Using Student Narratives to Understand the Perceived Impact of First-Year Seminar Participation

The purpose of this multi-campus study was to determine how participating in a first-year seminar impacts students during the first semester of college. In the years since the first credit-bearing first-year seminar was offered at Reed College in 1911 (Gordon & Grites, 1984), many campuses have created seminars that address a variety of subject matter and meet the needs of an institution and its students. The customized nature of contemporary seminars has caused much of the course assessment and research to focus on measuring the impact of these institution-specific courses on retention (Porter & Swing, 2006). Qualitative methods were used in this study to identify additional ways first-year seminar participation influences the early college experience of students enrolled in the course. The study found that participating in a first-year seminar contributed to students' feelings of confidence in academic skills and abilities, as well as the connections they developed with their peers and seminar instructor. Several aspects of the first-year seminars in this study, including the content and ways in which the course was taught, were found to contribute to the perceptions of the participants

Applying TLC (a Targeted Learning Community) to Transform Teaching and Learning in Science

This article describes the development of a Targeted Learning Community (TLC) that supports first-year science students enrolled in a General Chemistry course. Drawing on student feedback and knowledge and expertise in their respective disciplines, four faculty members from two colleges at Kennesaw State University came together to develop a learning community that would prevent early attrition in the science majors and increase student metacognition. In this paper, the design of the TLC is presented, and the effect it had on faculty vitality is discussed. Ruth A. Goldfine is Chair of the Department of First-Year and Transition Studies at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, GA. Hillary H. Steiner (Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology) and Stephanie M. Foote (Associate Professor of Education and Director of the Master of Science in First Year Studies) are also members of the Department of First-Year and Transition Studies at Kennesaw State University. Michelle L. Dean is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Kennesaw State University

Learning to Leap

This article describes the effect of participation in experiential activities in a first-year seminar on students’ perceptions of self-esteem and academic performance in their first semester at Kennesaw State University. Findings suggest that student participants had greater levels of self-esteem and achieved higher grade point averages than their peers who were in first-year seminars that were not experientially oriented. The article concludes with strategies for instructors to use to purposefully incorporate experiential learning into a first-year seminar

Local diversity in settlement, demography and subsistence across the southern Indian Neolithic-Iron Age transition: site growth and abandonment at Sanganakallu-Kupgal

The Southern Indian Neolithic-Iron Age transition demonstrates considerable regional variability in settlement location, density, and size. While researchers have shown that the region around the Tungabhadra and Krishna River basins displays significant subsistence and demographic continuity, and intensification, from the Neolithic into the Iron Age ca. 1200 cal. BC, archaeological and chronometric records in the Sanganakallu region point to hilltop village expansion during the Late Neolithic and ‘Megalithic’ transition period (ca. 1400–1200 cal. BC) prior to apparent abandonment ca. 1200 cal. BC, with little evidence for the introduction of iron technology into the region. We suggest that the difference in these settlement histories is a result of differential access to stable water resources during a period of weakening and fluctuating monsoon across a generally arid landscape. Here, we describe well-dated, integrated chronological, archaeobotanical, archaeozoological and archaeological survey datasets from the Sanganakallu-Kupgal site complex that together demonstrate an intensification of settlement, subsistence and craft production on local hilltops prior to almost complete abandonment ca. 1200 cal. BC. Although the southern Deccan region as a whole may have witnessed demographic increase, as well as subsistence and cultural continuity, at this time, this broader pattern of continuity and resilience is punctuated by local examples of abandonment and mobility driven by an increasing practical and political concern with water

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study

: High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNet® convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, high-quality X-ray crystal structures, or manual cherry-picking of compounds. We show that the molecules selected by the AtomNet® model are novel drug-like scaffolds rather than minor modifications to known bioactive compounds. Our empirical results suggest that computational methods can substantially replace HTS as the first step of small-molecule drug discovery

Adopting a framework to support the process of critical reflection and understanding of online engagement

Extensive literature within the learning sciences addresses the phenomenon of online engagement and strategies that support online learning. However, for academics, there is limited guidance to support them in the processes of reflecting on efforts to facilitate online learner engagement and, ultimately, to use those reflections to redesign approaches to teaching and learning. This paper reports on findings from an international case study that involved a group of interdisciplinary academics engaged in a process of critical reflection, which aimed to increase their understanding of the ways in which online engagement is supported in higher education. Findings from the current study suggested that reference to an online engagement framework heightens the effectiveness of critical reflection by elucidating an awareness of learning about ways of supporting student learning and online engagement to improve student success. The paper offers implications related to reflection on and of practice

Adopting a framework to support the process of critical reflection and understanding of online engagement

Extensive literature within the learning sciences addresses the phenomenon of online engagement and strategies that support online learning. However, for academics, there is limited guidance to support them in the processes of reflecting on efforts to facilitate online learner engagement and, ultimately, to use those reflections to redesign approaches to teaching and learning. This paper reports on findings from an international case study that involved a group of interdisciplinary academics engaged in a process of critical reflection, which aimed to increase their understanding of the ways in which online engagement is supported in higher education. Findings from the current study suggested that reference to an online engagement framework heightens the effectiveness of critical reflection by elucidating an awareness of learning about ways of supporting student learning and online engagement to improve student success. The paper offers implications related to reflection on and of practice