Creating greeting cards to understand and to evaluate Knapp’s Staircase Model of relationships

Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Relational Communication

Objective: This article teaches students to explain and evaluate Knapp’s Relational Staircase Model through the creation of personalized greeting cards for each relational stage. The in-class activity encourages students to be creative and succinct in capturing the essence of an assigned relational stage in their respective greeting cards. The activity also provides students with an opportunity to apply the model to their lives and to test the validity and usefulness of the model in the hook-up culture prevalent among many college students today.     

Global learning partnerships in the Café: peer feedback as a formative assessment tool for animation students

This paper reports on a global learning partnership using the Café: the collaborative application for education as an e-learning environment within the Facebook framework, for first-year animation students at the University of South Australia (USA) in Australia and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. “The Café” has been designed based on five principles of user interface design – visibility, usability, relevance, accessibility, and interactivity – and aims to provide institutions with an established, structured, and dedicated e-learning environment that meets the needs of modern-day tertiary students and teaching staff. From July to November in 2013, 71 students participated within the e-learning environment. Students submitted work-in-progress imagery related to major assignments, and provided feedback and critiques to their local and global peers. A post-semester survey provided students with the opportunity to critically reflect on the learning experience. The results are discussed in light of the use of peer feedback as a formative assessment tool.     

Topological realizability conditions and their interpretation for admittance matrices of an MTL system with mode delays

In a previous study by the authors regarding passive multiconductor transmission line (MTL) system quasi-TEM mode delay, we encounter longitudinal immittance matrix functions (LIMFs) whose behavior initially appears problematic, yet they are shown to be passive. This paper addresses the constraints on the realization of the admittance matrix and the physical interpretation of the realized circuits in the passive, common-ground microstrip system.     

Validation of Accelerometer-Based Energy Expenditure Prediction Models in Structured and Simulated Free-Living Settings

This study compared accuracy of energy expenditure (EE) prediction models from accelerometer data collected in structured and simulated free-living settings. Twenty-four adults (mean age 45.8 years, 50% female) performed two sessions of 11 to 21 activities, wearing four ActiGraph GT9X Link activity monitors (right hip, ankle, both wrists) and a metabolic analyzer (EE criterion). Visit 1 (V1) involved structured, 5-min activities dictated by researchers; Visit 2 (V2) allowed participants activity choice and duration (simulated free-living). EE prediction models were developed incorporating data from one setting (V1/V2; V2/V2) or both settings (V1V2/V2). The V1V2/V2 method had the lowest root mean square error (RMSE) for EE prediction (1.04–1.23 vs. 1.10–1.34 METs for V1/V2, V2/V2), and the ankle-worn accelerometer had the lowest RMSE of all accelerometers (1.04–1.18 vs. 1.17–1.34 METs for other placements). The ankle-worn accelerometer and associated EE prediction models developed using data from both structured and simulated free-living settings should be considered for optimal EE prediction accuracy.     

Clifton Forge and Back Again

Abstract

Coming from small-town Appalachia, Josh Howard reflects on his career as a public historian with a focus on sport. He maps out his recent work at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Lamar University, and other sport history work in explaining a journey from a background in statistics to one in public sport history. He concludes by offering some suggestions to better develop scholarship on the intersection of public history and sport history specifically through partnerships with professional sport franchises.