A Panel on Distance Education Best Practices: Innovation and Pedagogy

Online education has evolved throughout the years as new technologies are developed to make education more accessible. More traditional universities have also entered the virtual campus space, offering multiple options for students to earn their degree remotely. In a 2015 report conducted by the Online Learning Consortium, reflected more than one-quarter of all adult students were identified as e-learners. The type of learning management systems (LMS) used in the market has grown rapidly, with several post-secondary institutions creating their own patent LMS, eBooks and multimedia tools. Academies like Western Governors Universities are leading the charge with competency-based learning in all their degree programs while Colorado Technology University is pushing adaptive technology in their online curriculum. It is important to understand the progression and advancements in these technologies and the variety of academic methods used to deliver knowledge to improve the quality degree offerings. This panel will share best practices in online education instruction, curriculum development, student service and program marketing. The panel will conclude a University Dean, Department Chair, Program Director, Professor and a former online student

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Loss Averse Behavior

A behavioral condition of loss aversion is proposed and tested. Forty-nine students participated in experiments on binary choices among lotteries involving small scale real gains and losses. At the aggregate level, a significant proportion of the choices are in the direction predicted by loss aversion. Individuals can be classified as loss averse (28 participants), gain seeking (12), and unclassified (9). A comparison with risk behavior for binary choices on lotteries involving only gains shows that risk attitudes vary across these domains of lotteries. A gender effect is also observed: proportionally more women are loss averse. In contrast to the predictions of comonotonic independence, the size of common outcomes has systematic influence on choice behavior. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2005binary choice, comonotonic independence, gender effect, loss aversion, risk aversion,