User satisfaction with the library service among part‐time students

In higher education levels of resource provision are becoming increasingly important. Within this context academic libraries are required to evaluate their services and ensure that they meet the needs of users. Sensitivity to customer requirements must be extended to include different categories of customer and in light of the changing composition of the student population, serving the needs of part time students should be a priority for academic librarians. The aim of this study was to evaluate the levels of satisfaction with library facilities among part time students in the University of Ulster at Jordanstown (UUJ). A postal questionnaire was administered to two hundred part time students within the Faculty of Business and Management obtaining a response rate of 45%. Factor analysis was used to identify factors underpinning user satisfaction. These reflected two general dimensions of staff and facilities. A clear trend emerged suggesting that part time students rated satisfaction with staff more highly than satisfaction with facilities. Significance testing concluded that there were no differences in levels of satisfaction between regular and irregular users of the library. Clearly further research is needed in the area but this study indicates that efforts at improvement should be directed primarily in the direction of facilities to raise part time students’ satisfaction.     

Explicating the relationally attentive approach to conducting engaged communication scholarship

As interest in engaged communication scholarship grows, so does the need for concrete examples of how such research is done. In this essay, we articulate an example of the how by presenting the work of the Purdue Peace Project, a locally led peacebuilding initiative based at Purdue University. We do so by (a) explicating the communicative choices in our approach to engaged scholarship and (b) relating these choices to the impacts that our approach has had on preventing political violence related to a chieftaincy dispute in Keperman (pseudonym), Ghana. Based on qualitative data from multiple time points, we unpack our communicative choices, relate these choices to the realization of engagement goals and setbacks, and reveal multi-level, interdependent, and communicative indicators of impacts. We present what we term the relationally attentive approach to engaged communication scholarship and discuss implications and recommendations for those doing engaged scholarship.     

A Domain-Referenced Approach to Diagnostic Testing Using Generalizability Theory

This paper describes a four-step approach to constructing diagnostic test profiles that provide precise but practical information on students' instructional needs. The approach is based on the specification and analysis of a domain and uses generalizability theory to determine which skills within the domain need to be assessed to diagnose gaps in students' skills and to estimate score profiles. A 64-item test of pronoun use was constructed to represent 32 categories of usage defined by different combinations of five factors in the domain. Generalizability analyses were conducted to determine the optimal number of categories to be included in students' profiles and the number of items needed for each category, and to produce univariate and multivariate estimates of students' universe scores. Multivariate profiles of universe scores were the most accurate and differed substantially from observed score and univariate universe score profiles.     

A STUDY OF CSE CRAFTWORK EXAMINATIONS

More and more higher education courses in this country are being organized on the sandwich principle of alternate periods of academic study and industrial training. But the educational implications of such courses have been comparatively little investigated. From a survey of the existing literature and an empirical study of thick sandwich courses at the University of Bradford, it is argued that the ideal of an integrated education in two environments is not being attained at present, and may, in fact, be unattainable. There are undoubted benefits, both educational and political, which accrue from such courses, but these must be set against the evident disadvantages. The time is ripe for a re‐appraisal of the role of sandwich courses.     

Modification and Revision of the Scale of Market Demand for Taekwondo Schools

Twenty-six male and female collegiate and semiprofessional/professional soccer players (age = 20.4 ± 2.0 years; height = 172.1 ± 8.2 cm; weight = 70.7 ± 10.8 kg) participated in this study to determine the reliability and validity of a field anaerobic shuttle test (FAST) and the Cunningham and Faulkner (1969) treadmill anaerobic speed test (AST). The relationship between the AST and FAST was also investigated. Intraclass reliability coefficients were acceptable for the FAST (.96) and AST (.97) with no significant difference between the means at T1 and T2 (FAST = 56.0 vs. 55.8 sec; AST = 41.9 vs. 41.4 sec). Poor reliability for the Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAT), .83 (W), .70 (W · kg-1), necessitated correcting the validity coefficients for attenuation, FAST vs. WAT = -.89 (W) and -.71 (W · kg-1); AST vs. WAT = .82 (W) and .74 (W · kg-1). These coefficients provide preliminary evidence that the construct being measured is anaerobic work capacity. The results (FAST vs. AST = -.85) indicate that FAST and AST appear to be measuring the same construct. Further research is needed to substantiate the validity of AST and FAST scores as measures of anaerobic work capacity of collegiate and professional soccer players.