76 research outputs found

    An Emerging On-Line Third Place For Information Systems (IS) Students: Some Preliminary Observations

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    The increased social fragmentation in the fast-paced lives of individuals, particularly college students, is resulting in many dysfunctional effects - disappearance of community feeling, the inability to relate to one another, an impaired ability to collaborate with others, and greater obstacles in collaboratively constructing knowledge. Oldenburg\u27s (Oldenburg, 1989) third place concept provides a refreshingly new metaphor to conceptualize how technology-mediated interactions can help solve the problem of fragmentation by enhancing the sense of community. In the specific context of information systems (IS) education, an on-line third place can not only enhance the sense of community among students, but can also prepare students for careers in learning organizations that operate in complex, dynamic, and global environments. Our preliminary attempts to implement an on-line third place within an IS program indicate increased dialogue among students on course topics as well as an enhanced quality of their social networks

    Hacking to Prepare Undergraduate Students for Cybersecurity Attacks

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    Businesses are dependent on computer networks and information systems (IS). Much of the data businesses store are internet or cloud-based. This increases the challenge of protecting data that may not be stored in the physical facilities of a business. With the projection of more cyberattacks and threat of cloud-based data, preparing undergraduate students to recognize vulnerabilities in a system is a needed skill for the future. A medium-sized, northwest-based university with limited resources is piloting online labs with competitions to enhance students’ knowledge and experience

    Developing A Community Of Practice Through Learning Climate, Leader Support, And Leader Interaction

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    The Communities of Practice (CoP) concept and the knowledge management literature both provide useful frameworks for conceptualizing how an individual’s performance in the classroom (e.g., earning a grade) or in an organization (e.g., solving a client’s problem) can be supported by a collection of other individuals performing similar tasks and pursuing similar goals. When individuals in a CoP report high levels of meaning, involvement, identification, and belongingness to the community (Wenger, 1998) the individuals act “as resources to each other exchanging information, making sense of situations, sharing new tricks and new ideas, as well as keeping each other company and spicing up each other’s working days” (Wenger, 1998, p. 47). In this paper, we report the results of a study that identifies three factors (learning climate, leader support and leader interaction) that impact the development of a CoP. Specifically, among a sample of 94 undergraduate business students in two cohort groups participating in a year-long program, we found that meaning and involvement were related to leader interaction in a positive manner, identification was related to leader support and CoP climate in a positive manner, and belongingness was related to leader support and leader interaction in a positive manner. Implications are presented for practitioners and educators who wish to facilitate the development of a Community of Practice

    Factors Influencing Adopters and Non-Adopters of E-Textbooks

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    A trend in education is the use of electronic textbooks (e-textbook). A variety of research has examined the factors influencing the likelihood to purchase an e-textbook, from motivation to continuance. This research compares student adopters and non-adopters of e-textbook using a content analysis of comments to understand influencing factors. The data were collected via an online questionnaire by students at a medium-sized (USA) university. A total of 1,434 students responded with 758 adopters and 464 nonadopters providing written comments regarding the e-textbooks. The themes identified between the two groups were usability, type of class, accessibility, ownership, and learning impacts. Understanding the influencing factors of adoption from the adopter and the non-adopter are valuable to the future of e-textbook acceptance

    Methods Of Use Of An Online Economics Textbook

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    The rising cost of college textbooks over the last decade provides an opportunity for alternatives. Electronic or online textbooks are an effective substitute to the traditional paper-based textbooks, although students have been slow to transition to the new method. A custom, professor-written online textbook not only addresses the reduction in cost, but also creates a better connection to the material in the course and allows for frequent updates and error corrections. Issues related to reading an online textbook are explored and evidence of methods of student use of the text is provided

    Enabling Laptop Exams Using Secure Software: Applying the Technology Acceptance Model

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    The perceived ease of use and usefulness of secure software that enables laptop exams is examined. The technology acceptance model (TAM) is used to link faculty and administrative support with perceptions of ease of use and usefulness. Data for the empirical examination were collected by a survey of business students in a required laptop program. The quantitative technique uses a structural equation model. Results indicate that measures of faculty support impact both ease of use and perceived usefulness. In turn, attitudes toward using the system and degree of system use are influenced. Interestingly, technical support for the secure software had no meaningful impacts in the model. We draw upon the findings to describe specific actions by faculty that can improve student experience with laptop exams and identify other actions that appear to have no effect

    Using Technology To Provide An Online Economics Textbook

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    College textbook costs have risen in the last decade. The development and use of encyclopedic introductory textbooks creates higher monetary cost for students. One method to lower costs is a custom, professor-written online textbook. Issues related to reading an online textbook are explored and future research discussed

    Homeless street children in Nepal : use of allostatic load to assess the burden of childhood adversity.

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    As challenges to child well-being through economic disadvantage, family disruption, and migration or displacement escalate world wide, the need for cross-culturally robust understanding of childhood adversity proportionately increases. Toward this end, developmental risk was assessed in four contrasting groups of 107 Nepali children ages 10–14 years that represent distinctive, common conditions in which contemporary children grow up. Relative cumulative burden (allostatic load) indexed by multiple dimensions of physical and psychosocial stress was ascertained among homeless street boys and three family-based groups, from poor urban squatter settlements, urban middle class, and a remote rural village. Biomarkers of stress and vulnerability to stress included growth status, salivary cortisol, antibodies to Epstein–Barr virus, acute phase inflammatory responses (alpha1-antichymotrypsin), and cardiovascular fitness and reactivity (flex heart rate and pressor response). Individual biomarkers of risk and allostatic load differed markedly among groups, were highest in villagers, and varied by components of allostatic load. Such data suggest a need for critical appraisal of homelessness and migration as a risk factor to youth, given prevailing local conditions such as rural poverty, and represents the only multidimensional study of childhood allostatic load and developmental risk in non-Western settings

    Spring–summer net community production, new production, particle export and related water column biogeochemical processes in the marginal sea ice zone of the Western Antarctic Peninsula 2012–2014

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    New production (New P, the rate of net primary production (NPP) supported by exogenously supplied limiting nutrients) and net community production (NCP, gross primary production not consumed by community respiration) are closely related but mechanistically distinct processes. They set the carbon balance in the upper ocean and define an upper limit for export from the system. The relationships, relative magnitudes and variability of New P (from 15NO3– uptake), O2 : argon-based NCP and sinking particle export (based on the 238U : 234Th disequilibrium) are increasingly well documented but still not clearly understood. This is especially true in remote regions such as polar marginal ice zones. Here we present a 3-year dataset of simultaneous measurements made at approximately 50 stations along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) continental shelf in midsummer (January) 2012–2014. Net seasonal-scale changes in water column inventories (0–150 m) of nitrate and iodide were also estimated at the same stations. The average daily rates based on inventory changes exceeded the shorter-term rate measurements. A major uncertainty in the relative magnitude of the inventory estimates is specifying the start of the growing season following sea-ice retreat. New P and NCP(O2) did not differ significantly. New P and NCP(O2) were significantly greater than sinking particle export from thorium-234. We suggest this is a persistent and systematic imbalance and that other processes such as vertical mixing and advection of suspended particles are important export pathways
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