Leveraging Engagement Through Diversity

Through dialogue and interaction, members begin to characterize their world. They may see it as malleable or fixed, filled with opportunities or threats. As with external adaptation, there are important issues. These include a series of membership issues: Who is a group member, what behavior is acceptable, who is a friend

Growth and Development in Lady Beetles

Living in a group can potentially put stress on an animal. This is particularly true for species like Hippodamia convergens, the convergent lady beetle, the larvae of which will cannibalize each other when food sources are limited. This can raise the question of whether or not living in a group affects the growth and development of an individual, and how the growth rate might differ for an individual who is raised alone. This experiment attempts to answer that question by comparing 12 colonies of lady beetles, some of which were reared in groups, some reared alone, and recording the pupation lengths. The hypothesis was that the individuals raised alone would grow and pupate faster than the groups, because they would not have to compete for space or resources. It was ultimately found that while pupation and hatch dates for individual lady beetles were far more variable, there were no large differences in the average length of pupation between groups and individuals

Social Networks in Higher Education: A Study of the Relationship of Social Structural and Proximity Factors to Teacher Credibility and Perceived Quality of Academic Life

As Berge (1998) tells us, learning is a lifelong process that is important to effective participation in cultural and economic life in a democratic society. In their research on cultural issues in distance education, Enoch and Soker (2006) note one of the major concerns of modern societies today is to ensure increased access to higher education, and to include members of formerly under-represented social groups and categories, such as ethnic and racial minorities, women and people who live in distant rural or disadvantaged areas or who have to combine their studies with full-time or part-time jobs. Building on the work of Enoch and Soker, this paper looks at race, gender, age, course lcoation and job status and their relationship to teacher credibility and perceived quality of academic life. The data for this study was provided by students attending a community college located in a metropolitan area of the Midwest

Connecting Organizational Learning Strategies to Organizational Resilience

Purpose: The objective of this study is to analyze the conceptual and domain overlap of organizational learning and organizational resilience; specifically, the adaptation or renewal domain in organizational resilience. From the findings, strategies to foster collective learning leading to organizational resilience are identified and outlined

Effects of Group Living on Pupation in a Lady Beetle

To further understand the lives and development habits of insects, we must know how they influence each other through pupation periods. This will ultimately help us understand how interactive insects are throughout their life. To answer this question, we tested the pupation rates of Hippodamia convergens in groups and alone. This will help us delineate the advantages or disadvantages of the organism in groups versus singular pupation. We hypothesized that the Lady Beetles reared alone will develop faster and have a higher growth rate than those reared in groups. During the experiment, the subjects engaged in cannibalism which could have affected our results. Cannibalism occurs when food in the environment is scarce, and although the Lady Beetles were fed, the amounts that were given may not have been proper for their size nor consistent with each group member. At the end of this experiment we saw that the specimens reared in groups pupated more consistently than those reared alone. We assume that the reason Lady Beetles in groups pupated more consistently is because of the stressors in their environment, while the ones alone did not have any stressors. These conclusions may be important because it will help us determine the factors that influence pupation before and during the process in relation to other species of insects

A Field Study: The Business Of Engaging Higher Education Adjunct Faculty

Competition among higher educational institutions has increased especially among public and private institutions; this is exacerbated by demographic changes whereby the number of high school graduates continues to decrease. Additionally, colleges and universities face daunting competition challenges retaining students; therefore, they are reexamining their long-established business models. As a result, to offset costs, higher education institutions continue to increase the hiring of adjunct faculty. Currently, adjunct instructors account for more than half of all faculty appointments and that number is expected to increase. To amplify the situation, college and university accreditation organizations are requiring student retention and faculty work engagement as part of the effectiveness and accreditation process. Customarily, compared to full-time faculty, adjunct faculty are less engaged with their work as effective coaches and mentors for students outside the classroom. Thus, a quantitative study using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale questionnaire sought adjunct faculty feedback in terms of engagement with their work for academic and student success and how the results could be used to increase this engagement

A Field Study: The Business Of Engaging Higher Education Adjunct Faculty

Competition among higher educational institutions has increased especially among public and private institutions; this is exacerbated by demographic changes whereby the number of high school graduates continues to decrease. Additionally, colleges and universities face daunting competition challenges retaining students; therefore, they are reexamining their long-established business models. As a result, to offset costs, higher education institutions continue to increase the hiring of adjunct faculty. Currently, adjunct instructors account for more than half of all faculty appointments and that number is expected to increase. To amplify the situation, college and university accreditation organizations are requiring student retention and faculty work engagement as part of the effectiveness and accreditation process. Customarily, compared to full-time faculty, adjunct faculty are less engaged with their work as effective coaches and mentors for students outside the classroom. Thus, a quantitative study using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale questionnaire sought adjunct faculty feedback in terms of engagement with their work for academic and student success and how the results could be used to increase this engagement

Connecting Organizational Learning Strategies to Organizational Resilience

The objective of this study is to analyze the conceptual and domain overlap of organizational learning and organizational resilience; specifically, the adaptation or renewal domain in organizational resilience. From the findings, strategies to foster collective learning leading to organizational resilience are identified and outlined

Diversity and the Future of Work: Examining the Future Workplace Through a Generational Lens

Talent management is a critical consideration for organizations in the increasingly uncertain and competitive business environment Human Resource Management is critical to the success of any organization operating in the current service and knowledge economies Ignoring generational differences can lead to an ineffective organizatio

Student Engagement: A Study of the Relationship between Teacher Credibility and Student Self-Efficacy

Given the current economic and subsequent employment uncertainty, people are returning to college to update their skills and acquire the credentials they need to be competitive in today\u27s workforce. As a result, faculty must be prepared to facilitate the learning process for an ever-changing and more diverse student body. The purpose of this research is to further the extant body of research in the area of effective student engagement. The variables being used to represent credibility are competence, goodwill and trustworthiness. They were measured using McCroskey and Teven\u27s (1999) Source Credibility Questionnaire. The data for this study were provided by students attending a community college located in the metropolitan area of a Midwestern city. Using competence, trustworthiness and goodwill as the antecedents to represent instructor credibility, this research tests the relationship between instructor credibility and student self-efficacy. Conducting a study of this type will provide faculty and administrators looking for new approaches to teacher leadership with data to help them enhance student engagement and increase their rate of persistence to graduation