Towards the Final Frontier: Using Strategic Communication Activities to Engage the Latent Public as a Key Stakeholder in a Corporate Mission

Private corporations that do not normally interact with, nor regularly communicate with, the public often do not perceive the public as a relevant or active stakeholder. The public may not view themselves as a stakeholder, particularly when they are unaware of, have no direct dealings with, or do not have any problems associated with such a corporation. The current study, utilizing a national survey of the United States public (N = 424) found that through directed strategic communication activities of a private spaceflight corporation, utilizing social and new media tools, a latent public can perceive a corporation and its mission in a positive manner, and transition it towards a status of an aware public and possible active public. Positive perceptions were found regarding corporate credibility, brand awareness, public engagement, communicating a corporate mission, educating the public, and influencing public opinion

Innovative Approaches to Emergency Medical Services Fellowship Challenges

Introduction: Since the development of an Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited emergency medical services (EMS) fellowship, there has been little published literature on effective methods of content delivery or training modalities. Here we explore a variety of innovative approaches to the development and revision of the EMS fellowship curriculum.Methods: Three academic, university-based ACGME-accredited EMS fellowship programs each implemented an innovative change to their existing training curricula. These changes included the following: a novel didactic curriculum delivery modality and evaluation; implementation of a distance education program to improve EMS fellows’ rural EMS experiences; and modification of an existing EMS fellowship curriculum to train a non-emergency medicine physician.Results: Changes made to each of the above EMS fellowship programs addressed unique challenges, demonstrating areas of success and promise for more generalized implementation of these curricula. Obstacles remain in tailoring the described curricula to the needs of each unique institution and system.Conclusion: Three separate curricula and program changes were implemented to overcome specific challenges and achieve educational goals. It is our hope that our shared experiences will enable others in addressing common barriers to teaching the EMS fellowship core content and share similar innovative approaches to educational challenges

Infrastructure Defense

This Grants Collection for Infrastructure Defense was created under a Round Eight ALG Textbook Transformation Grant. Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process. Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials: Linked Syllabus Initial Proposal Final Reporthttps://oer.galileo.usg.edu/compsci-collections/1011/thumbnail.jp

Mobile learning for delivering health professional education (protocol)

© 2015 The Cochrane Collaboration.This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: The objective of this review is to evaluate the effectiveness of mLearning educational interventions for delivering pre-registration and post-registration healthcare professional education. We will primarily assess the impact of these interventions on students knowledge, skills, professional attitudes and satisfaction

Application of Active Learning in Microwave Circuit Design Courses

Application of active learning in microwave circuit design courses. We have recently expanded our undergraduate labs to include four 20 GHz VNA-s and four high-speed TDR oscilloscopes. They were obtained initially for junior electromagnetics labs but this opens up obvious opportunities for more hands-on approaches to teaching and learning microwave circuit design. We have redesigned our two quarter, senior-level sequence with these goals in mind: a) Emphasize complete design cycle, from paper development, to simulation, to prototype development and testing, followed by more advanced prototyping, testing and redesign. b) De-emphasize face-to-face lecture and emphasize in-class activities and peer interaction c) Provide students with as much immediate or early feedback as possible by utilizing a new classroom interaction system developed by Learning Catalytics. d) Reinforce student learning by having lab and lecture merge into one so that concepts can be immediately put to practice instead of waiting for assigned lab time. This means that as many designs from item a) should be attempted during class time so that instructor can provide immediate feedback. Work by R. Caverly at U. of Villanova has provided the initial impetus and work by K.C. Guptaon conceptual mapping is providing the framework. We will report on the details of lecture and course design, and lessons learned from the initial offering. Significant emphasis was placed on writing and presentation skills but mixed results were obtained. In the future we will provide more opportunity for students to re-write the reports on their activities instead of expecting that they will incorporate feedback into subsequent reports. We have also discovered some significant gaps or misconceptions in how students think about circuits. For example, they do not fully grasp the concept of admittance vs. impedance and why one may prefer to use one over the other. Similarly, basic concepts of impedance transformation took a long time to develop. We attempted to rank order the effectiveness of various components of the course, as judged by the students. Building and testing circuits and their simulations were perceived as most useful by students, as shown in the figure below. Examples of various class activities will be described, some assessment data provided, and plans for future improvements discussed

Online Learning vs. Offline Learning in an MIS Course: Learning Outcomes, Readiness, and Suggestions for the Post-COVID-19 World

This study aims to compare learning outcomes and technology readiness in online versus offline learning and to find suggestions from the viewpoint of learners. Besides, this study also compares differences in students’ perceptions among learning styles. The associations between several factors such as experience and gender, and learning preferences are also explored. A questionnaire was developed to gather data from students who enrolled in an MIS course during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Around half of the students were assigned to study the topic ‘using MS Excel basics’ in offline sessions, whereas the rest were assigned to learn through recorded videos online. Responses from 44 students, together with their comments and suggestions, were used for data analysis. This study found that both online and offline delivery methods can improve students’ cognitive processes according to the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy and their topic interest significantly. On-campus classes could significantly enhance students’ class attendance intention, but online classes could not. The cognitive process of RBT in terms of evaluating MS Excel content and class attendance intention of online students were significantly lower than offline students. Students also felt that place, equipment, and software on-campus were more ready than online environments. This work provides guidelines for both lecturers and universities in choosing teaching methods for using basic tools after the COVID-19 situation pass, selecting proper course types, designing course activities, and providing sufficient supports for better online learning outcomes. Research gaps suggested by past studies are filled up in this study

The Faculty Notebook, December 2006

The Faculty Notebook is published periodically by the Office of the Provost at Gettysburg College to bring to the attention of the campus community accomplishments and activities of academic interest. Faculty are encouraged to submit materials for consideration for publication to the Associate Provost for Faculty Development. Copies of this publication are available at the Office of the Provost