Socioeconomic Status– and Gender‐Based Differences in Students’ Perceptions of E‐Learning Systems

Many universities are pursuing increases in on‐line course offerings as a means of offsetting the rising costs of providing high‐quality educational opportunities and of better serving their student populations. However, enrollments in online courses are not always sufficient to cover their costs. One possible way of improving enrollments is through marketing campaigns targeted to specific demographic groups. In this study, we take a first look into how students’ perceptions of e‐learning systems, prior to their enrollment in an online course, vary across socioeconomic status and gender. Findings suggest that prior to taking an online course, working‐class students perceive e‐learning systems more positively than their middle‐class peers but that little difference exists between genders. Armed with this knowledge, universities may improve online course enrollments by marketing online courses specifically to working‐class students or through campaigns aimed at improving middle‐class students’ perceptions of e‐learning systems.     

An Experimental Test of Medical Disclosure and Consent Documentation: Assessing Patient Comprehension,Self-Efficacy,and Uncertainty

Effectively conveying risks and hazards in medical disclosure and informed consent documentation is a crucial type of communication. However, existing protocols typically do not meet the needs of patients or practitioners. In the present study, we advance a reconceptualization of obtaining written informed consent by analyzing it as a process of uncertainty management rather than a matter of document readability and recall. Results of this randomized trial indicated that patients who reviewed a simplified consent document reported greater comprehension of medico-legal terminology and lower uncertainty about the document, although they did not evince greater self-efficacy. Health literacy was a significant moderator of the relationship between consent form version and comprehension.     

Academic and Student Affairs Issues Post Hurricane Katrina

This article describes several issues in the academic and student affairs areas faced by students and faculty in the post-Katrina destruction environment. Cases are used to illustrate the issues, and a call is made for increased disaster readiness plans.     

Technical change and social need: the case of high rise flats

The first eleven storey blocks of flats in the UK were built in the early fifties. Only twenty years later over half a million people are housed in blocks varying from eleven to 31 storeys in height. These buildings have been built under the responsibility of public authorities responsible for the provision, management and maintenance of housing. Now, however, the provision of this type of housing has almost come to a halt. The widespread use of high flats has been seen as the inevitable result of advances in building technology. The recent rapid decline in numbers built has been attributed primarily to the concern arising from the inhuman social conditions which must inevitably result from such an unnatural form of housing. This paper argues that while high flats stemmed in part from technological advances, it is not possible to attribute their use to such advances. To do so ignores factors which were at work within national and local government, the building industry and the architectural profession. It is equally insufficient to attribute their decline to social concern. It is more probable that financial pressures and a change in national policy away from new building to restoration of older houses was of greater importance than the social problems created by high flats. However, one factor which helped to unite the various parties responsible for the introduction and use of high flats in housing policy, was a widespread belief in the possibilities of modern technologies in relation to the housing problem. Different aspects of the concept appealed to the different protagonists. This paper briefly describes some of the interactions between the different parties concerned with high flats. The major conclusion is that as an innovation high flats have not conformed to the theoretical postulates expounded about them, and that they have been greatly influenced by existing economic and social structures.