Professional Advisers in Engineering and Technology Undergraduate Programs: Opportunities and Challenges

The basis of high quality academic advising is a strong relationship between the student and the adviser. Historically, these relationships have been cultivated between faculty advisers and students. Increasingly, the “faculty-only” model is declining, as institutions have chosen to hire non-faculty staff to serve the role of academic advisers. These “professional advisers” focus solely on advising, with limited research, teaching, and governance duties. This article summarizes the research on the use of professional advisers as compared with faculty advisers, and outlines challenges inherent to the professional adviser model in an engineering and technology department at a research-intensive land grant institution. Information on the use of professional advisers in an engineering and technology department may be useful to other engineering and technology-oriented departments, specifically those managing large enrollment increases. Factors considered in measuring advising effectiveness for professional and faculty advisers will also be discussed. As administrators in engineering and technology departments add to the list of tasks required for faculty, the use of professional advisers shifts the faculty mentoring focus toward disciplinary and career pursuits, roles faculty have indicated they are comfortable assuming

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Green on What Side of the Fence? Librarian Perceptions of Accepted Author Manuscripts

INTRODUCTION There is a growing body of accepted author manuscripts (AAMs) in national, professional, and institutional repositories. This study seeks to explore librarian attitudes about AAMs and in what contexts they should be recommended. Particular attention is paid to differences between the attitudes of librarians whose primary job responsibilities are within the field of scholarly communications as opposed to the rest of the profession. METHODS An Internet survey was sent to nine different professional listservs, asking for voluntary anonymous participation. RESULTS This study finds that AAMs are considered an acceptable source by many librarians, with scholarly communications librarians more willing to recommend AAMs in higher-stakes contexts such as health care and dissertation research. DISCUSSION Librarian AAM attitudes are discussed, with suggestions for future research and implications for librarians

The Relationship between Racial Identity and the Socialization of Black Ph.D. Students at Predominantly White Institutions

Successful graduate student socialization has been characterized as the acceptance and adoption of disciplinary values and beliefs into the students’ identity (Bragg, 1976; Weidman, Twale, & Stein, 2001). Some scholars assert that assimilating the values and beliefs of the discipline may be difficult for Blacks students as their cultural beliefs and values may be incongruent (Antony, 2002; Tierney & Rhoads, 1994). Surprisingly, there appears to be no empirical studies exploring this assertion for Black Ph.D. students. The purpose of this study was to determine if cultural beliefs and values influence the socialization experiences of Black Ph.D. students. Specifically, using racial identity as a theoretical framework, hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between racial identity and socialization (as measured by faculty-student interactions, peer-peer interactions, and student’s perceptions of faculty) of Black Ph.D. students at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Data were collected from 389 current Ph.D. students and recent completers. Racial identity was assessed using the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, & Chavous, 1998). After controlling for key demographic variables, results indicated racial identity influenced some aspects of socialization. Specifically, public regard was positively related to faculty-student interaction as well as students’ perception of faculty. Racial centrality and ascribing to a humanist ideology were also positively related to students’ perception of faculty. Finally, ascribing to a nationalist ideology was inversely related to peer-peer interactions. The findings indicate that cultural beliefs and values do influence the socialization experience. Moreover, the results reveal a potential rationale for the possible differences in socialization among Black Ph.D. students. Specifically, differences in racial identity attitudes and beliefs influence the behavior of students and thus their socialization experience. Overall, the findings suggest that faculty and students in Ph.D. programs at PWI institutions might develop socialization practices that take into consideration cultural differences. Specific recommendations include: forming a mentoring/advising partnership with student to determine the most relevant plan for socialization into the student’s desired roles and using pedagogies and practices such as collaborative learning and wise schooling that are culturally relevant and supportive

The composition of first-year engineering curricula and its relationships to matriculation models and institutional characteristics

The preparation of technically excellent and innovative engineering graduates urges for a reform of the engineering curriculum to meet critical challenges in society (National Academy of Engineering, 2005). An examination of the current engineering curricula is needed to offer a baseline to further discuss if the curriculum reform meets the critical challenges. Meanwhile, concern about engineering retention prioritizes a review of the first-year engineering curricula. The existing literature does not include a nationwide examination of the first-year engineering curricula and introductory engineering courses. This study aspired to fill the gap by providing a detail description of the composition of first-year engineering curricula and introductory engineering courses of all ABET EAC-accredited programs. Furthermore, this study investigated the degree to which first-year engineering curricula and institutional characteristics varied by the matriculation policies of engineering programs. ^ To this end, this study analyzed the recommended first-year course sequences of 1,969 engineering programs and descriptions of 2,222 first-year engineering courses at all 408 U.S. institutions with ABET EAC-accredited programs. Keywords extracted from the engineering course descriptions were classified using a revised First-Year Engineering Course Classification Scheme (Reid, Reeping, & Spingola, 2013). In addition, institutional characteristics of 408 institutions grouped by matriculation models were examined. ^ There were five major findings. First, engineering courses took up 14-17% of total credit hours in the first year. Most first-year engineering courses were mandatory instead of elective or optional. Mathematics and science still formed the basis of the early engineering curriculum by accounting for more than half of the first-year credit hours. Second, the composition of first-year engineering curricula, the composition of first-year engineering courses, and the time when the first engineering course was required all varied by matriculation models. Third, topics related to engineering technologies and tools were listed most frequently in first-year engineering course descriptions, followed by topics related to design and the engineering profession. Topics related to global interest were seldom listed. Fourth, while first-year course composition varied by matriculation model, the most frequently listed topics were shared by programs with varied matriculation models, suggesting that content selection of first-year engineering courses was homogenous nationally. Lastly, institutions with different matriculation models had distinct characteristics, demonstrating the existence of relationships between institution-level and unit-level variables shown in the Model of Academic Plans in Context (Lattuca & Stark, 2009). ^ Findings of this study addressed fundamental questions of engineering education research, and had the potential to help program administrators and instructors with program and curriculum planning purposes

Review of practice-led research in art, design & architecture

This review report sets out the outcomes of a 10 month investigation to describe the landscape of practice-led research in Art, Design and Architecture (ADA) in the UK and beyond. We were asked for a qualitative review but of course it has been important to gather some numbers to check and illustrate our observations. We have consulted widely, both face to face and in the virtual world, with experts and novices in the UK and around the world. We have tried to strike a balance between the natural desire of our colleagues to debate the more contentious aspects of this territory (they were never going to forgo that opportunity) and the equally strong wish of the AHRC that we should provide a clear description of what is happening. We have collected some diverse examples of research and subjected them to various examinations. We have also examined a selection of research projects funded by AHRC and other projects by creative practitioners, funded by a non-research organisation. From all this we have been able to describe the landscape in a straightforward sense: We have measures of the proportions of ADA academics involved in practice-led research. We have clarified differences in the ways that the different ADA disciplines engage with practice-led research and identified some problems that indicate possible future support strategies. We have discussed some problems with general definitions of research and identified issues that should be addressed to ensure that the AHRC definition can be applied to the full range of practice-led research. We have picked out some specific case examples that illustrate the range of contexts, methods and contributions made by practice-led researchers, and more are described in detail in Appendix F. We have also sought to assess how this research relates to the wider international picture in which the UK appears to have a strong position in both volume and development of research. We have also set out some issues that affect this community of researchers: What strengths and weaknesses have we observed and where is there a need to support development? Do the AHRC definition of research and guidance on practice-led research provide an effective framework? We have illustrated the state of development of research in ADA, and some reasons why it is less robust than might be expected from such long established disciplines. We recommend that the career path of researchers in ADA needs some attention and make some suggestions about how that could be achieved. We have also indicated some areas of inquiry that might be supported to advance the theory and methods of practice-led research. In particular we have come to the conclusion that conventional ideas of contribution to knowledge or understanding may not be serving us well. This is significant to fine artists but we believe that it relevant across ADA and a shared effort to develop appropriate new models would be a constructive development. The full set of recommendations can be found in chapter 5