Can digital information literacy among undergraduates be improved? Evidence from an experimental study

ABSTRACT

The Internet has become a pivotal source of information among university students. However, studies routinely show that many students lack digital information literacy skills (i.e. skills needed to find and evaluate information online). In this paper, we report results from an experimental study testing the effect of a workshop for third-year students of a German university. The workshop was designed to teach relevant information literacy skills in a computer lab. Afterwards, students were given academic search tasks and their search behavior was recorded with a tracking device. We find that, compared with the control group, workshop participants significantly increased their use of academic databases and cited more articles from scholarly journals. On the other hand, we find no effect on the relevance of the content students found online. Teaching digital information literacy is essential and feasible, but it is no panacea for increasing the academic quality of students’ work.     

Predictors of Cheating among Early Adolescents: Academic and Social Motivations

This study examined the relations between middle school students' self-reported cheating and several indicators of academic and social motivation. It was hypothesized that students' academic self-efficacy and personal and classroom goal orientations would predict cheating. Social motivations were presumed to predict cheating above and beyond achievement motivation. Four dimensions of relationships within schools were measured: participation structure, teacher commitment and competence, teacher respect, and sense of school belonging. Logistic regression analyses were used to predict classification as a cheater or noncheater. Although academic motivation variables predicted cheating, the addition of the relationship variables significantly improved the classification rates. The final model included grade in school, academic self-efficacy, extrinsic goal orientation, participation structure, teacher commitment, and teacher respect. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.     

Alleviating cross-cultural challenges of Indian subcontinent students: University staff perspectives

Tertiary Education and Management - The growth in student numbers from the Indian subcontinent countries has increased exponentially in the Australian higher education system over the past decade....     

The effect of recovery duration on running speed and stroke quality during intermittent training drills in elite tennis players

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of the recovery duration in intermittent training drills on metabolism and coordination in sport games. Ten nationally ranked male tennis players (age 25.3±3.7 years, height 1.83±0.8 m, body mass 77.8±7.7 kg; mean ±s _x ) participated in a passing-shot drill (baseline sprint with subsequent passing shot) that aimed to improve both starting speed and stroke quality (speed and precision). Time pressure for stroke preparation was individually adjusted by a ball-machine and corresponded to 80% of maximum running speed. In two trials (T₁₀, T₁₅) separated by 2 weeks, the players completed 30 strokes and sprints subdivided into 6 2 5 repetitions with a 1 min rest between series. The rest between each stroke-and-sprint lasted either 10 s (T₁₀) or 15 s (T₁₅). The sequence of both conditions was randomized between participants. Post-exercise blood lactate concentration was significantly elevated in T₁₀ (9.04±3.06 vs 5.01±1.35 mmol·l^-1, P ? 0.01). Running time for stroke preparation (1.405±0.044 vs 1.376±0.045 s, P ? 0.05) and stroke speed (106±12 vs 114±8 km·h^-1, P ? 0.05) were significantly decreased in T₁₀, while stroke precision - that is, more target hits ( P ? 0.1) and fewer errors (P ? 0.05) - tended to be higher. We conclude that running speed and stroke quality during intermittent tennis drills are highly dependent on the duration of recovery time. Optimization of training efficacy in sport games (e.g. combined improvement of conditional and technical skills) requires skilful fine-tuning of monitoring guidelines.     

Legitimizing research, technology and innovation policies for transformative change: Combining insights from innovation systems and multi-level perspective in a comprehensive ‘failures’ framework

The recent policy debates about orientating research, technology and innovation policy towards societal challenges, rather than economic growth objectives only, call for new lines of argumentation to systematically legitimize policy interventions. While the multi-level perspective on long-term transitions has attracted quite some interest over the past years as a framework for dealing with long-term processes of transformative change, but the innovation systems approach is still the dominant perspective for devising innovation policy. Innovation systems approaches stress the importance of improving innovation capabilities of firms and the institutional settings to support them, but they are less suited for dealing with the strategic challenges of transforming systems of innovation, production and consumption, and thus with long-term challenges such as climate change or resource depletion. It is therefore suggested to consider insights from transition studies more prominently in a policy framework that is based on the innovation systems approach and the associated notion of ‘failures’. We propose a comprehensive framework that allows legitimizing and devising policies for transformative change that draws on a combination of market failures, structural system failures and transformational system failures.     

The Challenges in the Development of Graduate Programs

In order to protect the integrity of graduate degrees, the basic objectives of graduate study must be examined and interpreted in the widest sense, taking into consideration changing social conditions. This paper traces the development of graduate engineering education from World War I, with its original attachment to the established pattern of graduate study in university science departments. It considers the place of research in graduate study and the problems arising from the need for research sponsorship today. Also, attention is focused upon the classification problems arising from the large number of parttime graduate students enrolled in engineering schools today.     

The effect of recovery duration on running speed and stroke quality during intermittent training drills in elite tennis players

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of the recovery duration in intermittent training drills on metabolism and coordination in sport games. Ten nationally ranked male tennis players (age 25.3+/-3.7 years, height 1.83+/-0.8 m, body mass 77.8+/-7.7 kg; mean +/- sx) participated in a passing-shot drill (baseline sprint with subsequent passing shot) that aimed to improve both starting speed and stroke quality (speed and precision). Time pressure for stroke preparation was individually adjusted by a ball-machine and corresponded to 80% of maximum running speed. In two trials (T10, T15) separated by 2 weeks, the players completed 30 strokes and sprints subdivided into 6 x 5 repetitions with a 1 min rest between series. The rest between each stroke-and-sprint lasted either 10 s (T10) or 15 s (T15). The sequence of both conditions was randomized between participants. Post-exercise blood lactate concentration was significantly elevated in T10 (9.04+/-3.06 vs 5.01+/-1.35 mmol x l(-1), P < 0.01). Running time for stroke preparation (1.405+/-0.044 vs 1.376+/-0.045 s, P < 0.05) and stroke speed (106+/-12 vs 114+/-8 km x h(-1), P < 0.05) were significantly decreased in T10, while stroke precision - that is, more target hits (P < 0.1) and fewer errors (P < 0.05) - tended to be higher. We conclude that running speed and stroke quality during intermittent tennis drills are highly dependent on the duration of recovery time. Optimization of training efficacy in sport games (e.g. combined improvement of conditional and technical skills) requires skilful fine-tuning of monitoring guidelines.     

Unbalanced 3-Group Split-Ballot Multitrait–Multimethod Design?

A common way of estimating measurement quality is the split-ballot multitrait–multimethod (SB-MTMM) approach. However, this approach leads often to non-convergence or improper solutions when using a 2-group design, whereas the 3-group design performs better. Nevertheless, the 3-group design is rarely implemented because it makes it complicated for applied researchers to use the data. Therefore, we propose to draw groups of unequal sample sizes: two larger groups and one third group as small as possible. Using Monte Carlo simulations and real data analyses, we investigate how well such a design works and which size is needed for the third group. Our results suggest that a 3-group SB-MTMM design with smaller size for the third group (reducing till 5–10%) leads to similar levels of accuracy and no large changes in the model or quality estimates.