Community College Faculty Attitudes Toward Adopting Open Educational Resources

The focus of this project study was the lack of adoption of open educational resources (OER) by community college faculty members at a rural community college in the southwestern United States. The study site failed to meet their strategic plan goal of having 50% of all courses using OER by July 2022. The purpose of this exploratory, basic qualitative study was to understand faculty attitudes towards adoption of OER and identify potential barriers to OER adoption to reveal strategies the institution can use to achieve their goal. Two theories informed the conceptual framework for this study: O’Banion’s guiding principles for learning colleges and Kotter’s eight-step process for leading change. The research questions explored faculty attitudes towards adoption of OER and their perceptions of benefits and barriers to adopting OER. Semistructured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 15 participants drawn from the pool of the full-time faculty members at the college, sorted into groups of full adopters, partial adopters, and potential adopters of OER. Data were analyzed using in vivo, values, and axial coding methods to identify patterns, categories, and emergent themes from the interview data. The findings from this study revealed that faculty were open to adopting OER for their classes but needed more training and guidance to locate and adopt quality materials. Faculty also indicated that they needed time to collaborate and a means to share OER with colleagues. These findings were used to develop a 3-day professional development training for faculty to help the college reach its goal of OER adoption, making college more affordable to students and improving students’ learning outcomes through increased access to learning materials

2014 Abstract Booklet

Complete Schedule of Events for the 16th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium at Minnesota State University, Mankato

My Ethic of Care: A Grounded Theory Study of Professional Staff Experiences in Small Private Universities

Beginning at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education experienced a sea of change in reduced enrollment, altered course delivery models, and increased need for student support. While observing staff’s actual impact on the student experience during this time, this study will address the question, “How do professional staff in small private universities (a) perceive their contributions to the retention of students and (b) perceive their overall value to the institutions they serve?” Owing to gaps in research on professional staff experiences, the literature review synthesizes current trends related to enrollment, retention, and persistence, focusing on small, private, non-profit 4-year institutions; discusses the disparate impact of these trends; examines the context of academic staffing trends; reviews the experiences of professional staff, focusing on critical connections between student and institution, student learning within liminal spaces, gender, and relational practice; and, examining social justice leadership in postsecondary education staffing. This qualitative study employs a constructivist grounded theory method using an initial anonymous questionnaire and interviews with volunteers for a deeper exploration of themes. The pool of nine interview participants comprises mid-level professional staff with at least three years of experience in student-supporting roles from five private universities with under 5,000 students. Potential implications relate to improving student retention practices and eliminating barriers by rethinking staff structures, resource allocation, and investment in student support areas. Further implications are related to staff role satisfaction, socially just models for professional development, and training of the next generation of professional staff. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu)

Adoption of AI-based Information Systems from an Organizational and User Perspective

Artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally changing our society and economy. Companies are investing a great deal of money and time into building corresponding competences and developing prototypes with the aim of integrating AI into their products and services, as well as enriching and improving their internal business processes. This inevitably brings corporate and private users into contact with a new technology that functions fundamentally differently than traditional software. The possibility of using machine learning to generate precise models based on large amounts of data capable of recognizing patterns within that data holds great economic and social potential—for example, in task augmentation and automation, medical diagnostics, and the development of pharmaceutical drugs. At the same time, companies and users are facing new challenges that accompany the introduction of this technology. Businesses are struggling to manage and generate value from big data, and employees fear increasing automation. To better prepare society for the growing market penetration of AI-based information systems into everyday life, a deeper understanding of this technology in terms of organizational and individual use is needed. Motivated by the many new challenges and questions for theory and practice that arise from AI-based information systems, this dissertation addresses various research questions with regard to the use of such information systems from both user and organizational perspectives. A total of five studies were conducted and published: two from the perspective of organizations and three among users. The results of these studies contribute to the current state of research and provide a basis for future studies. In addition, the gained insights enable recommendations to be derived for companies wishing to integrate AI into their products, services, or business processes. The first research article (Research Paper A) investigated which factors and prerequisites influence the success of the introduction and adoption of AI. Using the technology–organization–environment framework, various factors in the categories of technology, organization, and environment were identified and validated through the analysis of expert interviews with managers experienced in the field of AI. The results show that factors related to data (especially availability and quality) and the management of AI projects (especially project management and use cases) have been added to the framework, but regulatory factors have also emerged, such as the uncertainty caused by the General Data Protection Regulation. The focus of Research Paper B is companies’ motivation to host data science competitions on online platforms and which factors influence their success. Extant research has shown that employees with new skills are needed to carry out AI projects and that many companies have problems recruiting such employees. Therefore, data science competitions could support the implementation of AI projects via crowdsourcing. The results of the study (expert interviews among data scientists) show that these competitions offer many advantages, such as exchanges and discussions with experienced data scientists and the use of state-of-the-art approaches. However, only a small part of the effort related to AI projects can be represented within the framework of such competitions. The studies in the other three research papers (Research Papers C, D, and E) examine AI-based information systems from a user perspective, with two studies examining user behavior and one focusing on the design of an AI-based IT artifact. Research Paper C analyses perceptions of AI-based advisory systems in terms of the advantages associated with their use. The results of the empirical study show that the greatest perceived benefit is the convenience such systems provide, as they are easy to access at any time and can immediately satisfy informational needs. Furthermore, this study examined the effectiveness of 11 different measures to increase trust in AI-based advisory systems. This showed a clear ranking of measures, with effectiveness decreasing from non-binding testing to providing additional information regarding how the system works to adding anthropomorphic features. The goal of Research Paper D was to investigate actual user behavior when interacting with AI-based advisory systems. Based on the theoretical foundations of task–technology fit and judge–advisor systems, an online experiment was conducted. The results show that, above all, perceived expertise and the ability to make efficient decisions through AI-based advisory systems influence whether users assess these systems as suitable for supporting certain tasks. In addition, the study provides initial indications that users might be more willing to follow the advice of AI-based systems than that of human advisors. Finally, Research Paper E designs and implements an IT artifact that uses machine learning techniques to support structured literature reviews. Following the approach of design science research, an artifact was iteratively developed that can automatically download research articles from various databases and analyze and group them according to their content using the word2vec algorithm, the latent Dirichlet allocation model, and agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis. An evaluation of the artifact on a dataset of 308 publications shows that it can be a helpful tool to support literature reviews but that much manual effort is still required, especially with regard to the identification of common concepts in extant literature

MIL Cities and MIL Citizens: Informed, Engaged, Empowered by Media and Information Literacy (MIL).

Libro completoThe UNESCO UNITWIN Cooperation Programme on Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue (MILID) is based on an initiative from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC). This Network was created in line with UNESCO’s mission and objectives, as well as the mandate of UNAOC, to serve as a catalyst and facilitator helping to give impetus to innovative projects aimed at reducing polarization among nations and cultures through mutual partnerships. This UNITWIN Network is composed of universities from different geographical areas: Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain), University of the West Indies (Jamaica), Cairo University (Egypt), University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), Temple University (USA), Tsinghua University (China), Moulay Ismail University (Morocco), Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University (Morocco), University of Guadalajara (Mexico), Western University (Canada), University of Gothenburg (Sweden), Sorbonne Nouvelle University (France), Punjabi University, Patiala (India), University of the South Pacific (Fiji), University of South Africa (South Africa), Nnamdi Azikiwe University (Nigeria), Ahmadu Bello University (Nigeria), Lagos State University (Nigeria), University of Jors (Nigeria), University of Calabar (Nigeria), Hosei University (Japan), University of Latvia (Latvia), Moscow Pedagogical State University (Russia), Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios UNIMINUTO (Colombia), Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), MICA (India), University of Campinas (Brazil). The main objectives of the Network are to foster collaboration among member universities, to build capacity in each of the countries in order to empower them to advance media and information literacy and intercultural dialogue, and to promote freedom of speech, freedom of information and the free flow of ideas and knowledge. Specific objectives include acting as an observatory for the role of media and information literacy (MIL) in promoting civic participation, democracy and development as well as enhancing intercultural and cooperative research on MIL. The programme also aims at promoting global actions related to MIL and intercultural dialogue. In such a context, a MILID Yearbook series is an important initiative. This MILID Yearbook is a result of a collaboration between UNESCO UNITWIN Cooperation Programme on Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue, The Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios - UNIMINUTO (Colombia) and the University of Gothenburg (Sweden)

Mobile Activism and Psychogeographic Inspirations: A Qualitative Study on iOS App Making with College Students

A significant portion of scholarly literature explores the ways that youth activists (aged 15-24 years old) appropriate mobile apps—compact software designed and developed to run on a smartphone or tablet—to address social issues. However, there is a paucity of research literature that reveals the ways that they engage in the production of socially useful mobile apps. As a way to address the lack of research on this area of mobile app making, this project draws on a participatory media research design to explore the experience of co-producing an iOS mobile phone app with college students working toward social change in their campus community. The project collects qualitative data from semi-structured interviews and design artifacts. The data is analyzed using the Situationist International’s concept of psychogeography, which ordinarily focuses on place-based investigations. As a means of analysis, psychogeography facilitates a creative method of moving throughout the data corpus while mapping recurring patterns, themes, and ideas that relate to the production of app making with participants. The findings in this study are marked by a disruptive event that caused the project to rupture before ending as methodologically planned. Nevertheless, what appeared as a moment of rupture became an opportunity for capture as the participatory media research project revealed variations on modes of ethico-political praxis that oriented the production of a mobile app that serves local marginalized interests. For researchers seeking to participate with activist-oriented youth on the production of mobile app projects, disruption can become a generative asset that opens up creative spaces and passageways for producing socially useful mobile apps at the grassroots level.Doctor of Philosoph

Constitution of the market through social media: Dialogical co-production of medicine in a virtual health community organization

This research explores new systems of marketing, and new roles and relationships of organizations and consumers developing in healthcare as a result of transformations occurring in technology, consumer/marketer value systems, forms of discourse and institutional roles. Inspired by observations from a Medicine 2.0 community organization, which turn social networking into a business phenomenon – PatientsLikeMe (PLM) – I explore how such systems develop and function and the institutionalizations that reconstitute roles and maintain relationships among actors in these systems through netnographic research. That is, (1) why and how patients in PLM participate in the social co-production of medical knowledge and experience, and (2) how the ‘community’ organizes roles and relations, and institutionalize ‘sharing’ in healthcare where privacy dominates relations. Findings articulate a dialogical approach to organizing roles and relations with the dilution of provisioning in this co-mediated market system, which reflects collaborative, connective and communal relations built on dialogues among diverse healthcare actors. From a theoretical vantage point, Foucauldian notions of biopower and govern-mentality are reconsidered in order to articulate why and how such a system may be attracting healthcare actors and maintain their interest and sharing in this community

Beyond Disability: Extraordinary Bodies in the Work of William Gibson

This dissertation conceptualizes figurations of disability in the work of contemporary U.S.-American writer William Gibson arguing that there is a distinct development in the representation of the manner and effect of corporeality from the Sprawl to the Bigend trilogy. In the Sprawl trilogy, prosthetic repair and rehabilitation are depicted as a common cultural practice, whereas in the Bigend trilogy the medical cure of the characters’ “deficiencies” for purposes of normative alignment is no longer a desired measure. By adopting a disability studies framework, I argue that this transition is not primarily related to a shift in genre, which does exist, but instead that it is motivated by a changing attitude toward the “broken” body that seeks restoration. A main concern of this book is, therefore, to understand the formal qualities of Gibson’s writing with regard to the forms and functions of the disabled figure, and to further demonstrate how this literary style and underlying ideology changes in parallel with the advancement of cultural conceptions of disability. This thesis distinguishes two major shifts over the course of the novels, one on the level of genre and the other on the conceptual level. I show how Gibson’s depiction of characters draws increasingly on a processual understanding of the human body, and decreasingly on traditional prosthetic technologies. This conceptual trajectory from prostheses to processes corresponds with the genre-specific shift in Gibson’s work that I classify as one from technoromanticism to new realism. The analysis is methodologically met with a theoretical triad that feeds on the socio-historical developments of the concept of disability, drawing specifically on the theory of intersectionality, new materialism, and actor-network theory

STS analysis of natural gas development in the United States

Thesis (Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS))--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2011.Page 689 blank. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 652-688).Natural gas extraction in the United States in the early 21st century has transformed social, physical, legal and biological landscapes. The technique of hydraulic fracturing, which entails the high-pressure injection into subsurface shale formations of synthetic chemical mixtures, has been viewed by the natural gas industry as a practice of great promise. But there is another side to the story. The first half of this dissertation explores an innovative scientific approach to studying the possible deleterious impacts on human health and the environment of the release of chemicals used in gas extraction. Via participant-observation within a small scientific advocacy organization, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TEDX), I follow the development of a database of chemicals used in natural gas extraction, a database that seeks to document not only what these chemicals are (many are proprietary), but also what sorts of bodily and ecological effects these substances may have. I analyze ethnographically how TEDX transformed an information vacuum around fracturing and generated fierce regional and national debates about the public health effects of this activity. The second portion of the dissertation expands TEDX's databasing methodology by reporting on a set of online user-generated databasing and mapping tools developed to interconnect communities encountering the corporate forces and chemical processes animating gas development. Shale gas extraction is an intensive technological practice and requires the delicate calibration of corporate, governmental, and legal apparatuses in order to proceed. The industry operates at county, state, and federal levels, and has in many instances been able to organize regulatory environments suited to rapid and lucrative gas extraction. In the midst of such multi-scalar deterritorializing forces, communities may have little legal or technical recourse if they think that they have been subject to chemical and corporate forces that undermine their financial, bodily, and social security. ExtrAct, a research group I co-founded and directed with artist and technologist Chris Csikszentmihalyi, sought to intervene in these processes by developing a suite of online mapping and databasing tools through which "gas patch" communities could share information, network, study and respond to industry activity across states. Using ExtrAct as an example this dissertation explores how social sciences and the academy at large can invest in developing research tools, methods, and programs designed for non-corporate ends, perhaps redressing in the process the informational and technical imbalances faced by communities dealing with large-scale multinational industries whose infrastructure and impacts are largely invisible to public scrutiny. The dissertation describes one potential method for such engaged scientific and social scientific research: an iterative, ethnographically informed process that I term "STS in Practice."by Sara Ann Wylie.Ph.D.in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HAST