Report on the Information Retrieval Festival (IRFest2017)

The Information Retrieval Festival took place in April 2017 in Glasgow. The focus of the workshop was to bring together IR researchers from the various Scottish universities and beyond in order to facilitate more awareness, increased interaction and reflection on the status of the field and its future. The program included an industry session, research talks, demos and posters as well as two keynotes. The first keynote was delivered by Prof. Jaana Kekalenien, who provided a historical, critical reflection of realism in Interactive Information Retrieval Experimentation, while the second keynote was delivered by Prof. Maarten de Rijke, who argued for more Artificial Intelligence usage in IR solutions and deployments. The workshop was followed by a "Tour de Scotland" where delegates were taken from Glasgow to Aberdeen for the European Conference in Information Retrieval (ECIR 2017

The factors affecting student's satisfaction in University Utara Malaysia, Kedah

Theoretically, education can be considered as one of important and fruitful investment that all the time rewards in numerous ways. The strong and effective educational systems results in the greater performance of the students. Based on Muhamd, Rizwan and Ali (2010) state “the educational institutions where the system is affective and administration is willing to provide the quality services always enjoy more incoming of brilliant and talented students.” Student paying fee tuition in higher education, they deserve to get something in high quality that suits with the value of money paying for tuition fee. The level of satisfaction among the student being as a scale in measuring whether HEI afford to deliver or provided services, technology, and facilities in effective ways. This study empirically examines the relationship between campus services, technology, and campus facilities and students’ satisfaction and which factors impact on student’s satisfaction in University Utara Malaysia, Kedah. The sample size in this study was 377 undergraduate student of UUM. The result of this study shown the positive relationship between campus services, technology, and campus facilities and students’ satisfaction, but only campus services is significant with students’ satisfactio

Emerging Opportunities in the Philippine Higher Education Institutions During the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 has had a global impact, affecting every higher education institution. Gaps and challenges in the Philippine educational system have been identified, including inadequate technological infrastructure and a preference for in-person classroom instruction over the effective use of online technologies and resources. The crisis has provided opportunities for reflection. Many lessons come from the many responses. The impact of innovation and approach refinement are effective determinants of the country's educational program's resiliency in a crisis. This article addresses emerging opportunities such as increasing the number of training activities and broadening participation, integrating an online learning management system into teaching, recognizing the benefits of a community internet hub, strengthening psychosocial health programs in schools, and strengthening cross-sector collaborations. As a result, higher education institutions are constantly challenged to find new ways to thrive in the face of a pandemic in terms of providing quality instruction and services. Further studies on how higher education institutions responded to the needs of the stakeholders in the new reality are recommended

An Investigation on the Preference Approach in Experiencing Open and Distance Learning Methods

Open and distance learning (ODL) has become an alternative in teaching and learning (T&L) while the COVID-19 pandemic crisis struck the world globally in December 2019. However, the preferred tool and platform to be chosen in the transition period among students remain uncertain. The purpose of this study was to assess and investigate the effect of T&L preference techniques and technologies chosen by employing ODL in universities during the pandemic. This research adopted a descriptive approach and a quantitative survey was used to collect the necessary data. The questionnaire consisted of 14 questions and was separated into two parts: demographic information and undergraduate students' preference towards online class technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. Four themes and 16 sub-themes were identified in the set of questions in the survey. The results of the analysis revealed that ODL is the preferred method with WhatsApp social media platform as the medium for communication between educators and learners. Educators might consider devoting additional attention to improving teaching and learning practices in open and distance learning in choosing the right approaches and platform to be used through online and offline classes

Unmotivated, Depressed, Anxious: Impact of the COVID-19 Emergency Transition to Remote Learning on Undergraduates’ Math Anxiety

In summer 2020, we invited the 6761 undergraduate students who took a Spring 2020 math course at the University of Arizona to participate in a survey, with 13% responding. We asked about their experience with the emergency transition to remote learning and measured their math anxiety before and after the transition using the well-established Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale(AMAS). “Unmotivated, depressed, anxious” are the words one undergraduate used to describe their emergency transition to remote learning. Our results indicate that limited access to quality technology and inadequate communication with an instructor were the two greatest predictors for an increase in math anxiety after the emergency transition to remote learning. These results may encourage instructors to foster community with their students, especially during emergency remote learning

Social Networking Sites Usage and Students' Attitudes Towards Social Behaviors and Academic Adjustment in Northern Nigerian Universities

The present study examines the extent to which social networking sites (SNSs) usage, students’ social behaviors (SSB) and students’ academic adjustment (SAA) among university students in Northern Nigeria. It investigated relationship among the SNS usage SSB, and SAA. The variance in the extent of SNSs usage in relation to gender, age, faculty, ethnicity, socioeconomic background and religion was also investigated. The moderating effect of attitude towards SNS usage was examined. Four hundred participants were sampled and they completed the questionnaires. In addition, 24 volunteered participants from six universities were interviewed at six level focus groups on the constructs related to SNSs usage SSB and SAA. This study employed a mixed-method model as interviews and questionnaires were employed. The data were qualitatively and quantitatively collected, sorted, analyzed and reported separately at significantly equal weight. The thematic qualitative analyses and the quantitative descriptive results suggested that the extent of SNSs usage, the SSB and SAA is high among the university students in northern Nigeria. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) also revealed that there were no significant differences in the extent of SNSs usage in terms of age, faculty, socio economic background and the level of study. However, significant differences exist among ethnicity and religion. The independent sample t-tests revealed no gender differences in the extent of SNSs usage. Similarly the present findings show significantly positive inter-relationships among the SNSs usage, SSB and SAA. The findings also found attitude to be a strong predictor and moderator of the relationship between the SNSs and both the students’ social behaviors and students’ academic adjustment

Faculty Senate Chronicle for October 1, 2015

Minutes of the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on October 1, 2015