Not just for celebrities: collaborating with a PR representative to market library education services

Hardin Library for the Health Sciences offers an education service called Hardin House Calls. In collaboration with the University of Iowa libraries' public relations coordinator, the education team developed a marketing campaign for Hardin House Calls. Marketing strategies included designing a new logo, meeting with external relations representatives and faculty, distributing a user survey, and producing and distributing posters and advertisements. These marketing strategies greatly increased the visibility and use of Hardin House Calls. The campaign also led to a series of faculty development sessions, education collaborations with smaller health sciences departments, and collection development opportunities. Promoting an instructional service through a public relations frameworkwas found to be a highly successful strategy.     

The participation of Australian Indigenous students in higher education: a scoping review of empirical research, 2000–2016

While access to higher education has increased for Indigenous Australians, participation and completion rates remain lower than those of non-Indigenous Australians. A sound evidence base is needed to ground equity initiatives if they are to address the specific needs of Indigenous students. This paper presents the results of a scoping review of empirical research focusing on the participation of Indigenous students in higher education. The purpose of the scoping review was to synthesise empirical research on aspirations for, and barriers and enablers to, higher education that were published between 2000 and 2016 (n = 57), and identify areas where further research is needed. Despite a recent increase in research on this topic, relatively little attention has been paid to Indigenous students’ aspirations while they are at school. We argue that future research should take account of school students’ aspirations for higher education, including primary school students; the similitude of barriers and enablers across the student life cycle; differences within Indigenous community and among Indigenous students; and, the insights emerging from Indigenous methodologies and scholarship.     

Motivators and Inhibitors for University Faculty in Distance and e-learning

This article reports on four United States studies of how rewards systems, extrinsic and intrinsic, could play an important role in providing incentives for university faculty to teach (or remain teaching) electronic and distance education courses. The first three studies conducted prior to 2003 reported faculty were inherently motivated to teach e-learning and distance education. The fourth study in 2003 reported key findings that differed from the earlier studies. Using a principal components analysis, the researchers found nine indicators of motivation to participate or not participate in electronic or distance education. The implications from the fourth study indicated that, while faculty members were inherently committed to helping students, faculty members wanted their basic physiological needs met by university administration through extrinsic motivators, such as salary increases and course releases.     

A pedagogy of belonging: troubling encounters with ethnic and religious difference

Understanding the construction of belonging, and how unbelonging might be troubled, is critical work. For schools in many parts of the world one of the many challenges of globalisation is the task of teaching with, and for, ethnic and cultural diversity. This paper examines the exclusionary practices of teaching that construct ethnic and religious minority students in states of unbelonging. These practices are due, in part, to teachers’ failure to really know their students. Alongside this argument, discourses of belonging in rural schools that speak to possibilities for everyday place-sharing for ethnic and religious minority students are examined. Simple and common moments of mutual recognition and understanding speak to the possibilities for belonging that are opened up in everyday relations of knowing. The implications of these ideas for teachers and teacher education in what is framed as a ‘pedagogy of belonging’ are considered.     

Developing the capacity of farmers to understand and apply seasonal climate forecasts through collaborative learning processes

Purpose: This paper documents and evaluates collaborative learning processes aimed at developing farmer’s knowledge, skills and aspirations to use seasonal climate forecasting (SCF). Methodology: Thirteen workshops conducted in 2012 engaged over 200 stakeholders across Australian sugar production regions. Workshop design promoted participant interaction, stimulated discussion, collected farmer experience of regional climate variability, improved understanding of climate drivers and increased participant skill in interpreting SCF linked to management decisions. Post-workshop surveys collected quantitative and qualitative data for statistical analysis and manual thematic coding. Findings: Over 68% of participants identified improved decision-making and risk reduction as the main benefits of using SCF products. High median self-evaluation ratings for gains in skills, knowledge and understanding of climate forecasts and perceived benefits in using climate forecasts in on-farm decision-making were found across stakeholder groups. No significant differences in self-evaluation rating gains were found between farmers, extension officers and millers, suggesting extension officers are less than optimally informed and skilled to support farmers in understanding and applying SCF. Practical Implications: Developing the capacity of extension officers to understand and interpret SCF may increase adoption of improved climate risk management in farmer networks. Theoretical implications: Collaborative learning activities in the agriculture sector, designed using experiential learning principles and evaluated using a logical framework, provide a robust model for improving the capacity of farmers to manage climate risk. Originality/Value: This paper contributes an example of evaluation of collaborative learning in facilitated agriculture climate risk workshops and discusses the value of learning through small group discussion.     

Formative Evaluation of Computer‐Based Training For a University Financial System

This article describes a formative evaluation of a one‐day introductory computer‐based training (CBT) course for a new on‐line financial and purchasing system at a large public university. The purposes of the evaluation were to evaluate the effectiveness of the training and to identify appropriate revisions and incorporate them into the training program. Participants were 78 university employees who were likely future users of the financial and purchasing system. The mean score on an on‐line performance posttest that simulated real‐work tasks was 94%, and the mean on a 40‐item knowledge posttest covering the CBT content was 74%. Learner attitudes toward the course were positive, averaging 4.4 on a 5‐point scale. Formative evaluation of the program resulted in revisions that had the potential to improve its effectiveness and provided evidence of the value of ongoing formative evaluation of workplace training.