Building communities of practice in distance learning courses for higher education teacher development

A ‘communities of practice’ approach has been shown to be an effective way of supporting the development of educators within higher education (HE). It enables members of a group with common interests and experiences to learn from each other and to develop their professional practice together. Distance learning has become an increasingly important means of delivering professional development for teachers in HE, but to build and develop communities of practice in an online context can be a real challenge. This article explores the ways in which distance learning teacher development courses can effectively build communities of practice. It investigates participants’ experiences of community on modules with different distance learning delivery modes. It finds that a community of practice was developed to an extent, but that this was established more successfully within synchronous delivery modules with webinars than in asynchronous modules. However, across all modes of delivery, the presence of peer feedback, peer learning and collaborative activities within the learning design was crucial for effective development of a community of practice

Best Practices in Instructional Design for Distance Learning Information Literacy Courses

Join a collaborative team comprised of an instructional designer and an instructor-librarian as they lead a workshop to share best practices in instructional design for online/distance information literacy (IL) courses. Participants will develop an action plan to help them construct an online course template that will boost instructor presence; improve accessibility; facilitate interaction; and positively affect student learning experiences

Students’ interpersonal connections with peers and staff at the start of higher education

Establishing positive social relationships is important for students’ success and retention in higher education (HE). This can be especially challenging during the transition into HE since students often move to a larger educational setting and need to build relationships with new peers and staff. Research is needed to better understand social connections during this critical time, including the role of demographics, curricular and extracurricular participation, and how peer and staff connections predict academic achievement. Surveys of 290 first-year students at a large US public university assessed with whom students were interacting, how often, for what reasons, and with what modes of communication. Results include a detailed description of students’ interpersonal connections at the transition into HE, differences by demographics, curricular, and extracurricular participation, and the associations between students’ patterns of relationships and their academic achievement

Of hemorrhagic shock, spherical cows and Aloe vera

The central question explored in this commentary is whether the beneficial effects of an Aloe vera derived drag-reducing polymer during hemorrhagic shock is due to its O(2 )radical scavenging properties or to changes in blood rheology

Romance, revolution and regulation: colonialism and the US-Mexico border in American Cold War film.

The 1950s saw perhaps the largest number of American films set on and around the US-Mexico border of any period of the twentieth century. This thesis investigates why this concentration of films appeared at this point in time. It argues that rather than responding to the changes in policy and practice along the borderline that were taking place in the 1950s, these films engage with cold war politics as they explore the relationship between the United States and Mexico through ideas of romance, revolution and regulation. The thesis contributes to the growing field of cultural studies of the Cold War by contending that these movies engage with cold war discourses of colonialism. I argue that through images of the US-Mexico border, colonialism is interrogated and that the international boundary is thus produced as a site through which concerns about the United States’ place in the cold war world are articulated. While much existing scholarship has examined the relationship of specific genres such as science fiction, westerns and film noir to cold war politics, this thesis moves away from such generic constraints to focus on films of different genres which feature representations of the US-Mexico border. The thesis’ central contribution therefore lies in its assertion that a study which is attentive to cinematic space and focused on a particular cinematic location can provide new ways of understanding cold war culture, and that American cinematic engagement with the Cold War is not limited to or defined by generic frameworks

The First-fit Chromatic and Achromatic Numbers

This project involved pulling together past work on the achromatic and first-fit chromatic numbers, as well as a description of a proof by Yegnanarayanan et al. Our work includes attempting to find patterns for them in specific classes of graphs and the beginnings of an attempt to prove that for any given a, b, c, such that 2 \u3c= a \u3c= b \u3c= c, there exists a graph with chromatic number a, first-fit chromatic number b, and achromatic number c

Images in Mid-Nineteenth Century American Scientific Periodicals

This project, sponsored by the American Antiquarian Society, created a database of information about illustrations in early volumes of Scientific American (1846-1854). Electronic indices of historical documents usually allow searching only for text rather than illustrations. This database, built on RDF and accessible through a web interface, provides searching for structured, textual descriptions of illustrations. The report discusses ways of extending the project as well as the historical context of Scientific American and the technology of its time

Effect of permafrost thaw on CO2 and CH4 exchange in a western Alaska peatland chronosequence

Permafrost soils store over half of global soil carbon (C), and northern frozen peatlands store about 10% of global permafrost C. With thaw, inundation of high latitude lowland peatlands typically increases the surface-atmosphere flux of methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas. To examine the effects of lowland permafrost thaw over millennial timescales, we measured carbon dioxide (CO2) and CH4 exchange along sites that constitute a ~1000 yr thaw chronosequence of thermokarst collapse bogs and adjacent fen locations at Innoko Flats Wildlife Refuge in western Alaska. Peak CH4 exchange in July (123 ± 71 mg CH4–C m−2 d−1) was observed in features that have been thawed for 30 to 70 (\u3c100) yr, where soils were warmer than at more recently thawed sites (14 to 21 yr; emitting 1.37 ± 0.67 mg CH4–C m−2 d−1 in July) and had shallower water tables than at older sites (200 to 1400 yr; emitting 6.55 ± 2.23 mg CH4–C m−2 d−1 in July). Carbon lost via CH4 efflux during the growing season at these intermediate age sites was 8% of uptake by net ecosystem exchange. Our results provide evidence that CH4 emissions following lowland permafrost thaw are enhanced over decadal time scales, but limited over millennia. Over larger spatial scales, adjacent fen systems may contribute sustained CH4 emission, CO2 uptake, and DOC export. We argue that over timescales of decades to centuries, thaw features in high-latitude lowland peatlands, particularly those developed on poorly drained mineral substrates, are a key locus of elevated CH4 emission to the atmosphere that must be considered for a complete understanding of high latitude CH4 dynamics

Sirtuin-1 mediates the obesity induced risk of common degenerative diseases: Alzheimer\u27s disease, coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes

Obesity, especially at mid-life, is a major risk factor for atherosclerosis, insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome, which in turn contrib- ute to coronary artery disease (CAD), Type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The rise in overweight and obesity in all societies is prompting intense research into the causes and effects of the condition. Obesity disrupts many body systems including glucose and lipid me- tabolism, circadian rhythms and liver function. It also causes or increases inflammation and oxi- dative stress. Within cells, the endoplasmic re- ticulum (ER) appears to be particularly suscep- tible to such metabolic disruption. Sirtuin 1 (Sirt1) and leptin have received attention recently as they are central regulatory factors for the body’s metabolic pathways which interact at particular levels, for example lipid and Abeta metabolism. This mini-review discusses recent findings con- cerning obesity, lipid metabolism and the role of Sirtuin 1 and how all influence the ER. A greater understanding of obesity and its effects on me- tabolic control systems of the body are required, to develop pharmacological, dietary and lifestyle changes that will reduce the incidence of CAD, Type 2 diabetes and AD