Acceptance of Distance Learning Programs at the Graduate Level A Pilot Study

The number of Americans seeking college degrees is expanding at a rapid pace. To meet the challenge of the non-traditional student, one, who because of other commitments, cannot attend courses in a traditional campus setting, colleges and universities have instituted distance learning programs. There is little disagreement on the value of these programs in providing a service to students who cannot attend traditional classes. But at locations where students do have an option of attending a traditional course, or taking one through a distance learning approach, which will a student select? The study expanded the perceptions of the traditional versus distance learning approach to higher education, and the choice students would make if given the option. The results of the study revealed that students would significantly favor courses utilizing the traditional delivery approach versus a distance learning approach. The study also found that students at a university which does not have a distance learning program favor this approach to a significantly higher degree than students at a university which has a distance learning program. The study also found that students are almost equally divided on the perception of quality of the distance learning delivery approach, versus a traditional delivery approach

Perceptions on the Differences Between the Socratic and Experiential Teaching Methodologies

There are numerous technological advances which are readily available for us in the university classroom. While the use of computers, on-line data bases, video networking, etc. will serve to greatly enhance the understanding and dissemination of information to the students, the instructor must not neglect a fundamental necessity for any class - the delivery system. This research focused on two of the common delivery methodologies utilized in higher education, the Socratic and Experiential delivery systems. The research hypothesis stated that there will be a significant difference in the perceptions of students when evaluating the Socratic and Experiential teaching delivery methodologies. Students, especially at the graduate level, will perceive the need to become more involved in their educational experience. Because of this students will be significantly more receptive to the Experiential than the Socratic methology. The null hypothesis stated that there will be no significant differences in the perceptions of students when evaluating the Socratic and Experiential teaching delivery system when evaluated at the a= .05 level of significance. The results revealed the students significantly preferred the Experiential methodology when compared to the Socratic approach. The data revealed that 82.5 % favored the Experiential methodology, while only 17.5 % favored the Socratic approach. While the results of the Chi Square tests supported the research hypothesis, it should not be assumed that the Socratic methodology is not a useful highly successful delivery system. However for these particular courses, which were highly behavioral in design and content, the Experiential approach, as perceived by the students was significantly favored over the Socratic method

Ionospheric simulator survey

Evaluation of D and E region ionospheric simulation technique

A Pilot Study to Assess the Effects of Humor in Relationship to Teaching Effectiveness

In a 1968 work entitled, A Teacher is Many Things , Drs. Earl Pullias and James Young elaborated on the many qualities or roles often required by an instructor at the college/university level. A litany of these roles include qualities such as: guide, teacher, searcher, counsellor, creator, evaluator, knowledge . authority, emancipator, learner, facer of reality, and culminator, to name a few. Two of the roles mentioned in their book, storyteller and actor , might appear to be unnecessary, or even questionable in their suitability for such a list. How does storytelling and acting relate to being an effective teacher? According to Pullias and Young, storytelling provides the student with a sense of place and identity and the ability to discover ... how others have solved problems similar to their own, .. .learn to appreciate their own lives ... feel inferior ... superior ... be repelled or inspired (1968, p. 161). As an actor, the individual plays the role of a teacher, developing ways to carefully stage the learning moment for the class, a role the individual maintains throughout the time he/she is on stage before his/her students. Thus, the classroom professor assumes the role of an edutainer (Zemke, 1991). The professor functions both as an educator and entertainer on the learning stage

Effects of crop acreage control features of AAA on feed production in 11 Midwest states

This bulletin is the product of studies in the appraisal of governmental agricultural programs in progress at Iowa State College. The statistics upon which most of the conclusions relative to the effect of the AAA upon the production of feedstuffs are based are the estimates of feed production in the 3-year period, 1938-40, without crop acreage control. The manner in which the various estimates have been derived is explained in some detail in a series of fairly elaborate footnotes appended to tables 5 to 15, inclusive. The basic assumptions underlying these estimates are given in these footnotes. Available, relevant, empirical data are considered, and the appraisal and criticism of other research workers are taken into account.2 The quantification of these assumptions into estimates of feed production without crop acreage control are in the last analysis those of the authors, and, as all estimates, are subject to error. They are, it is believed, the best approximation that it is possible to make with the evidence now available of what the feed production would have been in the various parts of the Midwest had there been no AAA

The Allan Hills Meteorite Icefield-An alternative view

More than 1300 meteorites have been found on the surface of blue icefields in North Victorialand, Antarctica. The Allan Hills Icefield (about 100 km^2) has exceptionally high meteorite concentrations while other icefields to the West have much smaller concentrations. Measurements of the rates of ablation and of horizontal displacement of the ice surface near the Allan Hills have been conducted since 1978 at a 20 station triangulation network. These data show that the horizontal ice velocity at the most active stations is about one m/yr and less at the high meteorite concentration site. Ablation of the ice surface averages about 4.2 em/yr. Measurements of the oxygen isotopic composition of surface ice along the triangulation network show a rather large scatter of about 8δ^(18)O‰. This indicates that the ice comes from different areas or possibly is different in age. The terrestrial ages of Allan Hills meteorites are between 0 and 700,000 years, with only a few older than 400,000 years. A model for the appearance of meteorites on blue ice surfaces in Antarctica is that specimens are carried within the moving ice sheet to stagnant areas where they are uncovered by the ablation process (see e.g. Bull and Lipschutz, 1982). These areas ("emergent zones") are fed by ice that originally accumulated as snow at the source regions of the ice. This model accounts for the general occurrence of meteorites on blue ice fields but an additional mechanism is needed to explain the high concentrations found at the Allan Hills. It is suggested that this icefield has concentrated meteorites primarily by horizontal movement of the ice from the emergent zones located to the west of the concentration zone. These meteorites are transported by surface compressive flow of the ice into the Allan Hills Meteorite Icefield and left stranded in an area where ice is only lost by the ablation process. This model seems to be in agreement with all field and laboratory observations

Structure and band gaps of Ga-(V) semiconductors: The challenge of Ga pseudopotentials

Design of gallium pseudopotentials has been investigated for use in density functional calculations of zinc-blende-type cubic phases of GaAs, GaP, and GaN. A converged construction with respect to all-electron results is described. Computed lattice constants, bulk moduli, and band gaps vary significantly depending on pseudopotential construction or exchange-correlation functional. The Kohn-Sham band gap of the Ga-(V) semiconductors exhibits a distinctive and strong sensitivity to lattice constant, with near-linear dependence of gap on lattice constant for larger lattice constants and Gamma-X crossover that changes the slope of the dependence. This crossover occurs at approximate to 98, 101, and 95% deviation from the equilibrium lattice constant for GaAs, GaP, and GaN, respectively

Plagiarism: Why Didn\u27t Anyone Tell Me...?

Plagiarism, the use of the work of another author without proper credit is prevalent throughout society. In some instances a double standard exists: in academia students and educators alike are severely censured if there is the slightest indication of plagiarism. But in other areas of society, the use of compensated ghostwriters is the accepted norm. How educators must explore this dichotomy with their students, and help them to internalize their own value system, is a topic of discussion in this paper. Along with the issue of intentional plagiarism, unintentional plagiarism, due primarily to the author\u27s lack of knowledge on how to document properly, is also covered by way of documentation guidelines. As educators, it is our responsibility to ensure that our students are provided with sufficient knowledge on the concept of plagiarism, and its correlation, proper documentation. By failing to provide this information we expose our students to possible lawsuits and embarrassment, as well as the possibility of the loss of a job or promotion

Influence of strain on magnetization and magnetoelectric effect in La0.7A0.3MnO3 / PMN-PT(001) (A = Sr; Ca)

We investigate the influence of a well-defined reversible biaxial strain <=0.12 % on the magnetization (M) of epitaxial ferromagnetic manganite films. M has been recorded depending on temperature, strain and magnetic field in 20 - 50 nm thick films. This is accomplished by reversibly compressing the isotropic in-plane lattice parameter of the rhombohedral piezoelectric 0.72PMN-0.28PT (001) substrates by application of an electric field E <= 12 kV cm-1. The magnitude of the total variable in-plane strain has been derived. Strain-induced shifts of the ferromagnetic Curie temperature (Tc) of up to 19 K were found in La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) and La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 films and are quantitatively analysed for LSMO within a cubic model. The observed large magnetoelectric coupling coefficient alpha=mu0 dM/dE <= 6 10-8 s m-1 at ambient temperature results from the strain-induced M change in the magnetic-film-ferroelectric-substrate system. It corresponds to an enhancement of mu0 DeltaM <= 19 mT upon biaxial compression of 0.1 %. The extraordinary large alpha originates from the combination of three crucial properties: (i) the strong strain dependence of M in the ferromagnetic manganites, (ii) large piezo-strain of the PMN-PT substrates and (iii) effective elastic coupling at the film-substrate interface.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

Symbolic-Numeric Algorithms for Computer Analysis of Spheroidal Quantum Dot Models

A computation scheme for solving elliptic boundary value problems with axially symmetric confining potentials using different sets of one-parameter basis functions is presented. The efficiency of the proposed symbolic-numerical algorithms implemented in Maple is shown by examples of spheroidal quantum dot models, for which energy spectra and eigenfunctions versus the spheroid aspect ratio were calculated within the conventional effective mass approximation. Critical values of the aspect ratio, at which the discrete spectrum of models with finite-wall potentials is transformed into a continuous one in strong dimensional quantization regime, were revealed using the exact and adiabatic classifications.Comment: 6 figures, Submitted to Proc. of The 12th International Workshop on Computer Algebra in Scientific Computing (CASC 2010) Tsakhkadzor, Armenia, September 5 - 12, 201