Outcome Assessment of General Education 21st Century Competency Skills: Close the Loop Efforts in the United States

Over the past several years, various stakeholders have continued to express concerns about the quality of U.S. higher education. Under the accountability and transparency pressures, institutions must provide evidence of student learning, especially the value of general education programs upon graduation. Therefore, a case study at a U.S. comprehensive university was conducted to assess five general education competency skills (written, oral, quantitative literacy, critical thinking and information literacy). To facilitate “close the loop” conversations with faculty and committees, in addition to descriptive analysis, the university disaggregated the assessment data in a non-traditional way by examining the relationship of student factors (race, year and college) and student learning. The researcher used ANCOVA and ANOVA to identify significant differences. Results indicated year and race were related to student outcomes, except for critical thinking skills. The researcher provided suggestions for use of the study’s findings to close the loop in the general education program

Excellence in Internal Quality Assurance: An Empirical Study in United States

Assessment or internal quality assurance (IQA) processes have often been driven by external stakeholders such as accreditation and governmental agencies of higher education, which are focused on accountability rather than quality improvement. This research examined how private and non-profit Doctoral and Research institutions with less public financial dependence and accountability requirements adopted the Excellence in Assessment (EIA) rubric to improve their IQA models that supports improvement. A survey based on National Institute of Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) EIA rubric was sent to the ASSESS Listserv to learn if there was a difference in EIA scores related to source of funding and Carnegie characteristics. A two-way MANOVA analysis of the survey responses showed that there was no difference in IQA practice followed EIA rubric between source of funding (public and non-profit private institutions) and Carnegie classification (Research and Comprehensive). Recommendations are made regarding the reliability of the EIA rubric. The EIA designation can serve as a framework for U.S. and non-U.S. higher education institutions to benchmark and improve the current IQA processes

Faculty Engagement in Internal Quality Assurance of Academic Programs: A Literature Review

Faculty engagement has a close relationship with the internal quality assurance (IQA) of academic programs and program success since faculty participation significantly impacts continuous quality improvement of teaching and learning. However, dramatic challenges revealed in a review of the literature indicated faculty resistance to this process. The purpose of this review of published articles was to learn about the strategies to engage faculty in quality management of academic programs. Based on a thematic and content analysis of published articles three major categorical areas emerged: Resources, IQA model and recognition and rewards. The knowledge gained from this analysis has implications for international higher education at three levels: ministry of education and training, accreditation agencies and higher education institutions. The implementation of identified practices would foster movement of the quality assurance process toward continuous quality improvement

Internal Quality Assurance of Institutional Learning Outcomes: United States Case Study and Implications for Vietnam Higher Education

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are under pressure to provide evidence of student success. In addition to traditional performance indicators such as GPA, grades, and rates of retention, graduation and employment, stakeholders also required institutions to provide evidence of institutional learning outcomes (ILOs). ILOs encompass the knowledge and skills that all students regardless of disciplines from a specific university are expected to demonstrate upon their graduation. This case study examines a complete internal quality assurance (IQA) cycle from a U.S. comprehensive university, including the adaptation of national authentic assessment measures, the use of technology in data analysis, the best practices to communicate assessment results to multiple internal stakeholders to facilitate leadership decision-making, the challenges encountered, and the improvement plans to sustain the procedure. Researchers also make recommendations to Vietnam HEIs that want to adopt IQA of ILOs for both quality improvement and accountability purposes

Non-destructive Characteristics of Ultrasonic Waves in 1018 Low Carbon Steel

In this paper, the dependences of the velocities and the absorption coefficients of ultrasonic waves transmitted in 1018 low carbon steel on temperature ranging from 0$^{\circ}$C to 50$^{\circ}$C were investigated. It was shown that the velocities of the ultrasonic longitudinal wave and ultrasonic shear wave were decreased when the temperature increased. The transportation of the ultrasonic longitudinal wave and ultrasonic shear wave depends on temperature and its coefficient in a temperature range of (0 - 50 $^{\circ}$C) was estimated about 0.8 m/s.$^{\circ}$C and 0.44~m/s.$^{\circ}$C, respectively. These obtained results are in good agreement with the theoretical prediction. Furthermore, the absorption coefficients of the ultrasonic longitudinal wave were also studied

Observation of High Doppler Velocity Wings in the Nascent Wind of R Doradus

We study the morpho-kinematics in the nascent wind of AGB star R Doradus in the light of high Doppler velocity wings observed in the spectral lines of several species. We probe distances from the star between ∼10 and ∼100 au using ALMA observations of the emission of five different molecular lines. High Doppler velocity enhancements of the line emission are observed in the vicinity of the line of sight crossing the star, reminiscent of those recently interpreted as gas streams in the nascent wind of a similar AGB star, EP Aqr. They are present in both blue-shifted and red- shifted hemispheres but are not exactly back-to-back. They are accelerated at a typical rate of 0.7 km s$^{−1}$ au$^{−1}$ up to some 20 km s$^{−1}$. Important differences are observed between the emissions of different molecules. We exclude an effect of improper continuum subtraction. However, in contrast to EP Aqr, the line of sight plays no particular role in the R Dor morpho-kinematics, shedding doubt on the validity of a gas stream interpretation. We discuss possible interpretations in terms of stellar pulsations or of rotation of the gas in the environment of the star. We conclude that, in the state of current knowledge, no fully convincing picture of the physics governing the production of such high velocities, typically twice as large as the terminal velocity, can be reliably drawn. New high resolution analyses of observations of the nascent wind of oxygen-rich AGB stars are needed to clarify the issue

On the central symmetry of the circumstellar envelope of RS Cnc

We present a phenomenological study of CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) emission from the circumstellar envelope (CSE) of the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) star RS\,Cnc. It reveals departures from central symmetry that turn out to be efficient tools for the exploration of some of the CSE properties. We use a wind model including a bipolar flow with a typical wind velocity of $\sim$8 km\,s$^{-1}$ decreasing to $\sim$2 km\,s$^{-1}$ near the equator to describe Doppler velocity spectral maps obtained by merging data collected at the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer and Pico Veleta single dish radio telescope. Parameters describing the wind morphology and kinematics are obtained, together with the radial dependence of the gas temperature in the domain of the circumstellar envelope probed by the CO observations. Significant north-south central asymmetries are revealed by the analysis, which we quantify using a simple phenomenological description. The origin of such asymmetries is unclear.Comment: accepted for publication in Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics (RAA

The VATLY Radio Telescope

A small radio telescope (SRT) has been installed on the roof of the Hanoi astrophysics laboratory VATLY. It is equipped with a 2.6 m diameter mobile parabolic dish remotely controlled in elevation and azimuth and with super-heterodyne detection around the 21 cm hydrogen line. First results of observations of the Sun and of the centre of the Milky Way are presented. They demonstrate the high quality of the telescope performance and are used to evaluate lobe size, signal to noise ratios, anthropogenic interferences and measurement accuracies. Particular attention is given to the measurement of the pointing accuracy. The rich measurement programme that is now at hand is briefly sketched

Profile of the 12^{12}CO(3-2) Emission Line Detected From the Debris Disc of 49 Ceti

The CO(3-2) emission of the debris disc of the young A star 49 Ceti, known to be particularly gas rich, has been recently detected and measured using the ALMA interferometer. We study the observed line profile and comment on each of the possible contributions to its width. Line broadening is found to be dominated by Keplerian shear and an upper limit of 0.8 kms FWHM is placed on other possible contributions,including temperature, confirming the quietness of the gas contained in the disc and disfavouring models that would require relatively violent events to generate secondary gas