Social media for academic programs & departments

Social media for organizations, such as an academic department or a degree program, consist of a range of web-based applications that allow anyone to disseminate information to online communities. The principle reasons for creating a social media presence for an academic department or program include: (1) Create an online social community for current students; (2) Create an extended community of alumni and friends; and (3) Create an awareness of the department or program among potential students

What Motivates Student Environmental Activists on College Campuses? An In-Depth Qualitative Study

Public concern for the natural environment continues to grow as complex environmental problems emerge. One avenue where concern for the environment has been expressed is through activism. However, research on environmental activism, often aimed at understanding the motivations behind activist behavior, has largely focused on older adults. In this study, we extend the state of knowledge on environmental activism further by focusing on college students. We use qualitative methods (in-depth interviews and observations) to examine the motivations behind student involvement in environmental activism on a state university campus. Our findings underscore that young people’s activist motivations are not stand-alone phenomena; they work in tandem with other processes and factors in a dynamic way and are influenced by an individual’s history, previous experiences and passion, a sense of community, existing incentives, and self-satisfaction derived from activist behavior

Perspectives on modifiable spatiotemporal unit problems in remote sensing of agriculture: evaluating rice production in Vietnam and tools for analysis

Measuring agricultural productivity is a multiscale spatiotemporal problem that requires multiscale solutions. In Vietnam, rice comprises a substantial portion of the cultivated area and is a major export crop that supplies much of the global food system. Understanding the when and where of rice productivity is vital to addressing changes to yields and food security, yet descriptive summarizations will vary depending on the spatial or temporal scale of analysis. This paper explores rice trends across Vietnam over a 19-year period, giving specific attention to modifiable spatiotemporal unit problems by evaluating productivity across multiple time periods and administrative levels. A generalizable procedure and tools are offered for visualizing multiscale time-series remote sensing data in matrix and map form, not only to elucidate the effects of modifiable spatiotemporal unit problems, but also to demonstrate how these problems serve as a useful research framework. Remote sensing indices (e.g., LAI and EVI) were evaluated against national and provincial estimates across Vietnam during multiple crop production periods using the Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC) to establish a relationship. To overcome challenges posed by long-term observations masking emerging phenomena, time-series matrices and multi-spatial and multi-temporal maps were produced to show when, where, and how rice productivity across Vietnam is changing. Results showed that LAI and EVI are favorable indices for measuring rice agriculture in Vietnam. At the province scale, LAI compared to nationally reported production estimates reached a Pearson’s r of 0.960; 0.974 for EVI during the spring crop production period. For questions such as, “What portion of Vietnam exhibits a negative linear trend in rice production?”, the answer depends on how space and time are organized. At the province scale, 25.4% of Vietnam can be observed as exhibiting a negative linear trend; however, when viewed at the district scale, this metric rises to 45.7%. This research contributes to the discussion surrounding ontological problems of how agricultural productivity is measured and conveyed. To better confront how agriculture is assessed, adopting a multiscale framework can provide a more holistic view than the conventional single spatial or temporal selection