A log analysis study of 10 years of ebook consumption in academic library collections

Even though libraries have been offering eBooks for more than a decade, very little is known about eBook access and consumption in academic library collections. This paper addresses this gap with a log analysis study of eBook access at the library of the University of Waikato. This in-depth analysis covers a period spanning 10 years of eBook use at this university. We draw conclusions about the use of eBooks at this institution and compare the results with other published studies of eBook usage at tertiary institutes

Middle School Parents\u27 Beliefs Regarding Learning Management System Use in Mathematics

Middle school is a critical time in students\u27 learning of mathematics, something a Learning Management System (LMS) is designed to help parents support. What remains unknown is how parents use an LMS to monitor their children\u27s progress in mathematics. This qualitative case study explored how parents from one midAtlantic middle school with 543 students used an LMS, EdLine, to support their children\u27s autonomous achievement in mathematics. Expectancy-value theory and social cognitive theory made up the conceptual framework used to evaluate study findings. A criterion-based process was used to select nine middle school parents from grades 6, 7, and 8 as participants. Data sources included structured interviews and follow-up questions, EdLine spreadsheets, and parent reflective journals. Data were analyzed through a priori codes based on the literature review. Themes that emerged from the analysis included reoccurring learner autonomy and parents benefiting from their ability to use EdLine to monitor grades, check progress, and provide strategies to support mathematical achievement. Parents indicated they could encourage their children, teach them, and expect them to use EdLine to monitor and manage their grades and achievement in mathematics. This research contributes to positive social change by explaining how administrators can help middle school parents use an LMS to become engaged with their children\u27s mathematics studies and set expectations for their mathematics task completion and achievement

An introduction to Graph Data Management

A graph database is a database where the data structures for the schema and/or instances are modeled as a (labeled)(directed) graph or generalizations of it, and where querying is expressed by graph-oriented operations and type constructors. In this article we present the basic notions of graph databases, give an historical overview of its main development, and study the main current systems that implement them

The Impact of Professional Development Grounded in Social Learning on Community College Faculty Efficacy

Community college faculty have experienced a shift in focus from access to access and student success. Given this shift in responsibility for student learning, community college faculty should be sufficiently prepared to teach a diverse student body and subsequently uphold beliefs regarding their ability to bring about desired outcomes of student engagement and learning. Given preparedness is a measure of self-efficacy, professional development for community college faculty is a critical investment in the support and development of teacher efficacy and faculty skill. Social learning theory specifically speaks to a means of increasing self-efficacy. As a professional development practice, social learning allows for participants to share problems, ideas, viewpoints, and collaboration towards solutions. Faculty development grounded in social learning theory may serve as a viable option for community college faculty to learn best practices in teaching and learning via social influence and social reinforcement. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effect, if any, of professional development modeled upon social learning theory on community college teacher efficacy. Administrators and faculty developers may find the results of this study useful as they make decisions about program design and resource allocation. A pre-experimental, one-group pre- and post-test research design using the Teacher’s Sense of Efficacy Scale was used to measure the effectiveness of a faculty development treatment on teacher efficacy beliefs in the constructs of classroom management, student engagement, and instructional strategies. This method enabled a comparison of efficacy levels prior to and after participation in faculty professional development as a means to determine any potential influence. Data were analyzed by employing dependent and independent sample t-tests to determine differences in teacher efficacy mean scores over time. Findings indicated no significant differences in pre- and post-test scores for overall teacher efficacy and efficacy in the constructs of classroom management, student engagement, and instructional strategies. However, there was a significant difference in overall teacher efficacy scores after participating in the faculty development treatment between new and experienced faculty. From these findings, three themes were drawn that provide specific recommendations for community college faculty development program design

Self-organizing distributed digital library supporting audio-video

The StreamOnTheFly network combines peer-to-peer networking and open-archive principles for community radio channels and TV stations in Europe. StreamOnTheFly demonstrates new methods of archive management and personalization technologies for both audio and video. It also provides a collaboration platform for community purposes that suits the flexible activity patterns of these kinds of broadcaster communities

Improvement of Pedagogical Laboratory Based Learning: Multimedia Enhanced Instructional Methods

In engineering technology and other scientific-based education, lab-based courses play a crucial role (Ma & Nickerson, 2006). Even though laboratory experience in student learning is crucial, it faces some problems. Due to insufficient laboratory conditions that lead to overcrowding and inability to view demonstrations, the effectiveness of hands on experience declines (Tiwari & Singh, 2011; Tuysuz, 2010). Considering the limitations that constrain lab experience, investigating and implementing alternatives to enhance pedagogical laboratory based learning becomes inevitable. This study investigates multimedia enhanced pedagogical teaching methods for delivering laboratory instruction to students. The purpose of this study was to improve pedagogical laboratory based learning. First, this study implemented a multimedia enhanced pedagogical laboratory based instructional method. Second, this study evaluated the impact of multimedia enhanced instructional method on student learning outcomes to assess improvement in pedagogical laboratory based learning. To evaluate the impact of multimedia enhanced instructional method on student learning outcomes, a student population was subjected to 1) traditional laboratory lecture and 2) video lecture. This study used two different assessment techniques to evaluate the instructional methods 1) surveys and 2) quizzes. The use of these different assessment techniques achieved two purposes. First, the surveys allowed the study to receive students’ evaluation on the lecture in order to compare the two types of instructional methods. Second, the quizzes allowed measuring the students’ understanding of the demonstrations in order to evaluate the impact of multimedia enhanced instructional method on pedagogical laboratory based learning. Survey results revealed that based on overall evaluations, students prefer traditional lectures in comparison to video lectures in terms of level of interest and engagement. Furthermore, quiz results revealed that multimedia enhanced instructional methods do not have an impact on pedagogical laboratory based learning