E-Learning Works - Exactly How Well Depends on its Unique Features and Barriers

Key Findings: E-learning is comparable to traditional teacher-led classroom instruction in terms of effectiveness. E-learning has specific features that may influence learning: content, immersion, interactivity, and communication. Barriers to e-learning adoption include fraud and cheating, digital divides and their impact on low income and underprepared students, and cost issues

E-Learning in Postsecondary Education

Over the past decade postsecondary education has been moving increasingly from the class room to online. During the fall 2010 term 31 percent of U.S. college students took at least one online course. The primary reasons for the growth of e-learning in the nation\u27s colleges and universities include the desire of those institutions to generate new revenue streams, improve access, and offer students greater scheduling flexibility. Yet the growth of e-learning has been accompanied by a continuing debate about its effectiveness and by the recognition that a number of barriers impede its widespread adoption in higher education

Self-Assessments of Knowledge: Where Do We Go From Here?

[Excerpt] In this paper, we argue that there remain several unanswered questions surrounding self-assessments of knowledge that must be addressed before we can reach a more definitive conclusion on the viability of these measures. The answers to these questions may provide further evidence that self-assessments should not be used as an indicator of learning or they may serve to qualify the conditions under which self-assessments can be used with reasonable confidence. In either case, addressing these issues is critical if work in this area is to influence how researchers and practitioners evaluate trainees’ learning

Detection of the 13CO(J=6-5) Transition in the Starburst Galaxy NGC 253

We report the detection of 13CO(J=6-5) emission from the nucleus of the starburst galaxy NGC 253 with the redshift (z) and Early Universe Spectrometer (ZEUS), a new submillimeter grating spectrometer. This is the first extragalactic detection of the 13CO(J=6-5) transition, which traces warm, dense molecular gas. We employ a multi-line LVG analysis and find ~ 35% - 60% of the molecular ISM is both warm (T ~ 110 K) and dense (n(H2) ~ 10^4 cm^-3). We analyze the potential heat sources, and conclude that UV and X-ray photons are unlikely to be energetically important. Instead, the molecular gas is most likely heated by an elevated density of cosmic rays or by the decay of supersonic turbulence through shocks. If the cosmic rays and turbulence are created by stellar feedback within the starburst, then our analysis suggests the starburst may be self-limiting.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted by ApJ Letter

ILR Impact Brief - Knowledge, Skills, and Performance: Getting the Most From Team Training

Teams are an integral feature of the American workplace; indeed, more than 80% of the Fortune 500 companies make extensive use of work teams. Action teams, pulled together to carry out a particular time-limited function that requires the specialized expertise of its members, are becoming increasingly common. Researchers have noted that the success of these teams is often thwarted by their lack of information about teamwork in general and their insufficient mastery of basic team competencies. Most organizations train team members for the particular job at hand, so the question arises as to the utility of generic team training. In other words, would imparting knowledge and skills that could be applied in, and adapted to, any number of situations improve outcomes, and if so, what is the mechanism that facilitates this result

The Impact of Task- and Team-Generic Teamwork Skills Training on Team Effectiveness

This study examined the effects of training team members in three task- and teamgeneric teamwork skills: planning and task coordination, collaborative problem solving, and communication. We first examined the degree to which task- and team-generic teamwork skills training impacted team performance on a task unrelated to the content of the training program.We then examined whether the effects of task- and team-generic teamwork skills training on team performance were due to the transfer of skills directly related to planning and task coordination, collaborative problem solving, and communication. Results from 65 four-person project teams indicated that task- and team-generic teamwork skills training led to significantly higher levels of team performance. Results also indicated that the effects of task- and teamgeneric teamwork skills training on team performance were mediated by planning and task coordination and collaborative problem solving behavior. Although communication was positively affected by the task- and team-generic teamwork skills training, it did not mediate the relationship between task- and team-generic teamwork skills training and team performance.Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed, as well as possible limitations and directions for future research

Simplicity versus complexity in modelling groundwater recharge in Chalk catchments

Models of varying complexity are available to provide estimates of recharge in headwater Chalk catchments. Some measure of how estimates vary between different models can help guide the choice of model for a particular application. This paper compares recharge estimates derived from four models employing input data at varying spatial resolutions for a Chalk headwater catchment (River Pang, UK) over a four-year period (1992-1995) that includes a range of climatic conditions. One model was validated against river flow data to provide a measure of their relative performance. Each model gave similar total recharge for the crucial winter recharge period when evaporation is low. However, the simple models produced relatively lower estimates of the summer and early autumn recharge due to the way in which processes governing recharge especially evaporation and infiltration are represented. The relative uniformity of land use, soil types and rainfall across headwater, drift-free Chalk catchments suggests that complex, distributed models offer limited benefits for recharge estimates at the catchment scale compared to simple models. Nonetheless, distributed models would be justified for studies where the pattern and amount of recharge need to be known in greater detail and to provide more reliable estimates of recharge during years with low rainfall.</p> <p style='line-height: 20px;'><b>Keywords:</b> Chalk, modelling, groundwater recharge</p

Acute alcohol administration dampens central extended amygdala reactivity.

Alcohol use is common, imposes a staggering burden on public health, and often resists treatment. The central extended amygdala (EAc)-including the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST) and the central nucleus of the amygdala (Ce)-plays a key role in prominent neuroscientific models of alcohol drinking, but the relevance of these regions to acute alcohol consumption in humans remains poorly understood. Using a single-blind, randomized-groups design, multiband fMRI data were acquired from 49 social drinkers while they performed a well-established emotional faces paradigm after consuming either alcohol or placebo. Relative to placebo, alcohol significantly dampened reactivity to emotional faces in the BST. To rigorously assess potential regional differences in activation, data were extracted from unbiased, anatomically predefined regions of interest. Analyses revealed similar levels of dampening in the BST and Ce. In short, alcohol transiently reduces reactivity to emotional faces and it does so similarly across the two major divisions of the human EAc. These observations reinforce the translational relevance of addiction models derived from preclinical work in rodents and provide new insights into the neural systems most relevant to the consumption of alcohol and to the initial development of alcohol abuse in humans

Influence of Nonbonded Interactions on Molecular Geometry and Energy: Calculations for Hydrocarbons Based on Urey—Bradley Field

A modified Urey—Bradley potential energy function comprised of quadratic terms for bond stretches, bond‐angle bends, and torsional displacements together with analytical expressions for pairwise nonbonded interactions was chosen to represent the force field for hydrocarbon molecules. Quadratic constants were taken from the spectroscopic U☒B analyses of Schachtschneider and Snyder [Spectrochim. Acta 19, 117 (1963)], while the nonbonded functions adopted were those proposed by Bartell [J. Chem. Phys. 32, 827 (1960)]. Reference bond angles for the quadratic terms were taken to be 109.5° or 120° for tetrahedral or trigonal coordination, respectively. Reference single‐bond lengths and the torsional constant were adjusted to fit the experimental data for CH4 and C2H6. Double bonds and ring bonds in cyclopropyl compounds were considered to be rigid. The above selections served to establish a universal model force field for hydrocarbons with no remaining adjustable parameters. The potential energy functions for a variety of saturated hydrocarbons and several olefins and cyclopropyl derivatives were minimized with respect to independent structure parameters (i.e., bond stretches, bends, and internal rotations). Even though all C☒H (and C☒C) bonds were input to be identical to those in CH4 (and C2H6) except for nonbonded environment, the bond lengths and angles corresponding to the minimum potential energy exhibited an appreciable variation from molecule to molecule, as did also the strain energies of geometric and rotational isomers. Calculated trends in structures, isomerization energies, and barriers to rotation agreed quite well with experimentally observed trends, provided that experimental isomerization energies were corrected to 0°K and zero‐point energies were taken into account. Some novel features of the results and applications of the model for predicting deformations in strained systems are discussed. The present study differs from previous work in the area of ``molecular mechanics'' in the use of a more general force field, in allowing the strained molecules to relax in all degrees of freedom (except for unsaturated groups and cyclopropyl rings), in the selection of molecular systems, and in a detailed comparison with experiment.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70433/2/JCPSA6-47-10-3736-1.pd

Formation of the oxygen torus in the inner magnetosphere: Van Allen Probes observations

We study the formation process of an oxygen torus during the 12–15 November 2012 magnetic storm, using the magnetic field and plasma wave data obtained by Van Allen Probes. We estimate the local plasma mass density (ρL) and the local electron number density (neL) from the resonant frequencies of standing Alfvén waves and the upper hybrid resonance band. The average ion mass (M) can be calculated by M ∼ ρL/neL under the assumption of quasi-neutrality of plasma. During the storm recovery phase, both Probe A and Probe B observe the oxygen torus at L = 3.0–4.0 and L = 3.7–4.5, respectively, on the morning side. The oxygen torus has M = 4.5–8 amu and extends around the plasmapause that is identified at L∼3.2–3.9. We find that during the initial phase, M is 4–7 amu throughout the plasma trough and remains at ∼1 amu in the plasmasphere, implying that ionospheric O+ ions are supplied into the inner magnetosphere already in the initial phase of the magnetic storm. Numerical calculation under a decrease of the convection electric field reveals that some of thermal O+ ions distributed throughout the plasma trough are trapped within the expanded plasmasphere, whereas some of them drift around the plasmapause on the dawnside. This creates the oxygen torus spreading near the plasmapause, which is consistent with the Van Allen Probes observations. We conclude that the oxygen torus identified in this study favors the formation scenario of supplying O+ in the inner magnetosphere during the initial phase and subsequent drift during the recovery phase