Vodcast Impact on Students\u27 Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions

Purpose: This paper uses structural equation modeling to assess the effectiveness of Vodcasts (video podcasts) as part of a university’s communication strategy with prospective students. Design/methodology/approach: Three theoretical models were tested using a structural equation model. Findings: We find that perceived informativeness, credibility, and irritation of the advertising are directly related to the value of the Vodcast advertising. However of those three factors, only the informativeness is directly related to the intent to take further action toward enrollment. In addition, while prior work has suggested that perceived entertainment of advertising positively influences its perceived value, we find that for these university Vodcasts, perceived entertainment is not a statistically significant factor. Research limitations/implications: The results suggest that for Vodcasts used for these purposes, less attention should be given to entertainment value, and more attention should be focused on providing useful information in a manner that is credible and not irritating to students. Originality/value: Vodcasts have become part of the Internet multimedia experience and have been integrated into universities’ web-based promotion strategies. While prior work has examined general advertising on the web, few studies have considered the impact of the interactive medium of Vodcasts on attitudes and behavioral intentions

A New Logic Model For Change

Logic models are defined as visual diagrams that help to explain the theory of change for a program. Over the years the logic model has become a common tool for educational programs who seek to apply for and obtain grant funding. However, the limitations of the logic model make it ineffective at managing evaluations. This study is a retrospective cohort design. The three main goals of this study are to (1) research logic model limitations and adapt a revised logic model that could effectively evaluate an educational program, (2) test both the original and revised logic models on an educational program, and (3) conduct a meta-evaluation in order to evaluate and compare the original and revised logic models. This will help to determine the two models effectiveness and if the original logic model was improved

The Relationship Between Adjunct Faculty Staffing and College Student Retention and Graduation

The rise of non-tenure track, part-time faculty, referred to as adjuncts, has brought a significant shift to the academic workforce. The count of part-time faculty on campuses has followed an upward trend for the last few decades and now part-time faculty form half of the total faculty workforce. This begs the question, in the face of institutional policies that favor increasing the proportion of adjuncts on faculty rosters: Has the use of adjuncts negatively impacted the student experience and quality of education, leading to lower persistence and graduation rates? This dissertation examines the relationship between adjunct faculty and student outcomes measured by both retention and graduation rates. This study employs Berger and Milem’s (2000) framework as the conceptual model linking an institution’s structural-demographic characteristics to student outcomes. Using a national sample of baccalaureate degree granting institutions from IPEDS data, I used panel data models to estimate retention and graduation rates. My panel models include a host of input variables, with an institution’s proportion of part-time faculty as the key variable. My fixed effects panel data models indicate that an institution’s proportion of part-time faculty does not have a statistically significant impact on retention and graduation, controlling for other input variables

Trialing project-based learning in a new EAP ESP course: A collaborative reflective practice of three college English teachers

Currently in many Chinese universities, the traditional College English course is facing the risk of being ‘marginalized’, replaced or even removed, and many hours previously allocated to the course are now being taken by EAP or ESP. At X University in northern China, a curriculum reform as such is taking place, as a result of which a new course has been created called ‘xue ke’ English. Despite the fact that ‘xue ke’ means subject literally, the course designer has made it clear that subject content is not the target, nor is the course the same as EAP or ESP. This curriculum initiative, while possibly having been justified with a rationale of some kind (e.g. to meet with changing social and/or academic needs of students and/or institutions), this is posing a great challenge for, as well as considerable pressure on, a number of College English teachers who have taught this single course for almost their entire teaching career. In such a context, three teachers formed a peer support group in Semester One this year, to work collaboratively co-tackling the challenge, and they chose Project-Based Learning (PBL) for the new course. This presentation will report on the implementation of this project, including the overall designing, operational procedure, and the teachers’ reflections. Based on discussion, pre-agreement was reached on the purpose and manner of collaboration as offering peer support for more effective teaching and learning and fulfilling and pleasant professional development. A WeChat group was set up as the chief platform for messaging, idea-sharing, and resource-exchanging. Physical meetings were supplementary, with sound agenda but flexible time, and venues. Mosoteach cloud class (lan mo yun ban ke) was established as a tool for virtual learning, employed both in and after class. Discussions were held at the beginning of the semester which determined only brief outlines for PBL implementation and allowed space for everyone to autonomously explore in their own way. Constant further discussions followed, which generated a great deal of opportunities for peer learning and lesson plan modifications. A reflective journal, in a greater or lesser detailed manner, was also kept by each teacher to record the journey of the collaboration. At the end of the semester, it was commonly recognized that, although challenges existed, the collaboration was overall a success and they were all willing to continue with it and endeavor to refine it to be a more professional and productive approach

The Evolution of Student Engagement: Writing Improves Teaching in Introductory Biology

In response to calls for pedagogical reforms in undergraduate biology courses to decrease student attrition rates and increase active learning, this article describes one faculty member’s conversion from traditional teaching methods to more engaging forms of practice. Partially told as a narrative, this article illustrates a.) the way many faculty initially learn to teach by modeling the pedagogy from their own undergraduate programs; b.) the kind of support biology faculty may need to break out of traditional molds; c.) how writing can promote active learning; and d.) the impact of reformed pedagogy on student levels of engagement. The latter will be demonstrated through assessment results gathered from student surveys, reflective writing, and focus group interview. Ultimately, the study challenges misunderstandings some faculty might have regarding the value of writing in science classes and offers inspiration, urging critical reflection and persistence

Peer Helping in an Intercollegiate Athletic Environment

Intercollegiate student-athletes face a variety of unique responsibilities and stressors. Balancing practice, training, traveling, and academics can be overwhelming. To assist student-athletes with these issues, the peer helper program called the Student Peer Athlete Network (SPAN) was developed. SPAN was designed to train specific student-athletes in peer helper skills so they, in turn, can assist other student-athletes who need support or assistance for certain personal, academic, or athletic concerns. Empowering student-athletes promotes a sense a self-responsibility and benefits the entire student-athlete population

Using Big Data for Predicting Freshmen Retention

Traditional research in student retention is survey-based, relying on data collected from questionnaires, which is not optimal for proactive prediction and real-time decision (student intervention) support. Machine learning approaches have their own limitations. Therefore, in this research, we propose a big data approach to formulating a predictive model. We used commonly available (student demographic and academic) data in academic institutions augmented by derived implicit social networks from students’ university smart card transactions. Furthermore, we applied a sequence learning method to infer students’ campus integration from their purchasing behaviors. Since student retention data is highly imbalanced, we built a new ensemble classifier to predict students at-risk of dropping out. For model evaluation, we use a real-world dataset of smart card transactions from a large educational institution. The experimental results show that the addition of campus integration and social behavior features refined using the ensemble method significantly improve prediction accuracy and recall