Transforming Library Service Through Information Commons: Part 1 - Introduction

An introduction to the concept of the Information Commons in libraries

Transforming Library Service Through Information Commons: Part 2 - Definitions

Definitions of the Information Commons and Learning Commons models in libraries

Simplifying Batch Outputting in COBOL

The introduction of reference modification in standard COBOL allows COBOL programming students to bypass much of the tedium that plagues the process of report planning and programming. It is possible to avoid the drudgery of coding each heading line, detail line, subtotal line and total line in WORKING-STORAGE SECTION. Although the student will program more in the PROCEDURE DIVISION, the end result is a source program that is shorter and an object program that is smaller

Comparison in Academic Performance Between Distance Learning and Traditional On-Campus Students in Allied Healthcare Education at the Medical College of Georgia

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the differences in academic performance between distance learning students and traditional on-campus students in allied healthcare education. The research was conducted at an academic medical university and three programs were included in the study, clinical laboratory science, health information administration, and nuclear medicine technology. A total of 252 sets of student data were used in the statistical analyses, and of these 252, 174 (69%) were oncampus students and 78 (31%) were distance students. The researcher sought to determine to what extent differences existed between the two groups by the background characteristics of gender, age, and previous academic performance. The researcher found that there was no significant difference between the two groups for gender or previous academic performance. However, there was a significant difference in age between the two groups. Sixty-four percent of the on-campus students were 25-years-old or less, while 72% of the distance students were greater than 25-years-old. 2 Academic performance was compared between distance students and on-campus students using the final GPA scores and external certification scores. The researcher found no significant difference in final GPA scores or in certification pass rates between the distance learning students and on-campus students. The pass rate for on-campus students was 86% and the pass rate for distance students was 87%. When the three programs were looked at individually, it was found that there was no significant difference in final GPA scores within the three programs. There was also no significant difference in certification scores between distance learning students and on-campus students for clinical laboratory science and health informatics. However, for nuclear medicine technology, there was a statistically significant difference (p \u3c .01) between the two groups. The mean distance certification score was 76.62 for the distance students while the mean certification score for the on-campus students was 79.94

John Dewey\u27s concept of the good : a macro- and meso-application to the U.S. health system

This work stems from the debate about ethically reforming America\u27s health system in response to the enduring scarcity of resources. There are at least three essential components to successfully instituting needed changes: a philosophicallydefensible guideline, effectively-designed programs or legislation, and political willpower. This dissertation represents the first component. Two distributive justice decisions are central to this dissertation. One decision is how to apportion resources among competing governmental programs such as Social Security, education, agriculture, and transportation. This is known as the macro-level. The other decision is how to apportion health-care resources to competing ailment or disease categories such as cancer, eye care, cystic fibrosis, and burns. This is known as the meso-level. An ethical criterion or standard is needed with which to make such important decisions. Some proposals choose a consequentialist criterion in terms of the benefits resulting from health while others use a Kantian-like criterion of right action. Still other proposals focus on the notion of a good human life. The criterion selected for this dissertation comes from the philosophical work of John Dewey, an influential American philosopher in the first half of the 1900s. This criterion precedes the aforementioned criteria: it is the concept of the good itself

How elites gain, maintain and propagate status 1770-2012: A social capital perspective

Recent studies on networking, social capital and elites have done much to expand academic knowledge in each of these topic areas. Elites are defined in several ways, including their attributes and their use of and access to power. However, far less research has been conducted on how those attributes and/or power are used by local political elites. A great deal of research has also been conducted on social capital, what it is and how it can benefit society, but less work has been done on the local politician’s individual production and use of social capital. Despite the important role that networks and networking play in producing social capital, local elite networks thus remain largely unexplored. We know little of how their networks are constructed and used in the pursuance of status and less on how the elite adapt the use of their networks in response to socio-economic change. In focusing on the construction and use of social capital networks by the Borough Aldermen and Councillors in Northampton over the longue durée, this work redresses those shortcomings. The research uses a large number and variety of sources which provide a wealth of qualitative and quantitative data with which to explore elite networking and social capital in the town. The work contributes towards furthering academic knowledge on how elites gain maintain and propagate status. The research reveals that the elite use two different constructs of networks, each of which provides different benefits for the user. It is the symbiosis of these networks which enables the political elite to respond to socio-economic and political events. The research also finds that overlapping networks produce the largest exchange of social capital, which is translated into gaining and maintaining status. It is clear that, over the longue durée, the importance of business networks in producing social capital has drastically reduced, and has been replaced by the growing importance of political association membership. It is also evident in the research that the expansion of formal institutions in the business and political arenas has led to individual Councillors and Aldermen making strategic choices. Using a market mentality of returns, they decide which networks give greater social capital and are thus more valuable and useful in gaining and maintaining elite status

You Tube As A Learning Tool

This paper expands upon previous research conducted on the effectiveness of implementing Microsoft MovieMaker (a digital video editing program) into the classroom.  Sixty-one graduate and twenty undergraduate students from King’s College and Rowan University took part in this study.  Using the MovieMaker software to design student created tutorials on material learned in class, participants uploaded finished movie tutorials to the Internet-based website “You Tube” with the goal of providing classmates with a distance education learning program.  With the ability to create and upload coursework using graphics and animation, new opportunities exist for teachers and trainers to expand their teaching methodologies while catering to a variety of learning styles.  The purpose of this study was to investigate student perceptions of the effectiveness of the You Tube tutorial project on their learning so that a future educational workshop to teach the basics of creating and uploading student video tutorials may be implemented.  A survey containing both quantitative and qualitative components was administered at the completion of the You Tube project to assess student perceptions of this teaching strategy. Quantitative analysis involved the use of frequencies and descriptive statistics, while qualitative analysis consisted of grouping open-ended responses into the following themes:  1. Application of You Tube; 2. Major Strengths of the You Tube Project in the Learning Process; 3. Instructor Effectiveness in the Learning Process; and 4. Suggestions for Improvement to Enhance Learning.   Results showed that the You Tube tutorial methodology had a significant positive effect on perceived student learning

An Analysis Of Women Educators In Higher Education And Their Perceptions Of The Use Of Technology In Improving Teacher Effectiveness: A Study In Instructional Technology

An understanding of the relationships among the integration of computer technology by women educators in higher education and effective teaching could have a significant impact on education. Pennsylvania Universities and Colleges have made their commitment to educational technology and provided support for the implementation of such technology. Currently, we have little empirical evidence to show that the use of computer technology by women educators actually does improve learning. Incumbent upon this commitment to educational technology, women educators have a right to ask if their investment of time and effort in learning how to use and implement the technology will produce significant benefits for their students. This research developed a survey instrument to rank statements and gain an understanding of the perceptions of women in higher education concerning the integration of computer technology and teacher effectiveness. The methods used to develop the instrument involved the analysis of relevant research, construction of appropriate items, identification of the population sample, validity and reliability, and pilot testing. The population under study was limited to two Colleges and one University in Northeastern Pennsylvania during the spring and fall semesters of 2007. The results indicated that the women surveyed felt teacher effectiveness is most strongly associated with the availability of technology tools to collect data for the purposes of instructional planning.  Conversely, participants felt that teacher effectiveness was not strongly associated with lesson sequences that integrate technology resources, implementation of procedures consistent with school policies that protect the privacy of electronic student data, and demonstration of ethical behaviors regarding the use of technology

Long-lived refractive index changes induced by femtosecond ionization in gas-filled single-ring photonic crystal fibers

We investigate refractive index changes caused by femtosecond photoionization in a gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. Using spatially-resolved interferometric side-probing, we find that these changes live for tens of microseconds after the photoionization event - eight orders of magnitude longer than the pulse duration. Oscillations in the megahertz frequency range are simultaneously observed, caused by mechanical vibrations of the thin-walled capillaries surrounding the hollow core. These two non-local effects can affect the propagation of a second pulse that arrives within their lifetime, which works out to repetition rates of tens of kilohertz. Filling the fiber with an atomically lighter gas significantly reduces ionization, lessening the strength of the refractive index changes. The results will be important for understanding the dynamics of gas-based fiber systems operating at high intensities and high repetition rates, when temporally non-local interactions between successive laser pulses become relevant.Comment: 5 pages with four figures and one tabl