Factors affecting student loan default: Nevada System of Higher Education

Nevada\u27s rate of default on college loans is among the highest in the nation. At the time of this study, there were no research studies on defaulters in the state of Nevada. The present study was designed for initial exploration regarding the relationship between various kinds of student factors and default rates from institutions at the Nevada System of Higher Education. The purpose of this exploratory study was to gain a better understanding of default in Nevada. To gain a better understanding of student loan default in Nevada, the following questions were considered: (1) What is the relationship between age, ethnicity, gender, residency, graduation rate, and degree major and loan default rates? (2) To what extent does that relationship differ between Nevada System of Higher Education institutions? To answer these questions, secondary data was collected from the Division of Default Prevention and Management at the United States Department of Education and the Department of Institutional Research at the Nevada System of Higher Education. Since this study aimed at learning about relationships between several independent variables and a dependent variable, a regression strategy was utilized. Among the findings and conclusions of this study were the following: (1). There was a significant and negative relationship between the factor of age and default rates in the Nevada System of Higher Education, (2). There was a significant and positive relationship between the factor of residency and default rates in the Nevada System of Higher Education, (3). There was no significant relationship between the graduation rates and default rates in the Nevada System of Higher Education. Implications of these findings and future research are discussed in the final chapter

Collaborative Experimentation and Simulation: A Pathway to Improving Student Conceptualization of the Essentials of System Dynamics and Control Theory

The overarching goal of this research is to improve conceptualization of System Dynamics and Controls concepts by incorporating a Web-facilitated curriculum to enable intercampus collaboration and remotely-accessible or virtual systems. This approach will complement lecture-based curricula and will strongly enhance students’ conceptualization and exposure to System Dynamics and Controls fundamentals by providing less restricted exposure to a variety of systems that encompass the more important Dynamic Systems concepts. The plan involves the development of a System Dynamics Concepts Inventory and the implementation and assessment of three Web-enabled laboratory formats: (1) inter-campus collaborative experimentation, (2) remotely-accessible experiments, and (3) virtual system experiments. Each format has its inherent advantages and disadvantages. Remotely-accessible experiments, for example, can be made more readily available to students outside of regular laboratory hours, but the lack of hands-on exposure limits the potential scope of the experiments. Each format has been preliminarily implemented using a variety of dynamics systems that reflect some of the more important fundamentals pertinent to System Dynamics. These activities are currently being incorporated into a laboratory course at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and a lecture course at the University of Texas - Pan American (UTPA). A preliminary Course Inventory is being developed in collaboration with faculty at both institutions. An initial assessment of each laboratory format has been completed. This paper reports on the findings including a detailed discussion of the development of the Course Inventory, a discussion of the pros and cons of implementing each format, and an evaluation of the impact of each format in addressing student conceptualization of a few key fundamentals

Breaking Away from the Laboratory: Using Lean-Computing Technology to Merge Theory-Based Learning and Experimentation

This ongoing research involves a departure from traditional laboratory instructional practices in that it seeks to forge a closer connection between lecture-based and laboratory courses. As such, the authors have devised a program that: (1) relinquishes a degree of control to students by providing them some flexibility in determining the subject of their experiments and in the development of experimental procedures and protocols, (2) uses mobile experimentation as a powerful and flexible tool in lecture-based coursework, and (3) expands the concept of the “laboratory” to include virtually everything outside of it. A pilot program in mobile experimentation and data acquisition that featured these approaches was conducted over two semesters. Students used PDAs to perform experiments using “real world” engineering systems that were found on or around campus. Such systems included: vehicle suspensions, elevators, auto-focus and strobe flash features of a camera, a suspension bridge model, mountain bike suspensions, and even themselves. Some groups measured and analyzed biomechanical data such as: impact forces on the leg muscles of a basketball player and the characterization of hand motion when performing repetitive tasks. The authors recognize that practical implementation of such activities on a large scale poses logistical and pedagogical challenges. However, preliminary assessment of the pilot program shows promise in overcoming these obstacles by exploiting the flexibility of PDAs. Further, the authors were excited to discover that the nature of the proposed experiments presented an opportunity to test three pedagogical hypotheses. (1) Since experimental test articles are not contrived, as in traditional labs, the student has to refine the experimental setup and repeat procedures several times. As the student makes common mistakes, he/she will better learn how to “debug” problems with the experimental setup, data acquisition, and overall procedures, thus achieving concept mastery in experimental design. (2) Results from the pilot program revealed that the nature of the activities resulted in a greater level of enthusiasm, engagement, and creativity among students, which will improve concept mastery. The authors have noted that this effect appears to be magnified with students whose grades tend to be average or below average. The authors posit that this approach is striking a chord in these students that originally inspired them to study engineering, and resonates with their particular style of learning. The authors wish to further investigate these connections through the use of PDA-based experimental activities. (3) Inserting experimentation into lecture-based courses places it temporally closer to learning theory. Thus, it enhances retention of key engineering concepts and theories. This was not feasible before the widespread accessibility of mobile computing technology

Utilizing an Emporium Course Design to Improve Calculus Readiness of Engineering Students

The intervention has targeted incoming students in Engineering and Computer Sciencedegrees. Participating students were selected who had a record of participation in Pre-Calculus classes in high school, but who had not demonstrated their readiness to take Calcu-lus, as measured by placement tests and existing credit. The course design uses an emporiummethod, specifically the Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS) software,in a computer lab to deliver to students an intensive program of mathematical practice andexploration. The course design is meant to take advantage of students? existing knowledge,rewarding them for it in fact, and focus them on specific Algebra and Trigonometry topicsin which they need more practice and one-on-one instruction [1, 2]. The purpose of this activity is to accelerate the Calculus preparedness for a subset ofstudents held back due to standardized test scores and perhaps limited mastery of the prereq-uisite content. The benefits are improved engineering readiness, reduced time-to-graduation,and improved performance in gatekeeper courses. To maintain student interest, and connect the problems and topics they are working indetail on, we included in the course cooperative activities with engineering problems asso-ciated with railway safety and transportation; making use of tours of existing laboratoriesand experimental apparatuses. This combination of a problem focused course, tailored toindividual student?s needs and experiences, emphasizing mastery, and then motivated bydirect connections to current engineering problems and research is providing for an impor-tant improvement in the engineering degree experience for a subset of students who wouldtraditionally be at a disadvantage in their program.References[1] Twigg, C. A. (2011, May-June). The Math Emporium: Higher Education’s Silver Bullet. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning.[2] Fine, A., Duggan, M., & Braddy, L. (2009). Removing remediation requirements: Effec- tiveness of intervention programs. PRIMUS, 19(5), 433?446

Small-Scale and Large-Scale Interventions to Improve [State] Student’s College Readiness

We are conducting two interventions aimed at improving entering students’ college readiness and mathematics placement. The small-scale intervention is aimed at working with students on the university campus. Students who are targeted have high school course work indicating that they have experience in Calculus or Pre-Calculus courses, but whose placement tests have not indicated they are ready for Calculus. At our institution this is a significant number of students and the goal of the project is to develop methods to address and accelerate students in this category. The course design, to take advantage of the students’ prior experience, emphasizes practice and mastery using a commercial software [1]. The large-scale intervention is a high school course developed by [Author1] for local high schools. Students who have completed their high school mathematics course work but who have not achieved the state’s college readiness standard [2] are targeted. The students in the course have had experience in their high school classes in all of the concepts in the state standard, but have not had the chance to practice and master the material. The course we have developed emphasizes practice and mastery like the small-scale one, but participating school districts could not afford the commercial software. Thus we have built a course around the WebWork software [3] that is available through a free and open license. [1] Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces, https://www.aleks.com/ , McGraw Hill. [2] [State] College and Career Readiness Standard and Assessment [3] WebWork Homework Software, http://webwork.maa.org/ , Mathematical Association of America

Guided Discovery Modules for Statics and Dynamics

Students struggle to conceptualize Engineering Mechanics (i.e. Newtonian Physics, Statics, and Dynamics) fundamentals because they cannot successfully visualize the effects of external loads on physical systems and/or do not intuitively comprehend the static or dynamic response. Traditionally, Engineering Mechanics courses like Statics and Dynamics have been primarily lecture-based with little experimentation. The authors contend that through the use of inquirybased, multimodal activities, lower-division engineering students can more effectively interpret Engineering Mechanics concepts. Instructors must place emphasis on engendering properly conceived engineering intuition and contextualizing concepts and fundamentals. The authors hypothesize that by utilizing often simple, multimodal, inquiry-based exercises, instructors can better overcome misconceptions. A novel methodology termed “guided discovery” is presented herein. It borrows aspects of challenge-based and discovery learning. The method, however, is optimized for short in-class activities and homework assignments. Several modules are presented to illustrate the processes used and some preliminary results are included

Discordant identification of pediatric severe sepsis by research and clinical definitions in the SPROUT international point prevalence study

Introduction: Consensus criteria for pediatric severe sepsis have standardized enrollment for research studies. However, the extent to which critically ill children identified by consensus criteria reflect physician diagnosis of severe sepsis, which underlies external validity for pediatric sepsis research, is not known. We sought to determine the agreement between physician diagnosis and consensus criteria to identify pediatric patients with severe sepsis across a network of international pediatric intensive care units (PICUs). Methods: We conducted a point prevalence study involving 128 PICUs in 26 countries across 6 continents. Over the course of 5 study days, 6925 PICU patients <18 years of age were screened, and 706 with severe sepsis defined either by physician diagnosis or on the basis of 2005 International Pediatric Sepsis Consensus Conference consensus criteria were enrolled. The primary endpoint was agreement of pediatric severe sepsis between physician diagnosis and consensus criteria as measured using Cohen's ?. Secondary endpoints included characteristics and clinical outcomes for patients identified using physician diagnosis versus consensus criteria. Results: Of the 706 patients, 301 (42.6 %) met both definitions. The inter-rater agreement (? ± SE) between physician diagnosis and consensus criteria was 0.57 ± 0.02. Of the 438 patients with a physician's diagnosis of severe sepsis, only 69 % (301 of 438) would have been eligible to participate in a clinical trial of pediatric severe sepsis that enrolled patients based on consensus criteria. Patients with physician-diagnosed severe sepsis who did not meet consensus criteria were younger and had lower severity of illness and lower PICU mortality than those meeting consensus criteria or both definitions. After controlling for age, severity of illness, number of comorbid conditions, and treatment in developed versus resource-limited regions, patients identified with severe sepsis by physician diagnosis alone or by consensus criteria alone did not have PICU mortality significantly different from that of patients identified by both physician diagnosis and consensus criteria. Conclusions: Physician diagnosis of pediatric severe sepsis achieved only moderate agreement with consensus criteria, with physicians diagnosing severe sepsis more broadly. Consequently, the results of a research study based on consensus criteria may have limited generalizability to nearly one-third of PICU patients diagnosed with severe sepsis

I M E C E2002-DSC-34288 VARIABLE FIDELITY MODELING OF VEHICLE RIDE DYNAMICS USING AN ELEMENT ACTIVITY METRIC

ABSTRACT The evolving ability of vehicle simulation packages continues to facilitate the use of complex models for virtual prototyping. In formulating a virtual proving ground for conducting vehicle mission studies, it can be helpful to devise ways to facilitate the synthesis of models optimized for repetitive study of specific missions or maneuvers. Because subsystem models may have inherently different bandwidth characteristics, complex vehicle simulations that incorporate such models may be numerically stiff. Furthermore, complexity generally makes it difficult to interpret results and identify key parameters that affect dominant dynamics. The intent of this study is to examine the feasibility of optimizing simulation efficiency and/or enhancing physical insight using a variable fidelity approach that switches between reduced sub models optimized for specific dynamic intervals of the mission study. Because of its established use for model reduction, element activity is tested as a metric to measure and vary model fidelity of a vehicle ride mode model