Usability Testing for E-Resource Discovery: How Students Find & Choose E-Resources Using Library Websites

In early 2010, library staff at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Ohio designed and conducted a usability study of key parts of the library website, focusing on the web pages generated by the library’s electronic resources management system (ERM) that list and describe the library’s databases. The goal was to discover how users find and choose e-resources and identify ways the library could improve access to e-resources through its web site. This article outlines the usability study conducted at BGSU, presents its conclusions about how students at BGSU find and choose databases, contextualizes these findings with other current research about user behavior, and makes recommendations for increasing student use of library e-resources

A Place-based Learning Community: Klamath Connection at Humboldt State University

A place-based learning community called Klamath Connection was designed to improve the academic performance of freshman in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) majors at Humboldt State University, a midsize public institution in a location geographically and culturally unfamiliar to the majority of its students. The program interweaves four high impact practices demonstrated to improve the success of students in STEM: a summer immersion, freshman year seminar, modified gateway courses, and peer mentoring. Each component is linked by an interdisciplinary theme unique to our geographic location and central to the communities that live within it, the Klamath River basin. This manuscript describes the local background and needs assessment that initiated the program, explains our hypothesized model that a place-based learning community can foster the sense of belonging, skills, and habits that favor academic success, and reviews the design and implementation of our pilot program that launched in 2015 for 63 first time students entering HSU. We conclude by describing lessons learned from informal and formal assessments of participating faculty, staff, and administrative personnel that have prompted modifications to the model, which is currently being expanded to serve all entering STEM majors by 2020. Analyses describing the effects of the program on student attitudes, academic performance, and retention in the university will be reviewed in a subsequent manuscript

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly About Quick and Dirty Assessment Efforts

Presented at the 2016 ALAO Annual Conference: User Experience-Exceeding Expectations by Design (Wilmington, OH)

Reasons For Visiting Destinations Motives Are Not Motives For Visiting — Caveats and Questions For Destination Marketers

Many tourism studies consider elicited reasons for undertaking a behavior (e.g., visiting a destination) as the basis from which tourist motives are inferred. Such an approach is problematic principally because it ignores a dual motivational system in which explicit as well as implicit types of motives drive behavior. This paper tackles the conceptual challenge of differentiating explicit from implicit motives in tourism studies or the lack thereof. It reviews the need to discriminate between the two constructs, theorize their interrelationship and assess their relative significance in predicting a wide and varied interconnected array of travel behavior

A Journey from Patient Care to Jesuit Higher Education: How a Small Group of Healthcare Professionals Navigated the Transition into Academia

In the fall of 2015, four experienced healthcare clinicians met as strangers at an orientation at a Jesuit institution, Regis University. From the professions of occupational therapy, pharmacy, and physical therapy, we felt comfortable with our clinical practice in patient-centered care and our healthcare work environments. Eager to share our knowledge with our students, we needed guidance to perform the key roles of an educator such as creating a syllabus, writing test items, and advising students. As we began our careers in academia, we felt disoriented and chaotic. We directly sought structure to bridge knowledge gaps, establish a sense of community, and identify essential resources necessary for success in academia. We desired to explore our own interpretation of the Jesuit values before trying to infuse them into our teaching. Through the creation of a small professional learning group that combined emotional support and professional growth, we established a structured approach to learning the roles of a professor and found our identities as academicians. We aim to share our journey and provide recommendations for other healthcare clinicians who are inexperienced with academia in the hopes of easing the transition from clinician to educator at a Jesuit University

Overview of meat processing in Africa

Relative to the literature on live animal production and trade, research on the meat processing sector in Africa is particularly sparse. This belies a sector that is increasingly dynamic, driven by changing demand patterns, evolving marketing channels, and population growth. This chapter aims to redress some of the research gaps by piecing together available data from countries south of the Sahara, combined with a series of case studies, to illustrate the rapid changes that are taking place within the sector. Our analysis focuses on meat as an end product only and does not consider other products derived from animals, notably dairy, where a significant literature exists (particularly in East Africa), and by-products such as hides and skins. We also highlight many of the important constraints affecting the sector to raise awareness of critical policy issues and draw attention to the integrated nature of animal end products alongside livestock production.Peer reviewedAgricultural Economic

Addressing Opioid Misuse and Abuse through Interprofessional Engagement and Education

Purpose: The purpose of this initiative was to develop and implement an interprofessional panel aimed to expose a university audience to the magnitude of opioid misuse and abuse, as well as demonstrate each health professional’s role in curbing the epidemic. Further, this experience was to provide a platform for interprofessional discussion and to share with attendees tangible action items to begin combatting the opioid epidemic. Methods: An interdisciplinary committee of healthcare professionals collaborated to initiate a dialogue around opioid misuse and abuse to highlight the power of interprofessional (IP) collaboration in addressing the opioid epidemic. Each panel member shared a personal vignette about his or her professional experience with the epidemic, then the audience members were asked to participate in a question and answer session. Primary outcomes from this IP experience were derived from an eight-item satisfaction survey. The event was held in April 2016. The interdisciplinary committee marketed this event to all students, faculty, and staff in the Rueckert-Hartman College of Health Care Professionals one month before the event through electronic emails and posters. Results: Forty-four (63%) of participants completed the satisfaction survey of which 88.6% were students of healthcare professions. The satisfaction survey evaluative results were positive and referenced the panel as being an excellent IP event that was helpful, informative, and enjoyable. The results support that the initiative successfully increased understanding of the magnitude of the opioid epidemic for the attendees of this pilot event. The target audience of students expressed a greater awareness of the magnitude of the problem (43.2%) and an increased appreciation of the IP aspects of opioid management strategies (36.4%). Attendees also identified the need for ownership of their role as existing and future health care professionals and the need to work as an IP team to address the problem. Conclusion: An interprofessional panel format as an optional extracurricular event is an effective way to communicate key educational messages about opioid misuse and abuse to a target audience of graduate students at a mid-sized college of health professions

Savannah Hockey Classic Attendance Motivation

The Savannah Hockey Classic has become a very successful annual university club hockey team tournament. The 21st edition of the tournament was held in January 2020 in Savannah, Ga. featuring the Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Florida, Florida State University, and University of Georgia club hockey teams—the same teams that have comprised the tournament for many years. This study utilized Personal Investment Theory (Braskamp, 1986) and the SPEED scale (Funk, Filo, Beaton, & Pritchard, 2009) for attendance motivation assessment. Social interaction motivations were significantly higher for county residents, spectators attending with friends, spectators attending with family, and past Savannah Hockey Classic attendees. Motivations related to athlete performance were significantly higher for those who had attended the event in the past. Excitement based motivations were greater for those who had attended the event in the past as well as for those who identified as a fan of one of the teams. There were significant differences related to the esteem and diversion constructs for those who had a team rooting interest. The article fills a gap in the literature by providing the first study of club hockey attendance motivations