Learning about Politics From The Daily Show: The Role of Viewer Orientation and Processing Motivations

Although late-night comedy and satirical news programs like The Daily Show have been recognized as important sources of political information, prior research suggests that viewers gain only a limited amount of political knowledge from watching these programs. Drawing from uses and gratification theory and extant research on political information processing, this study examines whether learning from The Daily Show depends on whether viewers orient to the message as news or as entertainment. Results from an online experiment suggest that viewers who orient to a segment from The Daily Show as news or as a mix of news and entertainment invest more mental effort and subsequently learn more than viewers who have a purely entertainment orientation. Further, among viewers with a purely entertainment orientation, providing them with an explicit informational-processing goal increases the amount of mental effort and learning relative to viewers who are given no explicit viewing objective.     

Building a Virtual Reference Shelf

While many libraries have access to an extensive amount of quality virtual reference titles through platforms such as Gale Virtual Reference, individual titles are often invisible to users. At the University of Montevallo, building a Virtual Reference Shelf (VRS) allowed us to make e-reference titles more accessible for patrons. We constructed our VRS using LibGuides and our existing collections of virtual reference books. This article will discuss various aspects of creating and using the VRS, including designing, marketing, information literacy instruction, assessment, and future directions. The information is based on a presentation at the Mississippi State University eResources & Emerging Technologies Summit on August 2, 2013.     

The Library: Big Data’s Boomtown

Since 2012, nearly every sector has developed a fascination with the seemingly new discovery of Big Data and its unprecedented capabilities to fuel analytic breakthroughs. It is clear that the use of Big Data as an information resource will continue to become more prevalent as it is employed in academic research and data-driven decision making, and even emerges as a vehicle for government transparency. This article reviews the emergence and potentials of Big Data, describes the policies fueling the current data surge, and discusses the impact on libraries. As libraries evolve to provide more data services, there is an opportunity for librarians to become experts and authorities in the data age.     

Sex differences in lower extremity kinematics and patellofemoral kinetics during running

The incidence of patellofemoral pain (PFP) is 2 times greater in females compared with males of similar activity levels; however, the exact reason for this discrepancy remains unclear. Abnormal mechanics of the hip and knee in the sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes have been associated with an increased risk of PFP. The purpose of this study was to compare the mechanics of the lower extremity in males and females during running in order to better understand the reason(s) behind the sex discrepancy in PFP. Three-dimensional kinematic and kinetic data were collected as male and female participants completed overground running trials at a speed of 4.0 m · s^?1 (±5%). Patellofemoral joint stress (PFJS) was estimated using a sagittal plane knee model. The kinematics of the hip and knee in the frontal and transverse planes were also analysed. Male participants demonstrated significantly greater sagittal plane peak PFJS in comparison with the female participants (P < .001, ES = 1.9). However, the female participants demonstrated 3.5° greater peak hip adduction and 3.4° greater peak hip internal rotation (IR). As a result, it appears that the sex discrepancy in PFP is more likely to be related to differences in the kinematics of the hip in the frontal and transverse planes than differences in sagittal plane PFJS.     

Honesty on student evaluations of teaching: effectiveness,purpose, and timing matter!

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are an important point of assessment for faculty in curriculum development, tenure and promotion decisions, and merit raises. Faculty members utilise SETs to gain feedback on their classes and, hopefully, improve them. The question of the validity of student responses on SETs is a continuing debate in higher education. The current study uses data from two universities (n = 596) to determine whether and under what conditions students are honest on in-class and online SETs, while also assessing their knowledge and attitudes about SETs. Findings reveal that, while students report a high level of honesty on SETs, they are more likely to be honest when they believe that evaluations effectively measure the quality of the course, the results improve teaching and benefit students rather than the administration, and when they are given at the end of the term. Honesty on evaluations is not associated with socio-demographic characteristics.     

SUPPORTING STUDENTS IN FOSTER CARE

Students living in foster care are at risk for experiencing many challenges in school, spanning domains of social–emotional, behavioral, and academic functioning. They are twice as likely to be absent from school and to have received and out‐of‐school suspension and up to three and a half times more likely to receive special education services. Therefore, it is important for schools to recognize and respond to the unique needs of students in foster care to provide the necessary resources for school success. When working with students in foster care, school psychologists should be equipped to support the success of these students by determining what the needs of students in foster care are, and how to meet identified needs. The current paper will discuss the education‐related vulnerabilities and presenting problems for children in foster care and outline social–emotional, behavioral, and academic supports that school psychologists can offer.     

An Adaptive Blended Learning Model for the Implementation of an Integrated Medical Neuroscience Course During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The implementation of an integrated medical neuroscience course by technologically pivoting an in-person neuroscience course to online using an adaptive blended method may provide a unique approach for teaching a medical neuroscience course during the Covid-19 pandemic. An adaptive blended learning method was developed in response to the requirements necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic. This model combined pedagogical needs with digital technology using online learning activities to implement student learning in a medical neuroscience course for year one medical students. This approach provided medical students with an individually customized learning opportunity in medical neuroscience. The students had the complete choice to engage the learning system synchronously or asynchronously and learn neuroscience materials at different locations and times in response to the demands required to deal with the pandemic. Students' performance in summative and formative examinations of the adaptive blended learning activities were compared with the previous performance obtained the previous year when the contents of the medical neuroscience course were implemented using the conventional “face-to-face” learning approach. While the cohort of our students in 2019 and 2020 changed, the contents, sessions, volume of material, and assessment were constant. This enabled us to compare the results of the 2019 and 2020 classes. Overall, students' performance was not significantly different between the adaptive blended learning and the in-person approach. More students scored between 70% and 79% during the adaptive blended learning compared with in-class teaching, while more students scored between 80% and 89% during the in-person learning than during the adaptive blended learning. Finally, the percentage of students that scored >90% was not significantly different for both Years 2019 and 2020. The adaptive blended learning approach was effective in enhancing academic performance for high-performing medical students. It also permitted the early identification of underachieving students, thereby serving as an early warning sign to permit timely intervention.