through traditional methods. Data from meeting logs, observations, interviews and questionnaires demonstrates that student-centred learning feedback can enhance module development, identifying and prompting effective remedial action in shorter timescales. The paper therefore concludes that feedback from student-centred learning initiatives is a viable and dynamic alternative to traditional modes of module development that requires further consideration .     

Three mentoring team relationships and obstacles encountered: a school‐based case study

This case study is a continuation of a research project that investigated 149 mentoring teams in four school districts over a two‐year period. The primary goal in the first phase of the study was to identify mentoring teams that were regularly encountering problems, introduce intervention procedures, and assess the effectiveness of those procedures. In this phase, three teams were selected from the original study to represent four common problems encountered during formal mentoring: institutional barriers, issues of time, lack of emotional support, and poor interpersonal skills. Results indicate the need for a closer examination of the principal's role in the mentoring process, more attention to how mentoring coordinators and administrators use their time, a more rigorous mentor selection process, a more detailed evaluation of the teaching environment, additional support mechanisms, and more prevalent sharing of research.     

Parents' reflections on their children being excluded

Abstract

The human cost of exclusion is not confined to the student. Parents of excluded students feel they are judged as unworthy parents and are mere observers to a decision that has radical implications for their son's/daughter's future education. As partners in the educational enterprise of their child, they are often powerless in the exclusion process and are voiceless in the discourse that surrounds the decision to exclude as well as the decisions regarding future education options. The parents' experience of exclusion is a side of the exclusion story that is not often heard. This article describes how a group of parents experienced their son's/daughter's mainstream schooling and exclusion from a mainstream secondary school. The parents' story is passionate, painful and poignant. It highlights the need for the continued development of inclusive practices in mainstream schools.     

School sector and socioeconomic inequalities in university entrance in Australia: the role of the stratified curriculum

One of the more persuasive arguments for school sector differences in students' educational performance is the role of the senior school curriculum, which is stratified, socially selective, and has an important bearing on educational outcomes. In addition, the stratified curriculum may also contribute to socioeconomic inequalities in education by directing students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds to the most beneficial aspects of the curriculum. This paper finds that course taken has strong effects on university entrance performance and participation, but its effects are largely independent of school sector and socioeconomic background. Only about 10% of the effect of attending an independent school on tertiary entrance performance can be attributed to course type (net of other factors) and about 14% of the effect of socioeconomic background. This suggests that curriculum stratification plays only a minor role in mediating the influences of school sector and socioeconomic background on educational outcomes.     

Through Student Eyes: Perceptions and Aspirations of Students from the Armenian State Agrarian University and Selected European Universities

Abstract

This research compared attributes of students enrolled in the Armenian State Agrarian University (ASAU) with university students from 30 European countries (EFMD) about graduate study policy issues. A cross-national comparative design used a survey questionnaire to explore contextual, social and cultural phenomena. Samples included 801 ASAU and 3,265 EFMD students. Demographics of samples were similar. Students were largely unaware of the Bologna reforms and the impact on study abroad. Slightly more than half of EFMD participants were in a bachelor's programme compared to 96% of ASAU students. ASAU students held a more pragmatic rationale for foreign study, ranking ‘advancing professional careers’ as the top reason, while EFMD students chose ‘overall experience’. Obstacles included bureaucracy, funding and accommodations. Although groups had similar geographical preferences for foreign study, Eastern Europe was more preferred by ASAU students. Half of the EFMD students planned graduate enrollment ‘immediately following the degree’ compared to one-quarter of ASAU students. Half of the EFMD students were aware of mobility scholarships compared to three-quarters of ASAU students. One in two EFMD students reported university media rankings important compared to one in seven ASAU students.

The Bologna Declaration accelerated horizontal collaboration among European universities. Students have a larger collective voice in curriculum change. The findings of this research provide a better understanding of student aspirations, motivations, expectations and barriers. These findings can contribute to guiding policies and procedures for recruitment, admission, retention and mobility.     

HIV/AIDS School-based Education in Selected Asia-Pacific Countries

This paper describes findings from a recent UNAIDS-funded study of how education systems in selected countries in East Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific are responding to HIV/AIDS-related education. Data were collected by means of postal questionnaire and key informant interviews in Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Thailand and Vietnam. Sources of information varied but included ministries, non-governmental organisations and other interested bodies. Findings suggest that the education provided is largely information-based, but with a developing emphasis on life-skills such as assertiveness and negotiation. Specific sexual practices are rarely discussed in the region's schools, except in a somewhat mechanistic way, focusing mainly on human reproduction and anatomy. However, those countries most affected by the epidemic are beginning to re-think their approaches. An increasing openness about sexual and drug injecting practices, and how to communicate these issues with young people, is beginning to become apparent.     

8. TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION

ON THE HISTORY OF FILM STYLE by David Bordwell (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997‐$60.00/24.95, ISBN 0–674–63428–4 hard, 0–674–63429–2 paper, 322 pp., photographs, chapter notes, index)

MASKED MEN: MASCULINITY AND THE MOVIES IN THE FIFTIES by Steven Cohan (Bloomington: Indiana University Press “Arts and Politics of the Everyday,”; 1997‐$39.95/8.95, ISBN 0–253–33297–4 hard, 0–253–21127–1 paper, 376 pp., photographs, selected filmography, chapter notes, references, index)

THE EXPLODING EYE: A RE‐VISIONARY HISTORY OF 1960s AMERICAN EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA by Wheeler Winston Dixon (Albany: State University of New York Press “SUNY Series, Cultural Studies in Cinema/Video,”; 1997‐$57.50/18.95, ISBN 0–7914–3565–2 hard, 0–7914–3566–0 paper, 250 pp., photos, bibliography, index)

THE KING OF THE MOVIES: FILM PIONEER SIEGMUND LUBIN by Joseph P. Eckhardt (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1997‐$55.00, ISBN 0–8386–3728–0, 286 pp., B&;.W photos, notes, bibliography, index)

WITHIN OUR GATES: ETHNICITY IN AMERICAN FEATURE FILMS, 1911–1960: AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE CATALOG edited by Alan Gevinson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997‐$150.00, ISBN 0–520–20964–833, 1571 pp., abbreviations list, indexes, bibliography)

FRAME BY FRAME II: A FILMOGRAPHY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN IMAGE, 1978–1994 by Phyllis R. Kotman and Gloria J. Gibson (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997‐$49.95/29.95, ISBN 0–253–33280‐X hard, 0–253–21120–4 paper, 771 pp., bibliography, indexes)

FILMMAKERS AND FINANCING: BUSINESS PLANS FOR INDEPENDENTS by Louise Levison (Boston: Focal Press, 1998 [2nd ed.]‐$22.95, paper, ISBN 0–240–80300–0, 190 pp., tables, index)

FEMINISM, FILM, FASCISM: WOMEN'S AUTO/BIOGRAPHICAL FILM IN POSTWAR GERMANY by Susan E. Linville (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998‐$30.00/14.95, ISBN 0–292–74696–2 hard, 0–292–74697–0 paper, 208 pp., photos, chapter notes, bibliography, index)

THE MOTION PICTURE MEGA‐INDUSTRY by Barry R. Litman (Boston: Allyn &; Bacon “Series in Mass Communication,”; 1998‐$24.00, paper, ISBN 0–205–20026–5, 321 pp., charts, tables, notes, references, index)

FROM HEADLINE HUNTER TO SUPERMAN: A JOURNALISM FIL‐MOGRAPHY by Richard R. Ness (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1997‐$89.50, ISBN 0–8108–3291–7, 787 pp., references, appendices, black‐and‐white photographs, index)

Chile v/s Hollywood / CHILE vs HOLLYWOOD by Daniel Olave (Santiago, Chile: Editorial Grijalbo, 1997‐no price available, ISBN 956–258–051–2, 208 pp., photographs)

TRIANGULATED VISIONS: WOMEN IN RECENT GERMAN CINEMA edited by Ingeborg Majer O'Sickey and Ingeborg von Zadow (Albany: State University of New York Press “SUNY Series in Feminist Criticism and Theory,”; and “SUNY Series, Cultural Studies in Cinema/Video,”; 1998‐$65.50/21.95, ISBN 0–7914–3717–5 hard, 0–7914–3718–3 paper, 290 pp., photos, chapter notes, index)

FILM AND THE NUCLEAR AGE: REPRESENTING CULTURAL ANXIETY by Toni A. Perrine (New York: Garland “Garland Studies in American Popular History and Culture,”; 1998‐$68.00, ISBN 0–8153–2932–6, 304 pp., index, bibliography, chronology, filmography)

CONTEMPORARY CINEMATOGRAPHERS ON THEIR ART by Pauline Rogers (Boston: Focal Press, 1998‐$19.95, paper, ISBN 0–240–80309–4, 223 pp.)

HOLLYWOOD'S WORLD WAR I: MOTION PICTURE IMAGES edited by Peter C. Rollins and John E. O'Connor (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1998‐$49.95/19.95, ISBN 0–87972–755–1 hard, 0–87972–756‐X paper, 304 pp., illustrations, notes, general index, film/TV index)

DOCUMENTING OURSELVES: FILM, VIDEO, AND CULTURE by Sharon R. Sherman (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1998‐$22.95, paper, ISBN 0–8131–0934–5, 336 pp., photographs, filmography, chapter notes, references, index)

JAMES WILLIAMSON: STUDIES AND DOCUMENTS OF A PIONEER IN THE FILM NARRATIVE by Martin Sopocy (Cranbury, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1998‐$52.50, ISBN 0–8386–3716–7, 337 pp., photographs, chapter notes, bibliography, index)

HISTORY BY HOLLYWOOD: THE USE AND ABUSE OF THE AMERICAN PAST by Robert Brent Toplin (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996— 288 pp., $36.95/16.95, ISBN 0–252–02073–1, 0–252–06536–0 paper, photos, chapter notes, selected bibliography, index)