Blind Men and Elephants: A Multi-Method Analysis of Periodical Literature

One blind man feels a tree. Another blind man feels something sharp, like a spear; and a third, feels something like a fan. All these men feel the same thing, an elephant, but different parts of it. This article looks at journal content through three separate lenses: faculty perception, citation analysis, and journal use. Each lens perceives journal value differently. Once these pictures are assembled, the challenge begins, attempting to understand what they compose. Like the disagreements these blind men had on what they were feeling, the data produced from these three lenses does not appear to coincide. It did however help in developing a greater appreciation of the collaboration needed between librarians and faculty to understand the elephant

The Relationship between the Perceptions of Academic Staff in Mutah University of Technology Transfer and Mutah's University Organizational Readiness for Change

The purpose of this study is to verify the relationship between the dimensions of organizational readiness for change; motivational forces; institutional resources; staff attributes; and organizational climate, and the faculty perception of technology transfer. The study was applied on the context of the academic staff at Mutah University in the first semester 2011/ 2012. A questionnaire of 2 sections was distributed to the members of academic staff at Mutah University.The results of the study showed the academic staff at Mutah University sees the engagement in technology transfer is very important. Technology transfer awareness among them is considerably accepted and should be enforced. The organizational readiness for change was addressed in this study as insufficient this was attributed to the internal financial problems in the university and multiple environmental factors.The study showed that there is an approximately strong correlation between faculty perception of technology transfer and the dimensions of organizational readiness for change. The strongest relationship was appeared between the faculty perception of technology transfer and organizational climate.  The study recommended that the technology transfer process in the University should be fostered in order that the technology transfer is able to do its duties effectively and efficiently. Keywords: technology transfer, organizational readiness for change, Mutah University

Faculty perception about active learning strategies: A cross sectional survey

Background: Nursing education in Pakistan has evolved over the last two decades, and it has shifted from the traditional three-year diploma program to the baccalaureate degree program. However, still traditional learning strategies are used in teachings ineffective in producing quality graduates; hence these graduates lack the necessary skills to face the challenges, diversity, and the dynamics of complex nursing care in Pakistan.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the perception of faculty members and barriers in the utilization of Active Learning (AL) strategies at undergraduate nursing degree programs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province Pakistan.Methods: Cross Sectional design was used to conduct the research study. Consecutive sampling techniques were used to recruit participants in the study. Faculty Perceptions were measured on likert scale. Mean and standard deviation were calculated for continues data, frequency and percentages were calculated for categorical and nominal data. Logistic regression was for possible relationship between utilization of AL, and different barriers.Results: Fifty two percent of the faculty members stated that AL strategies help in development of students’ concepts and increase students’ engagement in classes. Moreover, 67.6% faculty members have positive perception for utilization of AL strategies in classes. Interestingly 52.4% of faculty members have negative perceptions for traditional learning strategies. Faculty members perceived different barriers in utilization of AL: insufficient time (60%), difficulty to perform in large class room (38.1%), Lack of support (35.7%) and habitual to didactic learning (28.6%).Conclusion: In conclusion, faculty members have positive perception for AL strategies, and prefer it on didactic learning: However, different barriers were identified by faculty members in utilization of AL strategies. Further, researches are needed to conduct, to design strategies to overcome these barriers

Faculty perception of engineering student cheating and effective measures to curb it

© 2019 IEEE. Engineering faculty were surveyed on issues related to academic dishonesty by students affiliated with their college at an American university located in the United Arab Emirates. The survey addressed perceived frequency of plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration, cheating, copyright violations and complicity in academic integrity. As expected, the majority of the faculty think that dishonesty is more common in-of-class work compared to proctored exams. They think that applying tougher penalties and using more proctors are the most effective methods in decreasing academic dishonesty. The authors believe that it would be helpful if faculty members follow the university\u27s policy on cheating rather than make up their own rules in order to have consistent approach in dealing with academic dishonesty violations across the whole university. Ideally, the best way to combat dishonest acts at an institution is by educating students through seminars and workshops about the virtues of academic integrity and the benefits it brings to society. But until our campuses become free of dishonest behavior by students, some practical measures should be undertaken by the faculty to safeguard the institution against unethical behavior by students. For example, faculty members are recommended to either make their own assignments or modify the end-of-chapter problems from textbooks because students may have access to solution manuals. They are encouraged to give different homework problems and projects from one semester to another since students may have access to graded past work. While test banks provided to faculty by publishers may be used as a guide when creating exams, problems from such sources should not be put verbatim on exams by faculty because they are often available for purchase by students on the internet. Furthermore, the weight of-of-class assignments relative to the total course grade should be a small fraction of the total weight to discourage students from cheating on homework. Wireless signal jamming devices can combat some acts of e-cheating that utilizes the internet by disrupting communication between a smart phone and the cell-phone base station

Faculty Perception of an Embedded Research Project in the Undergraduate Veterinary Curriculum

In this article, we describe faculty’s perception of a research project embedded in the final year of the undergraduate veterinary curriculum and look at factors associated with overall perceptions of the project. We hypothesized that faculty would have a dichotomous attitude toward the research project, with faculty viewing it either positively or negatively, and that this opinion of the project would be largely influenced by the background of the faculty member—in particular, her or his role at the Royal Veterinary College. We explored this hypothesis via a questionnaire consisting of 26 questions in categorical format, Likert-scale format, and ranking format. The questions addressed faculty demographics, faculty’s perceptions of the project, and generic skills. Faculty had an overall positive view of the project and found it to be a useful part of the undergraduate curriculum (83.3% found it to be useful or very useful). Faculty’s perception of the project was influenced by their role at the college (p = .017), the species with which they primarily work (p = .05), and their opinion on the time spent supervising the final-year project (p = .003). We concluded that faculty view research as an important and useful part of the undergraduate veterinary curriculum

Faculty Perception of Attitude, Knowledge, and Accommodations for Students with Learning Disabilities

Ninety-three (48%) faculty members responded to the questionnaire concerning attitude, knowledge, and willingness to provide accommodations to students with learning disabilities. The variables included were gender, rank, professional position, interaction with students known to have a learning disability, and total years teaching at the college level. The results were analyzed by calculating percentages for each item in the questionnaire. The results indicated that the faculty\u27s knowledge of students with learning disabilities was the faculty are more willing to provide classroom accommodations than out-of-class accommodations.low; however, the faculty maintained a positive attitude. In addition the faculty are more willing to provide classroom accommodations than out-of-class accommodations