Teaching First-year Medical Students Where to Go First: Connecting Information Needs to e-resources

The purpose of this project was to introduce first-year medical students to electronic resources that are best suited for different types of background questions. Specific questions from a case study were presented, and the students generalized them into a “type” of question. They then identified the best e-resources for that type of question. This is their first introduction to the lifelong learning competency in the Indiana University School of Medicine competency-based curriculum.     

Teaching Evidence-Based Practice in the Hospital and the Library: Two Different Groups,One Course

Key roles in teaching evidence-based practice (EBP) are of interest to many hospital and academic librarians. This article describes how three academic librarians, in collaboration with the academic medical center's EBP Nursing Council, developed a seminar consisting of three credit hours of instruction in the basics of evidence-based practice. The seminar consists of three core elements: basic principles of EBP and finding literature, clinical experience and integration of knowledge into the hospital setting, and patient education and participation. Emphasis is placed upon analysis of the literature, institutional models of practice change, and the importance of patient roles in guideline development.     

Book review

Kahin, B., & Keller, J. (Eds.). (1995). Public access to the Internet. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Kahin, B., & Keller, J. H. (Eds.). (In press). Coordinating the Internet. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Minow, N. W., & LaMay, C. L. (1995). Abandoned in the wasteland: Children, television, and the First Amendment. New York: Hill & Wang.

Messaris, P. (1997). Visual persuasion: The role of images in advertising. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.     

The Effect of Television Viewing on Adolescents' Civic Participation: Political Efficacy as a Mediating Mechanism

Pundits, parents, and scholars express concern about youth attention to late-night political comedy shows, such as The Daily Show, suggesting that such viewing is deleterious for an active, efficacious citizenry. Yet as civic participation declines among adults, it appears to be growing among adolescents. This study assessed the effects of television viewing on high school students' civic participation. Results demonstrate that viewing late-night TV and local TV news had a positive, significant effect on civic participation, and this relationship was mediated by political efficacy. Implications for the study of late-night TV and applications to research on political socialization are discussed.     

Using rubrics for assessing information literacy in the finance classroom: A collaboration

Business information literacy (BIL) is a core competency for lifelong learning and critical to achieving professional success. This article reports on the evolution of a collaborative framework for integrating and assessing information literacy in subject-specific upper-level undergraduate, as well as introductory MBA, courses in finance. The framework, developed over a significant period of time, provides a guide for structured and full collaboration between librarians and classroom instructors and includes a sample assignment and accompanying evaluation rubric which are adaptable across disciplines. Additionally, it provides a model for developing pedagogical methodologies for student attainment of BIL competencies and for faculty assessment of them.     

An Investigation of Student Response to a Potential Tuition Cap Increase at Casper College

Wyoming Community College Commission policy currently states any student enrolled for more than 12 credit hours will be charged tuition for only 12 credit hours. This policy is referred to as the tuition cap. In November 2010, the commission discussed increasing the tuition cap to 15 credits. An increase from 12 to 15 credits would have represented a 25% increase in tuition for students enrolled for 15 or more credits. Casper College president Dr. Walter Nolte commissioned a study to examine the impact such an increase would have on Casper College and its students. A survey instrument was designed to determine if students carrying more than 12 credit hours would reduce their enrollment credits and what sources of funding they would seek to defray the increased cost. Using a multistage sampling design, a sample of 67 Casper College course sections was selected to respond to the survey. The data were analyzed with logistic regression models, and the estimates were adjusted using sampling weights and a finite population correction. Analysis indicated that 42% of Casper College students would reduce their credit hours by an average of 3.3 credits. Approximately 58% of students would seek additional scholarships and 63% would seek increased work hours. The results of the study were presented to the Wyoming Community College Commission on October 28, 2011. In December 2011, the Commission announced a decision not to increase the tuition cap.     

MATHEMATICS IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES

The research reported in this article used regression analyses to examine the factors explaining the variation in instructional costs per full‐time equivalent (FTE) student at 592 public community colleges during the 1991‐92 academic year. The results suggests that instructional costs per FTE student tend to increase with the full‐time faculty‐to‐FTE student ratio, the part‐time faculty‐to‐FTE student ratio, faculty salaries, and the ratio of degree completions to total FTE enrollment in agricultural, skilled trade, and health‐related programs. Community colleges with total FTE enrollments between 1,000 and 1,499, between 2,000 and 2,499, and between 4,000 and 4,499 students tend to have lower instructional costs per FTE student than community colleges having total FTE enrollment less than 500 students.     

APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES

This article discusses community college involvement in a key welfare-to-work training program, the Jobs Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program (JOBS), as a mirror to reflect on the larger issue of how federal and state workforce policy impacts publicly-controlled institutions of higher education. A qualitative assessment of JOBS programs at community colleges framed discussion regarding the challenges community colleges face as they attempt to preserve these programs within an era of devolved responsibility for welfare-to-work funding from the federal government to the states.     

Children Develop Initial Orthographic Knowledge During Storybook Reading

We examined whether young children acquire orthographic knowledge during structured adult-led storybook reading even though minimal viewing time is devoted to print. Sixty-two kindergarten children were read 12 storybook “chapters” while their eye movements were tracked. Results indicated that the children quickly acquired initial mental graphemic representations of target nonwords. This learning occurred even though they focused on the target nonwords approximately one fourth of the total time while viewing the pages. Their ability to acquire the initial orthographic representations of the target nonwords and their viewing time was affected by the linguistic statistical regularities of the words. The results provide evidence of orthographic learning during structured storybook reading and for the use of implicit linguistic statistical regularities for learning new orthographic word forms in the early stages of reading development.