Opening Up to OERs: Electronic Original Sourcebook vs. Traditional Textbook in the Introduction to American Government Course

Traditional American Government textbooks are expensive and often unpopular with students. New technologies and Open Educational Resources (OERs) open up the potential for change, but questions of quality are ever present: can OERs really help students learn better, or are they just cheaper? I developed an OER based on original sources and compared student learning outcomes with the OER section to those in a free digital textbook section. While the OER I created did not work as well as I had hoped, I nonetheless developed a redesign of my course and my approach to teaching, which is the true benefit of adopting OERs

Media Coverage of Human Rights in the US and UK: The Violations Still Won’t be Televised (or Published)

This article analyzes American television and American and British print news coverage of human rights using a combination of manual and machine coding. The data reveal that television and print news cover very few human rights stories, that these stories are mostly international and not domestic, that even when human rights are covered, they are not covered in detail, and that human rights issues are more likely to be covered when they are not framed as human rights. This suggests that human rights is simply not a frame that journalists employ, and provides support for government-leading-media theories of newsworthiness

Games, Movies, and Zombies: Making IR Fun for Everyone

Throwing as much fun and pop culture into an international relations class as possible, with the goal of improving student learning (and the likelihood of the course running again). Games proved most effective, while movies were less useful in increasing student learning on international relations

DHUM-74500 - Digital Pedagogy 2

This syllabus is for a course that will focus on opening our digital pedagogy- exploring open educational resources and open pedagogy, along with related opens: open access and open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums). The focus of the course reading will be on the why’s, how’s, and where’s of open educational practices, with a special focus on critical digital pedagogy. By the end of the semester, students will produce a polished proposal for a multimedia-based project in their discipline related to research, pedagogy, or both. The course incorporates hands-on exploration of educational uses of new-media applications and open possibilities. The course will use an open pedagogy approach to teaching and learning, starting with a co-created syllabus wherein students will have significant say in the selection of readings and assignments. We will also be working to share our work openly. All required materials will be openly available online

It’s (Not) in The Reading: American Government Textbooks’ Limited Representation of Historically Marginalized Groups

The Introduction to American Government course, and its textbook, is a nearly universal experience for students in American colleges and universities, but what exactly is being taught in this course? Do the textbooks used in this widely taught course accurately reflect the diversity of populations and experiences in the United States? More specifically, how do textbooks for Introduction to American Government cover historically marginalized groups, if at all? This article builds on previous work by analyzing the representation of individual historically marginalized groups to conduct index search and content analyses on traditionally published and openly licensed (i.e., open educational resources [OER]) textbooks. This study finds that American government textbooks include little coverage of any historically marginalized groups, and that OER textbooks are average in this respect, doing neither better nor worse than their traditionally published counterparts

Design effectiveness analysis of a media literacy intervention to reduce violent video games consumption among adolescents: The relevance of lifestyle segmentation

Rivera, R. et al., Design effectiveness analysis of a media literacy intervention to reduce violent video games consumption among adolescents, Evaluation Review (40.2) pp. 142-161. Copyright © 2016 (The Authors). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.Exposure to media violence might have detrimental effects on psychological adjustment and is associated with aggression-related attitudes and behaviors. As a result, many media literacy programs were implemented to tackle that major public health issue. However, there is little evidence about their effectiveness. Evaluating design effectiveness, particularly regarding targeting process, would prevent adverse effects and improve the evaluation of evidence-based media literacy programs. Objectives: The present research examined whether or not different relational lifestyles may explain the different effects of an antiviolence intervention program. Research design: Based on relational and lifestyles theory, the authors designed a randomized controlled trial and applied an analysis of variance 2 (treatment: experimental vs. control) OE 4 (lifestyle classes emerged from data using latent class analysis: communicative vs. autonomous vs. meta-reflexive vs. fractured). Subjects: Seven hundred and thirty-five Italian students distributed in 47 classes participated anonymously in the research (51.3% females). Measures: Participants completed a lifestyle questionnaire as well as their attitudes and behavioral intentions as the dependent measures. Results: The results indicated that the program was effective in changing adolescents' attitudes toward violence. However, behavioral intentions toward consumption of violent video games were moderated by lifestyles. Those with communicative relational lifestyles showed fewer intentions to consume violent video games, while a boomerang effect was found among participants with problematic lifestyles. Conclusion: Adolescents' lifestyles played an important role in influencing the effectiveness of an intervention aimed at changing behavioral intentions toward the consumption of violent video games. For that reason, audience lifestyle segmentation analysis should be considered an essential technique for designing, evaluating, and improving media literacy programsThe author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the European Union (Grant number JUST/2010/DAP3/AG/1111-30-CE-0397890/00-02) and Intermedia Consulting A.C. (Grant number SSM2011-2013

Simulating the dynamics of linear forests in Great Plains agroecosystems under changing climates

Most forest growth models are not suitable for the highly fragmented, linear (or linearly shaped) forests in the Great Plains agroecosystems (e.g., windbreaks, riparian forest buffers), where such forests are a minor but ecologically important component of the land mosaics. This study used SEEDSCAPE, a recently modified gap model designed for cultivated land mosaics in the Great Plains, to simulate the effects of climate change on the dynamics of such linear forests. We simulated the dynamics of windbreaks with different initial planting species richness and widths flight changes as the selected resulting factor) using current climate data and nested regional circulation models (RegCMs). Results indicated that ( i ) it took 70-80 simulation years for the linear forests to reach a steady state under both normal (present-day) and warming climates; (ii) warming climates would reduce total aboveground tree biomass and the spatial variation in biomass, but increase dominance in the linear forests, especially in the upland forests; (iii) linear forests with higher planting species richness and smaller width produced higher aboveground tree biomass per unit area; and (iv) the same species performed very differently with different climate scenarios, initial planting diversity, and forest widths. Although the model still needs further improvements (e.g., the effects of understory species should be included), the model can serve as a useful tool in modeling the succession of linear forests in human-dominated land mosaics under changing climates and may also have significant practical implications in other systems

SPATIAL MODELING OF BIOMASS IN NEBRASKA WINDBREAKS

Field windbreaks have the potential of sequestering large amounts of carbon. Predicting how much carbon would be sequestered in a newly planted windbreak after ten or more years is of interest. The amount of carbon in a tree depends on its biomass. In a pilot study of Nebraska windbreaks, a Markov random field was used to predict the biomass of green ash in windbreaks as a function of soil and climate conditions. The spatial dependence parameter was significantly different from zero, indicating the presence of small scale variation. In addition to age, the 30 year average summer precipitation and the windbreak growth condition code were included in the final model. Future directions for improving the model are discussed

Estimating carbon storage in windbreak trees on U.S. agricultural lands

Assessing carbon (C) capture and storage potential by the agroforestry practice of windbreaks has been limited. This is due, in part, to a lack of suitable data and associated models for estimating tree biomass and C for species growing under more opengrown conditions such as windbreaks in the Central Plains region of the United States (U.S.). We evaluated 15 allometric models using destructively sampled Pinus ponderosa (Lawson & C. Lawson) data from field windbreaks in Nebraska and Montana. Several goodness-of-fit metrics were used to select the optimal model. The Jenkins’ et al. model was then used to estimate biomass for 16 tree species in windbreaks projected over a 50 year time horizon in nine continental U.S. regions. Carbon storage potential in the windbreak scenarios ranged from 1.07 ± 0.21 to 3.84 ± 0.04 Mg C ha-1 year-1 for conifer species and from 0.99 ± 0.16 to 13.6 ± 7.72 Mg C ha-1 year-1 for broadleaved deciduous species during the 50 year period. Estimated mean C storage potentials across species and regions were 2.45 ± 0.42 and 4.39 ± 1.74 Mg C ha-1 year-1 for conifer and broadleaved deciduous species, respectively. Such information enhances our capacity to better predict the C sequestration potential of windbreaks associated with whole farm/ranch operations in the U.S

Estimating carbon storage in windbreak trees on U.S. agricultural lands

Assessing carbon (C) capture and storage potential by the agroforestry practice of windbreaks has been limited. This is due, in part, to a lack of suitable data and associated models for estimating tree biomass and C for species growing under more opengrown conditions such as windbreaks in the Central Plains region of the United States (U.S.). We evaluated 15 allometric models using destructively sampled Pinus ponderosa (Lawson & C. Lawson) data from field windbreaks in Nebraska and Montana. Several goodness-of-fit metrics were used to select the optimal model. The Jenkins’ et al. model was then used to estimate biomass for 16 tree species in windbreaks projected over a 50 year time horizon in nine continental U.S. regions. Carbon storage potential in the windbreak scenarios ranged from 1.07 ± 0.21 to 3.84 ± 0.04 Mg C ha-1 year-1 for conifer species and from 0.99 ± 0.16 to 13.6 ± 7.72 Mg C ha-1 year-1 for broadleaved deciduous species during the 50 year period. Estimated mean C storage potentials across species and regions were 2.45 ± 0.42 and 4.39 ± 1.74 Mg C ha-1 year-1 for conifer and broadleaved deciduous species, respectively. Such information enhances our capacity to better predict the C sequestration potential of windbreaks associated with whole farm/ranch operations in the U.S