Evaluation of the Physical Activity and Public Health Course for Practitioners

Purpose: From 1996 to 2013, a 6-day Physical Activity and Public Health Course for Practitioners has been offered yearly in the United States. An evaluation was conducted to assess the impact of the course on building public health capacity for physical activity and on shaping the physical activity and public health careers of fellows since taking the courses. Method: An evaluation quantified time that fellows spent in different course offerings and surveyed fellows. Results: From 1996 to 2012, 410 fellows attended the course, and in 2013, 186 participated in the Web-based survey (56% response rate). The number of fellows attending the course ranged from 15 to 33 yearly. From 1996 to 2012, the course averaged 38 hr of instructional time that included topics on interventions and environment/policy work to increase physical activity, program evaluation, public health research, and health disparities. The course included consultations, collaborative work, and field-based experiences. Fellows who participated in the survey agreed that the course had a positive impact on the physical activity research or practice work they did (98%), met their expectations (96%), helped them with research/practice collaborations with other physical activity professionals (96%), assisted them in conducting higher-quality interventions/programs (95%), helped increase their professional networking in the field (93%), and had a positive impact on other work they did (91%). Following the course, 66% and 56% had further contact with faculty and other fellows, respectively. Conclusion: The Physical Activity and Public Health Course for Practitioners made important contributions toward building the capacity of physical activity and public health practitioners.     

Introduction

Abstract

Information systems design can progress toward meeting the needs of the population of decision‐makers, managers, policy‐makers, and interdisciplinary workers by attention to specifications obtained from the user's situation. The user situation is represented by problems and their component dimensions, of which subject is only one dimension. The other problem dimensions, which relate to information traits, are discussed for the purpose of proposing a new orientation for the design of information systems.     

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Rural Business Clusters: The Relation Between ICT Adoption and Benefits Derived From Cluster Membership

This study examines the relationships between information and communication technologies (ICT) usage, the benefits a company derives from membership in a rural business cluster, and the success of rural companies. Analysis of 333 rural businesses located in northern lower Michigan showed a strong relationship between (a) ICT adoption and benefits derived from the membership in business clusters, (b) ICT adoption and self-reported business success, and (c) benefits derived from business clusters and business success. Although analysis indicates that these relationships may be industry specific, results suggest that ICT adoption by rural enterprises may have advantages for the region's social capital and business success and may help reduce the digital divide experienced in rural communities.     

The urban university and urban culture

Conclusion We have briefly described an urban university in contrast to the traditional university, and we have recommended several strategies for changing the traditional university. The urban university plays a much more important role in the intellectual life of the urban community. It reaches throughout the community and, in becoming a center of intellectual activity in its urban settings, gives the intellectual life of a community greater focus. We believe that many urban communities would be anxious to develop an urban university and that such communities would be attractive to a great many people.William L. Blizek and Robert B. Simpson are, respectively, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.This paper is a revised version of one presented originally at the First National Conference on Urban Education, Kansas City, Missouri, November 25, 1975.     

Changes in academic research performance over time: A study of institutional accumulative advantage

This study examines changes in institutional research performance over time by analyzing data from four national surveys of the American professoriate conducted between 1969 and 1988. To assess whether groups of institutions may be accumulating advantage relative to others, research activities are compared across five Carnegie institution types. Weights are created to adjust for sampling differences and research output measures are standardized to adjust for variation by discipline. Findings show an overall strengthening of research emphasis reflected by a stronger orientation toward research (more faculty holding Ph.D.'s and having a primary interest in research) and higher research output (grant and publication performance). While Research-I universities have retained their initial (1969) advantage, they have not accumulated more. Meanwhile, Doctoral-Granting-I universities have gained strength relative to Research-II institutions. Research at Comprehensive-I was also up, but at a slower rate than the other Carnegie groups.     

Interference among modulators

The effects of concurrent facilitation (A?, AX+) and inhibition (B+, BY?) training were studied in four autoshaping experiments with pigeons. The development and transfer of each type of modulation was slowed by concurrent training in the alternative paradigm. The interfering effect of facilitation on the development of inhibition contrasts with the positive effect of excitatory training. Implications for accounts of modulation are discussed.     

Comparing secondary teachers on logical consistency in educational philosophy and flexibility in teaching

This study of secondary inservice teachers was designed to measure the possible relationship between the consistency with which they logically relate philosophical views (theory) to educational ideas (practice) and their teaching flexibility (as demonstrated in actual teaching practice).Using the GNC Scale of Logical Consistency of Ideas about Education, two groups of teachers were identified, i.e., those who were logically consistent in their ideas about education and those who were not so. Each of the logically consistent teachers was found to be so within an empirical, rather than rationalistic framework of educational theory.Flexibility was ascertained by data gathered through the use of the Flanders Verbal Interaction System. Each teacher tape recorded his/her own classes and then completed a Flanders' Matrix.The Mann-Whitney U Test was used as a basis for the statistical analysis. Neither group was found to be either more flexible or to exhibit more indirect behavior within the classroom, i.e., being logically consistent in ideas about education (as measured by the GNC Scale) was not found to be related to being flexible in teaching (as measured by the FVIS).     

Student and faculty perceptions of teaching effectiveness

Omnibus measures of teaching effectiveness can be viewed as weighted combinations of more narrowly defined traits describing the teaching process. Our study was designed to determine whether students and faculty weight such traits differently in forming their respective perceptions of effective teaching.Students and faculty within the School of Business and Economics at CSUN were surveyed regarding their assessment of ideal teaching effectiveness in courses where the predominant mode of presentation is lecture. Ten traits depicting various aspects of teaching were selected and each respondent was asked to distribute 100 points across the 10 according to their view of each trait's relative importance in determining effectiveness. The results indicate that there are, indeed, significant differences in student and faculty assessments.Regression analysis of individual trait weighting on demographic variables such as age, sex, field of specialization, etc., produced generally low, insignificant coefficients of determination for both students and faculty. This observed invariance of the respective perceptions of each group across differing combinations of demographic characteristics provides evidence that students and faculty adopt fundamentally different criteria in evaluating teaching effectiveness.