Motivational Factors of Communication Center Tutors

Student motivation has been researched from a variety of viewpoints such as that of student motivation and in the classroom, student motivation and learning, and student motivation and teacher immediacy. This study looks at the motivational factors of communication center tutors (n = 165) across the United States to determine what motivates them to continue to work at their center and how those in supervisory positions can also motivate. Tutors represented a variety of colleges and universities from midsize, and minority-serving institutions to small, private colleges. The study found that the top three motivational factors for communication center tutors are: (1) helping others; (2) resume opportunities; and (3) community. The study also found that supervisors can motivate student tutors by: (1) giving verbal praise: (2) offering food; and (3) writing notes. The data reveals that communication center tutors are motivated by a variety of factors and those in supervisorial roles can incorporate different strategies to further motivate their staff to create an advantageous work environment for all.

Could medieval medicine help the fight against antimicrobial resistance?

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, combined with a severely stalled discovery pipeline for new antibiotics being developed, has the potential to undo the advances in infection control achieved in the last century. One way around this impasse might be to re-explore the medicinal practices of the medieval world. Why? This is because although the medieval world was ignorant of so much of modern theory, it seems that centuries of practice by medieval doctors could have produced some treatments for infections that were effective. These could contain antimicrobial compounds suitable for development into antibiotics. Our interdisciplinary team, initially based at the University of Nottingham, tested an eyesalve described in the tenth century Anglo-Saxon ‘Bald’s Leechbook’ with startling results. By following the recipe as closely as possible, we created a cocktail that can kill one of the most common causes of eye infections, the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. More significantly, Bald’s eyesalve can kill a range of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This chapter details our team’s initial findings and places them in the context of an interdisciplinary analysis of how medieval doctors used the materia medica available to them. We present novel results confirming the reliability of Bald’s eyesalve as an anti-Staphylococcal agent. Further, we demonstrate the potential of ‘big data’ approaches to turn medical texts into predictive databases for selecting natural materials for antibiotic testing. Finally, we present our work as an example of how interdisciplinary dialogue can significantly advance scholarship

Data Mining a Medieval Medical Text Reveals Patterns in Ingredient Choice That Reflect Biological Activity against Infectious Agents

We used established methodologies from network science to identify patterns in medicinal ingredient combinations in a key medieval text, the 15th-century Lylye of Medicynes, focusing on recipes for topical treatments for symptoms of microbial infection. We conducted experiments screening the antimicrobial activity of selected ingredients. These experiments revealed interesting examples of ingredients that potentiated or interfered with each other’s activity and that would be useful bases for future, more detailed experiments. Our results highlight (i) the potential to use methodologies from network science to analyze medieval data sets and detect patterns of ingredient combination, (ii) the potential of interdisciplinary collaboration to reveal different aspects of the ethnopharmacology of historical medical texts, and (iii) the potential development of novel therapeutics inspired by premodern remedies in a time of increased need for new antibiotics.The pharmacopeia used by physicians and laypeople in medieval Europe has largely been dismissed as placebo or superstition. While we now recognize that some of the materia medica used by medieval physicians could have had useful biological properties, research in this area is limited by the labor-intensive process of searching and interpreting historical medical texts. Here, we demonstrate the potential power of turning medieval medical texts into contextualized electronic databases amenable to exploration by the use of an algorithm. We used established methodologies from network science to reveal patterns in ingredient selection and usage in a key text, the 15th-century Lylye of Medicynes, focusing on remedies to treat symptoms of microbial infection. In providing a worked example of data-driven textual analysis, we demonstrate the potential of this approach to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and to shine a new light on the ethnopharmacology of historical medical texts

Enhancing Conversations with English Language Learners in Communication Centers

Communication centers often focus on supporting students’ communicative competencies in public speaking but some centers have expanded this focus to include support for English language learners (ELLs). Armed with research on the value of conversation in language acquisition, the University Speaking Center has incorporated peer consulting of ELLs, known as conversation consultations, into its offered services and evolved over time through a collaborative process with student staff, English language instructors, and ELLs in efforts to be both effective and responsive to those who we seek to support. The motivation to support speakers in their ongoing process of becoming more confident and competent oral communicators has allowed for the development of a multifaceted model of service for ELLs at each level of language acquisition

Let’s Talk: Learning to Communicate Well in Emergency Online Learning

In this article, we use the lens of Tinto’s (1987) separation and transition phases to reflect on lessons learned when moving classes with oral communication components from in-person to online. We believe that being mindful and intentional in how we include oral communication instruction, opportunities for improvement, and incorporating feedback can positively impact retention and persistence of students. First, we describe the timelines of events, then we connect Tinto’s essential features of effective retention programs to oral communication pedagogy, and finally offer resources and strategies for incorporating oral communication into courses

Communicating nanoscience and the communication center: An INNOVATE case study

Communication Centers are well positioned to support communicating science efforts across campus. This manuscript, written by faculty who designed and facilitated a potpourri of support for nanoscience during the 2017-18 academic year, provides a detailed place to start for those who will take on this work at other institutions

A case study of the Ancientbiotics collaboration

Collaborations that cross traditional boundaries between disciplines in STEM and the arts and humanities open up exciting research possibilities. In our team’s case, we combined expertise in historical manuscripts, data science, and microbiology to explore the structure and potential efficacy of historical medical recipes. Such an approach can highlight patterns or questions that a single-disciplinary approach is likely to miss. But learning to speak each other’s disciplinary languages is not always easy, and misunderstandings can impede work. Here, we present our own experiences as a case study of how we have learned from each other to ask new questions of our source material and the problems we have had to solve along the way

Returning home: heritage work among the Stl'atl'imx of the Lower Lillooet River Valley

This article focusses on heritage practices in the tensioned landscape of the Stl’atl’imx (pronounced Stat-lee-um) people of the Lower Lillooet River Valley, British Columbia, Canada. Displaced from their traditional territories and cultural traditions through the colonial encounter, they are enacting, challenging and remaking their heritage as part of their long term goal to reclaim their land and return ‘home’. I draw on three examples of their heritage work: graveyard cleaning, the shifting ‘official’/‘unofficial’ heritage of a wagon road, and marshalling of the mountain named Nsvq’ts (pronounced In-SHUCK-ch) in order to illustrate how the past is strategically mobilised in order to substantiate positions in the present. While this paper focusses on heritage in an Indigenous and postcolonial context, I contend that the dynamics of heritage practices outlined here are applicable to all heritage practices

Catering to customers or cultivating communicators? Divergent educational roles of communication centers

To remain sustainable in an atmosphere of shrinking budgets and curricular retrenchment, oral communication instruction via communication centers on college and university campuses must satisfy several constituencies. How can communication centers meet stakeholder interests driven by different paradigms of higher education? This study examines how student clients (n = 29) and peer consultants/tutors (n = 11) characterize their educational experiences at communication centers in responses to open-ended surveys. Thematic analysis using grounded theory reveals two divergent perceptual frameworks: a transactional paradigm geared to pleasing consumers and a transformational paradigm oriented to persona development and self-sufficiency. Reconciliation of these potentially conflicting perspectives may enable communication centers to meld effective instruction with efficient service

Understanding the contribution of metabolism to Mycobacterium tuberculosis drug tolerance

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