Delighting Our Customers: Building Services Collaboratively with Learners at a Distance

The Open University (OU) is the largest academic institution dedicated to distance learning in the United Kingdom, with over 173,000 students. Distance learning students can provide a unique perspective on the experience of the library. As the number of students enrolled in distance education courses continues to grow globally there is an increasing opportunity to work with distance students on service design and development. Engaging with distance students can be challenging, but not impossible. Here we will discuss how The Open University Library has utilised a number of methodologies to work in partnership with its students on service design to the benefit of the service and our students. This paper will provide practical value for any library service with a distance learning community. Specific methodologies of successful distance learner engagement will be presented, along with lessons learnt

Does the Sponsorship of Sports Entities by Gambling Organizations Conform to the Set of Benefits as Conceptualized in the Model of Sports Sponsorship?

One recent study produced a model that was structured based upon the benefits derived by four parties that are impacted by a sponsor’s decision to engage in the sponsorship of a sports entity. These sports entities may be a team, a league, an organization, an athlete, an event, or a sports venue. The interactions among the four categories of beneficiaries resulted in 12 discrete linkages. A total of 159 potential benefits, some tangible and some intangible, were documented. A second study examined the impact of a recent SCOTUS ruling that declared the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) to be unconstitutional. That ruling opened the floodgates for gambling organizations to become involved in sports betting which has further led to the sponsorship of sports entities. In that study, the authors noted 201 benefits that accrue to 14 different groups of beneficiaries that fall into four categories. The current study examines the extent to which the two studies are congruent. Does sponsorship by a gambling organization such as MGM Resorts emulate what one would anticipate with the sponsorship of a sports entity by a non-gambling entity such as Coca-Cola or Citibank

Revisiting the Beneficiaries of the SCOTUS Ruling Striking Down PASPA

A Supreme Court ruling in 2018 essentially rendered restrictions on sports gambling to run counter to states’ rights, thus in conflict with the Constitution of the United States. As a consequence, 13 states and the District of Columbia now have legalized sports gambling. Initial research into the consequences of this ruling identified 12 potential beneficiaries. Subsequent research entailing an assessment of new literature and a survey of executive opinion involving a number of marketing executives who work within the field of sports marketing expanded the findings from the earlier study. This extension of the preliminary study found 14 beneficiaries rather than the original 12. Furthermore, the number of benefits accruing to the set of 14 beneficiaries increased from 149 to 201 with 14 of the 52 newly identified benefits accruing to the two newly identified beneficiaries – Native American Indian tribes and communications companies. Thus an additional 38 benefits for the original 12 beneficiaries were delineated

The Twelve Beneficiaries of Legalized Sports Betting: An Exploratory Assessment

The 2018 ruling by the United States Supreme Court essentially legalized sports betting across the nation. Prior to that ruling, sports books were restricted by virtue of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). But with that landmark 6-3 decision, the opportunity door for sports betting has been opened for all 50 states. This paper focuses on two considerations regarding the opening of that door. Who are the potential beneficiaries and what benefits might they derive? A review of the literature identified twelve beneficiaries; among these beneficiaries are the teams, organizations, fans, sponsors, bettors, and society-in-general. The majority of the benefits revolve around financial considerations, but it is not always as straight-forward as cash. So, while the NBA is benefitting from a cash flow from its casino sponsor, society-in-general may be benefitting from enriched educational resources and a better infrastructure. This paper delineates potential benefits for each of the twelve beneficiaries that have been identified

Revisiting the Beneficiaries of the SCOTUS Ruling Striking Down PASPA

A Supreme Court ruling in 2018 essentially rendered restrictions on sports gambling to run counter to states’ rights, thus in conflict with the Constitution of the United States. As a consequence, 13 states and the District of Columbia now have legalized sports gambling. Initial research into the consequences of this ruling identified 12 potential beneficiaries. Subsequent research entailing an assessment of new literature and a survey of executive opinion involving a number of marketing executives who work within the field of sports marketing expanded the findings from the earlier study. This extension of the preliminary study found 14 beneficiaries rather than the original 12. Furthermore, the number of benefits accruing to the set of 14 beneficiaries increased from 149 to 201 with 14 of the 52 newly identified benefits accruing to the two newly identified beneficiaries – Native American Indian tribes and communications companies. Thus an additional 38 benefits for the original 12 beneficiaries were delineated

Mobile phones: a trade-off between speech intelligibility and exposure to noise levels and to radio-frequency electromagnetic fields

When making phone calls, cellphone and smartphone users are exposed to radio-frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and sound pressure simultaneously. Speech intelligibility during mobile phone calls is related to the sound pressure level of speech relative to potential background sounds and also to the RF-EMF exposure, since the signal quality is correlated with the RF-EMF strength. Additionally, speech intelligibility, sound pressure level, and exposure to RF-EMFs are dependent on how the call is made (on speaker, held at the ear, or with headsets). The relationship between speech intelligibility, sound exposure, and exposure to RF-EMFs is determined in this study. To this aim, the transmitted RF-EMF power was recorded during phone calls made by 53 subjects in three different, controlled exposure scenarios: calling with the phone at the ear, calling in speaker mode, and calling with a headset. This emitted power is directly proportional to the exposure to RF EMFs and is translated into specific absorption rate using numerical simulations. Simultaneously, sound pressure levels have been recorded and speech intelligibility has been assessed during each phone call. The results show that exposure to RF-EMFs, quantified as the specific absorption in the head, will be reduced when speaker-mode or a headset is used, in comparison to calling next to the ear. Additionally, personal exposure to sound pressure is also found to be highest in the condition where the phone is held next to the ear. On the other hand, speech perception is found to be the best when calling with a phone next to the ear in comparison to the other studied conditions, when background noise is present

The Perceived Impact of the New Rules Regarding Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) in Intercollegiate Sports

New rules allow college athletes to earn significant income from a multitude of activities common among professional athletes. These activities include allowing athletes to profit from the sale of intellectual properties that bear their name, image, or likeness (NIL); additional opportunities include blogs, social media posts, camps, and autograph sessions. Early perceptions of the impact of these new NIL rules have been far from unanimous. A sample of 404 students from five American universities provided feedback regarding their perceptions of nine NIL-related considerations: the impact that the new NIL rules have had on college sports, if the athletes benefit, whether the rules impact recruiting, if they give Power 5 schools an advantage, if boosters and wealthy alumni are given too much power, the extent to which they hope athletes at their school can benefit from the new rules, if the new rules are detrimental to amateur athletics in general, whether they approve of the new rules, and if the new rules run counter to Title IX. The results indicate that students possess a generally favorable perception of the new rules

Transparent Carbon Disclosures:depth in Carbon-reporting of Dutch listed and non-listed companies

Climate change is seen as one of the most relevant challenges for the next coming years, politically and economically. The Dutch government has set targets to reduce national carbon emissions according to the commitments made in Paris in 2015. Since companies substantially contribute to the level of carbon emissions, it is necessary to monitor their carbon emissions to see whether they fulfil their commitments. This research shows to what extent companies in the Netherlands (listed, non-listed family owned and a reference group we refer to as non-listed other companies) report their strategies, implementation and performance regarding carbon emissions and reduction. We find, not surprisingly, that on average listed companies are far more transparent than non-listed companies. Non-listed family owned companies are apparently not active or even not willing to be transparent about their carbon policy. However, we do find that several non-listed companies that score high in the Dutch Transparency Benchmark (non-listed other companies) are just as transparent about carbon emissions as AEX-listed companies that must report due to market regulation. Furthermore, we find that most carbon disclosures are still of a mainly qualitative nature. This could imply that firms’ carbon disclosures are at present mostly a means of storytelling rather than a means of thorough analysis on how climate change risk might affect them and how they have to respond to mitigate these financial and societal risks

Can an excellent distance learning library service support student retention and how can we find out?

Higher Education libraries have traditionally sought to be able to demonstrate the impact their services have on student attainment. This is particularly important in the current economic climate where libraries frequently have to defend their budgets in the face of financial constraints, whilst needing to demonstrate better value for money to students who are now paying more for higher education. A number of studies around the world have been successful in harnessing data around library usage to begin to show strong correlation with student retention and final results. But most of these studies rely on data from book loans and engagement with a physical library, and where students follow a traditional three or four year degree course. This is challenging for a distance education institution, like the UK’s Open University (OU), where most students rarely or never visit the physical Open University Library and where study and assessment patterns can differ from those of traditional universities. This paper outlines the efforts of staff at The Open University Library to embed their services and resources into the learning experience of their distance learners, and to aspire to find ways of demonstrating their contribution to student retention and achievement. While there is huge potential in the amount and range of data available, the challenge is to identify an appropriate model that allows The Open University Library to demonstrate how Library Services impacts on student retention, attainment and achievement

Exposure to radio-frequency electromagnetic fields emitted by a mobile phone in three exposure conditions

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