Student Engagement: An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Implementing Mandatory Web-Based Learning Systems

Student engagement has, and will continue to be, a key desire for educators. However, some policies that are aimed at increasing engagement may actually have the opposite effect. This study of 98 students investigates one mandatory policy to use a web-based learning system and presents the level of student engagement compared to other classes where the learning system was not used. Results show that students that were required to use the web-based material had lower engagement, thus providing evidence that participation is not synonymous with engagement. Implications for practice and research are proposed

The Effects of Innovative Shotgun Shooting Methods on Collegiate Shotgun Shooters

Sporting activities are classified according to movement demands and can be categorized as either dynamic or static actions. Many events exist within the discipline of “shooting sports”, and dynamic and static demands vary drastically among those events. However, consideration for differences in movement demands is frequently disregarded in shooting sports; common practice protocol encourages shooters to utilize static shooting techniques for all shooting sport events. In particular, shooting techniques for shotgun shooting, a dynamic sporting event, regularly align with rifle shooting (static activity) methods. Innovative dynamic shotgun shooting techniques have recently been developed, however, no previous studies have examined the outcomes of employing these dynamic techniques. Therefore, the current research investigated the effects of innovative shotgun shooting methods on collegiate shotgun shooters (n=38). Pre and post trap and skeet scores were collected at a certified International Shooting Sport Federation and USA Shooting competition field. Upon completion of pre-test shooting, subjects participated in an Optimum Shooting Performance (OSP) intervention that outlined innovative dynamic shooting and practice techniques. Post-test shooting scores were collected after 2-weeks of OSP practice. A paired sample t test identified statistically significant improvements for trap shooting scores (t[32] = 2.82, p = .008, 95% CI [0.431, 2.660], d = .49), skeet shooting scores (t[32] = 2.59, p = .01, 95% CI [0.436, 3.625], d = .45), and total shooting (sum score of trap and skeet tests) scores (t[32] = 3.37, p = .002, 95% CI [1.417, 5.734], d = .59). These results suggest that learning and utilizing the OSP methods significantly increased the shooting performance of college shotgun shooters

Increasing Knowledge by Leaps and Bounds: Using Experiential Learning to Address Threshold Concepts

The discussion of threshold concepts is growing in the management education literature. These concepts create challenges for students and instructors since they act as barriers to learning. The reward for overcoming these obstacles is the opening of new ways of thinking that were not available before the student mastered the threshold concepts. We propose in this article that many students believe business education is “common sense” and do not understand that management is practice informed by theory. When students master the threshold concept concerning the “underlying game” of management, they begin to develop deeper and more meaningful understandings. From this perspective we demonstrate how we have used experiential exercises in an operations management class to facilitate active, social, and creative learning that exposes this threshold concept and moves the student through the preliminal, liminal, and postliminal stages of threshold concept mastery

Administrative Withdrawal Policies: ‘Good’ Policies or ‘Bad’ Ethics

Many universities have adopted Administrative Withdrawal Policies that allow administrators to remove students from classes without the student’s permission. These policies potentially protect students but also provide a means of artificially improving key funding metrics. This study uses Agency Theory to examine over 1,100 Division I, II, and III U.S. universities and compares the usage of Administrative Withdrawal Policies to state and federal funding. Results show Division II schools receiving less state funding have adopted these policies at a higher rate than Division II schools receiving more. Recommendations for future use of these policies is provided

Expressions 1983

The 1983 edition of Expressions magazine is the result of the efforts of students from several DMACC programs. Entrants in both the annual Creative Writing Contest and the Campus Chronicle Photography Contest as well as student in the commercial art program contributed material to the magazine. Layout, design and typesetting was done by the summer Publications Production class.https://openspace.dmacc.edu/expressions/1005/thumbnail.jp

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Combined measurement of differential and total cross sections in the H → γγ and the H → ZZ* → 4ℓ decay channels at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A combined measurement of differential and inclusive total cross sections of Higgs boson production is performed using 36.1 fb−1 of 13 TeV proton–proton collision data produced by the LHC and recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016. Cross sections are obtained from measured H→γγ and H→ZZ*(→4ℓ event yields, which are combined taking into account detector efficiencies, resolution, acceptances and branching fractions. The total Higgs boson production cross section is measured to be 57.0−5.9 +6.0 (stat.) −3.3 +4.0 (syst.) pb, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction. Differential cross-section measurements are presented for the Higgs boson transverse momentum distribution, Higgs boson rapidity, number of jets produced together with the Higgs boson, and the transverse momentum of the leading jet. The results from the two decay channels are found to be compatible, and their combination agrees with the Standard Model predictions

Search for High-Mass Resonances Decaying to τν in pp Collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector

A search for high-mass resonances decaying to τν using proton-proton collisions at √s=13 TeV produced by the Large Hadron Collider is presented. Only τ-lepton decays with hadrons in the final state are considered. The data were recorded with the ATLAS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1. No statistically significant excess above the standard model expectation is observed; model-independent upper limits are set on the visible τν production cross section. Heavy W′ bosons with masses less than 3.7 TeV in the sequential standard model and masses less than 2.2–3.8 TeV depending on the coupling in the nonuniversal G(221) model are excluded at the 95% credibility level

Search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with tau leptons in √s=13 TeV collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with at least two hadronically decaying tau leptons is presented. The analysis uses a dataset of pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV.Nosignificant deviation from the expected Standard Model background is observed. Limits are derived in scenarios of ˜χ+1 ˜χ−1 pair production and of ˜χ±1 ˜χ02 and ˜χ+1 ˜χ−1 production in simplified models where the neutralinos and charginos decay solely via intermediate left-handed staus and tau sneutrinos, and the mass of the ˜ τL state is set to be halfway between the masses of the ˜χ±1 and the ˜χ01. Chargino masses up to 630 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level in the scenario of direct production of ˜χ+1 ˜χ−1 for a massless ˜χ01. Common ˜χ±1 and ˜χ02 masses up to 760 GeV are excluded in the case of production of ˜χ±1 ˜χ02 and ˜χ+1 ˜χ−1 assuming a massless ˜χ01. Exclusion limits for additional benchmark scenarios with large and small mass-splitting between the ˜χ±1 and the ˜χ01 are also studied by varying the ˜ τL mass between the masses of the ˜χ±1 and the ˜χ01

Measurement of jet fragmentation in Pb+Pb and pp collisions at √s NN =5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents a measurement of jet fragmentation functions in 0.49 nb −1 of Pb+Pb collisions and 25 pb −1 of pp collisions at √ sNN =5.02 TeV collected in 2015 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. These measurements provide insight into the jet quenching process in the quark-gluon plasma created in the aftermath of ultra-relativistic collisions between two nuclei. The modifications to the jet fragmentation functions are quantified by dividing the measurements in Pb+Pb collisions by baseline measurements in pp collisions. This ratio is studied as a function of the transverse momentum of the jet, the jet rapidity, and the centrality of the collision. In both collision systems, the jet fragmentation functions are measured for jets with transverse momentum between 126 GeV and 398 GeV and with an absolute value of jet rapidity less than 2.1. An enhancement of particles carrying a small fraction of the jet momentum is observed, which increases with centrality and with increasing jet transverse momentum. Yields of particles carrying a very large fraction of the jet momentum are also observed to be enhanced. Between these two enhancements of the fragmentation functions a suppression of particles carrying an intermediate fraction of the jet momentum is observed in Pb+Pb collisions. A small dependence of the modifications on jet rapidity is observed