A Seasonality Study of the West Virginia Stream Condition Index

The West Virginia Stream Condition Index (WVSCI) has not been rigorously tested for the effects of seasonal data collection. Scientific literature regarding seasonal impacts on biological indices is surprisingly limited. But most literature does agree that seasonal signals are small in comparison to variation between all possible biological conditions. Recently stream data have been collected from a full range of seasons by both West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and myself. In this study habitat, benthic macroinvertebrate data, and WVSCI values were analyzed for seasonality. For this reason multiple independent data sets were utilized. The analyses covered in this report include the use of box-and-whisker plots, correlation analysis and ANOVAs. Preliminary results indicate that seasonality does impact certain metrics under some seasonal conditions. Among the six metrics that make up the WVSCI, some seasonal signal was detected for EPT Taxa, % Chironomidae, Hilsenhoff Biotic Index, Total Taxa and the WVSCI Index scores. These signals were very inconsistent across multiple, independent data sets. Presently, there are no suggestions for any alterations of the WVSCI that would reduce seasonal signals

From Open Educational Resources to College Credit: The Approaches of Saylor Academy

Over the past decade great progress has been made in improving the availability of Open Educational Resources (OER). However, one area in which OER has been deficient is in its ability to lead to college or university credit, something that many users of OER may desire. This article describes the work done by the Saylor Academy in amalgamating OER in such a format that college credit is more easily attainable. We describe not only the theory behind what Saylor has done, but also provide details about the initial stages of their program implementation within specific accredited institutions

Cost-savings achieved in two semesters through the adoption of open educational resources

Textbooks represent a significant portion of the overall cost of higher education in the United States. The burden of these costs is typically shouldered by students, those who support them, and the taxpayers who fund the grants and student loans which pay for textbooks. Open educational resources (OER) provide students a way to receive high-quality learning materials at little or no cost to students. We report on the cost savings achieved by students at eight colleges when these colleges began utilizing OER in place of traditional commercial textbooks

The Motivational Factors of African American Men Enrolled at Selected Community Colleges

This manuscript is designed to call attention to the realities that are specific to African American male community college students. Using a qualitative research design, focus groups were conducted with 14 African American male students enrolled in an urban community college. This study uncovered that their educational experiences are consumed with personal challenges and academic obstacles. Students were asked to explain their motivation toward persistence at the urban community college. Participants within the study noted that motivational factors such as: (a) improving their life status, (b) societal pressure, (c) “man of the house,” and (d) faculty and staff encouragement, provided them with a sense of urgency to persist

Open Textbooks and Increased Student Access and Outcomes

This study reports findings from a year-long pilot study during which 991 students in 9 core courses in the Virginia State University School of Business replaced traditional textbooks with openly licensed books and other digital content. The university made a deliberate decision to use open textbooks that were copyrighted under the Creative Commons license. This decision was based on the accessibility and flexibility in the delivery of course content provided by open textbooks. More students accessed digital open textbooks than had previously purchased hard copies of textbooks. Higher grades were correlated with courses that used open textbooks

The Interaction of Open Educational Resources (OER) Use and Course Difficulty on Student Course Grades in a Community College

Students report that not being able to afford course materials has adverse academic consequences. It is possible that this would be more problematic in relatively more difficult courses. Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are openly licensed and often available at low or no cost to students. This study examined the interaction between OER use through a campus zero textbook cost (ZTC) initiative and course difficulty on student course grades from 35 different courses at a community college while controlling for student gender, previous grade point average, and Pell grant eligibility status. Although the main effect of increasing course difficulty is decreasing individual students’ grades, there was a significant interaction between OER use and course difficulty. Student grades in sections using OER declined at a lower rate compared to the decline in student grades in sections without OER use. The findings indicate that one particular context, course difficulty, may be important for understanding the efficacy of OER adoption

Academic Librarians Examination of University Students’ and Faculty’s Perceptions of Open Educational Resources

A survey of 2,574 students and 1,157 faculty members across ten institutions of postsecondary education in the state of Utah was conducted by the Utah Academic Libraries Consortium. Survey items were created to understand the influence of textbook costs on student academic behavior and the viability of faculty adopting open educational resources (OER) as a solution to the cost of textbooks and the possible need for librarian support of OER. Two-year and four-year institutions were compared to identify differences that might exist between them. Most students felt that their academic success was negatively impacted by textbook cost, particularly at two-year institutions where students registered for fewer courses because of associated textbook costs. Faculty survey findings showed that adjunct professors were more likely to require a traditionally copyright-restricted textbook. Approximately 90% of participants indicated they would be willing to use suitable OER for their course, and almost half of survey participants expressed a desire for help finding these resources

Observational constraints on the redshift evolution of X-ray scaling relations of galaxy clusters out to z ~ 1.5

A precise understanding of the relations between observable X-ray properties of galaxy clusters and cluster mass is a vital part of the application of X-ray galaxy cluster surveys to test cosmological models. An understanding of how these relations evolve with redshift is just emerging from a number of observational data sets. The current literature provides a diverse and inhomogeneous picture of scaling relation evolution. We attempt to transform these results and the data on recently discovered distant clusters into an updated and consistent framework, and provide an overall view of scaling relation evolution. We study in particular the M-T, L_X-T, and M-L_X relation combining 14 published data sets supplemented with recently published data of distant clusters and new results from follow-up observations of the XMM-Newton Distant Cluster Project (XDCP). We find that the evolution of the M-T relation is consistent with the self-similar prediction, while the evolution of X-ray luminosity for a given temperature and mass for a given X-ray luminosity is slower than predicted. Our best fit results for the evolution factor E(z)^alpha are alpha = -1.04+-0.07 for the M-T relation, alpha = -0.23+0.12-0.62 for the L-T relation, and alpha = -0.93+0.62-0.12 for the M-L_X relation. We find that selection biases are the most likely reason for apparent inconsistencies between different published data sets. The new results provide the currently most robust calibration of high-redshift cluster mass estimates based on X-ray luminosity and temperature and help us to improve the prediction of the number of clusters to be found in future galaxy cluster X-ray surveys, such as eROSITA. The comparison of evolution results with hydrodynamical cosmological simulations suggests that early preheating of the intracluster medium provides the most suitable scenario to explain the observed evolution.Comment: 24 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in A&