The Path of Least Resistance: Using Available Tools to Support the E-Resources Lifecycle

On the surface, it might appear that libraries with different collections, staffing levels, and budgets would have to make use of different tools to address their e-resource management needs. However, in their review of electronic resources lifecycle work at North Carolina State University and Georgia Perimeter College, Tessa Minchew and Sofia Slutskaya discovered that this is not always the case. The presenters reviewed the electronic resources lifecycle and three distinct types of tools (content management systems/wikis, Microsoft Access, and Trello) that are being used in different ways to address different lifecycle-related tasks at each of their institutions.     

The engagement agenda,multimedia learning and the use of images in higher education lecturing: or,how to end death by PowerPoint

This article is concerned with student engagement and understanding in large group teaching in Higher Education (HE). Specifically, it is concerned with the application of Multimedia Learning (MML) methods in Politics, History, International Relations, Sociology, Social Work, and Business and Economics teaching that privilege the use of images to complement text in lecture presentations. This ‘visual’ method, it is claimed in the literature, generates engagement and understanding better than text alone. This article develops, applies and empirically tests with students, MML methods across a range of Higher Education disciplines over three years. The research deploys Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods engaging students as active agents of investigation and change. It finds evidence to support the hypothesis that apposite images combined with reduced text increases students’ engagement and understanding with academic content, but that much formal research needs to expand on the range of demographics tested.     

Video diaries: a tool to investigate sustainability-related learning in threshold spaces

This paper takes as a case study an undergraduate field class from a UK university to rural Uganda. It describes and evaluates the use of video diaries as a tool for investigating the process of transformative learning in the context of education for sustainability. The applicability of threshold concept theory to this learning is investigated. Results show the video diary technique to be much more successful in capturing the development of student learning than written diaries. Despite some practical difficulties, rich data were generated. Analysis demonstrated that learning met three of the five criteria for threshold concepts: the learning was transformative, integrative and troublesome. Further research could test whether the learning in this case study met the threshold concept criterion of irreversibility. Further elaboration of the theoretical relationship between threshold concepts, transformative learning and education for sustainability is also needed. It is concluded that the video diary method is potentially transferable to other educational research contexts and may be particularly suitable for researching learning in threshold spaces.     

Concentric collaboration: a model of leadership development for healthcare organizations

Drawing on their experience in a Midwest healthcare system, the authors propose a model of leadership development through action learning that embraces ‘concentric collaboration’ at its core. The present study suggests that the process of concentric collaboration can serve to strengthen the skills of the individual leader as well as foster collective leadership. Central to the model is the growth and development of the individual leader which extends outward to create connections with others, ultimately increasing the social capital necessary to effect organizational change. This work contributes to the leadership development literature by offering a comprehensive model that includes the process of individual growth as well as collective capacity, organizational factors that support or inhibit this process as well as implications for practice.     

The relation of parenting style to adolescent school performance

This article develops and tests a reformation of Baumrind's typology of authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative parenting styles in the context of adolescent school performance. Using a large and diverse sample of San Francisco Bay Area high school students (N = 7,836), we found that both authoritarian and permissive parenting styles were negatively associated with grades, and authoritative parenting was positively associated with grades. Parenting styles generally showed the expected relation to grades across gender, age, parental education, ethnic, and family structure categories. Authoritarian parenting tended to have a stronger association with grades than did the other 2 parenting styles, except among Hispanic males. The full typology best predicted grades among white students. Pure authoritative families (high on authoritative but not high on the other 2 indices) had the highest mean grades, while inconsistent families that combine authoritarian parenting with other parenting styles had the lowest grades.     

Factors affecting journal submission numbers: Impact factor and peer review reputation

Previous research has found that researchers rank journal reputation and impact factor (IF) amongst the key selection criteria when choosing where to submit. We explored the actual effect upon submission numbers of several possible factors. We retrieved 10 years of submission data from over a thousand journals, as well as data on IF, retractions, and other factors. We performed statistical analysis and identified correlations. We also undertook case study research on the 55 most significant submission decreases. We found a statistically significant correlation between changes in IF, ISI percentage ranking, and changes in submissions numbers in subsequent years. We also found a statistically significant effect on submission numbers in the year following the publication of a retraction. Our case studies identified other factors, including negative feedback on the peer review process. Our findings regarding IF confirm previous indications about the significance of IF on submissions. We explain the correlation with retractions through the concept of ‘peer review reputation’. These results indicate that editors and publishers need to focus on a journal's peer review practices, as well as a journal's IF, if they are to maintain and grow submissions.