Finding the right balance: campus involvement in the collections allocation process

Many libraries have sought the best approach to allocating the collections budget. “History plus increment” is the standard for many libraries in the allocation of any new dollars to collections budgets. Other libraries have identified factors that help make the process of disbursing new money more objective including counts of faculty and students, literature size and costs, and program changes on campus.The Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is striving toward a more open and understandable allocation process that uses an allocation formula, professional judgment of its librarians, and input from campus faculty and administration. Through this process, we work to achieve balance between formula and professional judgment, between decisions made outside the Library and within the Library, between competing disciplines and old and emerging fields for budget dollars.     

A theoretical framework and model towards media-rich social presence design practices

Educators are seeing rapid developments in online instruction with regard to not only available technologies, but also in design and teaching practices. Developing and maintaining social presence in an online environment is paramount to the success of a learning environment. This article touches upon some historical perspectives of social presence and proposes a theoretical framework and design guide towards media-rich social presence practices for future research. The design guide in this article adds to the historically text-based social presence applications by posing media-rich, higher-level thinking questions based upon a grounded theoretical framework.     

Measuring characteristics of teacher professional development

The primary purpose of the study was to create and psychometrically test an instrument which measured teachers’ perceptions of characteristics of professional development. The sample consisted of elementary teachers from five school districts in Washington State participating in a district improvement initiative. Results of exploratory factor analysis resulted in a five-component solution which provided evidence of construct validity. All components/subscales had moderate to strong internal consistency as measured by Cronbach’s alpha. The secondary purpose was to determine if characteristics of professional development predicted teachers’ use of new knowledge and skills, and student learning outcomes, thus contributing to the predictive validity of the instrument. There was a slight, but significant, correlation between Active Learning in Classroom and teachers’ use of new knowledge and skills, as measured by classroom observation scores. A small negative correlation emerged between Collective Participation and student learning, as measured by student scores on the state’s mathematics assessment. Potential uses of the instrument, called Characteristics of Teacher Professional Development (CTPD), are discussed.     

Usability testing of a multimedia e‐learning resource for electrolyte and acid‐base disorders

The usability of computer interfaces may have a major influence on learning. Design approaches that optimize usability are commonplace in the software development industry but are seldom used in the development of e‐learning resources, especially in medical education. We conducted a usability evaluation of a multimedia resource for teaching electrolyte and acid‐base disorders by studying the interaction of 15 medical doctors with the application. Most of the usability problems occurred in an interactive treatment simulation, which was completed successfully by only 20% of participants. A total of 27 distinct usability problems were detected, with 15 categorized as serious. No differences were observed with respect to usability problems detected by junior doctors as compared with more experienced colleagues. Problems were related to user information and feedback, the visual layout, match with the real world, error prevention and management, and consistency and standards. The resource was therefore unusable for many participants; this is in contrast to good scores previously reported for subjective user satisfaction. The findings suggest that the development of e‐learning materials should follow an iterative design‐and‐test process that includes routine usability evaluation. User testing should include the study of objective measures and not rely only on self‐reported measures of satisfaction.     

Effects of Head Start REDI on Children's Outcomes 1 Year Later in Different Kindergarten Contexts

One year after participating in the Research‐based, Developmentally Informed (REDI) intervention or “usual practice” Head Start, the learning and behavioral outcomes of 356 children (17% Hispanic, 25% African American; 54% girls; M_age = 4.59 years at initial assessment) were assessed. In addition, their 202 kindergarten classrooms were evaluated on quality of teacher–student interactions, emphasis on reading instruction, and school‐level student achievement. Hierarchical linear analyses revealed that the REDI intervention promoted kindergarten phonemic decoding skills, learning engagement, and competent social problem‐solving skills, and reduced aggressive–disruptive behavior. Intervention effects on social competence and inattention were moderated by kindergarten context, with effects strongest when children entered schools with low student achievement. Implications are discussed for developmental models of school readiness and early educational programs.