JISC's Academic Database Assessment Tool as a Collection Development and Management Tool for Bibliographic Databases

The Academic Database Assessment Tool (ADAT) from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) enables users to compile and compare journal title lists from many different suppliers. The makers claim that this tool can help identify overlap of coverage among comparable databases and platforms. This article provides an overview of the tool's major features, including limitations, and how it can be used in academic libraries to make informed collection development and management decisions regarding electronic databases.     

Combining Cultural Analytics and Networks Analysis: Studying a Social Network Site with User-Generated Content

Humanities and social sciences require new research approaches to deal with and to benefit from the explosion of digital media. Thanks to large scale data storage and processing, close reading of individual items can be supplemented with analysis of broader trends from massive amounts of data. Cultural Analytics (CA) is a recently developed methodology for the exploration of content and visual form in large image and video collections. It has already been applied to a variety of media types, including TV programs, feature films, newspapers, and video games. However, until now these applications did not take into account the social context of media. In many cases, media artifacts under scrutiny are generated or used by people in a social setting, either in forms of (digital) communities, or in terms of social relations, which can be also analyzed as a valuable source of information. Social network analysis (SNA) is a set of methods for the analysis of human networks, including massive online social networks. In this article, we argue that CA and SNA can be combined synergistically, using data and images from deviantArt, the leading online network of user-created art, as a case study.     

An Exploratory Study of Undergraduates’ Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action Policies for Asian Americans in College

This exploratory study examined white undergraduate students’ (a) racial attitudes towards Asian Americans, (b) principled policy attitudes toward affirmative action, and (c) self-interest in relation to their support for college-based affirmative action policies for Asian Americans at a Midwestern university. A sample (n = 264, 28% male, 72% female) of white undergraduate students from a mid-sized public university in the Midwest was surveyed. The findings indicate that white undergraduate women have significantly more favorable principled policy attitudes toward affirmative action in general and for an affirmative action college policy for Asians, in particular, than do undergraduate males. Implications for issues of equity and social justice are shared.     

The Theory of Planned Behavior Within the Stages of the Transtheoretical Model: Latent Structural Modeling of Stage-Specific Prediction Patterns in Physical Activity

This is the first study to test whether the stages of change of the transtheoretical model are qualitatively different through exploring discontinuity patterns in theory of planned behavior (TPB) variables using latent multigroup structural equation modeling (MSEM) with AMOS. Discontinuity patterns in terms of latent means and prediction patterns for the different stage groups were examined. Adults (n = 3,462) were assessed on their physical activity stages of change and TPB variables. The TPB was separately examined within the five stage groups. The TPB measurement model fit was acceptable. Latent mean analyses with post-hoc contrast and MSEM indicated discontinuity patterns. Results underscore the qualitative differences between the stages that may guide further research and the design of interventions integrating the approaches.     

Contributions of Cooperative Education in Preparing At-Risk Students for Post-High School Transition

Work-based learning interventions, particularly cooperative education, are a viable way to support the post-high school transition process, enhance work-related cognitive development, and increase the occupational engagement of at-risk youth. Using propensity score matching to analyze data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), the impact of participation in cooperative education on two indicators of postsecondary transition readiness, including postsecondary education plans right after high school and importance placed on work, were examined for students deemed at risk of high school failure. Participation in cooperative education had a significant positive effect on at-risk students' postsecondary education plans right after high school. However, no significant effect was detected for the importance students placed on work.     

A Probabilistic Model for Evaluation of Volleyball Scoring Systems

Abstract

A probabilistic model for the game of volleyball is developed to evaluate alternative scoring systems. This Markov chain model is then recursively solved, to determine the distribution of the number of serves per game and the probability that a given team wins. These results are then used to evaluate the effects on the game of volleyball of a proposed change in the scoring system.     

Preparing MSW Students for Social Work Licensure: A Curricular Case Example

Licensing has been a dynamic tension for the social work profession for many years, specifically in social work education. Increasingly, social work programs are using factors related to social work licensing (pass rates, number of test takers, etc.) as an indicator of programmatic success. Yet few, if any, published papers examine curricular innovations designed to prepare students for social work licensing exams. This article describes the initiative that one MSW program implemented to address licensing preparedness. After a brief overview of social work licensing, this article describes the contextual rationale, implementation, and evaluation of the Licensing Preparation Initiative (LPI). Since its inception in spring 2011, LPI data suggest that students are more knowledgeable about the process for applying to sit for the exam and the content areas of the exam, more prepared to take the social work licensing exam, and more confident in their ability to pass the social work licensing exam once they graduate. This article concludes with specific strategies and resources for designing a curricular initiative to address licensing preparedness.     

Each-one-teach-one mobile networks: an innovative strategy for knowledge access in Asian countries

The changing landscape of learning is helping Asian countries to emerge as technology-driven knowledge-based societies. The success of these societies depends on promoting the acquisition of key competences and broadening opportunities for innovative and more flexible forms of learning for every citizen. Considering that in Asia almost everyone has a mobile phone or will have a mobile phone soon, the author argues that Asian countries can establish and use mobile networks for lifelong learning. The researcher proposes each-one-teach-one mobile networks as an innovative knowledge-access strategy, particularly for Asian countries and in general for all the countries across the globe. The proposed mobile networks will work on the principle that those who want to teach and those who want to learn must have a free and open service to get connected for knowledge sharing.     

Variations on the use of cases in social work and teacher education

The recent proliferation of testing policies in the US has raised concerns about the consequences of ‘teaching to the test’. Current studies of teaching and testing document patterns of teacher resistance and accommodations to external tests, but often fail to examine how these patterns influence teachers' and students' engagement with curricular texts. This study develops an inter‐textual perspective to specify the discursive processes through which one external test entered into classroom tasks and talk about a novel in four urban high schools. The study illustrates how efforts to raise standards through testing policies can result in limiting students' opportunities to construct understandings of curricular texts and of the social ideas at their core.