Academic offences and e-learning: individual propensities in cheating

It has been argued that the use of Information and Communications Technologies has made academic dishonesty easier but this does not necessarily mean that it is more prevalent. The study presented here investigated the attitudes to, and extent of, self‐reported involvement in Internet supported dishonest academic practices. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that Internet experience, acceptability of cheating and assessment of risk predicted an individual student's acceptance of acts such as plagiarism as a legitimate way to achieve academic goals. There was a complex interrelationship among gender, frequency of Internet usage, and maturity of students. Academic offences tended to be more acceptable to males, but also to active Internet users, who were often female: that is females who joined the Internet culture were more prone to plagiarise than their non‐active peers. New undergraduates were more likely to err than students in later years of their degree. These results show that there are a number of interrelated factors impacting on individuals’ willingness to commit academic offences. The final discussion of this paper both recognises that Internet supported academic offences occur and briefly outlines some technical and non‐technical responses that should be considered by faculty to ameliorate this problem.     

Within-group relationships and lack of social enhancement during object manipulation in captive Goffin’s cockatoos (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cacatua goffiniana</Emphasis>)

Different types of social relationships can influence individual learning strategies in structured groups of animals. Studies on a number of avian species have suggested that local and/or stimulus enhancement are important ingredients of the respective species’ exploration modes. Our aim was to identify the role of enhancement during object manipulation in different social contexts. We used focal observations to identify a linear dominance hierarchy as well as affiliative relationships between individuals in a group of 14 Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana, formerly goffini). Thereafter, in an unrewarded object choice task, several pairs of subjects were tested for a possible influence of social enhancement (local vs. stimulus) in three conditions: dominance, affiliation, and kinship. Our results suggest strong individual biases. Whereas previous studies on ravens and kea had indicated that enhancement in a non-food-related task was influenced by the social relationship between a demonstrator and an observer (affiliated – nonaffiliated), we found no such effects in our study group. In this context, Goffin’s cockatoos’ object learning seems to take place more on an individual level, despite their generally high motivation to manipulate nonfood items.     

The Role of Gender-related Information and Self-Endorsement of Traits in Preadolescents' Inferences and Judgments

The major purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a target child's gender typicality on different aspects of preadolescents' inferences and judgments. The secondary purpose of the study was to investigate the relation between children's self-endorsement of traits and their inferences and judgments. Fifth and sixth graders were shown a video film, portraying a child playing either a gender-appropriate game with members of the same sex or a gender-inappropriate game with members of the other sex. In addition, subjects completed an adapted version of the BSRI and were categorized into sex-typed, androgynous, and undifferentiated subjects. Subjects made a number of different types of judgments and inferences about the target, including inferences about traits, popularity, choice of gift and name, and willingness to engage in activities with the target. All types of inferences and judgments were affected by the variations in the targets' gender-related behaviors, whereas self-endorsement of traits was not related to the inferences and judgments. The results suggest that the gender typicality of the target behavior is salient to preadolescents, regardless of their sex-role orientation.     

Once she makes it,she's there!: a case study 1

Computer science is possibly one of the few remaining disciplines almost entirely dominated by men, especially university staff and in the hi-tech industries. This phenomenon prevails throughout the western world; in Israel it starts in high school, where only 30% of students who choose to take computer science as an elective are women, and continues in university and college, where usually less than 30% of the entire computer science student population is female. In this paper we present data describing women taking the undergraduate computer science program at the Open University of Israel. Covering a period of 10 years, we have examined the enrollment and results of thousands of students on 20 undergraduate computer science courses. An attempt has been made to identify whether there is a specific stage in the undergraduate program which is more difficult for women to pass. The good news is that within the Open University of Israel out of the entire population of computer science students the percentage of female enrolments and the percentage of females graduating is almost the same, and the differences in average final grade between men and women are generally not significant. This study is unique because of the large number of students which served as the study population, covering the entire undergraduate program.     

An Integrated Spatial Search Engine for Maps and Aerial Photographs on a Google Maps API Platform

A traditional library catalog does not do justice to maps and aerial photographs. Text can never fully describe them and maps' and aerial photographs' geographic coverage or perimeters cannot be displayed visually in the online public access catalog (OPAC), so searching based on their textual metadata without specific spatial reference data used also for display purposes is often not enough to locate relevant items. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem's (HUJI) Geography Department has developed a spatial search engine for their scanned aerial photographs collection that allows users to locate one or more aerial photographs according to the area of the Earth's surface that was photographed and their accompanying metadata. The Humanities and Social Sciences Library, which holds a large unscanned print map collection, has asked to integrate a similar map search mechanism in the Department's existing search engine, and a new website was launched in December 2015 (http://ccg.huji.ac.il/aerialphotos/) showing the aerial photographs' center points alongside the maps' rectangle perimeter. The search engine retrieves maps and aerial photographs that intersect with a user-drawn rectangle. This article discusses the characteristics of these collections, the rationale behind searching for maps and aerial photographs together, and the process of defining and building this spatial search engine. This method allows users to view which items are available in their area of interest side-by-side, on a Google Maps background map.     

Staging peace: Televised ceremonies of reconciliation

ABSTRACT

The visit of Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem was the model for Dayan and Katz’s conceptualization of the genre of media events, as live programs which have the power to transform history. Fifteen years later, a series of televised reconciliation ceremonies, which marked the stages of the peace process between Israel and its Arab neighbors (the Palestinians and the Jordanians), are used to re-examine the model. We demonstrate (1) how the effectiveness of these ceremonies depends on the type of contract among the three participants—leaders, broadcasters and public—each of whom displays different kinds of reservations, and (2) how the aura of the ceremonies draws on the prior status of the participants (Hussein), but also confers status (Arafat).     

Coaches' attitudes towards placebo interventions in sport

Placebo-induced performance enhancement is a new controversial issue in competitive sports. Coaches have control over the use of placebos, but their practices and attitudes were barely studied to date. In this survey 96 coaches from regional, national and international levels were asked about their practices and attitudes concerning placebo use in sports. Results revealed that 90% of the respondents were aware of placebo effects. Many (44%) coaches admitted to administering a placebo to their athletes. Those working at international level have administered placebos more often than the others (P = .02). Two thirds of the coaches agreed to the wider use of placebos in sport. Respondents who have used placebos in the past reported improved athletic performance. They also agreed more to the wider use of placebos than the coaches who previously did not use a placebo (P = .001). Team sport coaches use more often placebos than coaches working with individual athletes (P = .05). Only 10% of the sample thought that their athletes would refuse a hypothetical performance enhancer supplied by them. After a successful placebo intervention, only 15% of the coaches would administer it again without consulting the athlete. Overall, the coaches are optimistic about placebo use in sports. Close to half of them, especially those coaching at higher levels of competition, may use it regularly while achieving positive results.