The impact of study load on the dynamics of longitudinal email communications among students

With the advent of information technology, emails have gained wide acceptability among students as an asynchronous communication tool. According to the current pedagogy literature the overall trend of the use of email communication by university students has been increasing significantly since its inception, despite the rapid growth of the popularity and acceptability of other social mediums (e.g. Mobile phone and Facebook). In this study, we explore a longitudinal email communication network, which evolved under an increasing study load among 38 students throughout a university semester, using measures of social network analysis (SNA) and exponential random graph (ERG) models. This longitudinal network was divided into three waves, where each wave represents the portion of the complete longitudinal network that evolves between two consecutive observations. An increased study load was imposed through the assessment components of the course. SNA measures of degree centrality (i.e. the activity of an actor or actor popularity), betweenness centrality (i.e. the capacity to control the flow of information in a network), closeness centrality (i.e. reachable to other nodes) and reciprocity (i.e. tendency to make reciprocal links) are considered to explore this longitudinal network. ERG models are probabilistic models that are presented by locally determined explanatory variables and can effectively identify structural properties of networks. From the analysis of this email communication network, we notice that students’ network positions and behaviours change with the changes in their study load. In particular, we find that (i) students make an increased number of email communications with the in-crease of study load; (ii) the email communication network become sparse with the increase of study load; and (iii) the 2-star parameter (a subset of three nodes in which one node is connected to each of the other two nodes) and the triangle parameter (a subset of three nodes in which each node is connected to the other two nodes) can effectively explain the formation of network in wave3; whereas, the 3-star parameter (a subset of four nodes in which one node is connected to each of other three nodes) can effectively explain the formation of network in wave1 and wave2. Interpretations of these findings for the monitoring of student behaviour in online learning environments, as well as the implications for the design of assessment and the use of asynchronous tools are discussed in this paper

A survey study of steering wheel vibration and sound in automobiles at idle

Copyright @ 2009 Engineering Integrity SocietyThis work is supported by Shell Global Solutions UK for their sponsorship of this research as part of the activities of the EFII3 project

Inclusion of an Introduction to Infrastructure Course in a Civil and Environmental Engineering Curriculum

Civil infrastructure refers to the built environment (sometimes referred to as public works) and consists of roads, bridges, buildings, dams, levees, drinking water treatment facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, power generation and transmission facilities, communications, solid waste facilities, hazardous waste facilities, and other sectors. Although there is a need to train engineers who have a holistic view of infrastructure, there is evidence that civil and environmental engineering (CEE) programs have not fully addressed this increasingly recognized need. One effective approach to address this educational gap is to incorporate a course related to infrastructure into the curriculum for first-year or second-year civil and environmental engineering students. Therefore, this study assesses the current status of teaching such courses in the United States and identifies the incentives for, and the barriers against, incorporating an introduction to infrastructure course into schools’ current CEE curricula. Two distinct activities enabled these objectives. First, a questionnaire was distributed to CEE programs across the United States, to which 33 responses were received. The results indicated that although the majority of participants believe that offering such a course will benefit students by increasing the breadth of the curriculum and by providing a holistic view of CEE, barriers such as the maximum allowable credits for graduation, the lack of motivation within a department—either because such a course did not have a champion or because the department had no plans to revise their curriculum—and a lack of expertise among faculty members inhibited inclusion of the course in curricula. Second, three case studies demonstrating successful inclusion of an introduction to infrastructure course into the CEE curriculum were evaluated. Cases were collected from Marquette University, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and West Point CEE programs, and it was found that the key to success in including such a course is a motivated team of faculty members who are committed to educating students about different aspects of infrastructure. The results of the study can be used as a road map to help universities successfully incorporate an introduction to infrastructure course in their CEE programs

Do you pass it on? An examination of the consequences of perceived cyber incivility

Purpose: The emerging literature on computer-mediated communication at the study lacks depth in terms of elucidating the consequences of the effects of incivility on employees. This study aims to compare face-to-face incivility with incivility encountered via e-mail on both task performance and performance evaluation. Design/methodology/approach: In two experimental studies, the authors test whether exposure to incivility via e-mail reduces individual task performance beyond that of face-to-face incivility and weather exposure to that incivility results in lower performance evaluations for third-parties. Findings: The authors show that being exposed to cyber incivility does decrease performance on a subsequent task. The authors also find that exposure to rudeness, both face-to-face and via e-mail, is contagious and results in lower performance evaluation scores for an uninvolved third party. Originality/value: This research comprises an empirically grounded study of incivility in the context of e-mail at study, highlights distinctions between it and face-to-face rudeness and reveals the potential risks that cyber incivility poses for employees

Doing Time and College: An Examination of Carceral Influences on Experiences in Postsecondary Correctional Education

Imprisonment pains often accompany confinement to correctional institutions and can be manifested through controlled interactions that are an ingrained part of these contexts. Less is known about how related discomforts and deprivations might specifically impact participation in postsecondary correctional education. This paper will shed light on possible ways that encounters between incarcerated college students, other prisoners, prison educators and corrections officers can influence their access to and quality of higher education received. It is based on qualitative data collected from interviews with 34 formerly incarcerated individuals who were past and present members of a higher education program post-release. This research has important policy implications given that individuals who earn college credits during incarceration are more likely to secure gainful employment and avoid crime post-incarceration. Particularly, it can be used to guide the development of carceral college programs that account for educational challenges that typically emanate from prison sub cultural influences

Inclusion of Gamification Elements in the Context of Virtual Lab Environments to Increase Educational Value

Previous research on gamification and virtual laboratories has suggested that both produce successful educational outcomes, but few studies have looked at both gamification and virtual labs in tandem. Drawing on social cognitive theory, we investigate gamification in the virtual labs’ context to examine whether learners’ educational performance is enhanced. In particular, we employ leaderboards as a motivational gamification mechanism for more engagement and participation that can result in higher learning outcomes. Using a student sample, our results show that using gamification within a virtual lab environment results in higher student performance; specifically, it helps them complete more-complex tasks and increases their self-efficacy. Our findings show promising evidence that gamification in virtual lab learning environments positively influences learning

Proceedings of the Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference (SPARC) 2011

These proceedings bring together a selection of papers from the 2011 Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference(SPARC). It includes papers from PhD students in the arts and social sciences, business, computing, science and engineering, education, environment, built environment and health sciences. Contributions from Salford researchers are published here alongside papers from students at the Universities of Anglia Ruskin, Birmingham City, Chester,De Montfort, Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores and Manchester

A Validation of the Family Involvement Questionnaire-High School Version

The purpose of this study was to validate the Family Involvement Questionnaire (FIQ) for use in high school settings (9th-12th grade). After the FIQ was redesigned for use in the high school setting, 517 parents completed the questionnaire online. Internal consistency for the 40-item questionnaire was high (alpha = 0.93). A confirmatory factor analysis failed to substantiate the FIQ-HS to the elementary version from which it was adapted. However, an exploratory factor analysis yielded three factors consistent with the FIQ-E. Family demographics were compared to participants\u27 responses, and significant effects for students\u27 school and special education status were found